“The boy called on her, his bag contained two necklaces that had been determined in advance by the real criminal. It only remained for the girl to switch the imitation bag with the duplicate necklaces. No one thought of bag and everything being changed. And, of course, the fact that Shaffer had strayed from the direct route to the store was all that was needed to clinch the case against him.”
Vera Thurmond nodded brightly.
“So you’ve notified the police of the real facts?”
Sidney Zoom flashed her a single glance of cold scorn.
“Certainly not. Your sex is impulsive, and you seem to share the common fault. The police, indeed! What would they do? What could they do? They’d bungle the case, of course. They wouldn’t move until they’d looked Vane up, and by that time he’d have completely covered up the crime.
“No, Miss Thurmond, I shall resort to my usual methods. I returned for another disguise. Did you, by any chance, ever hear of Willie the Weeper?”
“Willie the Weeper? What an odd name!”
“A rather unfortunate creature of the underworld, Miss Thurmond, who has been famed in song and fable. He is, of course, not a real character, and yet it is a character that has always appealed to me. I rather fancy I shall become Willie the Weeper.”
She knew him too well to ask for further explanations.
“I’ve switched on the electric coffee-pot and toaster. Our patient is still sleeping.”
Sidney Zoom nodded, absently, strode across the deck, entered a cabin and began throwing garments in a suitcase.
Then he bathed, shaved, and came to coffee and toast as Sidney Zoom, an eccentric, millionaire yacht owner, cruising about for pleasure.
“Keep the boy asleep until midnight. By that time I hope to have a solution.”
“Will I hear from you before then?”
“No.”
“Will you tell me your plans?”
“No, Certainly not.”
She propped her elbows on the table, regarded Sidney Zoom with level eyes, eyes which contained a glint of maternal tenderness, and also a hint of an emotion that was warmer.
“What a strange creature, what a wonderful man you are!”
“The coffee,” said Sidney Zoom in measured tones, “is excellent.”
And the girl’s throaty laughter pealed through the cabin.
“Thank you so much.”
And again she laughed.
“Your amusement comes from...”
“From your evident fear that I’m going to bite you,” said the girl, arising from the table. “Do you know, I believe your hard-boiled manner with women, amounting at times to rudeness, is caused by... well, guess.”
Sidney Zoom gulped half a cup of coffee in a single scalding swallow, and scraped back his chair.
“Is caused by fear,” laughed the girl. “And some day I’m likely to puncture your pose just to hear you go ‘boom.’ ”
But Sidney Zoom might not have heard the words. In cold dignity that had something of hostility in it, he picked up his suitcase, crossed to the companionway, flung back a single comment over his shoulder.
“Midnight,” he snapped. “Rip, you’ll stay here and guard the girl.”
The dog paused, mid-stride, cocked his ears, lowered his tail. For a long moment he gazed after his departing master, hoping against hope for some change in orders.
There was none. A door banged. Rapid feet crossed the deck. The dog stood, listening, head on one side. And Vera Thurmond, swooping her supple body down and around, caught his head in her hands and implanted a swift kiss upon the shaggy forehead.
In the after cabin, Otto Shaffer, his nerves relaxed by a sleeping potion that brought a deep, natural sleep, slumbered as peacefully as a child.
V
Sidney Zoom strode to the desk at the Madison House and fastened his glittering eyes on the clerk.
“A suite. The best in the house.”
The clerk spun the register, glanced at the signature, at the single suitcase.
“The best in the house will run a hundred and forty dollars a day.”
Sidney Zoom flipped a roll of currency from his pocket. The outside bill contained a five followed by two ciphers.
“The rest of my baggage will follow. This will establish my credit.”
“Yes, Mr. Zoom. Yes, indeed,” purred the deferential clerk.
“And I wish to purchase some rather expensive diamonds — oh, say around a hundred thousand dollars,” continued Mr. Zoom. “Can you refer me to a good store. I’m somewhat of a stranger here.”
The clerk’s eyes widened, caught those of the house detective who was loitering near the desk.
“Cremlin’s is right across the street. They’re rated as the most exclusive in the city. I can ring them up and make an appointment, Mr. Zoom.”
Sidney Zoom nodded his acquiescence.
“My sister will join me later. It’s her birthday, and I want to get something appropriate. Diamonds are her birthstone. Please tell Cremlin’s that I will be over there within half an hour.”
And then Sidney Zoom strolled to the elevator, was shown to his suite, and gave the bell boy a ten-dollar bill in token of appreciation for having a suitcase carried a hundred feet.
Thirty minutes later he beamed upon the clerk, shook hands with the house detective, strolled across the street and purchased one fifteen-thousand-dollar diamond necklace, one ten-thousand-dollar diamond brooch. And he paid for these articles in cash, upon the distinct understanding, however, that they could be returned at any time within twenty-four hours and the cash refunded.
Then Sidney Zoom strolled back to his room in the hotel, telephoned for the house detective, opened an excellent bottle of Scotch, and had some ginger ale sent up by a bell boy.
“Think she’ll like ’em?” asked Sidney Zoom, flipping his hand toward the dresser.
Harry Colman, the house detective, stared with wide eyes and a mouth that tried to appear sophisticated, yet showed a tendency to sag in a gape.
“Some ice!”
“She should like them. She’ll be in during the next two or three hours. I’ve left instructions with the clerk to give her the duplicate key. My sister, you know, the one I’m buying the diamonds for. It’s her birthday.”
“Yeah,” remarked Harry Colman, pouring himself another drink. “You’ll leave the stones in the safe?”
“No, I think not. They’ll be safe in the room. No one knows they’re here, and I’d like to have Alberta find them on the dresser when she comes in.”
Harry Colman sat the whisky bottle back upon the table with such violence that the resulting thump sounded like the stroke of a hammer.
“You’re going to... leave... those... stones... here!”
“Certainly.”
“But there’s a fortune there. The hotel won’t be responsible for them. Why, there’s half a dozen pass-keys out for the rooms on this floor. Good heavens...”
The cold, passively hostile eyes of Sidney Zoom impaled the startled orbs of the house detectives.
“And, of course, there being no responsibility on the part of the hotel, it is no concern of yours what I do with them.”
Harry Colman sighed, averted his gaze.
“Except as a matter of friendly advice. And, of course, the hotel doesn’t get any benefit from having a burglary pulled in one of the rooms.”
Sidney Zoom abstracted a cigarette from a gold case, took two deep drags at it, then flipped it into a porcelain cuspidor with casual fingers.
“Have some more of that Scotch,” he remarked, as though the matter had been closed.