The Penguin Pool Murder (The Hildegarde Withers Mysteries) by Palmer Stuart

Author:Palmer, Stuart [Palmer, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781480419049
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2013-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

14

Follow the Swallow

“THAT’S HOW IT STANDS,” said Inspector Piper to his guest. Miss Withers sat somewhat primly on the edge of her chair, and tried to keep her eyes from falling on the gruesome exhibits which lined the walls of his office. “My dear lady, the case is complete against Gwen Lester and Philip Seymour. I’ve turned over all the evidence to the District Attorney, from Gwen’s first exclamation at the sight of the corpse to the attempts of each of the defendants to bargain for a suspended sentence by pinning the rap on the other.”

“But do you believe that?”

“Of course I believe that! The case is ripe for the grand jury already. I know that to the mind of the layman, there are a thousand possibilities, a thousand ingenious twists that present themselves as to the possibility of these people’s being innocent. But I’ve had enough experience to know that things have a way of happening just as they’ve always happened, ninety-nine times out of a hundred.”

“And how about the hundredth?” Miss Withers was very serious.

“Nonsense.” Oscar Piper fumbled with the papers on his desk. “I’ve done everything that can be done in this investigation. The fact that you have a private opinion, a hunch, that Gwen and Philip are too nice a pair to commit a murder has no weight. My dear lady, you’re a romantic. You’ve been reading too many magazine stories where a loving couple are reunited in the last chapter. In this story, there’s going to be no reunited couple, no tinkle of wedding chimes.”

“I’m romantic, huh?” Miss Hildegarde Withers was on her feet. “You men! Anything that you don’t have plain common sense enough to understand in a woman, you have to call names! You have eyes, why don’t you look beyond your nose?”

With her anger, the air of stern aloofness fell away from Miss Withers, and her blue eyes flashed. “And you’re a detective! A fine detective you are! I could be a better sleuth with my eyes bandaged and both arms tied behind me. My children in third grade at Jefferson School would make better detectives than you! You’re not digging for the truth, you’re just trying to find evidence enough to send somebody to the chair. You don’t care who!

“Now I warn you, Oscar Piper, I warn you fair and square. I’ve got my dander up, and I’m going to show you a few things. You’ve got the law and all its facilities, but I’m going ahead on my own and find out who did kill Gerald Lester! So there!”

She slammed the door of the Inspector’s office so hard that the pistols rattled on their shelves.

He sat at his desk, tapping his teeth lightly with a pencil. After a moment he spoke softly to the photograph of the Commissioner which hung on the wall beside the window.

“Whee! What a woman!” Then he tapped his teeth again, more thoughtfully. “And now I wonder if she could be right, even one tenth of

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