“There’s no one in this building by that name,” he insisted.
Thinking that the boy might be misinformed, Penny and Rosanna sought the building superintendent. To satisfy them, the man looked carefully through his list of tenants. No one by the name of Elfhedge occupied an office in the building.
“There is an attorney in Room 309 but his name is Rogers,” the superintendent told the girls. “You might talk with him. He may know this man Elfhedge.”
They went up to Room 309 and after a brief wait were ushered into the lawyer’s private office. Rosanna was too shy to state the purpose of her visit, so Penny explained why they had come. The lawyer had never heard of a colleague by the name of Elfhedge.
“He’s never been in this building and I doubt that he’s even located in the city,” they were told. “You must have made a mistake in the address.”
The girls had made no mistake, that they knew. The address was plainly written on the outside of the envelope which Rosanna had in her purse. She showed it to the lawyer.
“Yes, that seems to be this building,” he admitted. “It looks as if someone used a fake address.”
They left the office completely discouraged. Penny felt sorry for her companion. Rosanna had counted so heavily upon the inheritance. Now it appeared that someone had played a cruel joke upon her.
“You were right,” Rosanna acknowledged as they walked slowly back to the car. “You were suspicious of that letter from the first.”
“It struck me as peculiar that it was written in longhand instead of on a typewriter,” Penny explained.