“Yes, we were afraid police might ask embarrassing questions. James disposed of it to a zoo late yesterday afternoon.”
“And the cache of gold under the lily pool,” said Mr. Parker. “What became of that?”
“There is no gold.”
“None at all?”
“None.”
“And there never was any?” questioned Penny incredulously. “Then why was the vault ever built?”
“Tell her the truth, Mother,” Sylvia urged. “She deserves to know. Anyway, it can do Father no harm now.”
“At one time my husband did have a considerable supply of gold,” Mrs. Kippenberg admitted. “Since he could not trust a bank he constructed his own vault under the pool and placed the alligator there as a precaution against prying persons.”
“My father really did nothing so very wrong,” Sylvia broke in. “The gold was bought with his own money. If he chose to sell it later at a profit it was his own affair.”
“Not in the opinion of the government,” Mr. Parker said with a smile. “He held the gold illegally. So your father disposed of it?”