Behind That Curtain

by Behind That Curtain [lit]

  "Are you telling your real name, lady?"

  "Well, it's the name I have used for many years. I -"

  "Oh? So it isn't the real one?"

  "Not exactly. It's a name I took -"

  "I see. You took a name that didn't belong to you." The Captain's tone implied a state's prison offense. "You had reasons, I suppose?"

  "I certainly had." The woman looked at him with growing anger. "My name was Ida Pingle, and I didn't think that would go well in the theater. So I called myself Gloria Garland."

  "All right. You admit you travel under an assumed name?"

  "I don't care for the way you put it. A great many people on the stage have taken more attractive names than their own. I have done nothing to justify your rudeness -"

  "I can quite understand your feeling," said Miss Morrow, with a disapproving glance at the Captain. "From this point I will take up the inquiry."

  "I wish you would," remarked Miss Garland warmly.

  "Had you ever met Sir Frederic Bruce before you came to Mr. Kirk's dinner party last night?" the girl inquired.

  "No, I had not."

  "He was, then, a complete stranger to you?"

  "He certainly was. Why should you ask me that?"

  "You had no private interview with him last night?"

  "No. None."

  Captain Flannery stepped forward, his mouth open, about to speak. Miss Morrow raised her hand. "Just a moment, Captain. Miss Garland, I warn you this is a serious business. You should tell the truth."

  "Well -" Her manner became uncertain. "What makes you think I'm -"

  "Lying? We know it," exploded Flannery.

  "You broke the string of your necklace last night on your way to the bungalow," Miss Morrow continued. "Where did that accident happen?"

  "On the stairs - the stairs leading up from the twentieth floor to the roof."

  "Did you recover all the pearls?"

  "Yes - I think so. I wasn't quite sure of the number. Of course, I needn't tell you they're only imitation. I couldn't afford the real thing."

  Miss Morrow opened her hand-bag, and laid a solitary pearl on the desk. "Do you recognize that, Miss Garland?"

  "Why - why, yes. It belongs to me, of course. Thank you so much. Where - er - where did you find it?"

  "We found it," said Miss Morrow slowly, "under the desk in this room." The woman flushed, and made no reply. There was a moment's strained silence. "Miss Garland," the girl went on, "I think you had better change your tactics. The truth, if you please."

  The actress shrugged. "I fancy you're right. I was only trying to keep out of this. It's not the sort of publicity I want. And as a matter of fact, I'm not in it very deep."

  "But you really broke the string in this office, where you had come for a talk with Sir Frederic?"

  "Yes, that's true. I caught the necklace on a corner of the desk when I got up to go."

  "Please don't start with the moment when you got up to go. Take it from the beginning, if you will."

  "Very good. When I said I had never seen Sir Frederic before last night, I was telling the truth. I had left the elevator and was crossing the hallway to the stairs, when the door of these offices opened and a man stood on the threshold. He said: 'You are Miss Garland, I believe?' I told him that was my name, and he said he was Sir Frederic Bruce, Mr. Kirk's guest, and that he wanted to have a talk with me, alone, before we met up-stairs."

  "Yes - go on."

  "Well, it seemed odd, but he was such a distinguished-looking man I felt it must be all right, so I followed him in here. We sat down, and he started in to tell me who he was - Scotland Yard, and all that. I'm English, of course, and I have the greatest respect for any one from the Yard. He talked around for a minute, and then he went to the point."

  "Ah, yes," smiled Miss Morrow. "That's what we are waiting for. What was the point?"

  "He - he wanted to ask me something."

  "Yes? What?"

  "He wanted to ask me if I could identify a woman who disappeared a great many years ago. A woman who just stepped off into the night, and was never heard of again."

  A tense silence followed these words. Quietly Chan moved a little closer. Barry Kirk's eyes were fixed with interest on Gloria Garland's face. Even Captain Flannery stood eagerly at attention.

  "Yes," said Miss Morrow calmly. "And why did Sir Frederic think you could identify this woman?"

  "Because I was her best friend. I was the last person who saw her on the night she disappeared."

  Miss Morrow nodded. "Then you were present at a picnic party in the hills near Peshawar on a certain night fifteen years ago?"

  The woman's eyes opened wide. "Peshawar? That's in India, isn't it? I have never been in India in my life."

  Another moment of startled silence. Then Flannery roared at her. "Look here - you promised to tell the truth -"

  "I am telling the truth," she protested.

  "You are not. That woman he asked you about was Eve Durand, who disappeared from a party one night outside Peshawar -"

  Chan cut in on him. "Humbly asking pardon, Captain," he said, "you shouldn't be so agile in jumping upon the lady's story." He picked up a couple of clippings from the desk. "Will you be so kind," he added to Miss Garland, "as to mention name of place from which your friend disappeared?"

  "Certainly. She disappeared from Nice."

  "Nice? Where the hell's that?" Flannery asked.

  "Nice is a resort city on the French Riviera," replied Miss Garland, sweetly. "I am afraid your duties keep you too much at home, Captain."

  "Nice," repeated Chan slowly. "Then the name of your friend was perhaps Marie Lantelme?"

  "That was her name," the actress replied.

  Chan selected a clipping, and handed it to Miss Morrow. "Will you condescend to read words out loud?" he inquired. "Most interesting, to be sure."

  Again, as in the dining-room of the St. Francis the day before, Miss Morrow read one of Sir Frederic's treasured clippings.

  "What became of Marie Lantelme? It is now eleven years since that moonlit June night when a company under English management played The Dollar Princess on the stage of the Theatre de la Jetee-Promenade, in the city of Nice. It was a memorable evening for all concerned. The house was sold out, packed with soldiers on leave, and the manager was frantic. At the last moment word had come that his leading lady was seriously ill and with many misgivings he sent for the understudy, a pretty, inconspicuous little chorus girl named Marie Lantelme. It was her big chance at last. She stepped out on the blazing stage and became a woman transformed. The performance she gave will never be forgotten by any one who was in that audience - an audience that went wild, that was on its feet cheering for her when the curtain fell.

  "After the performance the manager rushed in high glee to Marie Lantelme's dressing-room. She was a discovery, and she was his. He would star her in London, in New York. She listened to him in silence. Then she put on her simple little frock and stepped from the stage door out upon the jetty. Fame and riches were waiting for her, if she chose to take them. Whether she chose or not will never be known. All that is known is that when she left the theater she walked off into nothingness. Eleven years have passed, and from that day to this no one has ever heard from Marie Lantelme."

  Miss Morrow stopped reading, her countenance again in great need of ironing out. Captain Flannery stood with open mouth. Only Chan seemed to have retained his cheerful composure.

  "Marie Lantelme was your friend?" he said to Miss Garland.

  "She was," replied the actress, "and somehow Sir Frederic knew it. I was appearing in that same company. I must say the clipping exaggerates a bit - I suppose they have to do it to make things interesting. It was an adequate performance - that's what I would have called it. I don't remember any cheering. But there isn't any doubt about her making good. She could have had other parts - better ones than she had ever had before. Yet it's true enough - she left the theater, and that was the last of her."

&n
bsp; "You had final view of her?" Chan suggested.

  "Yes. On my way home, I saw her standing talking to some man on the Promenade des Anglais, at the entrance to the jetty. I went on, thinking nothing of it at the time. Afterward, of course -"

  "And it was this girl Sir Frederic asked you about?" Miss Morrow inquired.

  "It was. He showed me that clipping, and asked me if I wasn't in the same company. I said I was. He wanted to know if I thought I could identify Marie Lantelme if I met her again, and I said I was quite sure I could. 'Very good,' he said. 'I may call upon you for that service before the evening is over. Please do not leave tonight until we have had another talk.' I told him I wouldn't, but of course, at the end - well, he wasn't talking to any one any more."

  They sat for a moment in silence. Then Miss Morrow spoke.

  "I think that is all," she said. "Unless Captain Flannery -"

  She glanced at the Captain. An expression of complete bewilderment decorated that great red face. "Me? No - no, I guess not. Nothing more from me, now," he stammered.

  "Thank you very much, Miss Garland," the girl continued. "You are going to be in the city for some time?"

  "Yes. I've been promised a part at the Alcazar."

  "Well, don't leave town without letting me know. You may go now. So good of you to come."

  Miss Garland nodded toward the desk. "May I have the pearl?"

  "Oh - certainly -"

  "Thanks. When an actress has been out of a show for some time, even the imitation jewels are precious. You understand?"

  Miss Morrow let her out, and returned to the silent little group in the inner room. "Well?" she remarked.

  "It's incredible," cried Barry Kirk. "Another lost lady. Good lord, Eve Durand and Marie Lantelme can't both be hanging out around here. Unless this is the Port of Missing Women. What do you say, Sergeant?"

  Chan shrugged. "All time we get in deeper," he admitted. "Free to announce I find myself sunk in bafflement."

  "I'll get to the bottom of it," Flannery cried. "You leave it to me. I'll stir things up."

  Chan's eyes narrowed. "My race has old saying, Captain," he remarked gently. "'Muddy water, unwisely stirred, grows darker still. Left alone, it clears itself.'"

  Flannery glared at him and without a word strode from the room, slamming the outer door behind him.

  CHAPTER VIII

  Willie Li's Good Turn

  THOUGHTFULLY Charlie Chan picked up Sir Frederic's clippings from the desk and taking out a huge wallet, stowed them away inside. Barry Kirk's eyes were on the door through which Flannery had taken his unceremonious departure.

  "I'm very much afraid," he said, "that the policeman's lot is not a happy one. The dear old Captain seemed a bit - what's a good word for it? Nettled? Ah yes, nettled is a very good word."

  Miss Morrow smiled. "He's frightfully puzzled, and that always makes a policeman cross."

  "I hope it doesn't have that effect on you."

  "If it did, I'd be so cross right at this moment you'd order me out of your life for ever."

  "A trifle baffled, eh?"

  "Can you wonder? Was there ever a case like this?" She picked up her coat, which she had brought with her from the bungalow. "All that about Marie Lantelme -"

  "Humbly making suggestion," remarked Chan, "do not think too much about Marie Lantelme. She is - what you say - an issue from the side. Remember always one big fact - Sir Frederic Bruce dead on this very floor, the velvet shoes absent from his feet. Wandering too far from that, we are lost. Think of Eve Durand, think of Hilary Galt, but think most of all regarding Sir Frederic and last night. Bestow Marie Lantelme in distant pigeonhole of mind. That way alone, we progress, we advance."

  The girl sighed. "Shall we ever advance? I doubt it."

  "Take cheer," advised Chan. "A wise man said, 'The dark clouds pass, the blue heavens abide.'" He bowed low and disappeared toward the stairs leading up to the bungalow.

  Barry Kirk held the girl's coat. As he placed it about her shoulders the words of a familiar advertisement flashed into his mind. "Obey that impulse." But one couldn't go through life obeying every chance impulse.

  "'All time we get in deeper,'" he quoted. "It begins to look like a long and very involved case."

  "I'm afraid it does," Miss Morrow replied.

  "What do you mean, afraid? You and I are very brainy people - thanks for including me - and we should welcome a good stiff test of our powers. Let's get together for a conference very soon."

  "Do you think that's necessary?"

  "I'm sure of it."

  "Then it's all settled," she smiled. "Thanks for the lunch - and good-by."

  When Kirk reached the bungalow, Charlie called to him from the room formerly occupied by the man from Scotland Yard. Going in, he found the detective standing thoughtfully before Sir Frederic's luggage, now piled neatly in a corner.

  "You have investigated these properties of Sir Frederic?" Chan asked.

  Kirk shook his head. "No, I haven't. That's hardly in my line. Flannery went through them last night, and evidently found nothing. He told me to turn them over to the British consul."

  "Flannery travels with too much haste," protested Chan. "You have the keys, perhaps? If so, I experience a yearning of my own to look inside."

  Kirk handed him the keys, and left him alone. For a long time Chan proceeded with his search. Finally he appeared in the living-room with a great collection of books under his arm.

  "Find anything?" Kirk asked.

  "Nothing at all," Chan returned, "with these somewhat heavy exceptions. Deign to come closer, if you will be kind enough."

  Kirk rose and casually examined the books. His offhand manner vanished, and he cried excitedly: "Great Scott!"

  "The same from me," Chan smiled. "You have noted the name of the author of these volumes." He read off the titles. "Across China and Back. Wanderings in Persia. A Year in the Gobi Desert. Tibet, the Top of the World. My Life as an Explorer." His eyes narrowed as he looked at Kirk. "All the work of our good friend, Colonel Beetham. No other books amid Sir Frederic's luggage. Does it not strike you as strange, his keen interest in one solitary author?"

  "It certainly does," agreed Kirk. "I wonder -"

  "I have never ceased to wonder. When I look into deep eyes of the lonely explorer last night, I ask myself, what make of man is this? No sooner is Sir Frederic low on the floor than my thoughts fly back to that mysterious face. So cold, so calm, but who knows with what hot fires beneath." He selected one enormous volume, the Life. "I feel called upon to do some browsing amid Sir Frederic's modest library. I will advance first on this, which will grant me bird's-eye look over an adventurous career."

  "A good idea," Kirk nodded.

  Before Chan could settle to his reading, the bell rang and Paradise admitted Mrs. Dawson Kirk. She came in as blithely as a girl.

  "Hello, Barry. Mr. Chan, I rather thought I'd find you here. Didn't sail after all, did you?"

  Chan sighed. "I have encountered some difficulty in bringing vacation to proper stop. History is a grand repeater."

  "Well, I'm glad of it," said Mrs. Kirk. "They'll need you here. Frightful thing, this is. And to think, Barry, it happened in your building. The Kirks are not accustomed to scandal. I never slept a wink all night."

  "I'm sorry to hear it," her grandson said.

  "Oh, you needn't be. Not sleeping much anyhow, of late. Seems I got all my sleeping done years ago. Well, what's happened? Have they made any progress?"

  "Not much," Kirk admitted.

  "How could they? That stupid police captain - he annoyed me. No subtlety. Sally Jordan's boy here will show him up."

  "Humbly accept the flattery," Chan bowed.

  "Flattery - rot. The truth, nothing else. Don't you disappoint me. All my hopes are pinned on you."

  "By the way," said Kirk, "I'm glad you came alone. How long has that woman - Mrs. Tupper-Brock - been with you?"

  "About a year. What's she got to do with it?"
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  "Well - what do you know about her?"

  "Don't be a fool, Barry. I know everything. She's all right."

  "You mean all her past is an open book to you?"

  "Nothing of the sort. I never asked about it. I didn't have to. I'm a judge of people. One look - that's enough for me."

  Kirk laughed. "What a smart lady. As a matter of fact, you don't know a thing about her, do you?"