"Perhaps it might be best if we talked in my room, Harry," Daniel said as they entered the elevator.
"It might be a bit crowded in there," Harry replied, watching as the lights beside the door lit. Having pressed the button for the penthouse, the lift became an express. "And you might as well do away with the disguise. Laura knows who you are."
Daniel turned to give Laura a sigh of regret as he removed the gray wig and mustache. "I do hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, my dear Miss Holt. I was only trying to-"
"I'm well aware of what you were trying to do, Mr. Chalmers," Laura told him shortly. The elevator doors opened, and she saw them hesitate. "After the two of you, please."
Daniel frowned at his son. "It doesn't sound as if she trusts you, either, Harry."
Harry nodded, taking his key from the pocket of his tux to open the door into his suite. "She's under the mistaken impression that I'll try to help you escape because of an accident of birth," he told the older man, stepping aside to let them enter the room before him.
"Really?" Daniel asked with an explosive laugh. "You couldn't be farther from the truth, Miss Holt. I really believe that my son would quite easily hand me over to the authorities if he believed it to be necessary." There was a slight edge to his words that bothered Laura. The air in the room was suddenly charged with something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
There was a knock on the door, and Laura glanced at Harry. "Who is it?" Harry asked.
"It's Murphy," came the muffled reply.
Harry opened the door, and then glanced behind him into the hall. "And where is the charming Miss Foxe?" he asked.
"I sent her home," Murphy explained, pushing his way into the room. "No reason for her to get further into this." He stopped upon seeing Daniel. "I see you found him."
"Ah, Mr. Michaels, wasn't it?" Daniel asked.
"Now that we're all here," Laura said, stopping Murphy as he would have moved toward the older man, "I think we're entitled to an explanation, Mr. Chalmers."
"Daniel, please, my dear."
"He's not gonna give you a straight answer, Laura," Murphy warned.
"But he'll give me one," Harry said, removing his jacket and loosening his tie. "Isn't that right, Daniel, old man? Hmm? You can't really believe that you'll get your hands on that tiara-"
"You wound me, my boy," Daniel said, placing a hand to his chest in mock pain. "That my own son, flesh of my flesh, would think, even for a second, that I would-"
"What about Paris, Daniel?" Harry asked. "Or London? If the authorities there hadn't known you as well as they do, you would have gotten it then."
Laura turned to look at Harry, anger on her face. "You KNEW that he might go after the tiara before it got here and you didn't tell me? Or at least have Mr. Carter-"
"I didn't think he would make a go at it, Laura," Harry said. "I swear. He gave me his word in London. Said he was going to Hong Kong, if I'm not mistaken. It was my mistake to trust him, even for a second."
"You really believe that I came here for that tiara, Harry? I could have gotten it easily already if that was the case."
"Then why ARE you here, Chalmers?" Murphy asked.
"Protecting my son's interests," Daniel told him. At the three obvious stares of disbelief, Daniel sighed. "I'm telling the truth."
"Then why the charade?" Laura asked. "Why not just tell me that you were his Lordship's father? Why pretend to be Nathan Ford?"
"Perhaps I simply didn't want to embarrass Harry with endless questions as to why HE is the Earl instead of me," Daniel suggested. "To be honest, Miss Holt, and I regret this deeply at the moment, but I had my doubts that someone as well bred and mannered as you seem to be could protect that collection. So I pointed you toward Harry-"
"By telling her that *I* was the thief," Harry pointed out. "What about Hugh? How did you get him involved?"
"I had to find some way to keep him from reporting to you before everything was finished. Where was Hugh this evening, by the way? I didn't see him downstairs-"
"Because he's in your room," Laura told Daniel.
"Murdered," Murphy finished. "By you, to keep him quiet."
"Murdered?" Daniel repeated, sitting down heavily in a chair. "Oh, dear God. Hugh. Those- animals-"
Laura, Murphy, and Harry exchanged confused glances. "Daniel, what are you running on about?" Harry asked.
"He was stabbed in the back, wasn't he? Between the third and forth rib." He must have read the answer in their eyes, because he bent forward, burying his face in his hands. "I shouldn't have involved him at all. If I'd known that putting him onto those two would have ended like this-"
"Daniel- who killed him?"
"Johnny Davis and Leo Mason," Daniel said.
Harry looked at Laura. "As I thought. Where are they now, Daniel?"
"Oh, Hugh. To think that after all those scrapes we got into as lads would end this way . . ." Daniel sighed regretfully.
"I think it's time to call the police," Murphy announced, going to the phone.
"And tell them what?" Laura asked.
"That there's been a murder for one thing," Murphy reminded her.
Daniel looked up, confused. "You haven't called them yet?"
Murphy shook his head. "His *Lordship* wouldn't let us until we talked to you."
"Really, Harry?" Daniel asked, his smile filled with disbelief- and perhaps hope? Laura thought.
"I was trying to avoid a scandal, Daniel," Harry informed his father. "Where are Davis and Mason now? Do you know?"
"I've no idea, Harry. They're probably on the lookout for me, though. I was supposed to meet them and help them- steal the tiara. Not that I was going to go through with it, of course, I just wanted to let them take as much rope as I could-"
Harry picked up his jacket. "Well, I think it's time they found you."
Daniel stared at him. "I'm afraid I don't follow you, my boy. I- Surely you don't mean for me to make myself a target for those two after what they did to Hugh?"
"Maybe BECAUSE of what they did to Hugh would be a better reason," Harry said.
"Harry, it's not that I'm a coward- well, perhaps I am. But- you can't ask me to-"
"Daniel, do those two know who I am?"
"That you're Lord Bryce-Davies? Possibly. Why?"
"Do you think that they would buy into a lie that I'm one of your- associates, who's merely posing as Bryce-Davies to get to the tiara?" he pressed.
Laura took a step forward. "Harry, you can't-"
"There's no other way, Laura," he said, taking her hand in his. "Murphy," he said, still looking into Laura's concerned gaze, "You wanted to call the police- do it. And then move Hugh's body up here into that closet."
Murphy picked up the telephone and dialed. "Okay."
"Laura, I'm counting on you to keep Daniel here even if it means locking him in the bath. I don't think even he can escape from a tenth floor bath with no window."
"Be careful," Laura called after him as he placed a hand on the doorknob.
"I don't think my streak's ended just yet," he said with a smile and then he was gone.
"What did he mean by that, I wonder?" Murphy said out loud as he waited for the telephone to be answered.
"My son is one of the luckiest people I've ever known," Daniel explained. He smiled at Laura. "It appears that I'm entirely in your hands, my dear Laura. Do with me as you will."
Laura's eyes narrowed at the oily charm he oozed. "I wonder if Harry has any rope around here?" she said, and hid her smile as Daniel's face registered alarm. Pointing to a chair, she said, "Sit."
Daniel sat down, watching her with wary eyes.
***
In the lobby, Harry went to a house phone and asked for a page. "I know he checked out earlier, but I was supposed to meet him here this evening . . . thank you." He waited.
"Telephone call for Harry Chalmers. Paging Mr. Harry Chalmers. Telephone call for Harry Chalmers."
Harry put down the telephone he'd made the call from, and waited another moment before calling out to the young woman. "Miss? I'm Harry Chalmers."
"You can take the call here, sir," she told him with a smile as she indicated a telephone.
"Thank you." He picked up the telephone as she walked away, but sensed that he was no longer alone. "Chalmers here . . . Daniel. Where are you? . . . I see . . .Well, they've believed it so far, but . . . I'll meet you up there." He hung up the telephone, and before he could turn, felt the closed end of a switchblade knife against his ribs. With a grunt, he managed to turn and look at his assailants. "May I help you?"
"You're gonna help us," Johnny Davis told him. "Leo and I have business with Daniel Chalmers. We want you to take us to him."
"If this about the tiara, I can help you as well as he can. I'm the one who was going to steal it, not Daniel."
Leo Mason shook his head. "You're his Lordship," he said. "It's been on the news this evening."
"Lord Bryce-Davies was -otherwise detained in London. I'm taking his place. And my payment is going to be that tiara. Now, if you gentlemen would like a piece of the action, I'm sure Daniel and I could cut you in for at least half-?" Harry suggested, amazed at how easily he fell back into this life. *Too easily, mate* he warned himself. *Have a care.*
He felt rather than saw Davis and Mason look at each other, then Mason's knife pulled slightly back. "Lead on, then," Leo said, then jabbed him with the knife once more. "But no tricks, okay?"
"No tricks," Harry promised. "Shall we?"
"Where are we going?"
"Daniel's waiting for me in the penthouse suite. We'll join him there and talk this all out."
***
Laura barely got the doors to the bedroom closed behind everyone when the door to the suite opened from the hall. Through a tiny crack in the doors, she listened and watched as Harry led two men into the suite.
"Where is he?" the shorter one asked.
"Through that door," Harry said, indicating the closet door. He stayed back as Leo opened the door and gasped in surprise at the sight of Hugh Carter's dead body hanging there.
"We left him in Chalmers' room, Johnny," he cried out.
"So you did," Harry agreed as the bedroom doors opened and several uniformed police officers appeared. He grabbed Leo's knife from the man's suddenly nerveless fingers and handed it to the plain-clothes detective. "I believe this is the murder weapon, sir."
"Thanks," the detective said, taking the knife.
"Who are you?" Johnny asked, looking at Harry.
"He's Lord Bryce-Davies," the detective said, as if he thought everyone knew the answer. "Get 'em out of here," he told his men. Turning to Laura, he said, "Good work, Holt, catching onto those two the way you did. You're lucky you chose her to protect that collection, your Lordship."
"Yes," Harry agreed, smiling at Laura. "It was probably the luckiest day of my life."
The coroner's men removed Hugh's body, and the suite was suddenly empty save for Murphy, Laura and Harry. "You took an awful chance," Laura told Harry.
"Not really. They wouldn't have killed me unless I couldn't produce Daniel-" he looked around. "Speaking of Daniel- where is he?"
"He's in the bedroom," Laura said. "Daniel-?" she called, but there was no response.
"I'll go get him," Murphy offered. "Thanks, your Lordship. If you hadn't-"
"It was nothing, Murphy," Harry said, lifting a hand to stop him. "And please, call me Harry?" he called as Murphy went to the bedroom door.
"I guess you'll be going back to England now," Laura said.
"I suppose so," Harry replied. "I have to take
Hugh's body back to his sister. She's going
to be devastated. He was all she had."
"Does she- work for you, too?"
"She's a tour guide for the Manor," he told her. "Having grown up there and all-"
"Of course-"
"Laura!" Murphy called out. "You'd better get in here!"
To Be Continued . . .