She indicated the morning paper. “One might almost have suspected that it was a trap,” she said.
“A trap?” Mason asked, as though he failed to follow her reasoning.
She clamped her lips tightly shut.
“Of course,” Mason went on, “now that you mention it, it is rather strange that you were able to get the message from a man who had been seriously if not fatally wounded and transmit that message to me.”
She blinked her eyes rapidly, fighting back tears.
“Can you,” Mason asked, “tell me exactly what time you communicated with Mr. Peltham last night?”
“No.”
“The police,” Mason pointed out, “will be very much interested. I’m afraid that now, Miss Hastings, you’ll have to take us into your confidence.”
“Have… have the police found him? The body?”
“I don’t know,” Mason said. “The police don’t always feel particularly friendly toward me. I have to depend on the newspapers for information, just as you do.”