Slack tide (12 page)

The combination had been knocked off by some heavy instriunent and lay near by on the rug. The gleaming steel door beyond had also been attacked. He saw the holes which had been drilled there, but when he reahzed that the door was still flush with its frame, he knew that the attempt to break in had not succeeded.

"So they didn't crack it after all," he said half aloud.

"Who?" The girl was at his shoulder now. "Why should anyone—"

She stopped and the words hung there as she seemed to realize the futihty of the question. She said no more and neither did MacLaren. Impatiently, and unwiUing to think beyond the fact of his discovery, he pulled out the keys and tried them.

The first one wouldn't fit, but the second one did. The

lock turned halfway and he pulled the key out and inserted the other one. This time the lock completed the revolution and when he pulled, the door swung open. A shelf bisected the squarish compartment and the bottom half seemed well filled with papers of one kind or another. On top of the shelf were three velvet-covered boxes, and as he remembered what Ruth had said about the Kingsley jewels, he reached for the first one. His fingers were no more than inches away when the lights went out.

MacLaren never did touch that box. His arm froze in mid-air as his nerves jerked taut. Then, before he could move, or break the spell that gripped him, another fight hit him.

This was a different sort of light.

It was much brighter and more concentrated, and he knew at once that it came from a flashlight as he saw the silhouette of his head and shoulders outfined against the wall. Again he heard the girl's small startled cry of shock and surprise, and the voice that came from beyond her was blunt, commanding and hard.

"Turn around I"

MacLaren turned slowly and the light blinded him so that he had to squint against it. He reafized one arm was still outstretched and let it fall to his side. He was vaguely aware that the girl stood no more than a foot or two away, and now he reached out and took her arm.

"That's good," the voice said. "Just stay quiet and you won't get hurt. , . . See this?"

The beam of the flashlight moved slightly so that the rays were no longer directly in MacLaren's eyes. Appar-

ently it came from the man's left hand because now the right was extended just far enough into the hght beam to disclose the automatic. It looked heavy, and its bore seemed enormous. The hand that held it was big, too, and for a moment MacLaren thought it was covered with a white glove. A second look told him that only the middle finger had cloth around it. Before he could wonder why, the voice said:

"See the gun, chum?" I see it.

"So don't get ideas. . . . Over this way."

The Hght began to circle toward the safe, and MacLaren understood that he was to move away from it. The girl's arm was stiff in his grasp and he had to apply a little pressure to make her accompany him to the corner.

The gun had disappeared now, but the hght followed him. The beam was still directed at his face, but he heard other sounds now and was suddenly aware that someone else was in the room. He thought he could get a ghmpse of another hght beyond the first one. He coiJd not be sure but he sensed that the gunman's companion was now at the safe.

The stiffness was still in his back as he stood there, and he could feel the perspiration start to leak from his armpits. He no longer felt any sense of fear because he seemed to understand that there would be no violence if orders were obeyed. Even so, he had to swallow twice to get the dryness from his throat, and when he felt the girl start to tremble, he spoke softly.

"It's okay. . . . Hurry it up, will you?" he called to the man with the gun.

"We're hurrying," the voice came back. "Relax.*'

Over by the safe, a voice MacLaren had not heard said: "Okay. Let's go. Get 'em in the closet."

For some reason he could not then explain, something stirred deep in MacLaren's consciousness at the sound of that voice. It was low, hoarse, and rasping. Its accents seemed oddly distorted and although MacLaren could not recognize it he felt sure that he had heard it before. Before he could speculate further, the man with the gun took over.

"Over here, chum," he ordered. "Bring the doll with you." He swiveled the flashhght beam to the open closet to indicate what he meant.

MacLaren got the message. Again he puUed gently at the girl's arm and now she was moving with him. When he saw that the closet was just to the right of the room door, he realized that the two men must have been working on the safe when they heard Ruth open the downstairs door. They had snapped off the room hght, if indeed it had ever been on, and stepped into the closet to await developments. The rest had been even easier than they had bargained for, thanks to the keys MacLaren had taken from Carla Lewis.

"In here," the gunman said. "We're gonna lock you in because we need a Mttle head start, understand? But it ain't a very strong-looking door, and a big boy hke you should be able to break out before too long."

Because there was no alternative, MacLaren guided Ruth into the closet. He had time to see that it was not

very large before the door slammed and the key turned. He could feel the girl's shoulder against his chest as the darkness came, and he asked her if she was aU right.

"Yes, Donald. I'm all right now. Do—do you think we'll get out all right?"

"Sure," MacLaren said, and, having thus committed himself, knew he had to make good.

He tried slamming his heel against the lock first, and although he got a few reassuring cracks from the wood adjoining it, the lock continued to hold. When his foot began to get a fittle numb from the pounding, he tried the other way, and now he was glad that the closet was small.

Planting his back and shoulders against the opposite wall, he put one foot against the door with his knee bent. By exerting the proper pressure he was able to bring the other foot up alongside the first and make a bridge of his body. After that it was just a question of muscle.

He strained and heaved and grunted as he sought to straighten his legs and body, and the years in the boatyard paid o£F. He could feel the door start to give, and then it flew open and bounced back against the wall just as he hit on his buttocks. Seconds later he had scrambled to his feet and was groping for the fight switch beside the door to the haU.

THE TWO DETECTIVES who came from the precinct in answer to MacLaren's telephone call hstened to a quick resume of what had happened and then went over to examine the safe. They were careful not to touch the door or any of the surrounding area, but they inspected some of the papers inside and conversed in low tones.

MacLaren sat in one of the leather chairs, Ruth Kingsley in the other. She had leaned back, her hands on the chair arms, her body slack like her face. It had not been an easy job for him to convince her that the pohce should be called at aU. As far as she could teU, only the pieces of jewehy were missing, and this, she said, was no concern of hers. The thing to do was to get back to Surrey before the state police found out that they had come to the city.

MacLaren had disagreed. The robbery might well have some connection with Kingsley's death—he made no attempt to say how—and it would be wise to have the pohce working on that possibiHty. It was quite probable that some neighbor might have seen them enter the house, and it would be better to teU voluntarily what had happened, with reservations, than to be looked upon as possible suspects.

Reluctantly, then, she had agreed to play it his way, and they had gone over the story they would tell. There was one other thing she wanted to do before the pohce came,

and she was quite frank in telling him what it was. She had gone to her bedroom on the floor above and brought back what she called the only two real presents that OHver Kingsley had given her.

One was her emerald-and-diamond engagement ring and the other was a stock certificate that had been given her for a wedding present. She was tucking it into her handbag as she re-entered the room and MacLaren, remembering the two stock certificates he had found in Carla Lewis's bag, might have questioned her about it if the police had not picked that moment to ring the downstairs bell.

There was nothing distinctive about the pair except a pseudo-casual manner and the unremitting watchfulness of their eyes. They wore business suits, and felt hats which they were pohte enough to remove. They were medium-sized, one an inch or two taUer than the other, and seemed to be in their middle or late thirties. The black-browed man's name was McCarthy and his somewhat stockier companion was introduced as Detective Lynch. Now McCarthy went round the desk and eased into the chair while Lynch shd one thigh over the desk comer.

"You're sure you can't describe them?"

"I can't," Ruth said. "I'm not sure I could even if the lights had been on. I was too scared."

"They kept the hght in our faces," MacLaren said. "All I could see was the gun."

"As far as you know there's nothing missing but the three pieces of jewelry," McCarthy said.

"That's right."

"Describe them."

"I'm not sure I can," Ruth said, "hut Cartier could. I understand they designed them, though that was a long time ago."

"Emeralds and diamonds and platinum, you said," Lynch continued. "A necklace, brooch, and bracelet. Any idea about their value?"

"I think Oliver said they were insured for two hundred thousand."

Lynch pursed his hps but his whistle was silent as he glanced at McCarthy. "You couldn't have picked a better time to walk in with those keys," he said dryly. "TeU us again how you happened to have them."

This was the part MacLaren had rehearsed. He knew the question would eventually be asked, and he thought he had come up with a reasonable answer. Now, mentally crossing his fingers, he waited to see how the girl would handle the situation.

"Well," she said, "we started out for dinner, and we were driving this way and we got to talking about my husband's death. I don't know how I happened to mention the jewehy but I did. Donald"—she glanced at MacLaren—"asked if there was a safe here. I said there was, and he said was there any way we could open it to see if the jewelry was still there."

It was time for MacLaren now, and he said: "Maybe it was a crazy idea but I thought maybe it could be important if we had a look. If it was gone, the police ought to know about it."

"You knew the combination, Mrs. Kingsley," McCarthy said. "Do you think anybody else knew it?"

The girl thought it over. She flexed her hps, straightened them. "I think his secretary, Carla Lewis, might have known it. And his lawyer, Neil Ackerman. It didn't mean anything, actually, because Ohver was the only one who had the keys."

"And you knew where these keys were?" McCarthy said.

"I knew he used to keep them in his dressing-room. In the top left-hand drawer of the highboy. I didn't know if they were still there, but that's what we came here to find out."

It was not the best story in the world, but at the moment it was impossible to refute, and MacLaren was proud of Ruth's poise and composure. This was not something she had wanted to do, but having agreed to play along, she had acquitted herself convincingly.

Lynch took out a pack of cigarettes which he offered around. The girl refused, but MacLaren accepted and extended a hght. When he had inhaled, Lynch turned to his companion.

"Maybe we should check with the Connecticut people," he said, and when McCarthy nodded his silent assent, Lynch asked if there was another telephone available.

"In the drawing-room," the girl said. "The room at the rear on this floor."

Lynch went away and McCarthy leaned forward, shd-ing his forearms across the desk top. "Your husband was killed last night or early this morning," he said. "What gets me is why the bank people and the lawyers didn't come here today and check the safe out."

"There isn't any bank in the picture," MacLaren said. "Neil Ackerman, who is Kingsley's personal lawyer, is co-executor of the will along with Kingsley's sister, and she's in Italy. Maybe Ackerman was here earlier for all I know."

"What good would it do him?"

"How do you mean?" MacLaren said.

"He didn't have the keys, did he?"

MacLaren had not thought of this and there was nothing he could say now. McCarthy was stiU watching him but he let the silence build imtil Lynch came back.

"They're a httle burned up there about you taking this trip," he said to MacLaren.

"We weren't running away," MacLaren said. "Maybe we got a httle curious, but if it hadn't been for this we would have been nearly back by now."

"I told them I thought you were coming back tonight," Lynch said. "They said if I thought so, all right; if not, they'd send for you."

McCarthy had been making some notes while he sat at the desk, and now he stood up. "We don't want to touch the safe," he said, "until the lab men have a chance to work it over, but while you're here maybe we had better go over the contents. It shouldn't take too long."

He walked over to the safe, and Ruth left her chair to join him. "We'U give you a receipt," McCarthy said, "and you'd better leave the keys here too."

For MacLaren, the ride back to Surrey was anticlimactic and depressing. His conversational gambits brought only perfunctory rephes, and his ofiFer to stop somewhere and get a drink was declined. He did not think she was angry

with him, neither was she sulking, and so he respected her desire to be alone with her thoughts until they were a few miles from the village.

"I've been thinking about that stock your husband gave you," he said. "Sort of a funny wedding present, wasn't it?"

"Oh, I don't know." She let the silence build again and finally broke it. "Yes, I suppose it was. I know I was surprised when he gave it to me. He said it wasn't to take the place of an allowance or anything hke that. It was just a httle something that would give me an income of my own."

"What stock is it?"

"National Aluminum. Four hundred shares. I thought I might as well take it tonight while I could."