“No, I don’t believe they are,” agreed the detective. He turned to the owner of the room. “Suppose you check up on your valuables, sir, while I call the police.”
“You’re not going to send us to jail!” protested Pauline, in a perfectly normal tone. “But we haven’t stolen anything.”
“You stole plenty at Stoddard House,” Mary Louise couldn’t help saying.
Pauline regarded her accuser with hatred in her eyes.
“So you’re the one who’s responsible for this!” she hissed. “Nasty little rat! And I thought you were a friend of mine!”
Mary Louise laughed.
“I’ll be a friend when you and your gang give back all the stolen articles and money,” she replied.
The elderly man who lived in the room interrupted them.
“Two studs are missing,” he announced. “I found the wallet with my money in it on the floor. Yet it was carefully put away last night.”
“Take off your shoes, Pauline!” ordered Mary Louise. “That’s the place to find missing diamonds.”