Halfway House Read Free Page A

through the verdant room, and he beckoned the attendant in some annoyance. “Mistuh Queen? Telephone.”
    Ellery tossed the boy a coin and made his way, frowning, to the desk. Among the heads that had jerked up at the attendant’s bawl was that of a red-haired young woman in a brown tweed suit. With a queer quirk of the lips she rose and quickly followed Ellery. Her long legs flashed noiselessly over the marble floor.
    Ellery picked up the telephone. The young woman took up a position a few feet behind him, turned her back, opened her handbag, extracted a lipstick, and began to paint her painted mouth.
    “Bill?”
    “Thank God.”
    “Bill! What’s the matter?”
    “Ellery… I can’t go back to New York with you tonight. I— Could you possibly——?”
    “Bill, something’s happened.”
    “God, yes.” The lawyer paused for a moment, and Ellery heard him clear his throat three times. “Ellery, it’s simply—it’s a nightmare. It can’t have happened. My brother-in-law… He’s been—he’s dead.”
    “Good Lord!”
    “Murdered. Stuck in the chest like a—like a damned pig.”
    “Murdered!” Ellery blinked. The young woman behind him stiffened as if she had received an electric shock. Then she hunched her shoulders and applied her lipstick furiously. “Bill… Where are you? When did this happen?”
    “Don’t know. Not long ago. He was still alive when I got there. He said… Then he died. Ellery… these things just don’t happen to your own people. How am I going to break it to Lucy?”
    “Bill,” said Ellery insistently, “stop wool-gathering. Listen to me. Have you notified the police?”
    “No. …No.”
    “Where are you?”
    “In the watchman’s house across the road from the Marine Terminal. Ellery, you’ve got to help us!”
    “Of course, Bill. How far from the Stacy-Trent is this place?”
    “Three miles. You’ll come? Ellery, you’ll come?”
    “At once. Tell me how to get there. Shortest way. Clearly now, Bill. You’ve got to get a grip on yourself.”
    “I’m all right. I’m all right.” Over the wire came the sound of his breath, a shuddering inhalation like the lung-filling gasp of a newborn infant. “Easiest way… Yes. You’re on the East State and South Willow now. Where are you parked?”
    “In a garage behind the hotel. Front Street, I think.”
    “Drive east on Front for two squares. You’ll hit South Broad. Turn right, go past the courthouse, right again into Center Street one square south of the courthouse. Two on Center and turn right into Ferry. One on Ferry brings you to Lamberton. Turn left there and keep going south on Lamberton until you hit the Marine Terminal. You can’t miss it. The shack… is a couple of hundred yards beyond.”
    “Front to South Broad, to Center, to Ferry, and into Lamberton. Right turns all the way except into Lamberton, which is left. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Wait at the watchman’s place for me. Bill, don’t go back. Do you hear me?”
    “I won’t.”
    “Call the Trenton police. I’m on my way.” Ellery dropped the telephone, jammed on his hat, and ran like a fireman. The red-haired young woman stared after him with a light in her hazel eyes that was almost lustful. Then she snapped her bag shut.
     
    It was twenty minutes to ten when Ellery slammed his brake on before the watchman’s house opposite the Marine Terminal. Bill Angell was sitting on the running-board of his Pontiac, head between his hands, staring at the damp road. A knot of curious men thronged the doorway of the house. The two men gazed briefly into each other’s eyes. “It’s rotten,” choked Bill. “Rotten!”
    “I know, Bill, I know. You’ve called the police?”
    “They’ll be coming along soon. I—I’ve called Lucy, too.” A spark of desperation glittered in Bill’s eyes. “She’s not home.”
    “Where is she?”
    “I’d forgotten. She’s always downtown seeing a movie on Saturday nights when Joe… when he’s