Atlanta Daily World

GIRL IN THE GREEN COAT
by
LIVINGSTON HAZEL

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"So you thought it was I, all this time! Ever since Tuesday night when you saw me in that green coat! Thank you. Mr. Hall! Thank you very much! Now if you'll just tell me whom I'm shielding-"
"I wish I knew."
"You don't STILL think it was me!" I cried.
"I told you I didn't. I'm simply trying to make you see we've got to find out who had that coat of yours. Now let's take the women in the building again-just for luck.
Miss Martin--"
"She never even borrowed an egg from us. What's more she's got a stock of fancy negligees to sell. And if you think that Gil Castle was dating that spinster of indeterminate age--"
"O.K. She's out. The same applies to Madame Hurd. and Mrs. Strom. Now we come back to the possibilities, Mrs. Utz. not unattractive and young. Mrs. Raymond ditto, Miss Hudson ditto, and Miss Driscoll-in fact I still think you're the most likely of the lot--more Castle's style than any of them,"
he said, his eyes twinkling.
"Didn't I tell you Mr. Castle was not party to my schoolgirl crush?"
I still couldn't mention it without my cheeks flaming. After keeping it to myself for five years, it was still embarrassing to have to admit it. "And anyway," I said, "it wouldn't have been much of a tryst with me in a moving picture theatre downtown as I can prove."
"O K. We scratch the Driscoll too. Now we're down to Hudson and Raymond and Utz. Let's work on Utz next. Think she cheats on her husband?"
"I wouldn't blame her if she did. But they're supposed to have worked together that night. She mounts his photographs for him you know. and does some retouching. If they're in it. they're in it together, and in the light of what we know about them. and her worry that he might be involved it doesn't seem very likely."
"And as for Peg, I told you she couldn't get into a dress of mine. Besides she's not much on secrets and if she were carrying on a clandestine affair with somebody.I think I'd have known about it. She never got any mysterious telephone calls and her boy friends all came right up to the studio to meet her."
"That leaves Raymond," Chris said.
"Yes. and with her it's about the same as with Mrs. Utz, she's so anxious to keep her former husband out of it. And if Gil Castle was going with her, I know we'd have seen them together, for we pass her door every time we go up or downstairs. And if it were a first meeting she wouldn't have picked a night when she was running a temperature and looked a sight. I know more about women than that."
"And it wasn't a first meeting. It was to break off an old affair. Gil Castle told me that. But to get back to the housecoat. She could have worn it. We know that because she did wear it. the very next day. And if there was anything between them, we have a possible motive, with the jealous husband--"
"But you SAID you didn't think Pete did it!" I cried. for I thought this was ONE thing on which Chris and I were thoroughly agreed.
"I know. And I don't think he did, either. I'm just trying to piece this together someway."
"Then don't piece Emilie into it. She had the flu."
"She might have been faking."
"Then she's faked so well she's fooled her doctor into thinking she's critically ill right now," I said. I was getting exasperated. Besides I was nervous. The window was open just a little. and the curtain kept moving, as if someone was touching it
'But she could have worn the coat she's the only one except yourself." he persisted.
"How about her feet?" I asked
"I couldn't see her feet." he said. "because the coat was long. sort of trailing, a little train or whatever you call it. in back. Why. what about her feet? Oh. I get it. It couldn't have been Emilie because she's too tall for your coat to hit the ground on her!"
"It came way above her ankles when she did wear it." I said. "It showed two or three inches of her pajamas and slippers. It trails on me. So Emilie's out. That just leaves... me!"
Chris handed me my untouched glass.
"Here, drink it," he said. "You need it. You're the color of a corpse yourself."
"I don't want it." I said stubbornly, but I couldn't keep my hand from shaking and I spilled some of the liquor on Jan's nice table.
We were wiping it up when we both heard footsteps in the hallway. and then Jan opened the door and came in. He was more than pleased to see us.
"We were just going." Hall said.
"Oh. don't go." Jan begged. "Wait a little while. The place is haunted for me. I can't stay here alone any more. I'm getting so I hear noises. like Mary does. The boards squeak, and the windows rattle, and sometimes I think the curtains move. I'm afraid I'm going to have to give up and look for another studio, But I love this place."
He looked around sadly, "In spite of everything I still love it. It has been home for so long."
"Chris and I were talking about it." I said. "I know you've been through it all with the police, but what do you think? Whom do you think Gil Castle came here to meet?
Chris knows that it was a girl. a girl with whom he was going to break. Could it have been someone who knows you, one of your pupils? Isn't there one of them who might have known Castle too? Or someone who knew that you were going away, and knew that you don't lock the door?"
Jan took the drink that Chris handed him. and finished it before he answered, "Of course. I have some society women, and some young girls, too. The police have the list. I think we figured twenty-six possibilities. And as for any one knowing that I was to be away. it was in the papers. I suppose all the music-minded who follow the programs know that I was booked for the Hollywood Bowl that night And the key-I had ten extras at one time. but I don't know where they all are now. and everyone knows I don't lock the door. I can't give keys to all my pupils and friends, so it is more convenient to leave the door unlatched."
"If I had some of the things in this room, I'd keep it locked." Chris said thoughtfully. "For some of these things must be worth a lot of money. Hasn't it ever occurred to you that someone might walk off with a silver candlestick or a tapestry or a painting?"
Jan smiled, "I've lost a lot of sheet music, and those coasters with my monogram on them I can't keep them at all. I think the ladies take them for souvenirs. But that's all. In all the years I have lost nothing of consequence."
"Now. these women." Chris said "Any of them come here in dinner clothes-long skirts-evening wraps?"
"For parties, yes -why not?"
"No. I mean for lessons-just casually, just happen to dress up-"
"In the middle of the day?"
"No. at night."
Chris was so persistent. I didn't blame Jan for getting annoyed. He reached for his hat. "Now if you are going to talk about that miserable thing any more I'm going to leave. No. I don't give night lessons to ladies of leisure. To business people only, and those business women do not come dresses up in evening clothes. How silly! But come, both of you, let us leave this unhappy place. Let us go up to the Top of the Mark, and forget all this."
"O. K." Hall said. "Let's go on up and get Peggy."
Both Jan and I looked a little nervous at that because of the events of the afternoon, but Peg was in fine spirits when Chris came back with her, and though it seems queer to tell it, in the midst of all the misery we were living in. we all had a grand time, especially Peg.
She looked particularly nice in a new little flowery toque with a lot of veil on it and flat-heeled sandals so that she didn't tower more than half a head above Jan, Of course people recognized Jan and pointed him out and looked at Peg, and she loved that.
We ended up in a night club in Chinatown, and got home around two, with both Chris and Jan as a bodyguard to pilot us up the dark stairs.
Peg was brave as a lion, not afraid of anything any more, and wanted the lights off. but I held out for at least one burning in the living room and a chair under the doorknob. Even then I was afraid to go to sleep until it was light.
I kept going over and over the thing that Chris had told me, and trying to figure it out.
(To be continued)
Copyright, Hazel Livingston; Distributed by King Features Syndicate Inc.