“I don’t remember it,” admitted Hollister. “But then there were a number of Yale keys on his ring.”
“Did you find a lock for every key that was there?”
“A good point!” exclaimed Hollister, his face clearing. “But I don’t believe that I can answer your question offhand. Mitchell has the keys. Let’s see if he is still on the premises.”
Laying down his cigar Hollister hastened across the room and over to the house telephone. It took him a second or two to get an answer to his ring. “Hello—hello!” he called. “Who is this? Fernando?” finally distinguishing the latter’s broken English. “Where is Inspector Mitchell? At the lodge? Hurry over and ask him to return here, Fernando. Tell him that Mr. Hollister wishes to see him. Hold on, Fernando!” as the Filipino started to hang up his earpiece. “Bring Inspector Mitchell to Mr. John Meredith’s bedroom.”
Replacing his receiver on the house telephone hook, Hollister found Curtis had crossed the room and was waiting for him at the door. As the two men stepped into the corridor and started for Meredith’s bedroom, Gretchen flitted down the corridor leading to the servants’ quarters, paused for a second to cast an uneasy glance at the backs of the two men and then, doubling on her tracks, slipped unheard along the corridor in the direction of Lucille Hull’s bedroom. She missed, by a fraction of a second, encountering Inspector Mitchell and Fernando as they came up the circular staircase. The Filipino had acted so promptly on Hollister’s order that he had caught the Inspector just as he was stepping into a police car driven by Detective Sergeant Brown, which had been parked under the trees near the entrance to Ten Acres.
Inspector Mitchell listened with close attention to Hollister’s account of finding the inventory sheet with its notation regarding a safe deposit box and the discovery of the “duplicate” key.
“Is that the only box Meredith had at the bank?” he asked.
“No,” replied Hollister. “He had another, which we opened to-day in the presence of the proper authorities. It contained the securities, jewelry, and other valuables listed in Meredith’s memorandum of special bequests. We checked it off this morning and all were accounted for.”
“Then you think this notation refers to the box holding only the duplicate key?” asked Mitchell.
“That is my idea, yes,” answered Hollister.