Inspector Queen’s Own Case by Ellery Queen

don’t know what it is you and this man Queen are up to, but if through any act of yours my wife gets worse or my name is exposed to further public humiliation, you will account to me. To me . Do you understand?”
    â€œPerfectly.” Jessie’s throat was dry. “May I go now, Mr. Humffrey?”
    â€œBy all means.”
    She fled those unwinking pop-eyes, fixed on her like something in a museum.
    Ten minutes later Jessie was on the phone, crying. “Richard, please ask Mrs. Pearl if I can come over tonight. I don’t care where I stay. I’ll sleep in my car or bed down on the floor. Anywhere! But I won’t stay in this house another night.”
    Inspector Queen was waiting for her on the other side of the causeway in Beck Pearl’s Plymouth. He got out, waving wildly, as Jessie pulled up.
    â€œJessie! You all right?”
    â€œOh, Richard, I’m so glad to see you.”
    â€œBut what happened?”
    â€œNothing, really. Mr. Humffrey’s sent his wife to a sanitarium and discharged me, and I’m afraid I let on that you and I weren’t going to let the case drop, and he sort of threatened me——”
    â€œHe did, did he?” the old man said grimly.
    â€œI don’t know what you’re thinking of me. I’ve never acted this way before in my life. Mrs. Pearl must be having visions of some hysterical female throwing fits all over her rug——”
    â€œYou don’t know Beck Pearl.”
    â€œI’d go back home—I have a little house in Rowayton—but I rented it to some summer people till after Labor Day. I’m so ashamed, Richard. I’ll go to a motel or some place for the night——”
    â€œBecky says if I don’t bring you right over I don’t have to come back myself. You follow me, Jessie!” …
    In the plain sanity of the Pearls’ little beach cottage Jessie felt safe for the first time in weeks. Mrs. Pearl looked into her eyes and smiled approvingly at Richard Queen, and Chief Pearl blundered about making her feel as if she were an honored guest.
    â€œYou’re not really an ogre after all, Mr. Pearl,” Jessie told him. “Do you know I was afraid of you?”
    The big man glanced guiltily at his wife.
    â€œDid he bully you?” Beck Pearl looked at her husband.
    â€œI’ll get your bag out of your car, Miss Sherwood.” Abe Pearl went out hurriedly.
    â€œPut it up in Richard’s room, Abe!”
    â€œMrs. Pearl, I won’t hear of it——”
    â€œYou’ll have Richard’s room, Abe and Richard will sleep in our room, and I’ll take the daybed down here. It’s the most comfortable bed in the house.”
    â€œOh, no——”
    â€œThat’s the way it’s going to be,” Mrs. Pearl said firmly. “Now I’m going to fix you and Richard some supper. Then Abe and I are going to the movies …”
    When the Pearls were gone, Jessie said softly, “You’re lucky to have such friends, Richard.”
    â€œYou like them.”
    â€œThey’re absolute darlings.”
    â€œI’m glad,” he said simply. “Now you tackle this casserole, or Becky will feel terrible. Abe says she can do more things with clams than a Siwash Indian.”
    Afterward, Jessie washed the dishes in Beck Pearl’s tiny kitchen and Richard Queen dried them and put them away, while he told her about his summer with the Pearls and never once referred to what had brought her flying to him. Jessie listened mistily. I mustn’t feel so happy about this, she kept thinking. I’ll just build myself up to another letdown, the way I did with Clem … It was hard to keep from comparing them, hard and unfair. It had been so many years ago. Clem had been so much younger—tall and self-sufficient, with quick surgeon’s fingers and his eyes always tired-looking. Thinking about him even now, when he