“Behind Double Doors,”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 14 June 1933, Page 7

“Behind Double Doors,”

CHAPTER XXII. —"MR. JOHN GARTH, I BELIEVE. ’ ’ They had laid a. sheet over the burned and broken body of the dead woman in That 000-l, bare -room at King Edward’s Hospital. As Garth entered, his head $ Hoovered, the doctor who had brought luim in lifted the shrouding sheet and a. groan of anguished horror which broke from Garth. "Do you recognise her?” "My 'God, no!” stammered Gartli. "Xo, it’s too ghastly to be true! This must be someone else, someone not so beautiful, not so young, as Mias Mills. ’ ’ "But that ring?” the doctor persisted, gesturing towards the blackened bands which had been crossed upon the breast of the dead. The hand which wore a magnificent scarab lay uppermost, the Egyptian blue of ;tho turquoise beetle ghastly in contrast with its background. "If you have seen that before, you can’t fail to recognise it? ’ ’

‘‘ I do recognis'd it. The ling was mine,” Garth answered. "Ah, that may establish identification,” said the doctor. "There is 'the colour of the hair, too. I understand that the hair of Miss Mills, your friend, was red. And then the height and build? What about them?” "So far as I can tell, they might lie the same,” Garth admitted, "though I think Miss Mills was —is —slenderer. I won’t give up hope for her, now that I’ve seen this poor 'dead woman. I don’t .believe 'She is Miss Mills. I am [ certain that she would not have been j wearing 'the ring. ’ ’ I "What about the steel shoo buckles ? * } i "I thought that I didn’t remember ; Miss Mills’s shoes,” said Garth. "But now I see, a mental picture of her just as ©he looked when I saw her last, a few minutes before she left London for the country near Cambridge. She was .then weaning a brown dress, with brown stockings and shoes to match. That seems to settle the identity question, doesn’t it?” And his 'heart sang the words., ‘ ‘ Thank God'! Tanita is alive -somewhere .after all! ’ ’ "Might ©he not have changed her dress and shoes?” •• She might, ’ ’ Garth lansweddd. ‘ ‘ She might have gone to the house of some woman friend after she vanished mysteriously from that cottage., and borrowed a different .costume. Or, .she might have .sold her things at a se-cond-hand clothes shop and bought new ones, for some reason. Nothing is too ■strange, to bo true in this case., except —except that I know she wouldn’t have had this ring on her finger. ’ ’ "If you refuse to identify this lady as your friend,” .said the doctor, "we had better put the matter in the hands of the police. We still have this to go on: the taxi driver spoke not only of a cottager —but of the Mayfield Hotel. ’ ’

"Yes! For a moment I had lost flight of that,” exclaimed Garth. "A lady, young, with red hair; and the Mayfield Hotel. I begin to see a ray of light. Before you communicate with the police, may I call up the manager of the Mayfield?” O "Of coursd. I’ll take you to a room where you can rise a telephone.” Garth got Morosini at once. ‘He was still in his office, more miserable than ever. .Something dis concerting and even alarming had happened. But Garth stopped tiro story the Italian would have poured out, by insisting upon precedence for his own. _ ‘ ‘ That friend of yours, Miss Gina Gennaro,” he began abruptly, "the actress yeu borrowed the nun’.s costume from—has she got red hair?” "Yes, she has,” answered Morosini forlornly. ‘ ‘ Whether given her by God or man.” ‘ ‘ What kind of a dress was she wearing to-day?” Garth went on. "As if I should know—except that . .it was black. .She usually wears black. It enhances the brilliance of her skin, and that hair. ’ ’ "In that case, she would probably have had on black shoes.” "Yes. Pretty little shoes she wore, with silly heels, inches high, and bright buckles all across her insteps. ’ ’ ‘ ‘ Steel buckles ? ’ ’ "Yes, or paste. Dio mio, wlrat are you working up to,- Garth ?’ ’ ”1 think you susplG'c-t what I’m working up to.” "All! Terrible! Poor Gina, in the hospital, not Miss Mills?” ‘ ‘ Did you give Miss Gennaro any idea what you were doing with the nun’s costume, or where you were going ? ’ ’ "Not I! If she found -out, she must have spied upon me.” "I begin to think shei did. If I’ve got any detective instinct in me, Morosini, it’s telling me now that your Miss Gennaro’s jealousy was roused by your borrowing that costume, and excusing yourself from an engagement you’d made with her for the afternoon. I see her taking a taxi, and following you and Miss Mills to my cottage. It was her taxi you .saw under the tree. When you left Tanita and drove away in your own car, Miss Gennaro went into the cottage on some excuse, and either persuaded or farcied Tanita to break the promise she had i made to me about not going out. What she did with Tanita we ’ll have to learn later. While ©lie was in the cottage! she searched my desk, found that ’Scarab ring I fold you of, and couldn’t resist steal —taking it. This idea began coming to me because that was just one thing I can’t imagine Tanita Mills would do—ransack the drawers of heir host’s d/ctek and annex a valuable ring. "Ah, if the poor Gina was indeed in your cottage after I left, and did these things, I fear there is one even more dreadful thing she did there,” Morosini .almost wept-. ‘ ‘ Who but a Neapolitan woman- would -think of it? Ah, it is too horrible, the whole business! Now you will listen to what I wished •to tell you before you began. The police have (been here.. They have just gone. I got rid of them only by subtlety! But I fear they will coinie back, and you must be here, in your room, before -a -second visit, or I shall be in ruins and the 'hotel’s reputation, too. A woman’s voice ait your cottage called up Scotland Yard, told them she was Tanita Mills, and that she’d murdered a woman at the Mayfield Hotel. She' went on to say that she was going to an inn on the outskirts of Cambridge, buit before she could give its name, .she was apparently cut off. ” "Ah., 'that pretty well accounts for everything! ” ietx claimed Garth. "I think I may safely tell them hero at the hospital that 'the dead woman is identified ais Miss Gina Gennaro, an act-

COPYRIGHT PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY MRS. A. M. WILLIAMSON. (Author of "The Perfume of Eve,” "This Woman to this Man,” "The Lion’s Mouse,” etc).

"Not very hard to explain!” Garth flung back. "I felt I was coming down with a cold. I took a lot 'Of aspirin, .and hoped to sleep. I had a .severe headache, and my nerveis were jumpy. I didn’t sleep long. In fact, a little beast of a dog barking in a room next door, must have waked me. I’d have -'phoned down and complained, for of course, dogs aren't allowed in the. hotel, but 1 didn.’t want to make trouble, and I hoped the brute would stop. He didn’t stop, except at short intervals. Probably his owners were out. I couldn’t drop off again, and ■suddenly felt in a mood to begin plotting out the first act of the play, found I’d left my notes at home, -and, as I couldn’t rest, I got up), and took car for the country. I stayed longer than I’d expected on account of tills theft. It upset me .a bit! I didn’t call the Cambridge police, because I wanted to come back to town at once, and I had the idea of engaging some) good private detective whom the manager here, Mr Morosini, could recommend.” (To be Continued.

ress. Did the Yard get the name of the inn ? ” "They’d put tine! Cambridge 'police on to the job. Maybe they’ve found Miss Mills by this time. But even so, it’,s better than if .she were dead. Now, for the love of heaven, come back to the hotel and go straight to your room, or we may be lost. ’ ’ "Wait a minute,” said Garth. "If the police can find Tanita Mills at an unnamed inn on the outskirts of Cambridge, why shouldn’t I?” "Because if she can be found there she lias been found already,” argued Morosini. "I tell you, my friend, you must come back. Don’t delay. Say to tiro authorities at King Edward’s that I, and .others I can call, friends of Miss Gennaro —perhaps her late manager and her agent—will arrive and make certain of the identification as soon as we can. Ask them not ito call the police. That’s not necossar y yet, anyhow. Come, Garth; .come!” "Very well.” Garth reminded himself of the short time needed to reach tihe 'hotel, the long thmei, ten times longer, to drive back to Cambridge. "Very well, I’ll come. I will go straight to my room and get there again without being seen if I can manage it. I’ll start now. When you think I ought to be there, knock on my door and I’ll lelt you in. Oir, if you prefer, open the door with 'Oaie of your pass keys, go in, and wait for me.” "In that room —alone —without you? God f orbid! ’ ’ exploded Morosini, and hung up. Gartli drove quickly to the Mayfield, studying the situation on the way. "Mr John Garth,” I believe,” spoke a voice, as Garth was about to enter •the jVJayfield inconspicuously by a servant’s entrance.

Gsinth was completely taken aback. He was an ordinary-looking fellow in a dark suit, and a pot hat, to the eye of an amateur, but Garth was not quite an amateur where police circles were concerned. He knew at once that this was a detective lying in wait for him. He knew also that, if lie had attempted 'to sneak into the hotel by any other entrance a similar figure would have stepped forward to accost him. 'Somehow the police had ascertained that he, the well-known writer, the owner of that country ■ cottage near Cambridge, was staying in London at the Mayfield. Either Morosini had considered it best to admit that fact, or the name of John Garth had been seen, in the visitors’ book. What a silly, conceited fool he had been to have so many photographs taken, in sheer love of publicity for his novels! i. There was a. life-size 'head ■ hanging over tile bookstall in this hotel, with the advertisement of "John Garth’s Latest Best Heller.” All the world was free to look at it. It would

bo useless, and would only make matters worse, to deny -that .be was John CHAPTER XXIII.—-A LADY IN THE LOBBY. "Why, yes, Garth is my name. Who are you, please, and how dc< you happen to know me? I don’t seem to remember your face.” The man said his name was Beau, and explained himself almost exactly as Garth had known lie would. He took just enough time in doing 'this for Garth to recover from his confusion and make up his mind what to say. He did, he confessed, know very slightly a Miss Tanita Mills, whom he had met once or twice during other visits to this hotel. As a matter of fact their first meeting had been quite by accident, without an introduction. After that occasion it had been .a mere bowing acquaintance. He knew nothing whatever .about Miss Mills’s personal affairs. He was quite certain mac it could not have been Miss Mills who ’phoned from his cottage in the country that afternoon. As it happened, •he had been obliged to run down there himself, although, he) had arrived in London from Cambridge only this morning to spend a couple of uays m London for business reasons. A story of his was to be made into a play and produced by Mi - Groman, and he — Garth- —had forgotten to hiring to town some important notes for tne dramatisation, and had hurriedly motored home to get them. During his absence his cottage had been robbed. He had found the front door open, his papers in confusion, and a valuable scarab ring missing. He had obtained it from an Egyptian prince. 'i'ne thief, when ready to leave the cottage, had had the impertinence to’phone the police after stealing the scarab. How the person had known the name of Miss Tanita Mills was another matter. ■ lie., Garth, would have to study the problem before even trying to solve it; but perhaps the police m.ght be able to think faster than lio, a. mere writer of detective) fiction, could hope to do. Gartli rattled out this information so quickly that there was no time for interruption. As soon as he had stopped for breath, however, came a further question for which hci ilradn’t been wholly unprepared. "But, Mr Garth, we were informed when inquiring for you here at the Mayfield, that you were resting in your room, having taken a sleeping draught and asking not to be called on the -telephone. Vet you say now, you’ve been to your cottage and back. How is that?”