Fer-De-Lance

I expected that would tighten her up some more, but it didn’t. She was calm but a little determined. "I don’t know that either. I supposed you knew it can’t be found."

"Oh," I said. "The golf bag can’t be found?"

"No. The men from White Plains and Pleasantville have searched everywhere, this whole house, the club, even all over the links; they can’t find it."

Yes, I thought to myself, and you, young lady, you’re damn well pleased they can’t! I said, "Do you mean to say that no one remembers anything about it?"

"No. That is, yes." She hesitated. "I understand that the boy who was caddying for Father says that he put the bag in the car, by the driver’s seat, when they-when Larry and Dr. Bradford brought Father home. Larry and Dr. Bradford do not remember seeing it."

"Strange. I know I am not here to collect opinions, only facts, Miss Barstow, but if you will permit me, doesn’t that strike you as strange?"

"Not at all. They were not likely to notice a golf bag at such a time."

"But after they got here it must have been removed sometime-some servant, the chauffeur…"

"No one remembers it."

"I may speak with them?"

"Certainly." She was scornful. I didn’t know what kind of a career she had mapped out, but I could have warned her not to try the stage.

That was that. It looked to me as if the kernel was gone, leaving practically no nut at all. I switched on her.

"What kind of a driver did your father use? Steel shaft or wooden?"

"Wood. He didn’t like steel."

"Face plain or inset?"

"Plain, I think. I think so. I’m not sure I remember. Larry’s has an inset, so has mine."

"You seem to remember your brother’s all right."

"Yes." Her eyes were level at me. "This is not an inquisition, I believe, Mr. Goodwin."

"Pardon." I grinned at her. "Excuse it please, I’m upset. Maybe I’m even sore. There’s nothing in Westchester County I’d rather look at than that golf bag, especially the driver."

"I’m sorry."

"Oh no, you’re not. It raises a lot of questions. Who took the bag out of the car? If it was a servant, which one, and how loyal and incorruptible is he? Five days later, when it became known that one of the clubs had performed the murder it had been designed for, who got the bag and hid it or destroyed it? You or your brother or Dr. Bradford? You see the questions I’m up against. And where is it hid or how was it destroyed? It isn’t easy to get rid of a thing as big as that."