“Delia Priam hasn’t offered me a thing, Laurel. We haven’t even discussed my fee.”
“And I don’t mean money!” She was close to tears.
“Now you’re hysterical.” His voice came out sharp, not what he had intended at all. “Have a little patience, Laurel. Right now there’s nothing to do but wait.”
She strode out.
The next morning Ellery spread his newspaper behind a late breakfast tray to find Roger Priam, Leander Hill, and Crowe Macgowan glaring back at him. Mac was glaring from a tree.
$$$aire Denies Murder Threat;
Says Partner Not Slain
Denying that he has received a threat against his life, Roger Priam, wealthy wholesale gem merchant of L.A., barred himself behind the doors of his secluded home above Hollywood Bowl this morning when reporters investigated a tip that he is the intended victim of a murder plot which allegedly took the life of his business partner, Leander Hill, last week...
Mr. Priam, it appeared, after ousting reporters had issued a brief statement through his secretary, Alfred Wallace, repeating his denial and adding that the cause of Hill’s death was “a matter of official record.”
Detectives at the Hollywood Division of the L.A.P.D. admitted this morning that Hill’s daughter, Laurel, had charged her father was “frightened to death,” but said that they had found no evidence to support the charge, which they termed “fantastic.” Miss Hill, interviewed at her home adjoining the Priam property, said: “If Roger Priam wants to bury his head in the sand, it’s his head.” She intimated that she “had reason to believe” both her father and Priam were slated to be murdered “by some enemy out of their past.”