Wolf in Man's Clothing (36 page)

Authors: Mignon G. Eberhart

BOOK: Wolf in Man's Clothing

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I never thought, though, that he intended to kill Peter Huber. I thought that he intended to wound him, to get hold of the checks, and then to turn him over to the police. But then he shot Craig instead. And then Peter knew that he must act.

But the wind was rather taken out of my sails when I discovered that both Nugent and Craig had that day begun strongly to suspect Peter Huber. Nugent, because the Hollywood address Peter had given him was a real address but no one had heard of Peter Huber. And Craig because Alexia was in love with Peter and he had proved it, after a fashion, by asking Alexia to marry him. At first he had merely wished to protect Drue from Alexia. Alexia had the whip hand and hated Drue, and it seemed safer for Drue for him to appear to fall in with Alexia's claims upon him. He didn't think that Alexia was really in love with him; he thought that her pretension was merely pretension and that therefore there must be a motive for it. And what better motive than in covering the real state of affairs because there was danger if the real state of affairs came to light. Which summed up to Peter Huber.

When Craig couldn't get to the Chivery cottage without help, he thought of trying to trap Peter.

“Chivery had told me of the paper in his book; but not enough. I was afraid to tell the police for fear that, somehow, it implicated Drue. Then I thought that if Peter Huber was the murderer he would want that paper. I don't know how Huber knew that Chivery had it; perhaps we'll never know, but my guess is that he adroitly pumped Chivery; he'd missed the paper, of course; he knew where he must have left it; somehow he decided that Chivery had found it, as he had. So he had to get rid of Chivery; Claud was always inept and blundering; perhaps, somehow, he blundered there. At any rate, he was killed. And I knew that if I told the nurseâMiss Keate, she would come instantly to get the paper.”

I must say I was taken aback. “
You â¦
” I began.

Craig had a definite expression of apologyâas well he might. “I thought you'd be safe,” he explained. “I detained Peter after you'd gone. I kept him until I thought you'd had plenty of time to get the paper. Then I got up and followed Peter. Sure enough, he came straight here. I was a little behind him; I was stronger, once I got started, than I thought I'd be, but still I was pretty wobbly. But Nugent â¦”

“I was watching you,” said Nugent. “I hoped Miss Cable would try to get in touch with you. I thought if I kept a watchful eye on you, you might lead me to her. I only knew, then, that there was something phony about Huber. I didn't know what. But when I talked to the clerk in the haberdashery about the yellow gloves, he told me how Huber was dressed when he came in with a story of lost baggage and some money (which he took from you, Anna, I presume)”âAnna nodded, Nugent went on: “I decided there was something very phony about him; no hat and a coat and pants that didn't match. He'd stolen them somewhere as he came along, I suppose. We'll never know that probably now. There may be a lot of things we don't know. But that's the sum of the main points.”

But he was wrong. Except for Alexia's activities and the extent of her knowledge, there was very little we didn't eventually know. And in the end every little piece of the picture fitted together. We were never quite sure as to how and when Chivery had given away the knowledge of the piece of paper and the things written upon it, which proved to be so fatal to him, but that was almost all we didn't know. Naturally, Peter Huber never admitted it. But the charges against him were already sufficient.

All this, of course took place some time ago. But last week there was a new chapter added to it. Craig had his first leave and came home, tanned and happy. It was a handsome wedding; there's something about an air-force uniform. Drue went away with him, stars in her eyes and an air-force emblem pinned proudly to the lapel of her blue jacket, walking down the red carpet to the Twentieth Century as if she were walking on clouds. They'll have two weeks; then Craig leaves again.

But sometime he'll be back. To a happier and better world.

THE END

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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