“There isn’t any rest of it,” Mason said “Your aunt is unconscious. They found a gun, a bunch of diamonds, some silk stockings which had been stolen from another department store, and some knitting in your aunt’s bag.”
“Will Auntie — will she... recover?”
“I think so,” Mason said. “I have the best doctor in the city on the job. I’ve taken it on myself to order special nurses.” Her eyes thanked him.
“Now then,” Mason said, “there were five diamonds in your aunt’s handbag. They were wrapped in tissue paper. They looked to me as though they might be the Bedford diamonds.”
“There were five in that collection,” she said. “Where... where did Aunt Sarah...”
“That,” Mason said, “is an open question. Cullens had a chamois-skin belt next to his skin. Someone had ripped that belt open and probably taken the contents.”
“But where would Cullens have got Mrs. Bedford’s stones?” she asked.
“Probably,” Mason said, “from a gambling joint known as The Golden Platter. He telephoned Mrs. Bedford that your uncle had pawned the stones there for six thousand dollars; that he was going to bring pressure to bear and try to redeem them for three. In the meantime, the gamblers didn’t like the idea of having pressure brought to bear.”
“But,” Virginia said, “Auntie could never have taken those stones from Mr. Cullens. He might have given them to her, but...”
“If she didn’t get them from Cullens,” Mason said, “she probably got them from the safe.”