If Death Ever Slept

Dol Bonner opened her bag, took out a revolver, said, “It’s loaded,” and put it on Wolfe’s desk. Cramer came breezing around the front of the desk, nearly tripping on Wyman’s foot, spouting as he came, and Purley Stebbins was up too. Dol Bonner told Cramer, “I tried it for prints, Inspector. There were no good ones. Look out, it’s loaded.”

“You loaded it?”

“No. It held two cases and four cartridges when I found it. I fired one cartridge, and that left-”

“You fired it?”

“Mr. Cramer,” Wolfe said sharply. “How could we learn if it was the guilty gun without firing it? Let me finish and you can have all day.”

I opened a drawer of my desk, got a heavy manila envelope, and handed it to Cramer. He picked the gun up by the trigger guard, put it in the envelope, circled Wolfe’s desk to hand the envelop to Purley, said, “Go ahead and finish,” and sat.

Wolfe asked, “What did you do after you found the gun, Miss Bonner?”

“Miss Colt was with me. We phoned you and got instructions and followed them. We went to my office and filed a nick in the barrel of the gun so we could identify it. We then went to my apartment, turned on the radio as loud as it would go, fired a bullet into some cushions, got the bullet, put it in a box with cotton, wrapped the box in paper, and sent it to you by messenger.”

“When did you find the gun?”

“At ten minutes after six yesterday afternoon.”

“Has it been continuously in your possession since then?”

“It has. Every minute. I slept with it under my pillow.”

“Was Miss Colt with you when you found it?”

“Yes.”

“Where did you find it?”

“In a locker on the fourth floor at Clarinda Day’s on Forty-eighth Street.”

Trella Jarrell let out a king-size gasp. Eyes went to her and she covered her mouth with both hands.

Wolfe went on. “Was the locker locked?”

“Yes.”

“Did you break it open?”

“No, I used a key.”

“I won’t ask you how you got the key. You may be asked in court, but this is not a court. Was the locker one of a series?”

“Yes. There are four rows of private lockers on that floor, with twenty lockers to a row. Clarinda Day’s customers put their clothes and belongings in them while they are doing exercises or getting massages. Some of them keep changes of clothes or other articles in them.”

“You said private lockers. Is each locker confined to a single customer?”

“Yes. The customer has the only key, except that I suppose the management has a master key. The key I used-but I’m not to tell that now?”