"Where are the house servants?" I asked him.
"There aren't any, sir," he replied, looking shudderingly at the grisly form on the floor.
"No servants? In a house of this type! What do you mean?"
"That's true," said Mrs. Reeves, breaking her silence, at last. "Miss Van Allen has a very capable woman, who is housekeeper and ladies' maid in one. But when guests are here, the suppers are served from the caterer's."
"Then call the housekeeper. And where is Miss Van Allen herself?"
"She's not in the house," said the policeman Breen, returning from his search.
"Not in the house!" cried Mrs. Reeves. "Where is she?"
"I've been all over—every room—every floor. She isn't in the house.
There's nobody upstairs at all."
"No housekeeper or maid?" demanded Mason. "Then they've got away!
Here, waiter, tell me all you know of this thing."
The Italian Luigi came forward, shaking with terror, and wringing his fingers nervously.