The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online Page B

all. And me, spying on her–lying right back …”
    â€œYou’re doing this to help Martha, not hurt her. Tell me what happened.”
    Nikki told him.
    â€œYou didn’t see the envelope?”
    â€œI must have, when I looked over the mail in the elevator this morning. But I have no way of telling which one the letter was in.”
    â€œToo bad. The envelope might have–”
    â€œWait,” said Nikki. “I do know.”
    â€œYes?” said Ellery eagerly.
    â€œThe message on the sheet of paper–the enclosure–was typed on the red part of a black-and-red ribbon. I remember now that on one of the envelopes I handled this morning Martha’s name and address were typed in red, too.”
    â€œRed typing on the envelope ? ” Ellery sounded baffled. “You don’t happen to recall the name of the business firm imprinted on the upper left corner?”
    â€œI think it was an air-conditioning company, but I don’t remember the name.”
    â€œAir-conditioning company … Not a bad dodge. Any envelope like that would naturally be taken to contain an advertising mailing piece. So if Dirk happened to get to the mail first–”
    â€œEllery, I’ve got to get back upstairs. Dirk may be up.”
    â€œYou say, Nikki, this took place in the kitchen?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI seem to recall a wastepaper basket near the dinette alcove. Is the basket still there?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œShe may have dropped the envelope into it. She’d have no reason to be careful about the envelope. Did you look in the basket?”
    â€œI didn’t look for the envelope at all!”
    â€œNaturally,” soothed Ellery. “But it won’t hurt to look, Nikki. I’d very much like to examine that envelope.”
    â€œAll right ,” said Nikki, and she used the phone for punctuation.
    She brought him the envelope at noon.
    â€œWe needed some more carbon paper, so I told Dirk I’d have lunch out today. I’ll have to cab right back, Ellery, or they may suspect something. It was in the wastepaper basket.”
    â€œLucky!”
    The manila envelope was of the clasp type, about five inches by eight. A strip of heavy adhesive paper had been used for sealing above the clasp. On the face, typed in red, were the words “Mrs. Dirk Lawrence” and the Beekman Place address. The inscription in the upper left corner was THE FROEHM AIR-CONDITIONER COMPANY; the address was The 45th Street Building, 547 Fifth Avenue, New York. The entire left side of the envelope was decorated with a cartoonical drawing of a heat-prostrated family, over the legend: Why Live in a Turkish Bath This Summer ?
    â€œThis is a current city-wide promotion campaign,” Ellery said, turning the envelope this way and that. “Dad received a similar envelope last week, enclosing a mailing piece on the new Froehm air-conditioner.”
    â€œWas the address in red?”
    â€œBlack. This is a puzzler, Nikki.”
    â€œHow do you mean?”
    â€œThere was more in this envelope than that single sheet of paper you saw Martha reading.”
    Nikki stared at it. “It does look as if it had contained something bulky.” The empty envelope was not flat. A rectangle of creases back and front held it in a three-dimensional shape. “Maybe the pamphlet about the air-conditioner, although how he got a letter into a business firm’s envelope–”
    â€œThe Froehm brochure was one of those unfolding broadsides, which fold down into a flat piece. Nothing that flat ever made these creases, Nikki. These were made by something about three eighths of an inch thick.”
    â€œSounds almost like a book–”
    â€œA booklet. In fact, these dimensions suggest a twenty-five-cent reprint edition, a paperback. You saw nothing like that in Martha’s hand, or on the table, while she was reading the message?”
    â€œNo. But she