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two-dimensional type character you saw on the screen. But we were talking about Bianca, Captain Corrigan.”
    â€œDid she have many friends?”
    She seemed to hesitate. “I hate gossiping.…”
    â€œIf there’s any truth in it, I want to hear it.”
    â€œI’ve seen and heard only hints, nothing I can prove.…”
    â€œBut they’ve given you an opinion. What is it?”
    She made a vague gesture. “I don’t think he wants her to have friends.”
    â€œBy ‘he’ you mean her husband?”
    Jean nodded. “Vincent would like people to believe she’s still not well. It would be convenient for him if she became a nervous wreck. I know that’s an awful thing to say about anybody—”
    â€œDo you believe it’s true, Miss Ainsley?”
    â€œIt’s only my opinion, Captain, but I think Mrs. Lessard is getting back on the track more and more each day. Her outlook is steadying, her judgment and assessment of people, places, and events around her.”
    â€œI gather that you don’t like Vincent Lessard.”
    â€œReally, Captain, don’t ask me to discuss things like that. I’ve said too much already.”
    â€œYou’ve answered me,” said Corrigan, smiling. “When did you last see Bianca Lessard?”
    â€œA week ago, I think. Funny, she failed to keep a luncheon appointment with me. She was beginning to show a healthy interest in the Fielding enterprises, and it was my impression she wanted my advice as to how she could take a more active part. But for some reason she didn’t keep our date.”
    â€œDid she phone you?”
    â€œNo, Vincent did. He said they’d had a tiff the previous evening and if Bianca showed up for lunch would I please phone him. When she didn’t appear, I called him, and he said she must have forgotten—in her ‘state of mind,’ as he put it—and for me to forget it, too.” She gave Corrigan a sudden penetrating look. “Where is Bianca, Mr. Corrigan?”
    â€œThen you don’t know?” Corrigan said, watching her.
    â€œNo, but a child could tell that something’s happened,” Jean burst out. “First, Vincent’s request to phone him immediately if I heard anything from Bianca. Next, inquiries by a mysterious man named Chuck Baer. Finally, you. Captain, I admire and respect Bianca and consider her my friend. She had the guts to face her tragedy and do what had to be done. She’s a fine and sensitive person, and I know something’s happened to her, and I think you’re being cruel playing cat and mouse with me!”
    So Corrigan, who was a working cop, said cruelly, “There’s the body of a woman believed to have been in her mid-twenties in the city morgue. We have reason to think that it may be Bianca Fielding Lessard’s.”
    He kept watching her. It had come as a blow to her, all right. She actually went white. That was what shock did, and it took an almightly able actor to simulate it.
    He half got out of his chair. But she shook her head at him. “I’ll be all right. Just give me a second.”
    Corrigan studied her fight for calm. Her breathing evened gradually. Some color came back to her face. If it was an act, she deserved an Academy Award.
    â€œMay be Bianca?” she echoed. “How is it you’re not sure?”
    â€œI don’t think,” said Corrigan, “you’d care for the details.”
    â€œOh,” she said faintly, and the color receded.
    â€œThe point is, so far we’ve not been able to come up with a physical identification, Miss Ainsley, because of the condition of the body.”
    â€œThen what made you think it was Bianca’s?”
    â€œThe woman was wearing an unusual silver ring. Her husband says the ring was his wife’s.”
    â€œI know the ring. A Mayan motif. But if she was wearing it, it must be …