“Mr. Stallings is out.” She started to close the door, but Shayne interposed, “Mrs. Stallings, then.”
“Mrs. Stallings is too ill to see anyone.” She was closing the door. Shayne lounged forward and put his shoulder against it. “Miss Helen Stallings, then.”
“Miss Stallings isn’t in.” The woman was beginning to put pressure on the other side of the door. In his weakened condition, Shayne wasn’t at all sure he could hold out against her weight and strength. He resisted the pressure with his weight. “I’ll talk to you, then,” he said. “About Miss Stallings.”
The female guardian of the portal compressed her lips in a straight line. “I don’t know who you are, but this isn’t any time—”
“It’s no time for playing hide-and-seek,” Shayne told her swiftly. “I’m a detective — hired by Stallings to find his daughter. I don’t think he’d like it if you withheld any information from me.”
“A detective?” She considered him with doubtful eyes, then said, “All right. You can come in, but I don’t know what I can tell you.”
The front door opened into a wide, uncarpeted entrance room with chairs placed stiffly around the walls.
There was movement beyond an open door leading into an unlit hall.
The woman said, “Lucile!” sharply, and after a moment’s hesitation a girl stepped into the doorway. She wore a maid’s cap and apron, and a short skirt revealed stocky calves. She had bold, brown, wishful eyes, and they rested on Shayne’s big frame with approval. Her upper lip was short and it twitched mutinously when she said, “Yes, Mrs. Briggs. I was just—”
“You were snooping,” Mrs. Briggs snapped. “Go upstairs until you’re wanted.”