Mrs. Balfame: A Novel

  CHAPTER X

  As Rush walked to the Elks' Club for breakfast a few hours later he feltthat suspicion was in the very air of Elsinore, the very leaves of thequiet Sunday streets rustled with it. Even on Atlantic Avenue there wereknots of men discussing the murder, and in Main Street every man thatpassed received a hard stare.

  Rush was thankful to observe that all looked as if they had gone to bedlate and slept little, and when he met Sam Cummack on the steps of theclubhouse he realised the advantages of the habit of careful grooming towhich the deceased's brother-in-law was quite indifferent.

  "Oh, Dwight!" groaned Cummack, seizing his hand. "Where were you lastnight? I'd have liked to have you round."

  "I was in Brooklyn and got back late. What's your opinion?"

  "I've had a dozen but they don't seem to hold water. I guess it was agunman, imported direct--though perhaps I'm just hoping it wasn't one ofthem trollops did it--for the sake of the family as well as poor Dave'sname. I don't want a scandal like that. Murder's bad enough, the Lordknows."

  "What sort of footsteps in the grounds?"

  "Every kind we've got in Elsinore, I guess. About forty people wererunnin' round the yard before the police came. Funny that Gifning didn'tthink of that. But he says the breath was knocked out of him. Jimminy! Inever knew anything to upset the town like this before--the county, youmight say. The telephone's been buzzin' till the girls have threatenedto strike. An operator fainted this morning--wonder if Dave knew her?"

  "Well, I am rather surprised to learn that Balfame was so popular--"

  "'Tain't that only--though Dave still had lots of friends in spite ofthat ugly temper he was growin'; but we've all got enemies--every lastone of us--and to be shot down at his own gate like that--Gee, it hasgiven every man in town the creeps. We must get the man quick and makean example of him. I hope I'm drawn."

  "I hope he doesn't ask me to defend him. How is Mrs. Balfame bearingup?"

  "Fine. She's as cool as they make 'em. I'd hate to be married to one ofthem cucumbers myself, but they're damned convenient in times oftrouble. Maybe she cared a lot for Dave; who knows? At any rate we mustmake people think she did. I don't want suspicion pointing to her."

  "What! It is incredible that you should think of such a thing." Rush,always pale, had turned as white as chalk. "You can't mean that peopleare saying--"

  "Not yet. But we've got to be prepared for anything, especially withthese New York newspapermen on the trail. Unless we catch the murdererdamned quick, every last one of us that was close to Dave that can'tprove an alibi will be suspected. Why, I walked with him for two blocksafter he left my house--thought he might not be able to make it alone,and he wouldn't go in the car; then, I didn't go straight home, either.I went to my office to straighten out something--Oh, Lord! don't let'stalk of it; I must have been there alone, not a soul to see me, when hewas shot. It gives me the horrors to think of it--"

  "Nonsense! It was well known that you were his best friend. No one wouldthink of you."

  "They might! They might!"

  "Well--about Mrs. Balfame?"

  "Oh, she's got the best alibi ever. She'd packed his suitcase andcarried it downstairs, and even written a note describing some bag orother she wanted and pinned it to his coat. I was there when the policeexamined it. They're not saying who they're suspectin', but they'redoin' a heap of thinkin'. Fact remains that she was alone in the frontof the house--that mutt of a hired girl she's got was way up in the backpart groanin' with a toothache when I routed her out. If she wasn't sucha fright that Dave wouldn't have looked at her--Well, the police knowthat Dave wasn't what you might call a model husband; but Enid, so faras we all know, never rowed him. That's the most tryin' sort, though,and generally conceals the most hate. But she had her clubs and all therest of it. Maybe she didn't care. I'm only wonderin' what Phippsthinks. That's the reason I want her to see the newspapermen. She mightthrow them off the scent at least. Of course, they'd rather she'd doneit than any one--"

  "You won't even hint to her that she may be suspected?" interruptedRush, sharply.

  "Oh, Lord, no. I'd never dare. Just persuade her somehow. Guess Anna orPolly can manage it."

  Rush turned and walked down the steps. "I'll go to the Elsinore tobreakfast. The reporters are likely to show up there. I know JimBroderick. We must be on the job all the time."