CHAPTER

7

“I’d rather not have shown that note to you,” Mr. DeWitt said quietly. “We found it only a moment ago.”

“How did it get in Dad’s waste-basket?” Penny asked. “Do you suppose he threw it there himself?”

“That’s my guess. Your father never paid any attention to unsigned letters.”

Penny reread the threatening note, trying not to show how much it disturbed her. “I wonder if this came by mail?” she remarked.

“We don’t know,” DeWitt replied. “There was no envelope in the basket.”

“Dad never mentioned such a note to me,” Penny resumed, frowning. “Probably thought I’d worry about it. This makes the situation look bad, doesn’t it, Mr. DeWitt?”

The editor weighed his words carefully before he spoke. “It doesn’t prove that your father was waylaid by enemies, Penny. Not at all. According to reports, Mr. Parker was involved in an ordinary automobile accident, and left the scene of his own free will.”

“With a woman who drove a black car.”

“Yes, according to eye-witnesses she offered to take him to a hospital for treatment.”

“What became of that woman?” demanded Penny. “Can’t the police find her?”

“Not so far.”

Before Penny could say more, Harley Schirr came to the desk, spreading a dummy sheet for the editor to inspect.

“Here’s the front-page layout,” he explained. “For the banner we’ll give ’em, ‘Anthony Parker Mysteriously Disappears,’ and beneath it, a double column story. I dug a good picture out of the morgue—the one with Parker dedicating the Riverview Orphans’ Home.”

DeWitt frowned as he studied the layout. “Parker wouldn’t like this, Schirr. It’s too sensational. Bust that banner and cut the story down to the bare facts.”

“But this is a big story—”

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