The Four of Hearts (13 page)

Ellery was left with his arm in empty air, feeling rather foolish.

‘Yes?' he said abruptly.

She sat down in the Cape Cod rocker, busy with the cigarette. ‘About an hour before the plane was stolen, I received a telephone call. I was told Jack and Blythe were about to be kidnapped.'

‘Where was the call from?'

‘I can't tell you that.'

‘Don't you know?' She did not reply. ‘Who called?' Ellery jumped up. ‘Paula, did you know Jack and Blythe
were going to be murdered?
'

Her eyes flashed then. ‘Ellery Queen, how dare you ask me such a filthy question!'

‘You bring it on yourself,' he said bitterly. ‘Paula, it's – very queer.'

She was wordless for a long time. Ellery mooned down at her sleek hair with its fascinating band of grey. Teach him a lesson, he thought. The one thing he didn't know anything about was women. And this one was exceptionally clever and elusive; you just couldn't grasp her. He turned and for the second time made for the door.

‘Stop!' Paula cried. ‘Wait. I'll – I'll tell you what I can.'

‘I'm waiting,' he growled.

‘Oh, I shouldn't, but you're so … Please don't be angry with me.'

Her splendid eyes shed such soft, luminous warmth that Ellery felt himself beginning to melt. He said hastily: ‘Well?'

‘I do know who called.' She spoke in a very low tone, her lashes resting on her cheeks. ‘I recognized the voice.'

‘Then this man didn't give you his name?'

‘Don't be clever; I didn't
say
it was a man. As a matter of fact, this – person did give a name. The right name, because the voice checked.'

Ellery frowned. ‘Then there was no secret about this caller's identity? He – or she – made no effort to conceal it?'

‘Not the slightest.'

‘Who was it?'

‘That's the one thing I won't tell you.' She cried out at his sudden movement. ‘Oh, can't you see I mustn't? It's against every rule of newspaper ethics. And if I betrayed an informant once, I'd lose the confidence of the thousands of people who sell me information.'

‘But this is murder, Paula.'

‘I haven't committed any crime,' she said stubbornly. ‘I would have notified the police, except that as a precaution I had the call traced, found it came from the airport, and by the time I got my information the plane had left and the police already knew what had happened.'

‘The airport.' Ellery sucked his lower lip.

‘And besides, how was I to know it would wind up in murder? Mr. Queen … Ellery, don't look at me that way!'

‘You're asking me to take a great deal on faith. Even now it's your duty as a citizen to tell Glücke about that call, to tell him who it was that called you.'

‘Then I'm afraid,' she half-whispered, ‘you'll have to take it that way.'

‘All right.' And for the third time Ellery went to the door.

‘Wait! I – Would you like a real tip?'

‘More?' said Ellery sarcastically.

‘It's only for your ears. I haven't printed it yet.'

‘Well, what is it?'

‘More than a week ago – that's the thirteenth, last Wednesday – Jack and Blythe took a quiet little trip by plane.'

‘I didn't know about that,' muttered Ellery. ‘Where did they go?'

‘To the Chocolate Mountain estate of Blythe's father.'

‘I don't see anything remarkable in that. Jack and Blythe had made up by that time. Quite natural for two people intending to be married to visit the bride-to-be's father.'

‘Don't say I didn't warn you.'

Ellery scowled. ‘You possess an omniscience, Paula, that disturbs me. Who poisoned Jack and Blythe?'

‘
Quién sabe?
'

‘What's more to the point,
why
were they poisoned?'

‘Oh,' she murmured, ‘so that's bothering you, eh?'

‘You haven't answered my question.'

‘Darling,' she sighed, ‘I'm just a lonely woman shut up in a big house, and all I know is what I read in the papers. Nevertheless, I'm beginning to think … I could guess.'

‘Guess!' He wrinkled his nose scornfully.

‘And I'm also beginning to think … you can, too.' They regarded each other in sober silence. Then Paula rose and smiled and gave him her hand. ‘Goodbye, Ellery. Come and see me some time. Heavens, I'm starting to talk like Mae West!'

But when he had gone, definitely this time, Paula stood still, staring at the panels of the door, her hands to her flushed face. Finally she went into her bedroom, shut the door, and sat down at her vanity and stared some more, this time at her reflection.

Mae West … Well, why not? she thought defiantly. It merely took courage and a – and a certain natural equipment. And he did seem …

She shivered all at once, all over her body. The shiver came from a sensitive spot in the area of her shoulder where Mr. Queen, in a spirit of scientific research, had squeezed it.

CHAPTER 11

IT'S IN THE CARDS

Mr. Queen, even as he drove away from Paula's house admiring his own charms in thought, felt a premonitory chill. He had the feeling that he had not heard quite everything.

The infallibility of his intuition was demonstrated the instant he stepped into Jacques Butcher's office. The Boy Wonder was reading Paula's column in a grim silence, while Sam Vix tried to look unhappy and Lew Bascom conducted a monologue shrewdly designed to distract the Boy Wonder's mind.

‘I'm like the Phoenix,' Lew was chattering. ‘It's wonderful how I rise outa my own ashes. We'll go ahead with the original plans for the picture, see, only we'll have Bonnie and Ty double for Blythe and Jack, an' –'

‘Can it, Lew,' warned Sam Vix.

‘Here's the master-mind,' said Lew. ‘Look a here, Queen. Don't you think –'

Without taking his eyes from the newsprint, Butch said curtly: ‘It's impossible. For one thing, Bonnie and Ty wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't blame them. For another, the Hays office would crack down. Too much notoriety already. Hollywood's always sensitive about murders.'

‘What's the matter, Butch?' demanded Ellery.

Butch looked up then, and Ellery was startled at the expression on his face. ‘Nothing much,' he said with an ugly laugh. ‘Just another little scoop of Paula Paris's.'

‘Oh, you mean that Monday column?'

‘Who said anything about Monday? This is today's paper.'

‘Today?' Ellery looked blank.

‘Today. Paula says here that Ty and Bonnie are on their way to honeymoonland.'

‘What!'

‘Aw, don't believe what that halfwit writes,' said Lew. ‘Here, Butch, have a drink.'

‘But I just saw Paula,' cried Ellery, ‘and she didn't say anything about that!'

‘Maybe,' said Vix drily, ‘she thinks you can read.'

Butch shrugged. ‘I guess I had to wake up some time. I think I've known all along that Bonnie and I … She's crazy about Ty; if I hadn't been so blind I'd have realized all that bickering covered up something deep.' He smiled and poured himself a water-glass full of gin. ‘
Prosit!
'

‘It's a dirty trick,' mumbled Lew. ‘She can't do that to my pal.'

‘Do they know you know?' asked Ellery abruptly.

‘I guess not. What difference does it make?'

‘Where are they now?'

‘I just had a call from Bonnie, gay as a lark – I mean, considering. They're going to the Horseshoe Club to play cops and robbers with Alessandro. Good luck to ‘em.'

Ellery departed in haste. He found Bonnie's scarlet roadster parked outside the Horseshoe Club; the interior was depressingly deserted, with charwomen scrubbing up the marks of the expensive shoes of Hollywood's élite and one bartender listlessly wiping glasses.

Bonnie and Ty were leaning side by side over the horseshoe-shaped desk in Alessandro's office, and Alessandro sat quietly before them, drumming a tune with his fingers.

‘This seems to be my bad day,' he remarked drily when he saw Ellery. ‘It's all right, Joe; these folks don't pack rods. Well, shoot. What's on your mind?'

‘Hello, Mr. Queen,' cried Bonnie. She looked lovely and fresh in a tailored gaberdine suit and a crimson jelly-roll of a hat tipped on her honey hair; her cheeks were pink with excitement. ‘We were just asking Mr. Alessandro about those I O Us.'

So they didn't know yet, Ellery thought. He grinned: ‘Coincidence. That's why I'm here too.'

‘You
and
Inspector Glücke,' chuckled the little fat gambler. ‘The flattie! Only he was here Monday.'

‘I don't care about that,' barked Ty. ‘You admit my dad owed you a hundred and ten thousand dollars?'

‘Sure I admit it. It's true.'

‘Then how is it those I O Us were found on his body?'

‘Because,' said Alessandro gently, ‘he paid up.'

‘Oh, he did, did he? When?'

‘On Thursday the fourteenth – just a week ago.'

‘And with what?'

‘With good stiff American dough. Thousand-buck bills.'

‘You're a liar.'

The man called Joe growled. But Alessandro smiled. ‘I've stood a lot from you people,' he said amiably, ‘you and your folks, get me? I ought to give Joe here the office to slug you for that crack, Royle. Only your old man just got his, and maybe you're a little excited.'

‘You and your guerrillas don't scare me.'

‘So you think maybe I had something to do with those murders, hey?' Alessandro snarled. ‘I warn you, Royle, lay off. I run a clean joint and I got a reputation in this town. Lay off, if you know what's good for you!'

Bonnie sucked in her breath. But then her eyes snapped and she snatched an envelope from her purse and tossed it on the desk. ‘Maybe you can explain this!'

Ellery goggled as he saw Alessandro take a blue-backed playing-card out of the envelope and stare at it. One of those cryptic messages! He groaned inwardly. They had utterly slipped his mind. He was growing senile.

Alessandro shrugged. ‘It comes from the Club, all right. So what?'

‘That,' growled Ty, ‘is what we're trying to find out.'

The gambler shook his head. ‘No dice. Anybody could get hold of our cards. Hundreds play here every week, and we give dozens of packs away as souvenirs.'

‘I imagine,' said Ellery hurriedly, ‘Alessandro is right. We're not learning anything here. Coming, you two?'

He herded them out before they could protest, and the instant they were in Bonnie's roadster he snapped: ‘Bonnie, let me see that envelope.'

Bonnie gave it to him. He studied it intently, then put it into his pocket.

‘Here, I want that,' said Bonnie. ‘It's important. It's a clue.'

‘You're a better man than I am for spotting it as such,' said Ellery. ‘I'll keep it, if you don't mind – as I happen to have kept the others. Oh, I'm an idiot!'

Bonnie almost ran over a Russian wolfhound. ‘You!' she cried. ‘Then it was you –'

‘Yes, yes,' said Ellery impatiently. ‘I fancy I'm better qualified for all my forgetfulness. Magna Studios, Bonnie.'

Ty, who was scarcely listening, muttered: ‘He's lying. It couldn't be anything but a lie.'

‘What?'

‘Alessandro. We've only got his word that those I O Us were paid. Suppose dad refused to pay, or what's more likely pointed out how impossible it was for him to pay? It would have been pie for Alessandro to get one of his plug-uglies to play the pilot and after poisoning dad and Blythe put the torn I O Us into dad's pocket.'

‘But why, Ty?' frowned Bonnie.

‘Because he'd know he'd never get his money anyway. Because, knowing that, he'd want revenge. And planting the I O Us on dad would make it seem to the police as if the money
was
paid, in that way eliminating in their minds any possible motive on Alessandro's part.'

‘A little subtle,' said Ellery, ‘but conceivable.'

‘But even if that's so,' said Bonnie, ‘why mother? Don't you see, Ty, that's the thing that confuses everything? Why was mother poisoned, too?'

‘I don't know,' said Ty doggedly. ‘All I know is dad couldn't possibly have laid his hands on a hundred and ten grand. He had no money, and nowhere to get any.'

‘By the way,' remarked Ellery casually, ‘did you people know that in today's column Paula Paris hints you two have made up rather thoroughly?'

Bonnie went slowly pale, and Ty blinked several times. Bonnie pulled up to a kerb and said: ‘
What?
'

‘She says you're well on your way to love and kisses.'

Bonnie looked for a moment as if she were going to have a crying spell again. But then her chin came up and she turned on Ty furiously. ‘And you
promised
me!'

‘But, Bonnie – ‘ began Ty, still blinking.

‘You –
fiend!
'

‘Bonnie! You certainly don't think –'

‘Don't speak to me, you publicity hound,' said Bonnie with a sick, heavy, hot loathing.

That was the start of an extraordinary day, and everyone was thoroughly miserable; and when they got to the Boy Wonder's office Bonnie went to him and deliberately kissed his mouth and then took up the phone and asked Madge to get Paula Paris on the wire.

Butch looked bewilderedly from Bonnie to Ty; both their faces were red with anger.

‘Miss Paris? This is Bonnie Stuart speaking. I've just heard that, with your usual cleverness, you've found out that Ty Royle and I are going to be married, or something as foul and lying as that.'

‘I'm afraid I don't understand,' murmured Paula.

‘If you don't want to be sued for libel you'll please print a retraction of that story at once!'

‘But, Bonnie, I had it on excellent authority –'

‘No doubt. Well, I detest him as much as I detest you for listening to him!'

‘But I don't understand. Ty Royle –'

‘You heard me, Miss Paris.' Bonnie slammed the phone down and glared at Ty.

‘Well, well,' chuckled Lew. ‘This is like old times, for gossakes. Now about that picture –'

‘Then it isn't true?' asked Butcher slowly.

‘Of course not! And as far as this contemptible – person is concerned …'

Ty turned on his heel and walked out. Ellery hurried after him. ‘You didn't give that story to Paula?'

‘What do you think I am?'

‘Hmm. Very pretty scene.' Ellery glanced at him sideways. ‘I shouldn't be surprised if she did it herself.'

‘What!' exploded Ty. He stopped short. ‘Well, by God, maybe you're right. She's been stringing me along. I see it all now – the whole thing, leading me on just so she could turn around and slap me down the way she's always done. What a rotten trick!'

‘That's women for you,' sighed Ellery.

‘I thought at first it was that damned Frenchwoman. She's the only other one who could possibly have overheard.'

‘Oh, then you did get cuddly?'

‘Well … But it's over now – finished! I'm through with that scheming little double-crosser for good!'

‘Nobly resolved,' said Ellery heartily. ‘Man's much better off alone. Where are you going now?'

‘Hell, I don't know.' They were standing before a row of pretty little stone bungalows. ‘That's funny. Here's dad's old dressing-room. Force of habit, eh?' Ty muttered: ‘If you don't mind, Queen, I think I'll sort of go in alone.'

‘Not a bit of it,' said Ellery, taking his arm. ‘We've both been made fools of, so we ought to pool our misery.'

And he went into John Royle's studio bungalow with Ty.

And found the key to the code.

He found it by accident, merely because he was in the dead man's room and it occurred to him that no one had disturbed it since the elder Royle's death. There was even a soiled towel, with the stains of make-up on it, lying on the make-up table beside a new-looking portable typewriter.

So Ellery poked about while Ty lay down on the couch and stared stonily at the oyster-white ceiling; and almost the first thing Ellery found in the table drawer was a creased and crumpled sheet of ordinary yellow paper, 8½ by 11 inches in size, one side blank and the other well-filled with typewritten words.

And Ellery took one look at the capitalized, underscored heading:
MEANINGS OF THE CARDS
, and let out a whoop that brought Ty to his feet.

‘What is it? What's the matter?'

‘I've found it!' yelled Ellery. ‘Of all the colossal breaks. The cards! All typed out. Thanks, kind Fates. Yes, here's the whole thing … Wait a minute. Is it possible –'

Ty frowned over the sheet. Ellery whipped the cover off the portable typewriter, rummaged until he found a sheet of blank stationery, pushed it under the carriage, and began rapidly to type, referring to the crumpled yellow paper from time to time. And as he typed, the gladness went out of his face, and it became dark with thought.

He got up, replaced the cover of the typewriter, put the papers carefully into his pocket, picked up the machine, and said in a flat voice: ‘Come along, Ty.'

They found Bonnie and the Boy Wonder in each other's arms, Bonnie's face still stormy and Butch looking wildly happy. Lew sat grinning at them both, like a benevolent satyr.

‘We come bearing news,' said Ellery. ‘Unhand her, Butch. This requires confabulation.'

‘Whassa matter?' asked Lew suspiciously.

‘Plenty. I don't know whether you know it or not, Butch, but Ty and Bonnie do. Blythe for some time before last Sunday had been receiving anonymous messages.'

‘I didn't know that,' said Butch slowly.

‘What kind?' frowned Lew. ‘Threats?'

‘Plain envelopes addressed in block letters by obviously a post-office pen, mailed in Hollywood, and containing nothing but playing-cards.' He took out his wallet and tossed over a small bundle of envelopes bound by an elastic. Butch and Lew examined them incredulously.

‘Horseshoe Club,' muttered Lew.

‘But what do they mean?' demanded Butch. ‘Bonnie, why didn't you tell me?'

‘I didn't think they were important.'

‘I'm more to blame. I've been carrying these things around in my pocket and didn't once think of them after Sunday. But just now,' said Ellery, ‘I found the key to those cards.'

He laid down on Butcher's desk the yellow sheet. Lew and Butch and Bonnie read it with blank faces.

‘I don't understand,' murmured Bonnie. ‘It looks like some kind of fortune-telling.'

‘It told a remarkably grim fortune,' drawled Ellery. ‘This – you might call it a codex – tells what each card sent through the mail means.' He picked up the envelopes. ‘The first envelope Blythe received was mailed on the eleventh of this month and delivered on the twelfth. That was nine days ago, or five days before the murders. And what was in the envelope? Two playing-cards – the knave and seven of spades.'