“What was expected to be gained by taking Mr. Ellison off?” asked Nick.
“Nothing,” replied Mrs. Ladew. “The abduction, if you can call it abduction, became necessary because of the attitude that Mr. Ellison assumed. He is a man slow to anger, but, when aroused fully, almost a lunatic in his temper. At such times he casts all thoughts of prudence aside and becomes utterly reckless and unmanageable.
“Mr. Lannigan tells me that when he discovered the plot, and that it was the intention to force him to sign a legal document that would compel him to pay a large sum of money for their silence, he fell into one of those ungovernable fits of passion, so that there was nothing else to do but to chloroform him to keep him quiet. It was that which made the mysterious disappearance.”
“Mr. Lannigan must have been in the plot,” said Nick.
“He was.”
“Did you not know of it?”
“Not until the evening of that day—last night.”
“Did you, then, not know that Mr. Lannigan was not a straight person?” asked Nick.
“I could not help but know it then,” replied Mrs. Ladew. “I knew that he was a gambler, but I did not know that he was a thief and a burglar, as you say he is, and yet it must be so.”
“What is the plan now?”