thatâs my mother, Mr. Queen.â
âI know,â said Ellery, a bit stiffly. âHad Priam and Hill known each other well before they started the jewellery business, Macgowan?â
âI donât know.â The giant put his arm about Laurelâs waist.
âI suppose they did. They must have,â Laurel said in a helpless way, absently removing the arm. âI realize now how little I know about Dadâs past.â
âOr I about Rogerâs,â said Crowe, marching two fingers up Laurelâs back. She wriggled and said, âOh, stop it, Mac.â He got up. âNeither of them ever talked about it.â He went over to the other end of the platform and stretched out again.
âApparently with reason. Leander Hill and Roger Priam had a common enemy in the old days, someone they thought was dead. He says they tried to put him out of the way, and heâs spent over twenty years tracking them down.â
Ellery began to walk about, avoiding Crowe Macgowanâs arms.
âDad tried to murder somebody?â Laurel bit her thumb.
âWhen you yell bloody murder, Laurel,â said Ellery, âyouâve got to be prepared for a certain echo of nastiness. This kind of murder,â he said, lighting a cigarette and placing it between her lips, âis never nice. Itâs usually rooted in pretty mucky soil. Priam means nothing to you, and your father is dead. Do you still want to go through with this? Youâre my client, you know, not Mrs. Priam. At her own suggestion.â
âDid Mother come to you?â exclaimed Macgowan.
âYes, but weâre keeping it confidential.â
âI didnât know she cared,â muttered the giant.
Ellery lit a cigarette for himself.
Laurel was wrinkling her nose and looking a little sick.
Ellery tossed the match overside. âWhoever composed that note is on a delayed murder spree. He wants revenge badly enough to have nursed it for over twenty years. A quick killing doesnât suit him at all. He wants the men who injured him to suffer, presumably, as heâs suffered. To accomplish this he starts a private war of nerves. His strategy is all plotted. Working from the dark, he makes his first tactical move ⦠the warning, the first of the âspecial meaningsâ he promises. Number one is â of all things â a dead pooch, number two whatever was in the box to Roger Priam â I wonder what it was, by the way! You wouldnât know, Mac, would you?â
âI wouldnât know anything about my motherâs husband,â replied Macgowan.
âAnd he means to send other warnings with other âgiftsâ which have special meanings. To Priam exclusively now â Hill foxed him by dying at once. Heâs a man with a fixed idea, Laurel, and an obsessive sense of injury. I really think you ought to keep out of his way. Let Priam defy him. Itâs his skin, and if he needs help he knows where he can apply for it.â
Laurel threw herself back on the platform, blowing smoke to the appliquéd sky.
âDonât you feel you have to act like the heroine of a magazine serial?â
Laurel did not reply.
âLaurel, drop it. Now.â
She rolled her head. âI donât care what Daddy did. People make mistakes, even commit crimes, who are decent and nice. Sometimes events force you, or other people. I knew him â as a human being â better than anyone in creation. If he and Roger Priam got into a mess, it was Roger who thought up the dirty work ⦠The fact that he wasnât my real father makes it even more important. I owe him everything.â She sat up suddenly. âIâm not going to stay out of this, Ellery. I canât.â
âYouâll find, Queen,â scowled young Macgowan in the silence that followed, âthat this is a very tough number.â
âTough she may be, my Tarzanian friend,â grumbled Ellery,