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insolvent."
    Annie responded quickly. "But that isn't true. He has been steadily investing for at least the past six months in a variety of money-generating schemes, almost all of them successful. He bought a good deal of property, stocks, and bonds. Granted, his liquid assets would be rather low at this point, but I would estimate that overall his net worth has increased significantly in the past few months."
    She stopped for a moment, trying to order her thoughts. She wanted to appear composed in order to convince him she knew what she was talking about.
    "You should have found records of these transactions. Deeds of property, stock certificates. Haven't you looked in his safety deposit box in the bank? I know he has one. That would clear up this so-called mystery."
    He shook his head. "Of course we looked there. Uncle Frank opened that and his safe at the factory. There were the usual documents you would expect to find but none representing the assets you describe or any cash.”
    "Mr. Dawson, you've still not explained why any of this led you or your uncle to decide that Mr. Voss was regularly patronizing a prostitute or that the prostitute was Sibyl. Are you one of those men who simply assumes that any working woman must be a woman of easy virtue?"
    He said, "Look, Mrs. Fuller. It was my Uncle Frank's idea. We were trying to find an explanation for his apparent insolvency. Uncle Frank simply speculated that if Matthew Voss was entangled with some woman, perhaps his wealth had gone for her support or to keep her quiet."
    He added, "You must, in all fairness, admit that this would not be the first time that a respectable merchant of this city found himself in that position."
    "I would strongly question whether any man who found himself in that sort of position could be called respectable," Annie replied tartly. "But this still doesn't explain why you decided Sibyl was the woman in question. Did Voss’s wife make this accusation?"
    He seemed shocked. "Good heavens, we have not even hinted at our suspicions to Mrs. Voss. She is already suffering enough. She keeps insisting his death must have been some sort of accident and the money must have just been misplaced. No, it was the appointment book and Mr. Voss's will that put us onto Sibyl. When my uncle talked to Mrs. Voss this afternoon, she suggested that Voss’s pocket diary might reveal something about his finances. My uncle and I went over the diary thoroughly, and for the most part we simply found what you would expect for a man of Voss’s standing and occupation. There were references to, and appointments with, the usual group of bankers and businessmen. Also the occasional social engagements, birthdays noted. Nothing unusual. However, there was one odd sort of entry we couldn't explain. Regularly, once or twice a week, the word Sibyl was jotted down. This had been going on for months."
    Annie wrinkled her forehead, still trying to understand how either Mr. Dawson or his uncle could have jumped to the conclusions they did from this piece of information. She said, "But how did you find me? I mean, if you had seen my card or advertisement or talked to anyone about me, they would have told you that Sibyl was a clairvoyant. But you obviously didn't know this when you came this evening."
    "Ah, but this is where the will came in. Mr. Voss had recently added a rather odd codicil to his will. Well, guess who was mentioned in the codicil!"
    "Not Sibyl!" was her startled response.
    "Yes, Sibyl, giving her address as well. That is how we found her or, rather, you. And it seemed to confirm our suspicions. Why else would he have put a woman he wasn't related to in his will?"
    Of all the wrong-headed, idiotic, tortured twisting of logic, this seemed the worst , she thought. In low, fierce tones, she began to tell him so in no uncertain terms. "Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, he might have done so because they were business associates or even friends? Of course not. Well,