The Case of the Velvet Claws   ::   Гарднер Эрл Стенли

She stared at him with her white, wet face, and said, “Drive out to the house, quick!”

“What’s the trouble?” he repeated.

“My husband’s been murdered,” she wailed.

Mason snapped on the dome light in the car.

“Don’t do that!” she said.

He looked at her face. “Tell me about it,” he said, calmly.

“Will you get this car started?”

“Not until I know the facts,” he replied, almost casually.

“We’ve got to get there before the police do.”

“Why have we?”

“Because we’ve got to.”

Mason shook his head. “No,” he said, “we’re not going to talk to the police until I know exactly what happened.”

“Oh,” she said, “it was terrible!”

“Who killed him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what do you know?”

“Will you turn off that damned light?” she snapped.

“After you’ve finished telling me what happened,” he persisted.

“What do you want it on for?”

“The better to see you with, my dear,” he said, but there was no humor in his voice. His manner was grim.

She sighed wearily. “I don’t know what happened. I think it was somebody that he’d been blackmailing. I could hear their voices from the upper floor. They were very angry. I went to the stairs to listen.”

“Could you hear what was being said?”

“No,” she said, “just words and the tone. I could hear that they were cursing. Every once in a while there would be a word. My husband was using that cold, sarcastic tone that he gets when he’s fighting mad. The other man had his voice raised, but he wasn’t shouting. He was interrupting my husband every once in a while.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then I crept up the stairs because I wanted to hear what was being said.” She paused, catching her breath.

“All right,” pressed Mason, “go on. What happened then?”

“And then,” she said, “I heard the shot and the sound of a falling body.”

“Just the one shot?”

“Just the one shot, and the sound of the body falling. Oh, it was terrible! It jarred the house.”

“All right,” said Mason. “Go on from there. Then what did you do?”

“Then,” she said, “I turned and ran. I was afraid.”

“Where did you run?”

“To my room.”

“Did anybody see you?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Then what did you do?”

“I waited there a minute.