McNally's Bluff Read Online Free PDF

the social grace of a charging bull.
    “The name is McNally, and I am a private investigator.”
    “I want to hire you to investigate Marlena’s disappearance.”
    “Your wife has been gone for a little over an hour, Mr. Hayes. That can hardly be termed missing.”
    “So where did she go?” he asked, looking up at me with his cobalt eyes.
    I wanted to shout, She’s your wife, you tell me, but thought the less said, the soonest mended, and the soonest we could all go home. “Where did you last see Mrs. Hayes?” I asked Tilly.
    Tilly looked surprised at being consulted and we had to wait for her to regain her composure before answering. When she did speak her voice was clear, if a bit shaky, and her story most explicit. “During the presentation I drew Madame’s bath, as usual. Madame must bathe to remove the makeup,” she added.
    “After her bath, Madame complained of a headache and said she would lie down until the buffet supper was served. She told me to inform Mr. Hayes of this and I did.”
    “Yes,” Hayes blurted, “she did just that. Came right down here and told me Marlena was resting and would join the party after the hunt for the goal.”
    Nodding, Tilly continued, “I saw that Madame was resting comfortably on her chaise lounge which Mr. Hayes purchased from the previous owners.”
    “That’s not important, Tilly,” Hayes noted with obvious annoyance.
    “Yes, sir. I went to my room and rested until I heard the party returning from the maze. I went immediately to tell Madame it was time to get dressed for the supper show.”
    “It’s not a supper show here,” Hayes cut in. “Our carnival days are over. It’s a dinner party.”
    “Yes, sir,” Tilly said, looking miffed but determined to have her say. “Madame was not on her chaise lounge. I looked in her dressing room, her bathroom, even the closet. No Madame. Then I began to look in all the bedrooms on the floor, there are seven of them, including mine. And the guest baths. There are seven of those too. Each room has its own...”
    “That’s not important, Tilly,” Hayes once again admonished the poor girl.
    Tilly began crying. “Then I got worried and ran on the balcony and called down to Mr. Hayes. Madame has disappeared. Madame...”
    “She did just that,” Hayes said, cutting off a reprisal of the scene. “I imagine you all heard her.” Then he picked up the remarkable story. “I went upstairs and we looked for Marlena. I mean we looked everyplace, including the closets and attic, even though that wasn’t necessary.”
    “What do you mean it wasn’t necessary, Mr. Hayes?” I questioned.
    “I mean the door to the attic was locked from the outside, the key still in the lock. If Marlena went in, how could she have locked it from outside?”
    “The lower level,” I suggested, more for something to say than because it held any hope of containing Marlena.
    “To get to the lower level, or the front door or the kitchen door or any door, she would have to come down those stairs and into this room, which was filled with the catering staff from the minute we left it to go to the maze,” Hayes said, gesticulating like a puppet on a string.
    “I never left this room,” Lolly corroborated. “And no one came down those steps.”
    “She’s disappeared into thin air,” Tilly concluded, unnecessarily.
    “What should we do, Mr. McNally?” Hayes asked, and I told him.
    “Call the police, Mr. Hayes. Right now.”
    “You think it’s necessary?’
    “I don’t think, Mr. Hayes, I know. The police are better equipped to handle something like this. They’ll search the house and the grounds and if they don’t find her they’ll put out an APB and start to canvass the island.”
    “But Marlena wouldn’t just walk out without saying a word. That’s crazy,” the little man shouted.
    “But obviously she did,” I retorted.
    “But how?” he cried.
    S. Holmes tells us that once you have ruled out the impossible, go for the