“Probably to bring about a show-down. She was in love with Belder. Belder was stringing her along, but wasn’t leaving his wife. He couldn’t. His wife was holding the purse-strings — all of them. Anyway, that’s the theory that all of them are playing around with.”
“What does Mrs. Belder say?”
“Mrs. Belder remains very much out of the picture. She skipped out. She must have committed the crime before I started shadowing her. Probably while her husband was calling at the office.”
“This man, Belder, seems to be rather a complex individual. Women in his life — and lots of women. They seem to go crazy about him and keep coming back for more. The situation may have been precipitated by an old sweetheart who called on him at his office Monday, and went into a clinch as soon as the secretary had closed the door. Sally Brentner was having a tooth fixed at the time in a dental office across the street. From the chair in front of the window, she could look across into Belder’s office.”
“Did Mrs. Belder seem nervous when you were shadowing her?”
“No, she certainly didn’t act like a woman who had just committed a murder... Wait a minute! She must have committed it just after I shadowed her... That’s what happened! Good Lord, why didn’t I think of it before?”
Bertha’s voice began to show increasing excitement.
“What is it?” Elsie asked.
“I was shadowing her. She had just walked out of the house, casually carrying a pet cat on her arm, climbed into the automobile and was driving away — going some place to keep an appointment she’d made over the telephone. She didn’t have any bag with her, except a small hand purse. Then, all of a sudden, she whizzes past an intersection, beating it through on a closed signal, and gives me the slip; then she doubles back to the house, kills Sally, packs up a few things, and skips out... Why,” Bertha went on, her eyes sparkling with interest, “I can tell the exact moment when the idea of killing the woman occurred to her. It was right at that street intersection. Now what in the world could she have seen out there that would have suddenly inspired her to rush home and kill the maid?”
“You think something happened to give her the idea right then?” Elsie asked.