A peculiar knock sounded on the corridor door. Mason slid to his feet, walked across the office, and opened the door. Paul Drake, on the threshold, said, “Well, Perry, I’ve...” and broke off as he saw the people gathered in the room.
“Come in, Paul,” Mason said. “You know Sergeant Holcomb, of course, and this is Sheriff Barnes of San Molinas, and Raymond Sprague, the district attorney of San Molinas. What have you found out?”
“Do you,” Drake asked, “want me to report here?”
“Sure,” Mason told him.
“Well, I’ve been burning up the long distance telephone and getting operatives on the job. As nearly as I can tell right now, Mrs. Sabin sailed to Honolulu, took the Clipper ship back from Honolulu, went to Reno, and stayed at the Silver City Bungalows, establishing a residence under the name of Helen W. Sabin. At the end of six weeks she probably filed suit for divorce against Fremont C. Sabin, but I can’t get into the courthouse records until tomorrow morning. On the evening of Wednesday the seventh, Mrs. Sabin was in New York. She sailed from New York at midnight.”
“Then she was in Reno until when?” Mason asked of the detective.
“As nearly as we can find out, she took the plane from Reno on the evening of Tuesday the sixth and arrived in New York on the seventh.”
“Then the divorce decree must have been granted the morning of the sixth,” Raymond Sprague said.
“It would look that way,” Drake told him.
Sprague nodded and said, “She must have been in court on the sixth.”