"If she is, my advice to you is to keep away from the place," Mr. Nichols said severely. "Don't get mixed up in the affair."
"But it seems so unfair for the police to annoy an innocent person, Dad."
"All right, go ahead and involve yourself if you must," the detective returned. "If you land in jail for assisting a criminal I suppose I can always arrange to bail you out!"
They both knew that Penny would never feel comfortable in her mind until she had warned Amy Coulter of the accusation against her.
Directly after breakfast the next morning Penny took the car and drove to Pearl Street. She did not have Amy's exact address but she was of the opinion that it would not be difficult to locate the right house. Therefore, she was dismayed to discover that the street seemed to consist of uniform looking dwelling places, nearly all with "room for rent" signs in the front windows.
"This will be like hunting for the proverbial needle in the haystack," Penny thought.
Beginning at one end of the street, she rang the doorbell of each likely looking house, inquiring if anyone by the name of Amy Coulter roomed there. She had covered nearly half the street and was growing very discouraged when she halted at a place which looked cleaner and slightly more inviting than its crowded neighbors.
In response to Penny's rap, a woman in a blue wrapper came to the door.
"Can you tell me if a girl named Amy Coulter lives here?" Penny asked mechanically, for she had asked the question many times.
"Amy Coulter?" the woman repeated. "No, not any more."