“About two weeks ago.” Nora Carrol took a drink of cognac, washed it down with ice water, and continued. “I went back to Wilmington and talked to our lawyer there. He tried to help me and was very understanding, but he said there wasn’t a thing in the world I could do if Ralph was determined to get a divorce.
“You see, he had plenty of evidence from that horrible week-end, and he said I didn’t have a chance of getting alimony or anything.” She stopped talking suddenly. Her brown eyes were dull and inscrutable behind a mist of tears.
Shayne sipped cognac, smoked, and waited. When she showed no sign of continuing the story, he said bluntly, “But you didn’t give up.”
“No. I was just thinking. You see the lawyer told me there was one chance, a slim one, for me. I love Ralph so much I was ready to grab at anything. So, when he outlined the plan, I didn’t hesitate for a moment.”
“What sort of plan?” Shayne demanded.
“Well, he said that if I could find out where Ralph was staying, and if I could persuade him to come back to me for just one night it would be enough to nullify what I had done. It would do away with Ralph’s grounds for divorce — everything. There’s something in the law about it. I don’t quite understand, but it seems that if a husband takes his wife back after, well, after she’s made a mistake like I did, then the law says it doesn’t count and can’t be used against her as evidence later.”
Michael Shayne emptied his brandy glass. He nodded slowly, avoiding her eyes. “So that’s what you planned to do? Slip into your husband’s bed and use your sex appeal to win him back, at least for one night. After that, no matter how much he wanted to be rid of you, he wouldn’t have further legal grounds for a divorce action.”
“You make it sound depraved and indecent!” she flared angrily. “It’s not true. I do love Ralph, and I know he loves me. All I could think of was making him remember how much we loved each other so he would forgive me, and we could start all over again.”
“So, we come to tonight,” the redhead said casually. “Fill me in on that.”
“I can’t,” she said brokenly. “I can’t explain it at all. All I did was follow Mr. Bates’s instructions to the letter.”