The Weak-Eyed Bat

“The window,” she said, closing her eyes. “I was — saying good-bye to Tom.”

Prye frowned. “How long were you there?”

“A long time.”

“Could you see anything from the window? Was your light on?”

“My light was off. I could see the moon and the trees and I saw you come with Nora, and then I saw Nora leave again. She looks very pretty in her white dress.”

“Nora is still here,” Prye said softly. “She is wearing a dark blue dress.”

“No, you are wrong.” Her voice was hysterical. “You are wrong. She is wearing a white dress. She walked toward the woods.”

Prye said, “All right. Of course I’m wrong, Mary. I never could remember women’s clothes.”

She lay back breathing more easily, and after a time Prye said: “On Monday night Jennie said you went to bed right after dinner as you’ve been doing for some time. Yet on Tuesday morning I found you suffering from a severe shock. Why?”

“I can’t tell you,” she whispered.

“But it had something to do with Tom?”

She shook her head.

“You went out of the house on Monday night, didn’t you, Mary?”

She seemed both puzzled and surprised. “No. I... I didn’t have to.”

“What does that mean?”

“I found something in Tom’s room. Tom often had headaches and I went in to get some of his headache tablets.”

“And you found?”

Her mouth was working. Her words were barely audible.

“I found her ring.”

Prye waited for her sobbing to stop, turning her words over in his mind. If Mary had found Joan’s ring in Tom’s room it meant that Joan had visited or met Tom some time on Monday afternoon.

“What time was this?” Prye said at last.

“I don’t know. I guess around eight o’clock.”

“What did you do with the ring?”

“I can hardly remember but I think I threw it out of the window. And then I came back and I don’t know anything after that except that I wanted to die. I thought I was dying.”

“You didn’t know that Tom and Joan were — well acquainted?”

“No. How could he? She was just a child. But Tom’s dead now and so is she and I don’t blame either of them. I was such a fool. Pretty soon it won’t matter what any of us did.” Her voice had begun to fade, as if she were too tired and depressed to talk any longer.

A potential suicide, Prye thought. He rose briskly and prepared a hypodermic, and in ten minutes she was sleeping again. Prye went downstairs and gave some orders to Jennie. Then he and Nora walked up the lane to Miss Bonner’s house.

It was ten o’clock. The veranda sprang into light at their knock and two bright black eyes surveyed them from the small window in the top of the door.

“Like a speakeasy,” Nora said. “Hurry up, Wang. Somebody’s after me with an ax.”

The door opened and Wang bowed humbly before Nora. “I offer my head on a platter for presuming to keep you waiting, but such are my commands.”

Prye smiled at him rather fiercely. “Someday, Wang, somebody is going to take you literally.”

“Some persons are deeply touched by my protestations of loyalty,” Wang announced in an injured voice. “Even the heart of Miss Bonner is not inflexible.”

“Miss Bonner still up?”

“Miss Bonner is as unsleeping as the evil eye.”

“That’s a pity,” Prye said. “It means that Miss Shane will be forced to entertain her while I talk to Miss Alfonse.”

“You entertain your own Eumenides,” Nora cried.

“Since Miss Alfonse and I will require the strictest privacy, I hope you are prepared to be reasonable, Nora.”

“I am always reasonable. But Emily will throw me out on my ear. I called her a name once to somebody I thought I could trust and she has a good memory.”

“That’s fine,” Prye said heartily. “That’s your excuse for calling on her. Apologize for the name you called her. Tell her it was a case of mistaken identity. Or if it was a nice name tell her it was not a case of mistaken identity. Do you get the idea?”

“Not after you’ve finished mangling it,” Nora said, and followed Wang up the steps with dignity.

A few minutes later Prye went up. He stopped for a while outside Miss Bonner’s door and listened.

“A liar, that’s what it was!” Emily was saying. “I have strong information to the effect that you called me a liar, Miss Shane.”

Prye walked down the hall and rapped softly on the door of Miss Alfonse’s room. There was no answer. Without wasting further time he took the picklock from his pocket and opened the door.

The room was in darkness. He fumbled for the light switch, listened for movements in the room. But when the light went on there was nobody there. The uniform that Miss Alfonse had worn that day lay crumpled on the bed. A drawer in the dresser was open, spilling out clothes on to the floor. Prye went over automatically and began to pick them up. Then he saw the small, dark-red pool at his feet.

Chapter Fourteen

Prye closed Miss Alfonse’s door behind him and went quietly downstairs.

“Wang, phone Professor Frost’s cottage and ask Inspector White to come here immediately.”

“Do you anticipate another murder?” Wang asked serenely.

“Anticipate is not the word,” Prye said. “Where did Miss Alfonse have her dinner tonight?”

“In her room.”