I grimaced. That was what I had expected, but not what I had hoped to hear. It meant I should have to get Miss Wonderly from her cell down to the P.M. room. That wasn’t going to be easy.
“The coffin ready?”
He nodded.
“Show me.”
As he got to his feet, a bell tinkled faintly somewhere in the house. The sound took me like a flash to the door.
“Watch him,” I said to Tim, and shoved the .38 into his hand. I darted out into the passage.
As I moved towards a door at the far end of the passage, I heard a telephone dial whirring. I ran on tip-toe to the door, jerked it open and went in.
The thin, narrow-shouldered Laura was feverishly dialling the telephone. She looked up with a gasp as I entered. I cross the room, gently took the receiver out of her hand, hung up.
“I’d forgotten about you,” I said, smiling at her. “Call the police?”
She jumped back against the wall, her pale, plain little face terrified. She clasped her hands to her flat chest and shaped mouth for a scream.