“Jake Williams just called. He has a way of knowing what goes on at the police station, and when he thinks I’d be interested he passes the information along to me. He just gave me a tip on the Willoughby case. Things have come to a crisis sooner than I expected.”
“What do you mean?” Nancy inquired anxiously.
“The police intend to put Mrs. Willoughby under arrest tomorrow morning.”
“What evidence have they against her?”
“Purely circumstantial.”
“I don’t see how they can do it.”
“Well, they intend to. Jake tells me the police quizzed her for three hours straight this afternoon, and she admitted that on the day before the robbery she had visited the bank vault where the Crandall jewels were kept. Then on the following day she drove to the bank with Mrs. Potter and they took the jewels away with them. Naturally, the admission makes it look bad for Mrs. Willoughby.”
“The police think she went to the bank alone to substitute fake jewels for the real ones.”
“Undoubtedly.”
Nancy frowned.
“Even if she did take the jewels, which I hate to believe, that doesn’t explain what became of the handbag which disappeared at Lilac Inn.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Isn’t there something we can do to prevent them from arresting her?”