Free The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen Page B

had a stranglehold on her collarbone. I leave it to you what their destination was.”
    â€œThe A— again?” asked Nikki in a small voice.
    â€œNot the A—. I phoned Ernie at the desk. Harrison checked out Friday morning and he hasn’t been back since. It was an academic call. Does it really matter what hotels they use?” Nikki did not reply. “How did our heroine act when she got home?”
    â€œSubdued.”
    â€œHuh!”
    â€œAnd … very nice to Dirk.”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œKept talking through dinner about the play she’s taken an option on. And about this Ella Greenspan, the young housewife who wrote it.”
    â€œShe also contrived to give the impression that she spent not only the morning but the entire afternoon with the precocious Mrs. Greenspan? Came directly home from Chelsea, and so on?”
    â€œWell … yes.”
    â€œAnd what’s on her agenda for tonight?”
    â€œMartha’s reading Dirk the play.”
    â€œTouching. By the way, how was Dirk?”
    â€œVery interested. They went right into the study after dinner. That’s how I was able to get away. Dirk asked me to stay and listen in, but Martha seemed to want him to herself, so … Well, I said I’d some things to buy at the drugstore. I suppose Martha’s afraid of me these days.”
    â€œI’m beginning,” remarked Ellery, “not to care a great deal for your Martha Lawrence, Nikki.”
    Nikki nibbled her lip.
    â€œBut the situation does have its element of repulsive fascination. It’s sort of like living in a keyhole.” Then Ellery blew an apologetic cloud of smoke and laid his pipe down. Nikki was looking so miserable that he pulled her over to him. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m not used to this kind of case. Why are you getting up?”
    â€œNo reason. I want a cigaret.”
    Ellery lit one for her. She returned to her own chair.
    â€œYou hate me.”
    â€œI hate men!”
    â€œNow, be reasonable, Nikki. It takes two to build a love nest. I hold no brief for Harrison, but Martha’s not exactly jail bait. She’s old enough to be held responsible for her acts.”
    â€œAll right ,” cried Nikki. “Can’t we get back to the point? Do you want me to keep steaming open business envelopes?”
    â€œI want you to come home. But if you won’t–yes.” Ellery picked up his pipe again. “By the way, today–we may say with some justification–we’ve progressed.”
    â€œIn which direction?” asked Nikki bitterly.
    â€œExactly. But that’s not what I mean. The pattern’s beginning to show.
    â€œHarrison,” said Ellery, “has apparently worked out a melodramatic but effective enough scheme for having his pigeon and eating it, too. Different meeting places each time, and then away to the day’s nest. The only point of contact necessary under this layout is a time designation, place being expressed in code, and the whole luscious package enclosed in an innocuous business envelope. With Martha coming and going at all hours on legitimate business, and Dirk used to it–even though he breaks out in occasional rashes of jealousy-it’s not a bad set-up at all.
    â€œHarrison’s really reduced the danger of discovery to a minimum.
    â€œThe code itself,” continued Ellery to the wall, since Nikki was looking there, too, “presents certain primitive points of interest. A comes first and turns out to represent the A— Hotel. B comes second and we find it indicates Bowery Follies. We may infer, then, that the next code letter will probably be C , and that C will stand for Carnegie Hall, or Coney Island, or somewhere in Central Park; that D will follow C and designate the Daily News building or Danny’s Hideaway; and so on. What Harrison will do when he exhausts the alphabet, assuming he can get away with it that