Read Online The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner - Free Book Online Page B

something, a hypodermic I think it was. She's a nurse, you know. I heard her in the bathroom, moving around, opening the medicine chest. Even then she didn't sleep. She did a lot of twisting and turning."
    "How did she look this morning?"
    "She looked like the very devil."
    "But she told you she'd slept well?"
    "Yes."
    "And you didn't question her statement?"
    "No."
    "Did you make any comment whatever?"
    "No."
    "And you made the coffee as soon as you got up?"
    Montaine lowered his eyes. "It sounds bad when I tell it," he said, "but it was really the most natural thing in the world. I looked around, of course, when I got up, and I saw my wife's purse lying on the dressing-room table. She was lying quietly then, drugged, you know. I opened it and looked inside."
    "Why?"
    "I thought I might find some clew."
    "Clew to what?"
    "To where she'd been."
    "But you didn't ask her because you were afraid she'd tell you," Mason said.
    "By that time," Montaine blurted, "I was in an awful mental state. You don't know anything about the agonies I suffered during the still hours of the night. Remember that I had to pretend that I was drugged. I couldn't turn and twist in the bed. I just had to lie in the one position without moving. It was agony. I heard the clock strike every hour, and…"
    "What did you find in her purse?" Mason asked.
    "I found a telegram addressed to R. Montaine at one twenty-eight East Pelton Avenue. The telegram was signed 'Gregory' and said, 'Awaiting your final answer five o'clock to-day extreme limit.'"
    "You didn't take the telegram?"
    "No, I put it back in her purse. But I haven't told you all about it yet."
    "Tell me all about it then. Get started. I don't want to have to drag it out of you a bit at a time."
    "There was a name and address penciled on the telegram. It was Gregory Moxley, three sixteen Norwalk Avenue."
    "The name and address of the man who was killed," Mason said thoughtfully. Montaine nodded his head in quick acquiescence. "Did you," Mason asked, "notice whether her keys were in her purse at the time?"
    "No, I didn't. You see, at that time there was nothing to make me notice that particularly. I found the telegram, and, as soon as I read it, I thought that I understood why she'd gone out."
    "Then it wasn't Doctor Millsap that she went to meet?"
    "Yes, I think it was Millsap, but I didn't think so at the time."
    "What makes you think it was Millsap?"
    "I'm coming to that."
    "For God's sake, go ahead and come to it, then."
    "After my wife went out, I was in agony. I finally decided to call Doctor Millsap and let him know that I knew of his friendship with my wife."
    "What good would that have done?"
    "I don't know."
    "Anyway, you called Doctor Millsap?"
    "Yes."
    "What time?"
    "Around two o'clock."
    "What happened?"
    "I could hear the ringing noise of the telephone, and then, after a while, a Japanese servant answered the telephone. I told him I must speak with Doctor Millsap at once, that I was desperately ill."
    "Did you give him your name?"
    "No."
    "What did the Jap say?"
    "He said Doctor Millsap was out on a call."
    "Did you leave word for the Doctor to call when he came back?"
    "No, I hung up the telephone. I didn't want him to know who was calling."
    Mason shook his head, took a deep breath. "Would you kindly tell me," he said, "why the devil you didn't have the matter out with your wife? Why you didn't confront her when she returned to the house? Why you didn't ask her what she meant when she handed you the drugged chocolate? Why you didn't…"
    The young man drew himself up with dignity. "Because," he said, "I am a Montaine. We don't do things that way."
    "What way?"
    "We don't brawl. There are more dignified ways of settling those matters."
    "Well," Mason said wearily, "you saw the newspaper this morning, and then what happened?"
    "Then I realized what Rhoda… what my wife must have done."
    "What?"
    "She must have gone to meet Moxley. Doctor Millsap must have been there. There was a fight.