“Isn’t this devotion to Mrs. Ingelow rather sudden?” suggested Basil.
Milhau’s eyes were round and black and beady, like the canary’s eyes on a larger scale. “Well, business is business, Dr. Willing. I’m in rather a hole. My show is broken up, and my star is on the verge of a nervous break-down. I stand to lose about eighty thousand dollars unless I do something and do it quick. I’ve got a lot of people under contract, and I’ve got to put on another show as quickly as I can.” Milhau contemplated the lobsters that remained on their bed of ice with a deep sigh. “Mrs. Ingelow has always been nuts about the theater so—I’m trying to promote a little first aid to my bank account by getting her to back my next show.”
Basil was surprised. “Can Mrs. Ingelow afford that?”
“Can she?” Milhau’s eyes gleamed hungrily. “I’ll say she can! With all that Ingelow money!”
“I thought the money went to Miss Morley now.”
“That’s what Wanda thought!” said Milhau curtly. “But she thought wrong. I’ve just been down to Police Headquarters this morning and they’ve got the facts straight from Ingelow’s own lawyer. That new will leaving everything to Wanda hadn’t been signed yet. The whole fortune goes to ‘my beloved wife, Margaret Adams Ingelow’ as it says in the old will. Poor Wanda!”
“Then if Ingelow had lived to sign the new will, Mrs. Ingelow would have got nothing but her divorce settlement?”
“Sure. Oh, I know it’s a motive, but she wasn’t on stage last night, so she couldn’t—”
“One moment.” Basil stopped him. “Mrs. Ingelow was on stage last night. I saw her leaving the alcove shortly before the curtain rose.”
Milhau swore under his breath. “What are you trying to do? Railroad the only prospect I’ve got to the Tombs for murder? My God! If Wanda had to kill somebody why, oh, why, did she pick the fellow who was backing her show?”
“You think Wanda did it?”
“Well . . .” Milhau shuffled his feet. “I don’t know. But . . . who else?”
“Rodney? Leonard? Or Mrs. Ingelow herself? They all had the same opportunity as Wanda.”
“I don’t see Rod or Leonard as a murderer, do you?” Milhau’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “They’re both ordinary, everyday fellows, and Mrs. Ingelow didn’t need the money that badly. She had a big divorce settlement.”
“Did Wanda need money?”
“She always needs money.”
“I think you’d better introduce me to Mrs. Ingelow,” said Basil.
“O.K.” Milhau was reluctant.
At close range Margot’s hard, smooth brown face looked as if it had been carved from wood and polished. The pale eyes and white teeth were like the ivory eyes and teeth set in dark fetish masks from Africa. Any other woman in the world would have shown some trace of embarrassment in her situation. But Margot did not. A man was talking to her as they approached. She dismissed him with a smile. When she saw Basil, the smile faded. As Milhau mumbled an introduction, she stared at Basil with blank insolence.
“No doubt you’ve forgotten me,” he said. “But I remember you clearly. We passed each other backstage at the Royalty last night.”
Eyelashes the same light brown as her skin flickered under the impact of this. “Won’t you sit down?” She ignored Milhau as he slumped on the bench beside her. “Then it’s you who told the police I was at the theater last night?”
“Dr. Willing is the police,” put in Milhau woefully. “At least, he’s hand in glove with them. He’s in the District Attorney’s office.”
“Oh.” Margot thawed a little. “An inspector came to my apartment just as I was leaving for the theater this morning. He kept me nearly an hour. I can’t understand why. Isn’t it obvious that that woman did it?”
“What woman?”
“Why, Wanda Morley, of course!”
Basil matched her directness. “You had motive and opportunity yourself.”
“Motive? Oh, the will. How sordid! Do you really believe I would kill my husband to prevent his signing a will leaving everything to another woman?”
“It has been done.”
“But I didn’t have to do it.”
“No?”
The waiter brought broiled lobsters. Margot waited until they were served. When the waiter was gone, she resumed. “You see, Dr. Willing, John was never going to sign that will leaving everything to Wanda.”
“Why not?”
“John and I were reconciled.”
“Rather sudden, wasn’t it?”
“No doubt it seemed sudden to Miss Morley.” Margot’s thin lips curled contemptuously.
“Was there any special reason for it?”
“I told John I was going to have a baby.”
“Oh.”
Basil’s expression amused Margot. She laughed aloud. “My dear Dr. Willing, you didn’t suppose I really was going to have a baby did you?”
“Wouldn’t it have been a little embarrassing when the expected heir did not appear?”
“Oh, I should have had one afterward. I was a fool not to have had one before, but I never realized that John cared about that sort of thing.”
“Why didn’t you come forward to identify
