Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1936-05-16
CHAPTER 10

as Keyes and l sat in Mrs. Bryce's
apartment 1t turned out to be a
theater magazine of some sort
Turning the leaves. Tipping them
rather. to kill time. for I had no
desire to go through Mrs. Bryce's
things with Reyes. / found myself
staring at full page picture Of Mar
gallo. Her strong. beautiful. intelli-
gent eyes looked straight into mine.
Poor Marga!o! My eyes filed with
tears. 1 couldn't help 1t. Margalo
dead. and the portrait was so alive.
so full of vitality. Her lovely,
luxuriant hair was coiled around her
head In the old familiar way. A half
splendid likeness. more youthful
than she was. but her marvellous
energy cleaned on the paper.
sat with 1t for some time.
don't know how long. Then, heart
sick. 1 turned some more pages. see
ing nothing on them. thinking of
nothing but Margalo, and her trag-
edy. Again. although did not seek
&c. her portrait was in front of me.
It was as If should look at it. see
It. should not turn to another
page.
With a start came to myself.
Queer how the pages, when one ran
through them quickly. stopped with
Margalo. Her picture was in the
middle of the magazine. Evidently
someone had been studying the
photograph carefully, had studied it
SO many times. that the book opened
there automatically. I looked at the
white border. 1t was clean. but
slightly mussed. as if fingers had
gone over 1t many times. Not
smudged. mind you. but the way
magazines look when they have been
used many times.
The other pages were free Of this.
! looked on the cover. 1t held no
name. Probably purchased at a news
stand. October number. Had Mrs.
Bryce bought it before the murder
or after? l wondered vaguely if she
had seen Margalo in What Every
Woman Knows.
There were more magazines on the
stand beside me. picked them over
carefully. The Green Book was
among them. AS remembered it
contained a picture of Margalo. I
had II. too, in my rooms at the hotel
Quickly / turned to the page. the
corner Of which was creased down,
carefully. as if the person who had
done it had wanted to be sure to find
the place again.
My interest grew. Mrs. Bryce
made no secret of her admiration. if
that was what 1t was. of Margalo.
/ went through every magazine in
the living room. but these were the
only ones which contained photo
graphs of Margalo.
The thought came to me stronger
and stronger that Mrs. Bryce had
had some purpose in turning down
that particular page in the Green
Book. although at the time I could
not imagine why she should. Alb
normal interest in Margalo? Both
magazines had been on the stands
the end Of September. Had Mrs.
Bryce bought them then. or later
within the last few days? I deter
mined to ask Manda.
It was then that I noticed a large
Florentine fooled portfolio. a lovely
thing. I was admiring the intricacy
OF the design when / opened it and
found 1t held theater programs. +
smiled. So Mrs. Bryce kept her the
ater programs. Women didn't usual
~ do that any more. They tossed
them away after the first act. Mrs.
Bryce was decidedly different in this
respect Perhaps as girl she had
saved dance programs. and this COL
lection mania had followed her, now,
In her middle age.
Yet there was so little in her life.
Practically no friends. not even ac-
quaintances If I could believe Mrs.
Taft The theater was probably the
biggest event in her life.
delved into them religiously, and
finally found one that interested me:
What Every Woman Knows" So
Mrs. Bryce had seen Margalo!
was not surprised at the pro-
gram. The play was a popular re-
vival. and all theatergoers had been
interested in it. Margalo, alone. as
Maggie Shand, was more than
enough to draw them. Margalo in a
Barry play. remembered how her
performance had affected me. 80.
The date was what startled me.
Monday night. Oct. 16. Why. had
been at that performance! So had
Van Everyl The night Margalo had
been murdered. Was it possible that
he had gone with Mrs. Bryce. had
put her IN taxi. and then had come
back to me?
He had said nothing about having
anyone with him. Indeed, imagined
he was alone. knew he loved the
theater and went often. His only re-
Taxation. he always said. Had he