“Well, Ted went all to pieces and simply groveled and begged me not to tell. And about that time you called from downstairs and said you were coming up.
“As soon as I hung up I said to Ted, ‘You see. You didn’t kill Michael Shayne. That was Mr. Shayne on the phone, and he’ll be up here in a minute.’ Then Ted went completely crazy. He raved at me for turning against him, and said he had killed Ralph for my sake; and now it was all over and he was going to kill himself and finish it. He got that pistol from inside his shirt and waved it around. I tried to stop him and just then you knocked. He jerked away from me and — and did it. I never — I just can’t believe it of Ted,” she ended brokenly. “I never suspected him for a moment. I still can’t really believe he killed Ralph.” She leaned against the Wilmington lawyer and began sobbing afresh.
“He did his best to kill me,” Shayne said grimly. “I wonder, now, if for a different reason than the one he gave us. Not to protect you, but to protect himself because of something the pseudo Michael Shayne knew. Did he say anything about how or why he killed your husband?”
“There wasn’t time. It all happened so fast. Just while you were on your way up.”
“You knew all the time he was here in Miami last night,” growled Gentry. “Didn’t you suspect him?”
“No. I didn’t,” she cried vehemently. “I just couldn’t think Ted would kill anyone.”
“You knew that he knew you were supposed to see your husband,” Shayne charged.
“Yes. I told him yesterday afternoon, right here in this room, after he trailed me from Wilmington. He was begging me to let Ralph go ahead and get the divorce so I could marry him, and I told him flatly that I loved Ralph and didn’t intend to give him up. And to make him realize it was final and definite, I told him what I was going to do, and made him go away.”
“You didn’t happen to give him the key to your husband’s room?” asked Shayne cynically, “and then get a duplicate of my key so you could pretend there was a mistake, and put yourself in the clear on whatever happened to your husband?”
“I certainly did not. I don’t know why I was given the wrong key, unless you did it yourself,” she ended with unexpected spirit.