echo started to duck like a scared rabbit, but when he recognized Margo stepping
from the cab he halted. Hardly had Margo paid the driver before Homer was
gripping her by the arm, hurrying her inside the building and up the broad front
stairs to the second floor galleries.
"I'm glad you came, Miss Lane!" Homer was breathless, worried. "We've been
calling your apartment, but you weren't there."
"I was having breakfast -"
"It's about last night." Homer wasn't interrupting; he was merely
continuing his theme after taking time out for a breath. "You're a witness to
what happened, like Mr. Talcott and myself. That is you're a witness to what
happened, before it happened."
"Before what happened?"
"Here's Mr. Talcott," panted Homer. "He'll explain everything."
They had passed the side stairway and were at the doorway of the rear room.
The door itself was open and Dariel Talcott, his worried face drooping to its
limit, was standing on the threshold. Peering up from between his bowed
shoulders, Talcott gave his hands a plaintive spread that ended with a gesture
toward the chest of Chu Chan.
"I'll tell you what's happened, Miss Lane!" expressed Talcott, hoarsely.
"There's been murder!"
"Murder?" echoed Margo. "You mean here?"
A sudden horror of her own words made Margo stare about in quest of a body
she didn't see. Then her eyes were back upon the object of Talcott's gesture,
the chest of Chu Chan, with its heavy, brass-bound door ominously shut and
locked.
"But how," began Margo, "and who -"
"Lionel Graff has been missing since last night," declared Talcott in a
solemn tone, "and the last man to see him alive was Simon Benisette when they
were standing here beside the chest of Chu Chan!"
CHAPTER VI
THE telephone bell was jangling from Talcott's office, but Margo Lane
scarcely heard it. Through her head was ringing a multitude of other thoughts
that were lining up in strictly accountable fashion.
There had been fierce rivalry between Graff and Benisette the evening
before, rivalry to the pitch of violence. Then Graff, most unwisely as Margo now
reviewed it, had gone into the rear room alone to make peace with Benisette.
Staring at Talcott, Margo could tell that he shared her thought.
Together they had waited in the office, expecting another altercation, but
there had been none. Later they had seen Benisette go out alone.
Alone.
That single word summed the suspicion that Margo now shared with Talcott.
Margo was picturing that meeting in this rear room as short and swift. A mere
hint of sarcasm in Graff's speech and Benisette's anger would surely have
unleashed itself again. A fatal blow would have automatically tumbled Graff into
the wide open chest of Chu Chan.
The chest that now stood closed and locked with the key in Benisette's
possession!
