“Well... Oh, I see,” Drake said, frowning into his notebook. “You may have something there, Perry. Want me to have my men make a further investigation? They can go see the sister and—”
“No,” Mason interrupted. “I want to think it over. It’s either unimportant, or it’s important as the devil. I don’t know which. If it’s important, we won’t trust anyone else with it. We’ll handle it ourselves.
“Now here’s something else that bothers me Just before the ship left Honolulu, someone picked the lock on Moar’s suitcase, took out a picture of Belle Newberry and substituted a picture of Winnie Joyce.”
“What was the idea?” Drake asked.
“The idea of the substitution,” Mason said, “was evidently to keep the theft of Belle Newberry’s picture from being discovered. Apparently there’s rather a startling resemblance between Belle and the picture actress. The picture which was substituted was just about the same pose and lighting.”
“How come?” Drake asked.
“Belle got a fanmailed photo of Winnie Joyce and then had one of her own taken in just the same pose and with the same lighting effect. Someone got bold of a Winnie Joyce publicity photograph and made the switch.”
“You don’t think Winnie Joyce is mixed up in it, do you?” Drake asked. “There’s big money invested in her. If her name ever came into the investigation they’d...”
“No, I don’t think so,” Mason said.
“You could raise hell with the Prosecution by letting Winnie Joyce’s studio get a hint that you were going to drag her name in, and...”