Ghost Beyond the Gate Part 30

In systematic, unhurried fashion, Detective Fuller went through every room in the Deming house. The bed chambers, nine in number, were in perfect order. Only Mrs. Botts' suite over the kitchen appeared to have been used recently.

As the search progressed, Penny's bewilderment increased. She knew that Lester Jones had been in the house an hour earlier, yet there was no sign of him. Personally she inspected clothes closets and bureau drawers. Not an article could she find that ever had belonged to her father. She did come upon a white woolen bathrobe. Believing it to be the garment worn by the "ghost" she called it to Detective Fuller's attention.

"Oh, that robe belongs to my employer, Mr. Deming," explained Mrs. Botts.

Penny indicated water stains along the hem which suggested that the garment had been allowed to trail in the snow.

"Sometimes I wear the robe when I go outside to bring in the washing,"

replied Mrs. Botts. "It is warmer than my coat."

Try as she would, Penny could not trip the woman into making any damaging admissions. Mrs. Botts had changed her original story and would not acknowledge that she had fled from the cemetery. Stubbornly, she maintained that she had told everything she knew about Mr. Parker's disappearance.

"I took him to Mercy Hospital in my employer's car," she repeated to Detective Fuller. "That's the last I saw of him."

"In what condition was Mr. Parker when you left him?" questioned the detective.

"He seemed all right. Perhaps he was a bit dazed."

"Why didn't you report to the police?"

"Because I didn't see the newspapers for a day," Mrs. Botts replied sullenly. "Later I read Miss Parker's offer of a reward."

"Then you did write, requesting me to run the ad in the _Star_!" Penny cried triumphantly.

"No, of course not," Mrs. Botts retorted, "I merely read the item."

Penny knew Mrs. Botts was not telling the entire truth, but to prove it seemed an impossible matter. Neither could she establish that a man who claimed to be Lester Jones had been living in the house. True, Louise and the taxi driver would support her story, but it would only be their word against Mrs. Botts'. The situation had become hopelessly confusing.

Detective Fuller was not entirely satisfied with the housekeeper's story.

"Guess we'll have to take you along to the station for questioning," he concluded.

Only then did Mrs. Botts lose her composure.

"No, don't take me away!" she pleaded anxiously. "My employer is coming home tonight. I just received the telegram. If I'm not here when he arrives, I may lose my job!"

Actually Detective Fuller had little evidence against Mrs. Botts and doubted that he could hold her many hours in jail. Far more might be gained by allowing the woman her freedom and keeping watch of the house.

"We'll let you stay here," he decided after a moment's thought. "However, you'll be wanted for questioning a little later. Make no attempt to leave the premises."

"I won't try to go away," Mrs. Botts promised. "I want to cooperate with the police. All I ask is that my employer, Mr. Deming, doesn't hear of this. I'm innocent and it's not right for me to lose a good job."

Very shortly the party bade the woman goodbye and left the estate.

Detective Fuller a.s.signed a policeman to keep watch of the property and then returned to Riverview. Louise and Penny, completely bewildered, left with their driver, Joe, debated their next action.

"Where to?" the cabman inquired. "Home?"

"I suppose so," sighed Penny. "I never was in such a muddle in all my life. What became of that man I thought was Dad?"

"He must have left the house while we were at the police station," Louise declared. "It was a surprise finding Mrs. Botts there too! She must have returned in a hurry after we went away."

"Mrs. Botts got rid of Lester Jones somehow," Penny said with conviction.

"Oh, she's a slick one!"

As Joe shifted gears, the girls observed a dark figure approaching the estate from down the road.

"Wait!" Penny instructed the cabman. "Let's see who it is."

A moment later the figure emerged from the shadow cast by a giant tree.

Penny was surprised to recognize Mose Johnson. The old colored man carried a basket on his arm and evidently had been doing a little late marketing at the crossroads store.

"Good evening, Mose," Penny greeted him as he approached the cab.

"Evenin', Miss Penny," he beamed, pausing. "I'se suah astonished to see yo' all out dis way. Has yo' been lookin' for dat ghost?"

"I'm afraid I have," Penny admitted ruefully. "I've certainly had no luck."

Mose shifted the market basket to his other hand. "Dat ole ghost ain't been around so much lately," he explained. "I comes by dis spot half an hour ago on my way to de sto' to get some victuals. Dere wasn't no ghost around den either. If dere had a been I'd have seen him, you kin be suah o' dat. I was mighty skittish and ready to make mahself absent in about two shakes."

"And you didn't see a thing?" inquired Penny.

"Well now, I can't rightly say dat," Old Mose corrected. "I didn't see no ghost but I did see a taxicab."

"Ours, I suppose."

"Not dis one, Miss. De cab I see was a yelleh one."

The information interested Penny. "Which way was it going, Mose?" she asked quickly.

"It wasn't goin', Miss Penny. It was standin' right at de gate. Den I sees two dark lookin' white men git out and go into de big house."

"You did?" Penny demanded eagerly. "Then what happened? Did the cab drive away?"

"It waited 'till de two men came back, 'cept when dey comes back dere is three of 'em!"

"Three men?" Penny cried, her excitement mounting. "What did the third man look like, Mose? Think hard! It's very important."

"Well," said Mose, "he was tall and he had something in his hand. A funny lookin' little satchel. I guess you calls it a quick-case."

"You don't mean a brief case?"

"Yes, dat's it," Mose grinned. "Anyways, dey all gits in de taxicab and off dey snorts. And dat's all I sees. Dere wasn't no ghost."

The colored man's rambling information served to confirm Penny's own suspicions. Mrs. Botts had lied. A roomer known as Lester Jones had been held at the house and later hustled away. Perhaps the man _was_ her father!

"Mose," she cried, "the person you saw may have been Dad! Did it look like him?"

"Why, now yo' speaks of it, dere was somethin' about dat man dat look like Mr. Parker," the colored man agreed. "Kinda de way he walked. I couldn't see his face cause he kept it sort o' tucked down in his collar."

"All the same, it must have been Dad!" Penny exclaimed. "The brief case practically proves it! Tell me, which way did the cab go?"