“I know where Stryker is,” were his first words, after they had exchanged greetings.
“You do! Where?”
“At his daughter’s. Been there all the time. That Mrs. Adler is a splendid actress, but she was a little too unconcerned about her father’s disappearance to fool me. I pinned her down, and I’m practically sure he’s in her house, or she knows where he is. But I’ve told the police and they’ll rout him out. I’m to have the scoop. I hope they find him soon.”
“And,” Avice held herself together, “who will be the next suspect?”
“Dunno. Old Groot has his eye on Kane Landon, but he’s got no evidence to speak of. I don’t care two cents for that ‘Cain’ remark. I mean I don’t for a minute think it implicates Kane Landon.”
“Bless you for that!” Avice said, but not aloud.
“However,” Pinckney went on, “they’ve got something new up their sleeves. They wouldn’t tell me what,—I’ve just come from headquarters,—but they’re excited over some recent evidence or clue.”
“Have you any reason to think it refers to Mr. Landon?”
Pinckney looked at her narrowly. “I hate to reply to that,” he said, “for I know it would hurt you if I said yes.”
“And you’d have to say yes, if you were truthful?”