
CHAPTER I - SENTIMENT AND CLUES
CHAPTER II - UNEASY APPREHENSIONS
CHAPTER III - NINETY-EIGHT PEARLS
CHAPTER IV - A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
CHAPTER V - LITTLE MISS JANE
CHAPTER VI - A FOUNTAIN PEN
CHAPTER VII - CONCERNING MARGERY
CHAPTER VIII - TOO LATE
CHAPTER IX - ONLY ONE EYE CLOSED
CHAPTER X - BREAKING THE NEWS
A seasoned private investigator narrates his day‑to‑day encounters with the city’s many “ladies”—from market stall owners to society’s glittering dames—each case colored by his sardonic view of human nature. His office, a dimly lit room where shadows and light play tricks, becomes a stage for the secrets his clients bring.
One crisp morning a veiled young woman arrives, her pallor striking against the sunlight spilling across the dusty rug. She speaks in halting whispers about her father’s sudden, unexplained disappearance after ten days away without a word. The investigator, intrigued by the mix of familial devotion and the faint scent of danger, begins to untangle the clues, aware that the answer may lie in something as simple as a lost letter—or something far more tangled.
The story unfolds amid smoky cafés, whispered rumors, and a cast of characters whose motives blur the line between innocence and intrigue. Listeners are drawn into a world where every skirt may conceal a secret, and the truth often hides behind a polite veneer.
Language
en
Duration
~6 hours (368K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-10-02
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1876–1958
A pioneering American mystery writer, she helped shape the suspense novel with brisk plots, memorable settings, and a knack for building tension. Her stories ranged beyond crime fiction too, spanning plays, journalism, and popular fiction that reached a huge early-20th-century audience.
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