“Hell, no,” said Shayne curtly. He took a sizable drink of cognac, leaned back in his swivel chair, and lit a cigarette. “Now, start at the beginning. What’s your name?”
“Nora Carrol. Mrs. Ralph Carrol.” She glanced down at a plain platinum wedding band and a diamond solitaire. She turned the rings on her finger as she continued, “We live in Wilmington. That is, we did, until Ralph came to Miami a few weeks ago to establish residence for a divorce.” Her shoulders sagged, and she lapsed into silence.
“And?” Shayne questioned sharply.
She lifted her face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. Shayne got up, padded into the bedroom, and returned with a handkerchief. Flipping it from a square, he tossed it in her lap. She wiped her eyes and face, drew a long breath, and expelled it with a tremulous sigh.
“I suppose I have to tell you all of it. You’ll never believe me unless I do. Well, we’ve been married less than a year. We were terribly happy. Ralph was so sweet, at first.
“Then he started getting those anonymous letters accusing me of the most dreadful things. He didn’t believe them, of course, but when they kept coming he began wondering. He started spying on me. That made me angry, because he didn’t love me enough to have faith in me.
“So, I did a dreadfully foolish thing. I began flirting to get back at him. And then, there was a week-end party and I–I drank too much.” She jerked herself erect and added in a stricken voice, “Well, I made a damned fool of myself.” She covered her face with Shayne’s handkerchief.
Shayne took a long drink, lit another cigarette, and waited patiently.
Nora Carrol dropped the moist handkerchief in her lap and resumed. “I don’t really blame Ralph for being angry and leaving home before I could even try to explain and ask him to forgive me. But he left me such a curt note, I felt awful. He wouldn’t answer my letters, and he wouldn’t talk to me when I called him long-distance. So, I came to Miami. It was just too terrible for words! He wouldn’t let me go to his room! When I tried to talk to him in the lobby he cut me dead. Then, he checked out of the hotel that very night, and nobody knew where he went.”
Shayne said, “H-m-m. When was all this?”