Read Online Murder & the Married Virgin by Brett Halliday - Free Book Online

room when I got there—and he asked if I could break it in. I smashed the upper panel and he reached in and turned the key.”
    “Did you see the key on the inside before he reached in?”
    “I don’t know that I actually saw the key in the lock. I know the door was locked. I know Mr. Lomax reached through the broken panel and unlocked it. Is that enough?”
    “But he could have had the key in his hand—reached through and pretend to unlock it, and—”
    Neal Jordan stood up abruptly. There was a dangerous glint in his clear blue eyes. “I don’t know what your game is, but I don’t like the hints you’re dropping. Sure, I suppose he could have done all that. But he didn’t. I was there and saw him.”
    “You went into the room together,” Shayne went on.
    “I ran in first and turned off the gas,” Neal corrected, “while Mr. Lomax waited just outside the doorway. I came back and waited until the room was cleared enough so we could breathe. Then we both went to the bed. We knew it was useless. She was dead.”
    “And you didn’t see any suicide note?”
    “No.”
    “Could one possibly have been taken from the room before the police arrived?”
    Again he got a curt “No,” for an answer. Then Neal burst out, “What in hell are you trying to prove, Shayne? That Katrin Moe didn’t commit suicide?”
    “Do you think she did?”
    “Of course. What else could it be?” The chauffeur took a short turn up and down the room. He stopped close to Shayne, faced the red-headed detective squarely. “Sure. I know what you’re thinking. She was a sweet girl with everything in the world to live for. But there was some secret gnawing at Katrin Moe. Find out that secret and you’ll know why she killed herself.”
    Shayne said, “You’re the first person around here who has hinted at anything like that.”
    Neal snorted derisively. “What do you expect? These people don’t—” He checked himself, took time to choose his words. “They didn’t understand Katrin. To them, she was efficient, tireless—the perfect servant. But servants are also people. I don’t say that I understood Katrin. I do say she lived in a world of her own, and it wasn’t necessarily a pleasant one.” He paused again, then added quietly, “Find out what Katrin did with her Wednesdays off and I think you’ll find out why she committed suicide.”
    Shayne said, “Yesterday was Wednesday.”
    Neal nodded. “But she didn’t employ it as usual. Every other Wednesday she left the house soon after lunch and returned shortly after dinner.”
    Shayne considered this in silence, tugging at the lobe of his left ear. “Did she ever tell anyone where she went?”
    “Not that I know of. It caused some speculation at first, but it became a habit and ceased to be a novelty. She was always upset when she returned on Wednesday nights.”
    “Upset?”
    “A little more withdrawn, and under a tension.” He thought for a moment, then said dryly, “I think she had a lover.”
    “What was unusual about yesterday?” Shayne asked.
    Neal clasped his strong fingers around one knee, “I’ve been thinking about it. I guess it isn’t my secret any more.”
    Shayne waited for him to continue.
    “You see, she asked me not to say anything about it. I wouldn’t, except that—well, it might help clear up the mystery of her suicide. Shortly after Mrs. Lomax and I returned from Baton Rouge I had to drive to town on an errand. Katrin asked if I would take her down. She rode with me in the front seat, as silent and reserved as usual. She asked me if I’d stop by her bank a minute. It was right on the way, so I did.”
    “What bank?” Shayne asked.
    “I didn’t notice the name, but it’s a savings and loan bank on the corner of Broad and Canal. She was in there a few minutes, and then she asked if I was going near the Union Station. So I took her there.”
    Shayne’s eyes were alert with interest. “Did she say what she wanted there?”
    “No. I