The Case of the Velvet Claws   ::   Гарднер Эрл Стенли

“When I was there with you,” Mason said, “and you got your purse.”

“Oh, yes, I remember that! I’d put it in the desk earlier in the evening.”

“Fine,” said Mason. “Now, just between the four of us, who do you think was in the room with your husband when the shot was fired?”

She said, simply, “You were.”

“That’s fine,” Mason said without enthusiasm. “Now, your husband had been taking a bath just before the shot was fired.”

For the first time she seemed uneasy. “I don’t know about that. You were there. I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you know,” Mason insisted. “He was in the bath, and he got out and put a bathrobe around him, without even waiting to dry himself.”

“Did he?” she asked mechanically.

“You know he did, and the evidence shows he did. Now, how do you suppose that I got in to see him if he was in his bath?”

“Why, I guess the servant let you in, didn’t he?”

Mason smiled. “The servant doesn’t say so, does he?”

“Well, I don’t know. All I know is that I heard your voice.”

“You’d been out with Burke,” Mason said, slowly, “and you came in. You didn’t carry your purse with you while you were wearing your evening clothes, did you?”

“No, I didn’t have it with me then,” she said, and suddenly bit her lip.

Mason grinned at her.

“Then how,” he said, “did it get in your husband’s desk?”

“I don’t know.”

“You remember the receipts that I gave you for the amounts you paid on account of fees?” Mason asked.

She nodded her head.

“Where are they?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know,” she said, “I’ve lost them.”

“That,” Mason said, “clinches it.”

“Clinches what?” she asked.

“The fact that you killed him. You won’t tell me what happened, so I’ll tell you what happened.

“You had been out with Burke. You came in, and Burke left you at the door. You went upstairs, and your husband heard you coming. He was in the bath at the time. He was in a towering rage. He jumped out of the bath, threw the robe around him, and called to you to come into his suite. You went in there and he showed you the two receipts that he’d found in your purse while you were out. They had my name on them. I’d been there and told him what it was that I was trying to keep out of Spicy Bits. He put two and two together, and knew who it was that I was representing right then.