“Within a week or two. But Phil was sick anyway. He didn’t make it. He was all shot.”
“What did Komo say when you moved out?”
“The damn Jap didn’t say nothin’. He just looked at me, but I knew he knew what I was thinkin’, and I didn’t care.”
“What made you change your mind? Why don’t you think he poisoned Mr. Shore?”
“Nope,” Lunk said, shaking his head positively. “He didn’t poison the boss. I do think he poisoned Phil though, and I think he tried poisoning me; what’s more, he poisoned that kitten, and if Matilda Shore got a dose of poison, you’ll never convince me that Komo didn’t do it. He ain’t foolin’ me none. You mark my words, he wanted to poison someone, but he wanted to see how the poison worked first. Ten years ago he used Phil to try things out on. Last night he used this here kitten. Thought for a while ten years ago he was practicin’ up on Phil to have a go at the boss. Now I know it was me he was after.”
“But if you thought your brother was poisoned, why didn’t you go to the police, and...”
“Didn’t have a thing to go on. When Phil died, I asked the doc about poison. He laughed at me. Said Phil had been living on borrowed time for five years.”
Mason said, “Well, here’s the hospital. You want to go in with me and see if the officers are still on duty?”
“I don’t want to see no officers.”
“Of course,” Mason said. “But there’s just a chance we can get through to see Mrs. Shore.”
Della Street looked at Mason apprehensively. “I can run up, Chief,” she said, “and see if they’re on duty, and...”
“No,” Mason said significantly. “I want to take Mr. Lunk up with me. You see,” he explained to Lunk, “I was in to see her once this evening.”
“Oh,” Lunk said. “Didn’t you say you were working for Gerald Shore?”
“Yes. He’s a client of mine. I’m a lawyer.”
Mason opened the car door. “Come on, Lunk. We’ll run up. Della, you won’t mind staying here?”
She shook her head, but there were little creases of worry down the center of her forehead.
Mason took Lunk’s arm, and the two climbed up the stone steps to the hospital.
As they walked down the long corridor past the receiving and admittance desk, Mason said to Lunk, “Probably just as well to let me do the talking. But you listen carefully, and if I’m not doing all right, give me a nudge.”
“All right,” Lunk said.
Mason rang for the elevator, went up to the floor on which Matilda Shore’s room was located. A nurse, working on some records at a desk, looked up from her work. Two men got up out of chairs at the far end of the corridor and came marching toward the visitors.
Mason had his hand on the door of Mrs. Shore’s room when one of the men said, truculently, “Hold it, buddy.”
The other man said, “That’s Mason, the lawyer. He was here before. Lieutenant Tragg had a talk with him”
“What you want?” the man who seemed to be in charge asked.
“I want to talk with Mrs. Shore.”
The man shook his head and grinned. “Nix on it. Nix on it,” he said.
Mason said, “This man with me wants to talk with her.”
“Well now, does he?” The officer grinned, surveying Lunk as though enjoying a huge joke. “So you both want to talk with her, eh?”
“That’s right.”
The man jerked his thumb down the corridor, and said, “Back down the elevator, boys. I’m sorry, but it’s no go.”
Mason, raising his voice, said, “Perhaps this man could do you some good if he could talk with Mrs. Shore. He’s her gardener. I think Lieutenant Tragg would like to see him, too.”
The officer nodded to his companion as his hand clapped down on Mason’s shoulder. The other officer hooked his fingers in the back of Lunk’s collar. “Come on now, boys. On your way, and don’t act rough about it.”
Mason said, “I think we’re really entitled to see her.”
“Got a pass?” the officer asked.
The nurse came efficiently forward on rubber heels. “There are other patients on this floor, and I’m responsible for them. I want no noise, no argument, and no disturbance.”
One of the officers rang for the elevator. “There won’t be any disturbance, Miss,” he said. “These men are going out. That’s all.”
The elevator came to a stop. The door slid open. Propelled by insistent pressure from behind, Mason and Lunk entered the elevator.
“And don’t try comin’ back without a pass,” the officer called as the elevator doors clanged shut.
Lunk started to say something as they walked down the corridor, after the elevator had left them at the street level, but Mason motioned him to silence. Nor did the lawyer speak until they were out on the sidewalk.
Della Street, sitting in the parked car, opened the door.
“Things as you expected to find them?” she asked Mason anxiously.
Mason was smiling. “Just exactly. Now then, we’ll go some place where we can talk.”
Lunk said doggedly, “I’ve got to reach Mrs. Shore. I don’t want to talk to nobody else.”
“I know,” Mason said. “We’ll see if we can’t work out some plan of action.”
Lunk said, “Listen, I ain’t got all night to work on this thing. It’s hot. It’s got to be handled right now. I’ve simply got to see her.”
Mason turned the car into a broad street which, at this hour of the night, showed no traffic. Abruptly, he swung into the curb, parked the car, switched off the headlights, and the ignition, turned to Lunk, and said sharply, “How do you know Franklin Shore is alive?”
Lunk started as though Mason had jabbed him with a pin.
“Come on,” Mason said. “Speak up.”
“What makes you think I know any such thing?”
“Because you gave yourself away. Remember you said that up until a short time ago, all the talking in the world wouldn’t have convinced you that Komo hadn’t been mixed up in Franklin Shore’s disappearance. You’ve held that belief for several years. You’ve held it so deeply and sincerely that it’s become a fixed obsession with you. Now then, there’s only one thing that could have changed your mind so suddenly. You’ve seen or heard from Franklin Shore.”
Lunk stiffened for a moment as though preparing to deny the statement; then settled back in the seat as the resistance oozed out of him.
“All right,” he admitted, “I’ve seen him.”
“Where is he?” Mason asked.
“He’s at my place.”
“He came there shortly before you took the street car to go to see Mrs. Shore?”
“That’s right.”
“And what did he want?”
“He wanted me to do something for him. I can’t tell you what it was.”
Mason said, “Wanted you to go to Mrs. Shore and find out if she’d take him back, or something of that sort.”
Lunk hesitated a moment, then said, “I ain’t goin’ to tell you what he told me. I promised him I wouldn’t ever tell that to any living man.”
Mason asked, “How long was it after Franklin Shore came to your house that you went out to take the street car?”
“Quite a little while.”
“Why the delay?”
Lunk hesitated, then said, “There wasn’t any delay.”
Mason glanced at Della Street, then asked Lunk, “Had you gone to bed when Franklin Shore called on you?”
“Nope. I was listening to a news broadcast when he knocked at the door. I like to fell over dead when I seen who it was.”
“You recognized him without any difficulty?”
“Yeah. Sure. He hadn’t changed so much — not near as much as she has. Looks about like he did the day he left.”
Mason glanced significantly at Della Street and said, “There’s no reason why you should stay up any longer, Della. I’ll take you down the street a few blocks to a taxi stand. You can take a taxi home.”