“On the long distance telephone,” the sheriff said. “He was still in New York.”
“Did he tell the nature of the business?” Mason asked.
“No, he said it was something important and highly confidential. That was all he’d say.”
“Waid, I take it, had a chartered plane?” Mason asked.
The sheriff grinned and said, “It looks as though Waid may have cut a corner there. Steve Watkins, who’s the son of Sabin’s wife by a former marriage, is quite a flyer. He’s got a fast plane and likes to fly around the country. I take it Sabin didn’t care much for Steve and wouldn’t have liked it if he’d known Waid was going to fly back to New York with Steve; but Steve wanted to make the trip and needed the money, so Waid arranged to pay him the charter price and Steve Watkins flew him back.”
“What time did they leave?”
“At ten minutes past ten, the night of Monday the fifth,” the sheriff said. “Just to make sure, I checked up with the records of the airport.”
“And what time did Sabin call Waid?”
“Waid says it wasn’t more than ten minutes before he took off. He thinks it was right around ten o’clock.”
“He recognized Sabin’s voice?” Mason asked.