"I--what do you mean, Miss? I don't understand you. We have no Miss
Morton here." He regarded Grace apprehensively, and out of the corner of
his eye looked toward the cashier, as though he contemplated calling on
him for assistance in case this apparently mad woman became violent.
Grace gave a groan of despair.
"The daughter of the elderly lady, about whom I asked you before. Her
name is Morton. Her daughter Ruth is staying here under an assumed
name--Bradley, you say it is. Oh--please be quick. I know what I am
talking about. That woman who came here a while ago is a dangerous
character. She gave Mrs. Morton some message or other to get her out of
the way, and as soon as she had gone came back into the hotel and went
upstairs in the elevator. Didn't you see her?"
"Yes, Miss, I saw her. She was a friend of Mrs. Bradley's, she said, and
I supposed Mrs. Bradley had told her to go upstairs."
"I tell you, that woman who just went upstairs means harm--terrible
harm, to Miss Bradley--Miss Morton. Oh--don't stand there wasting time.
Come up with me at once, and you will see that I am right----"
"But--who are you, Miss? What have you to do with the matter?"
"What difference does that make, if what I say is true? If you must
know, I am a detective employed by Mrs. Morton----"
"Employed by Mrs. Morton! And yet you didn't know her when you saw her!
My dear woman, your story does not hang together----"
"It is my husband, Mr. Duvall, who is employed by her. He was registered
here under the name of Bradley, too. I am trying to help him."
"Oh!" The clerk seemed somewhat more inclined to accord her serious
attention. "Very well. I will go to the room with you, and see if
everything is all right."
"And hurry, please--hurry." Grace started toward the elevators.
Then a sudden thought came to her. Suppose the woman was to make her
escape, coming down in one of the elevators, while she and the clerk
were going up in another. There had been ample time, she knew, for her
to have murdered Ruth, were that her plan, and have already left the
room.
"Wait just a moment," she cried to the clerk, who had said a few words
to one of his assistants and was leaving the desk to join her. "I must
speak to my cabman, but I'll be back in a moment." She dashed through
the entrance doors and hurried to the point where Leary sat at his
steering wheel.
"Wait here," she whispered to him, "until I come back, unless the woman
we have been following comes out. If she does come out, and drive away,
follow her, and find out where she goes. Then telephone me here. I will
leave my name at the desk, and wait until I hear from you."
Leary nodded, and Grace quickly re-entered the lobby and joined the
waiting clerk.
"Instruct your telephone operators," she said to him, "to let me know,
in case anyone calls up Mrs. Duvall."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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