The Clue Of The Velvet Mask Part 25

Hopefully Nancy picked up Linda at her office. The chief of police had them conducted to the prisoner. Nancy watched closely to see if she recognized Linda. The girl detective was sure that the woman did, but the sign was so slight that Nancy did not bother to mention it.

"Have you changed your mind about talking to the police?" Nancy asked her.

The only response was a hateful glare. Then the woman turned her back. The girls returned to Chief McGinnis's office.

"I'm sure I've seen your prisoner before," Linda reported.

"Where?" he asked.

"Unless my memory is playing a trick on me, she was in Mr. Lightner's office to see about a party. She never gave it, though."

"She talked to Mr. Lightner?" Nancy asked.

"No. To Mr. Tombar. Mr. Lightner was away, but Mr. Tombar used his private office. Soon after the woman came in he sent me on an errand."

"So that you couldn't hear their conversation," Nancy surmised.

Chief McGinnis was very much interested in this bit of information. He suggested that perhaps Linda could identify something found on the prisoner. Detectives had questioned her several times since her arrest without the slightest success. Not a single clue as to her real ident.i.ty had been obtained, and every tag had been removed from her clothing.

"But our policewoman did find this," the chief said, taking a piece of unusual jewelry from his desk drawer.

"Oh yes, that bracelet came from Lightner's," Linda told him. "We rent it to go with a Turkish costume."

"You've been a great help, Misss Seeley," the chief said. "Maybe now that woman will talk."

The girls waited to hear the result, but it was negative. She still would admit nothing.

Nancy was tempted to tell the chief her suspicions about the numerous crates at the Blue Iris Inn. But realizing that she must have more specific evidence before accusing Tombar, she merely said:

"Chief McGinnis, if I should need some police a.s.sistance to do a little investigating during the next few days can you arrange it?"

"Certainly. Any time, and thanks for your help so far," Chief McGinnis said. "By the way," he added, "we questioned Snecker about the stolen miniature. Naturally he insists that he doesn't know how it got into the store. We're keeping our eye on him anyhow."

"I'm sure he'll bear watching," Nancy agreed.

The girls left headquarters and Nancy drove Linda back to work. On a hunch she asked for Tombar's address and went to his house. As she had suspected, it was vacant, and a neighbor told her that he and his wife had moved away rather unexpectedly.

"Do you have his forwarding address?" Nancy asked, thinking that Tombar's sudden departure looked like an admission of guilt.

"No, I don't. They went at night and didn't even say good-by."

"This is my unlucky day," Nancy reflected gloomily.

Her next stop was at Taylor's Department Store where she talked to the young clerk in the receiving-and-marking department. He a.s.sured her that Mr. Snecker was back at work. At the moment, however, he was away from the store, delivering merchandise in one of the trucks.

"I didn't know anyone in your department is supposed to do that," Nancy said.

"We don't usually," the clerk answered. "But when Mr. Snecker's asthma gets bad, he likes to get out, so he sometimes drives in place of a man who's taking the day off."

Nancy did not comment but she wondered if the manager of Taylor's knew about this.

"Will Mr. Snecker be here in the department tomorrow?" she inquired.

"No. He's going to take an extra long Fourth-of-July holiday, and is starting on a trip this evening. In fact, he won't be back after work today."

Nancy was greatly disappointed. She did not want to discontinue work on the case. But with dates of her own and a Fourth-of-July celebration with her father, there was no chance for further sleuthing until Friday.

But on Friday morning she discovered that Taylor's Department Store, as well as many other businesses in town, was closed. She walked to the office of the auctioneer to inquire whether Mr. Tombar had bought any of the furnis.h.i.+ngs of the Blue Iris Inn. But she found that it would not open until Monday.

"Anyway, I can ride out to the old inn and look around there again," Nancy thought. "I'll be back in plenty of time to dress for the picnic tonight. I wonder if Bess would go along. But first I'll stop to see how George is."

Bess was there, reading to her cousin. George appeared wan and unhappy.

"My, I'm glad you came, Nancy!" Bess exclaimed. "George has been frightfully worried that something might have happened to you."

"To me! What an idea!" Nancy laughed it off.

"I worry every minute that you'll get into real danger," George confessed.

"Why, I've been so good lately it hurts," Nancy replied. She still could not understand her friend's strange att.i.tude.

Quickly Nancy steered the conversation away from the mystery. But secretly the young detective was eager to get to work. After a while she glanced at her watch.

"Where are you going now, Nancy?" George asked anxiously.

"I was thinking of a little ride into the country to a place called the Blue Iris Inn."

"Oh no-please don't! Bess told me about it."

"I couldn't help it, Nancy," Bess spoke up quietly. "George wormed it out of me."

"You mustn't go there alone, Nancy," George said urgently.

Bess said quickly, "I'll go with you, Nancy, if you want me to."

George twisted her hands nervously. "Don't do it!" she pleaded. "Anything you girls might learn isn't worth the risk."

Bess and Nancy tried to soothe their chum.

"Besides," Nancy declared rea.s.suringly, "it'll have to be a short trip. I must be back soon to keep a date with Ned. We're going to a picnic some of his fraternity brothers are giving."

Later, while driving toward the inn, they discussed George's bewildering att.i.tude.

"I wish the doctors could find out what's wrong with her," Nancy said.

"What if she never gets better?" Bess asked in a trembling voice.

"Don't suggest such a thing!" Nancy chided.