“How do you suppose Granger found out where to locate your husband?”
“I don’t know. I may have told him the name of Ralph’s hotel, but I don’t think so.”
“But not the room number,” Shayne suggested. “Not one-sixteen instead of two-sixteen?”
“No. I’m certain I didn’t give him the number. Just the name of the hotel. I was so angry with him for following me down here—”
“That might begin to add up to something,” Shayne cut in, turning to Gentry. “If Granger went away from here in the afternoon knowing she planned to see her husband last night, and if he was determined to prevent her from doing so, it’s possible that Granger could have gone to the hotel and asked for Carrol, and that he got hold of a duplicate key to two-sixteen somehow, or had one made. But nothing in all this explains why Mrs. Carrol was given the key to my room. And we still don’t know who impersonated me on the job.”
“We can still check Margrave,” said Gentry doubtfully. “They’re bringing him in. We’ve got the ticket seller and the hostess from the four-twenty flight coming in to see if they can identify the man who called himself Michael Shayne. You willing to stand in a line-up with Margrave, Mike?”
“Of course.” Shayne nodded abstractedly, deep in thought. “You’ve also got an ejected forty-five shell from my car to check with this gun of Granger’s.”
Attorney Bates had sat tight-lipped and quietly consoling the widow. Now, he rose from the bed and said firmly, “If you’re through questioning Mrs. Carrol, may I suggest that I take her down and transfer her to another room. Unless you prefer to return to Wilmington immediately,” he added gently to Nora. “In that case I’ll be glad to—”
“Mrs. Carrol had better stick around awhile,” the chief broke in bluntly. “We’ve quite a bit of checking to do yet, and there may be further questions. But put her in another room, by all means, so my men can have a free hand in here.”
Bates took Nora’s arm, assisted her from the bed, and escorted her from the room.