The Kissed Corpse by Brett Halliday Page A

alive.”
    â€œThen hurried to signal Raymond Dwight to come on over,” I carried the theory on. “Providing herself with a perfect alibi in case she needed it.”
    â€œGoing on from that premise … we’d better start looking for a woman with a good reason for preventing Leslie Young from keeping his appointment in Mexico with the O’Toole girl.”
    We sat and looked at each other in silence until I said: “That certainly puts Laura Yates in the clear. Of all the females involved she had the strongest reason for hoping Leslie would keep the appointment.”
    â€œUnless,” Burke said drily, “she realized it was something big and didn’t want to split the story with him.”
    â€œBut she wouldn’t have been waiting out in the rain for a man whom she knew to be dead,” I objected.
    â€œIt would have been smart to pretend to be waiting for him. And if she was after a story, she had to get to the hacienda somehow.”
    Jerry Burke was like that, damn his soul. He has the uncanny faculty of looking beneath the surface for hidden motives not apparent to a guileless person like myself. I was suddenly glad I wasn’t cursed with a suspicious mind which couldn’t take any fact or person at face value. I said so, somewhat sulkily, I’m afraid.
    Burke was unmoved. “There’s only one basis for a murder investigation, Asa. We must assume the possible guilt of every man or woman even indirectly involved, and scrutinize every action of every suspect on the assumption that it may be motivated by murder. On that basis, we cannot yet eliminate Miss Yates.”
    â€œLet’s scrutinize the actions of some of the others on that same basis,” I muttered lamely.
    â€œExactly what I intend to do. The anonymous telephonist was a woman, according to Myra’s testimony. Only four women are thus far involved: Mrs. Young, Laura Yates, Michaela O’Toole, and … Desta Dwight.”
    He smiled grimly when I started with surprise at hearing the last name on his list.
    â€œI’m not at all sure that she doesn’t know more than she’s told us. She admits knowing Leslie Young.”
    â€œShe had just met him once,” I objected.
    â€œAccording to her statement.”
    There it was again. Another instance of my guileless acceptance of a statement as fact. I stammered something about making a lousy detective, and Burke agreed, with a grin which took the sting out of it. Then he settled back seriously to his theorizing:
    â€œGoing back to our four women: Myra is out … she received the telephoned warning. I’ve conjured up a thin motive for Laura Yates wanting Young to stay away from the hacienda . Thin … but possible. Michaela O’Toole is definitely out. She wouldn’t write a note asking him to come, and then turn around and kill him to prevent it. That leaves Desta Dwight to be considered.”
    â€œWhat possible motive can you conjure up for her?”
    â€œUntil we know the real object of the meeting of these various people at the hacienda , we can’t do much guessing. She let it slip that her father had some plan for bringing political pressure on Rufus Hardiman in regard to Mexican oil payments. We also know that Desta recognized Leslie Young as a stumbling-block in the way of forcing any such payments from Mexico. By her own admission, her father just laughed at her when she warned him against Young. What would be more natural than for a headstrong young girl like that to decide to take matters in her own hands and remove the menace to her father’s business dealings with the Mexican government?”
    â€œAll I hope is that you don’t start analyzing me for a motive.”
    He grinned that slow grin of his, then said: “I’m interested in the identity of the Senor Rodriguez Desta mentioned.”
    â€œDwight was talking with someone in another room when we first reached the