CHAPTER 19 A LOCKED DOOR

“I was gone a little longer than I meant to be,” Jim McCoy apologized as he came into the room. “Did I keep you waiting?”

“We probably wouldn’t have waited if you hadn’t locked the door!” Louise said sharply.

The keeper’s eyebrows lifted and he looked slightly amused. “Locked in?” he echoed.

“Yes, we couldn’t get the door open.”

“Oh, it sticks sometimes. Been intending to fix it for several days. If you had pushed hard it would have opened.”

“We certainly pushed hard enough,” Penny said dryly. She was more than ever certain that the lighthouse keeper had unlocked the door only a moment before entering. Clearly, he had meant to prevent Louise and her from seeing and hearing what went on in the room above.

“Come along,” the keeper invited. “I’ll show you the tower.”

“No thank you,” Penny replied coldly. “We’ve spent so much time here that we’ll have to be getting back to the hotel.”

“As you like.” The keeper shrugged, and looked relieved by the decision.

Jim McCoy stepped away from the door, and the girls hastened down the iron stairway. No one was in sight on the beach. Whoever had visited the lighthouse during the time they were imprisoned, had disappeared.

When they were well down the beach, Louise and Penny slackened their pace. Glancing back they saw that the keeper of the light still stood on the tiny iron balcony watching them.

“That man gives me the creeps,” Louise remarked. “Did you believe what he said about the door sticking?”

“I did not,” Penny returned with emphasis. “I think he locked us in on purpose, probably because he was expecting visitors and didn’t want us to see too much.”

“As it turned out we didn’t learn a thing.”

“We have no proof of anything,” Penny admitted slowly. “Nevertheless, we’re pretty sure Mrs. Deline visited the tower.”

“George Emory too.”

“That part is pure guess,” Penny said, “so we don’t dare consider it too seriously. Did you ever see Mrs. Deline with George Emory?”

“Why, no. But then, we’ve not been at the hotel long.”

“Let’s find Jerry or Dad,” Penny said abruptly. “We ought to report to them.”

Returning to the hotel, the girls looked in vain for Mr. Parker. The publisher was not in his room nor anywhere in the lobby. Jerry apparently had not returned from Intercept Headquarters.

“There’s Mrs. Deline,” Louise whispered, jerking her head toward a high-backed chair not far from the elevator.

The widow was reading a newspaper. If she saw the girls she paid no attention to them.

“Let’s talk to her and see what we can learn,” Louise suggested.

Penny had another thought. “No,” she vetoed the suggestion. “Mrs. Deline would be more likely to learn things from us. That woman is clever.”

Just then Mrs. Deline arose, picked up her purse, and went out the front door of the hotel. On their way to the elevator. Penny and Louise noticed that the woman carelessly had left a handkerchief and her room key lying on the chair.

“I’ll turn them in at the desk,” Louise said, picking up the articles.

“Wait, Lou!”

Louise glanced at her chum in surprise.

“I have an idea!” Penny revealed, lowering her voice. “Are you game to try something risky?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“This chance is tailor-made for us!” Penny went on. “Mrs. Deline simply handed her room key over to us. Let’s use our opportunity.”

“Enter her room?” Louise asked, shocked.

“Why not? FBI agents think nothing of examining the belongings of a suspected person.”

“But we’re not FBI agents, Penny. I don’t want to do it without asking Jerry.”

“By that time it will be too late. It’s now or never.”

“Mrs. Deline might catch us in the act.”

“That’s a chance we’ll have to take.” Penny, in possession of the room key, walked to the front door of the hotel. She was reassured to see that Mrs. Deline had seated herself on a bench some distance from the veranda.

“The coast’s clear,” Penny reported, coming back to Louise. “What do you say?”

“Well, I suppose so,” Louise consented nervously.

An elevator shot the girls up to the fourth floor. To locate Mrs. Deline’s room required but a moment, and the halls fortunately were deserted. Penny fitted the key into the lock and pushed open the door.

“We’ll have to work fast,” she said, closing it behind them again.

The room was in perfect order. Only a few toilet articles had been set out on the dresser. Mrs. Deline’s suitcase was only half unpacked.

“It looks to me as if the widow is holding herself ready to fly at a moment’s notice,” Penny commented. “Otherwise, why didn’t she unpack everything?”

“What do you expect to find here?” Louise asked nervously. “Let’s get it over with fast, Penny.”

“Start with the bureau drawers,” Penny instructed. “Search for any papers, letters or the sort. I’ll go through the suitcase.”

Carefully the girls began examining Mrs. Deline’s personal belongings. Almost at once Louise reported that the bureau contained nothing of interest. Penny, however, had more luck. She came upon a pearl-handled revolver buried beneath a pile of silk underclothing.

“Jeepers!” she whispered, touching the weapon gingerly. “Now will you believe me when I say that the widow isn’t the sweet little girl she’d have us believe!”

Louise’s eyes had opened wide at sight of the revolver.

“And here’s that white suit she wore!” Penny cried, lifting out a folded garment from the suitcase. “Look, Lou!”

From the skirt of the suit had been cut a neat, square hole.

“Well, of all things!” Louise exclaimed. “What’s the meaning of that?”

“Mrs. Deline wrote something on the skirt—don’t you remember? Probably she used a pen with invisible ink.”

“But why on her skirt, Penny?”

“She’d just been to the lighthouse. Perhaps she learned something there and she wanted to write it down before she forgot. Possibly she didn’t have any paper. Then when she got back here, she either destroyed the message, or sent it to someone.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Louise said doubtfully. “It’s all so fantastic. I wouldn’t believe a bit of it except for this revolver. Having it doesn’t look so good.”

“And don’t forget the green elephant charm,” Penny reminded her. “I wish we could find it here.”

“Not a chance. Mrs. Deline always wears it around her neck. She had it on today. I noticed.”

Time fast was elapsing and the girls were worried lest someone discover them in the room. Hastily they replaced everything as they had found it, and relocking the door, stepped out into the hall.

“What’s our next move?” Louise asked as they buzzed for a down-going elevator.

“To tell Jerry and Dad, of course. But before that, there’s one thing I wish we could do, Lou. It would give everything we have to report a more substantial basis.”

“What’s that, Penny?”

“Why don’t we get our hands on the jade green elephant? I’ve a hunch that it contains something important—perhaps evidence that would crack the case wide open.”

“And just how do you propose that we acquire the charm?” Louise asked sarcastically. “Are we to waylay Mrs. Deline and take it by force?”

“Afraid that wouldn’t do.”

“There’s no other way to get it. Mrs. Deline wears that charm as if it were her skin. I’ve never seen her without it.”

The elevator was coming down so Penny spoke hurriedly.

“There is a way,” she said softly, “if only it will work. Think we could get Mrs. Deline to go bathing in the surf with us?”

“And ruin that lovely hair-do? Don’t be silly.”

“All the same, it’s worth trying,” Penny urged. “Let’s go to our room now and get our bathing suits.”

“I don’t see any point in it.”

“You will,” Penny laughed, entering the elevator. “If my little plan works we’ll have keen sport and maybe do our country a good turn!”