DeWitt tore off the lead item and tossed it on her desk.
“It’s this meeting of the so-called Mystical Society of Celestial Thought. The Star never runs stuff like that, not even as a paid advertisement.”
“I thought it was a regular lodge meeting, Mr. DeWitt.”
“Nothing of the sort. Merely a free advertisement for a group of mediums and charlatans.”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” murmured Penny.
“These meetings have only one purpose,” Mr. DeWitt resumed. “To lure victims who later may be fleeced of their money.”
“But if that is so, why don’t police close up the place?” Penny demanded. “Why doesn’t the Star run an exposé story?”
“Because evidence isn’t easy to get. The meetings usually are well within the law. Whenever a police detective or a reporter attends, the services are decorous. But they provide the mediums with a list of suckers.”
Penny would have asked DeWitt for additional information had not the city editor walked hurriedly away. Scrambling the item into a ball, she tossed it into the waste paper basket. Then upon second thought she retrieved it and carefully smoothed the paper.
“Perhaps, I’ll drop around at the Temple sometime just to see what it is like,” she decided, placing the item in her pocket. “It would be interesting to learn what is going on there.”