“Money which had been illegally obtained, and he thought the law was catching up with him.”
She shook her head slowly and said, “That doesn’t sound like Carl. He was pretty conservative, you know, Mr. Mason. He wasn’t given much to taking chances.”
“Well,” Mason said, “the facts all point to it and this witness will swear to it.”
“What’s the cloth?” she asked, noticing the piece of silk Mason was twisting in his fingers.
“Recognize it?” Mason asked, handing it out to her.
She looked at it and frowned. “I’ve seen it before somewhere.”
“You saw it somewhere on the ship,” Mason told her. “A woman had a dress made of it, probably an evening gown. It was—”
“Oh, I have it,” Belle Newberry said. “I remember it now, I remember the pattern in it.”
“Good girl,” Mason told her. “Whose was it?”
“That nurse wore it.”