There is always love (26 page)

Through the memories glinted the callous iciness of his blue eyes. Alix Crane was right, those eyes should have put even a dumb cluck wise. The scheme was as plain as if set in a blazing neon design, all but the reason for his midnight entrance into her room. Had he mistaken it for Madam Steele's? Had he been after the jewels then?

"Stop staring at those crooks and look at Libby." It was Greg Merton's low voice, his hand on her shoulder.

Liberty Hull stood in the hall doorway. Her cherished permanent resembled nothing so much as a floor-mop rampant; her gray mohair dress had been torn. Red spots burned in her cheeks. She held a man by the collar of his shirt. His eyes bulged with fright; his face was mottled.

"I caught this stealing away." She shook him by way of emphasis. "He's the picture operator. He had supper with us so I know. What'll I do with him? What with one thing an' another, I'm too busy to hold on to the rat much longer." 150

"I*m not. He's my meat." Jim Shaw turned the operator over to one of his men to be herded from the room with Sanders and the other two. He spoke to Alix Crane who nodded and followed. He lingered to confide to Gregory Mer-ton:

"I'll say that guy Sanders is some organizer. Even had his own picture operator on the job. 'Tisn't an international gang as we thought, it's a close corporation, just the three we caught tonight with an occasional sucker to help, like the guy that got shot. They couldn't get rid of the Grant loot the usual way so Sanders planted some of it where he could get it again. Smart fella. Lucky I had a hunch to bring the Crane girl here to face Sanders or you folks would have found the goin' tough. I'm taking her along in my own car. She's straight. Had a crush on that slick Lorillo, I guess. I'll shove. See you tomorrow." He followed his men from the room.

"Libby! Libby, dear, are you hurt?" Ruth asked anxiously.

"No. Don't take on so, Ruthetta. Mad as a wet hen, that's all. Your boy's safe, Mrs. Colton, s'pose that's why you're grabbin' my arm and tr3dng to speak."

"Thank God! Bill! Bill! Come!" Janet and her husband raced from the room. Liberty Hull rubbed a red welt on her wrist.

*'That shorty, who was just dragged out, tied me and the nurse up and taped our mouths, while the tall fella pointed a revolver at us. We didn't have a chance to yeU. You wouldn't have heard us anyway with all that shootin' an' shoutin' goin' on in the picture. They didn't so much as look at the boy in the other room. They had that much sense.

"What with one thing and another, this has been quite a holiday, Madam Steele. The lock of one of the big cabinets has been jimmied and every jewel's gone. They put the alarm out of business, too. Those fellas could have lifted the roof without anyone's hearin', with that bedlam downstairs. Now that I've broken the cheerful news, I'll go make some sandwiches. You'll feel better if you eat," she advised before she left the room.

"Gone! Goner Jane Steele sank into the nearest chair. "I thought all they were after were the diamonds we had on.'*

"You haven't lost the jewels. You haven't. I have them.'* Linda swooped up the knobby bundle she had dropped to the floor at Greg's command to pull off the tree wire.

"Don't look at me as if you thought I had stolen them. They're here, every last sparkle of them." She knelt beside Madam Steele and tugged at the fastening of the canvas bag she had laid in her lap.

"I'U open it." Greg Merton looked at the girl's wet, torn

skirt which trailed over the floor in ribbons. "Lindy, Lindy how did you get these? Are you hurt?"

"No. No. I hope they're all there," she exclaimed as the jewels in the wide-open bag flashed and sparkled in the light.

"You're here safe, my dear child. That is more important than the jewels." Madam Steele's voice was shaken. "How did you save them?"

They gathered round—her mother, Hester, the Judge, Ruth, Skid and Gregory Merton—as, still on her knees, Linda told of Annie's warning, of her own icy descent. Janet, with her husband's arm about her, joined the circle before she had finished.

"Where's the girl now?"

"On the third floor, probably. Madam Steele. She didn't dare get out of that window."

"But you dared. What you intended to do was reckless enough, what you did, sliding down that icy conductor, was suicidal," Greg protested huskily.

"Your mistake, I didn't slide all the way—^I fell into a snowdrift, Mr. Merton."

"Whatever you did, you were a cra2sy kid, you sweet thing. Get up." He pulled her gently to her feet.

Linda steadied quivering lips. His tenderness was more devastating than his scorn had been. She felt tears rising like a flood and rallied all her pride to crowd them back.

"Lucky for us she was a 'crazy kid.* Gregory, take the jewels to my room. Unlock the door for Annie. I wonder why the burglars opened only one of the cabinets?"

"It takes time to disconnect the alarm and jimmy a great lock. Duchess. Darned fools. Why didn't they make their getaway with the jewels? Why tuck on that holdup, Greg?"

"I'll bet Sanders was asking himself that question, Skid, that the holdup was not part of his program. His pals got out of hand. He was ghastly from fury. If they hadn't been so greedy he wouldn't have been caught this time. . . . He might have bluffed it out even then if Alix Crane hadn't appeared."

"The law wiU put that trio where they won't try a return engagement during my lifetime; after that, you and Janet can do the worrying, Gregory," Madam Steele declared. "While you're upstairs change your clothes. You look as if you'd been sticking pigs. Also, hurry up the sandwiches. Our skirmish with the underworld and the vice squad has given me an appetite. You look as if you'd been shot over Niagara Falls in a barrel, Linda. Change to a house coat and come to the library. Then we'll hear the details of this night's melodrama. If only I could have taken a shot at one of the thugs, it would have been a perfect ending to a perfect day."

"You bloodthirsty female!" Skid flouted affectionately. 152

"Come on, Duchess." He held her under the mistletoe and kissed her cheek.

They were gathered about the library fire when Linda joined them wearing the yellow coat and vermilion satin trousers. Greg in a green brocaded lounge robe and folded white scarf was standing by the mantel; Bill Colton, on the divan beside his wife, had his arm about her shoulders as if he never would let her go. Her eyes were starry with happiness. Ruth, Hester and her mother were relaxed in deep chairs. Judge Reynolds, Skid Grant and Greg stood back to the mantel.

"We've been waiting for you, Linda," Madam Steele greeted eagerly. "Greg and Skid are about to tell us what started their suspicion of that smooth Sanders."

The contempt in her voice hurt Linda. She had liked Keith. Since he had declared that he had heard of the sale of Madam Steele's estate through her, she had distrusted him, had suspected that he was scheming, but her attack of first love had been a high-pressure affair the short time it lasted—^she couldn't quite forget that.

"I stopped to speak to Annie. When, in the dusk of the third-floor room, she whispered that there would be a holdup at ten, I almost lost my mind. There was so little time. The minutes raced. The carillon chimed zero hour. The holdup was on. I was sliding down that icy iron conductor! I lived years getting to the drawing-room window. I was too late."

"In the nick of time, sez I. Your dramatic entrance was a wallop. Instinctively the thugs turned. Gave us a chance to gang up on them. Found out yet who locked that stairway door, Lindy?"

"It was Buff, Skid. He told me that he slipped out on the picture, thought he heard a sound, stopped in the upper hall to listen and saw the key in the door. Thinking it might be a temptation to the servants to explore, he turned it, dropped it into his pocket and went to the pantry for a nap. 'Union Pacific' was too noisy for him. It is unbelievable that he wasn't seen or heard by the burglars. I'll never doubt after this that miracles happen."

She sank to the floor at Madam Steele's feet and clasped her hands about her knees. "All set for the next installment of this thrilling serial."

"Your chapter first, Skid," Greg prompted. Grant flung his cigarette into the fire.

"To give you a rough idea, I'll begin with the theft of Mother's jewels soon after Sanders visited us. I had no suspicion of him then. He had gone back to New York several days before they were stolen. Remember when I went blotto at the night club, Lindy, and you recognized the se-

quined gal who wore Mother's emerald bracelet as Alix Crane, the night-club singer who had come to Sanders' office?" She nodded. "Even then I didn't suspect him. Greg and I shadowed Lorillo—he was the tall guy tonight. Madam Steele—but couldn't discover that he was in any way Imked up with Sanders, They sure were experts at covering their tracks. Next your bracelet was stolen, Janet. Remember, Lindy, that you told Greg you thought you saw Sanders going out of the door, as you came in dizzy from the swimming pool?"

"But it wasn't he? He didn't arrive until dinnertime."

**He said he didn't but our hero—Merton by name—^had a hunch that perhaps you hadn't been so dizzy as you thought, got busy and discovered that Sanders' car had been serviced at a garage at noon. Bill, do you remember that when you were about to tell the cost of the bracelet the Ming lamp crashed?"

"I do. I recall also that your sleuth, Jim Shaw, accused me of tipping that table. I didn't."

"He knew you didn't. He saw Sanders do it, but he didn't want him to know it. Where did you buy that bracelet, BUI?'*

"From Sanders. He needed money to pay racing debts. Begged me to take the jewels he had bought for a woman who had double-crossed him. I knew I'd never get my money any other way so took it."

"Presumably he didn't tell you that the bracelet was one which had been stolen from my mother?"

"What!"

"Sit down, William. For goodness' sake, don't interrupt again!" commanded Madam Steele. She sat forward on the edge of her chair. "Where is it now?"

"Janet has it. She found it in Linda's jewel case."

"Your mother's bracelet!" Linda was on her feet. "In my—" Her voice broke. "In my jewel case! What do you mean. Skid Grant?"

"Easy does it, Lindy. Listen to Greg. Take over, fella."

Greg admitted that always he had had a feeling that Sanders was tricky. That when Linda said she had imagined she had seen him in the doorway after he had declared he hadn't arrived until later, he, himself, had smelled a rat and had begun to check up on the man's activities. When, just before the movie, Janet had produced the missing bracelet and told where she had found it, in a blinding flash of certainty her story linked up with Sanders' stepping out of Linda's room at midnight.

"Your room! At midnight! Daughterr Mrs. Bourne protested in shocked surprise.

"Don't get me wrong!" Greg Merton's voice was savage. 154

"She didn*t know he was there. He had come to get rid of the bracelet which was getting too hot to hold. Nize fella. The Crane girl had his number when she said he would stab his dearest friend in the back if it would forward his own fortune. He snitched Janet's bracelet because he knew if she wore it Skid would recognize it, took the pearls as a blind and dropped them into the hamper."

"Merton, you and Grant have worked up quite a case. But have you found the man Madam Steele shot?"

"It was Annie's boy friend, Cline, Judge Reynolds. He was a mechanic at the village garage. Got pulled into the scheme by LonHo. He was here that night to try to take a near look at the locks of the cabinets of which he'd taken snapshots. I've just talked with Annie. She came clean, told all she knew about the case. Except for letting Cline into the house, she isn't to blame. A job like the one they planned takes a lot of preparation. You hit the boy m the shoulder. Duchess. In conclusion, Sanders is the tip-off man of the gang. He never did the dirty work. That's why he was so savage to be in on the holdup. He was a wizard at real estate but it was a front. Gave him a chance to look over big houses."

"I can't believe it," Linda protested passionately.

"Believe it or not, you knew he drew large sums from his business which he said was for expenses, didn't you, knew he gambled on the races?"

"I didn't know it, Skid."

"All right, all right, if you want to stand up for him, it's nothing in my young life. For the love of Pete, where's that snack we were promised? I could eat raw dog." Grant snapped his teeth.

"Linda, hurry up Buff. Greg, go with her. Before you come back, see that she puts something on those skinned hands she's trying to hide. Don't go, Hester. They won't need your help." Madam Steele smiled complacently. "As I remarked yesterday, I have been doing a little research on the subject of the human heart."

In the hall Greg Merton caught Linda's arm.

"What's the rush?"

"They're hungry."

"Let 'em wait." He put his hands on her shoulders.

"How about being friends with me?"

"Not if you still believe I told Keith Sanders that Madam Steele had decided to put The Castle on the market."

"I don't. All the time I knew in my heart that you didn't. You treated me like the dirt under your feet. I had to have some excuse for pretending that I didn't care. Funny how two usually sane persons can get the wires crossed, isn't it?

"I never felt the least tinge of love for Hester; I wouldn't marry her if she were the only woman in the world. Her mother is all wrong. Your startled eyes and color betray you." He slipped an arm about her. Was it the pounding of his heart she heard or her own?

"I have a Christmas present for you in my pocket. The Duchess hasn't cornered the market on rings. That afternoon at Ruth's something told me I had a chance. You know I love you, don't you, Lindy? You knew I loved you the moment I saw you, didn't you?"

*T did not." The denial was spirited. "How could I when you—^you seemed to despise me?'

He kissed her. Kissed her fiercely, passionately, thoroughly. Held her close, his lips hard on hers; asked unsteadily:

"Know it now? If not—" He kissed her again gently. "Stop me if I'm wrong, you sweet thing."