Harry nodded while Margo wondered.
“Our problem is not entirely why or where people have disappeared,” continued Cranston. “It is who is going to disappear next. Harley may be on the list.”
“But they could have taken him last night,” began Margo. “Instead they tried to murder him.”
“It wasn’t his turn to vanish,” explained Cranston. “He was just an outsider where the leopard crew was concerned.”
“But if Phil Harley is to be next -”
“He may not be the next,” considered Cranston. “I am listing him purely because he is one more person who has no real business in New York. I would like to learn the names of some others. Meanwhile” - Cranston emphasized this to Margo - “I want you to stay quite close to old Sylvia Selmore.”
“But Miss Selmore belongs in New York -”
“She lives here,” conceded Cranston, “but at present she doesn’t belong. She postponed her trip after that seance which Madame Mathilda gave. Remember?”
Margo nodded to prove that she remembered.
“The banshee business stopped her,” summed Cranston, “and it marked the beginning of these disappearances. I’ve checked Madame Mathilda; she admits she sprang the spook stuff because she received a phone call promising her some cash, but she doesn’t know who phoned.”