“Sometimes,” he said, “I wonder how governments exist. If a midway girl that gets thrown knives at can cause a flurry like this in town – well, well. What about Win?”
“Syl can take care of him over at my gunnin’ shack,” Asey said, “until his shoulder’s all right. What’re your plans for winter, Win?”
“I been spendin’ winters lately,” Win said, “up to Philbrick’s big barn. Got me a stove off the dump, the kind you stick into the e-lectricity, an’ I tell you, it’s mighty fine up there. Keep good’n warm.”
“So that,” Cummings said, “is why the General is suing the light company for winter bills! Asey, we’ll have to solve some problems for Win.”
Asey nodded. “We will. Now, Win, this feller Hamilton’s takin’ you away, an’ you’re goin’ to stay at my shack with Syl. Know Syl? Nate’s grandson. Hang around there till I come, will you? An’ don’t you wander away, either, ’cause someone might bring you back here. Will you stay there?”
“Wonder,” Win said, “can he play Hi-low Jack? Nate could.”
“He is probably,” Asey said, “the finest player in the country. Now, Win, will you b’have, sort of?”
Win smiled as he got up from the couch. “Gregrampa alius said, do unto others as you’re done by, ’less they give you water to drink. Gimme m’t’bacco.”
He followed Hamilton out to a car. “Majestic old duffer, isn’t he?” Cummings said. “Are you sure, Asey, you’re doing right in letting him go?”
“He’s not the man I followed. Where’d he get the money for a silencer? Where’d he get the stamina? What about Kay?”
“I’ll go over with you,” Cummings said, “she’ll tell you the story.”
Lane walked with them to Asey’s roadster.
“I hope,” he said, “the next clew or suspect we get, you’ll let us have it for more than ten minutes. My God, I don’t get a chance to bite into anything before you yank it out of my sight!”
“Chickenbones,” Asey said, “but they’re gettin’ meatier, I think. Keep your fellers here, Lane. ’Night.”
“How about sending some into the woods again,” Lane said. “We might find your man. Perhaps you hit him, after all.”
“You keep your men here,” Asey said. “Two casualties tonight is enough. So long.”
Asey and the doctor found the entire household except Jeff camped in Kay Thayer’s bedroom.
“It wasn’t Win, was it?” she asked. “Asey, did you – you didn’t find anyone else, did you?”
“I found J. Arthur, but nothin’ come of it. Kay, what happened? What was you doin’ there? What went on?”
Kay avoided Asey’s eye.
“This afternoon,” she said, “I found the two paths you told me about, and then I found another one down to the ice house, and then it cut around the ice house and went off into the woods to a road. I guess it was the road where Brinley said he parked this afternoon.”
“Whyn’t you tell me?”
“Well, it didn’t seem important at the time. And besides, you told me to take the shortest path, or way, and this was circuitous and roundabout. And this evening it suddenly came to me that perhaps it was the path the murderer used. After all, he’d hardly park on the main road, and he had to have a car somewhere. And it sort of fascinated me, the idea did, so I slipped away—”
“She told me,” Sara interrupted accusingly, “that she had to see some reporter!”
“I did. And afterwards, I got into the percolator and drove up there – Asey, if you look like that at me, I shall cry, I swear I shall! I know how crazy it was, but I didn’t think of it then.”
“Go on.”
“Well, I had a gun,” Kay said. “I shot, too. I shot twice – you don’t seem surprised!”
“The fellow had a silencer,” Asey said, “but we heard two shots. You pretty much had to have a gun. B’sides, you said once you was a sucker for a shot. Go on.
“Well, I went there, and waited, and after a while I got bored, and scared, and cold – I’m a city person. I don’t understand country noises, and I confess they terrify me. So I lighted a cigarette, and about two seconds later—”
“Somethin’ whizzed by you, an’ you d’scovered what a bright girl an’ what a sucker for a shot you really was. Lightin’ a cig’rette then! Was – look, couldn’t you – oh, go on!”
“I fired back. I don’t know why. I couldn’t see anything to fire at. And then something whizzed and stung my head – I didn’t know that being shot was like that. And I began to understand that the popping sound was a silencer. At that point,” Kay concluded honestly, “you could have poured me into a glass. I | wasn’t even a pulp, I was liquid. Wow!”
“An’ then?”
“I flopped down behind a tree and tried to become an inconspicuous part of , Mother Nature, and then I heard someone coming toward me, and not just toward me, but sort of at me, if you know what I mean. I got up and started to run, and he grabbed me, and I screamed, and pulled away. And then I tripped headlong – look, d’you know that theory about not being scared of the bear, but being scared because you run from the I bear? Well, it’s true. After that bit of action I was almost turning from a liquid to a gaseous state—”
“Where was your gun?” Asey demanded.
“I am pained to say,” Kay told him, “there were only two bullets in it. Well, I got up as he made for me, and tried to smack him with the gun, and I kept yelling—”
“Why did you yell for me?”
“I was slowly solidifying at that point,” Kay said. “I was coming to. I began to realize what I’d let myself in for. So I yelled for you, hoping it might make the gent take to his heels, if he thought you were around. Your name is curiously potent. And my, how I felt when I heard you bellow back! I thought it was a mirage at first. Anyway, I got behind a tree, and the gent was playing tag with me around the trunk—”
“Didn’t he shoot?”
“If he did, he didn’t hit me. I wouldn’t have known, anyway. I dodged and jerked and switched around as though I had St. Vitus dance. He got hold of me just before you came, and I thought he was going to throttle me, but then up you dashed – and you know all I could think of? That ditty about the girl in the saw mill, and the saw coming closer and closer and closer—”
“A more appropriate ditty,” Sara said, “being ‘Nearer My God To Thee.’ Kay, I don’t know whether to scold you for being utterly bereft of your senses, or to congratulate you on being alive.”
“What I’m most interested in,” Asey said expectantly, “is the man.”
Kay sighed.
“Kay, you don’t mean you can’t tell me anythin’ about him?”
“He’s a good shot. He’s an artful dodger. He’s strong – he has fingers like pilliwinks.”
“Like what?” Cummings demanded. “Pilliwinks,” Kay said. “They were a torture thing for squeezing fingers. I learned the word from a dictionary, and I’ve waited ten years for a chance to use it, and my, is it apt! He nearly broke my whole right hand, with one squeeze. Every finger—”
“What was he like?” Asey asked. “If he throttled you, you must have been near enough to see somethin’.”
“He had on dark clothes, and a handkerchief over his mouth an’ chin. I can’t tell you if he was short or tall or anything. He seemed mountainous when I was on the ground, but he didn’t when I got onto my feet. It was so dark dimensions didn’t matter. I never was really near him. He held me off at an arm’s length during the throttling process. Death was his aim. Not destruction, as Dr. Cummings was inclined to think at first. No, Asey, I can’t help you a bit.”
“Didn’t he make a sound, or speak, or cuss, or anything?”
“Not a peep out of him, not even an ‘Ugh,’” Kay said. “Strong and silent, that was my pal. And a more grimly determined individual I never met. Well, I did what is probably the silliest thing I’ll ever do in my life, and from now on, Asey, I’ll leave the case to you. Next time I have any hunch that pal’s comin
g, you get told. And I ruined your coat, Jane, to absolutely no avail. I’ll buy you another.”
“It was awful, perfectly awful!” Eloise was goggle-eyed. “Oh, I think you were I brave, I do, really! That awful man – I always say, you can’t tell about these reds. No beard, of course, but still red. I’m sorry now I said we’d keep this thing quiet – not that I don’t think mother would have preferred it, and of course one must always respect the wishes of the – but just the same, if the people really knew, that man would – why, the papers would have him jailed at once – really, Mr. Mayo, not that I don’t think you know best, of course. And I’m always willing to be convinced – but why don’t you arrest that man, instantly? It makes my blood boil, to think of that murderer – and I’m sure he was going to kill Kay, too, if not worse – the nick of time, wasn’t it, really? I do think perhaps tomorrow you’d best arrest him, before we’re all of us murdered in our beds, at the least.”
“Are you,” Jane’s voice was curiously hard, “by any chance talking about Mike Slade?”
“Why of course – who else, I’m sure!” Eloise said nervously. “We know – I mean, we do know, don’t we – though of course we keep pretending it’s all a mystery – but I’m sure I may say here, in the privacy of our own group – why, we know Mike Slade is the one!”
Jane walked over and stood in front of Eloise.
An uncomfortable silence followed. Twice Sara Leach started to say something and twice she changed her mind. Everyone knew there was going to be a scene, but no one knew exactly how to stop it.
“So strange of you,” Eloise got up from the sea chest on which she had been sitting, “really, I always said to mother, so strange of her to like that – my dear, really, don’t you think you’re going a bit too far? You know – I’m sure mother said often enough – I, myself, often wished she had said more – the man’s a scoundrel. So unsporting of you, to take this attitude – so – so grim about it, when it’s proved to you—”
Jane moved so swiftly that Asey, later, admitted he had not seen the blow that struck Eloise squarely across the mouth. It caught her off balance, and she fell heavily into the corner.
“And the next time you mention Mike Slade,” Jane said, “I’ll do more than smash your teeth. I’ll kill you, d’you hear?”
Chapter 15
The shock of Jane’s words and her accompanying gesture was so intense that it affected even Dr. Cummings’ professional instincts.
While his prospective patient groaned and writhed on the floor, he stared at Jane as she coolly walked across the room, opened the door and departed. For fully ten seconds he was speechless.
“By – by George!” he said. “By George, that girl meant it! Now isn’t that extraordinary, when you stop and think it out. That, from a nice appearing girl, apparently in the best of health. Emotionally unstable, that’s the answer. Emotionally unstable. Sara, what’s she been eating lately, d’you happen to know?”
“Doc.” Asey pointed to Eloise. “Consider this end of it, will you?”
“Go get my other bag,” Cummings said to Zeb, “out in the car. Dear me, more hysterics, I suppose – once she finally assimilates the situation, it will probably be an all night job quieting – by George, what’s the matter with her? Look—”
Eloise’s mouth was working strangely. She put both hands to her jaw.
“Broken, I’ll wager,” Sara said. “That smack – Asey, what do you do in a case like this? Isn’t it assault and battery, or something? The poor woman—”
“Doc,” Asey said, “Jane said somethin’ about smashin’ her teeth – say, has she got false teeth? ’Cause if she has, I bet you they’re wedged, or busted.”
“That’s it!” Sara said. “It happened to my mother once. Carry her to – oh, her room, I guess. We’ll have to separate Jane and Eloise, under the circumstances, and I’m sure I don’t know where we can put Jane, unless it’s the trundle bed in the attic – Kay, I know this isn’t helping your head any!”
“Kay’s all right,” Cummings said. “I shouldn’t wonder if Eloise weren’t the more badly hurt of the two. Kay’s got just a superficial – Zeb – help us here. Oh, put the bag anywhere. That’s it. Uh!” he grunted as he helped Asey and Zeb lift Eloise. “Sometimes I think this fad for a slim form is a lot of nonsense, and sometimes in a case like this, I wish there were more of it.”
They finally managed to pry Eloise’s mouth open and remove her broken plate, which had, as Sara and Asey guessed, somehow wedged in such a manner that it locked her jaw.
But once open, Eloise’s mouth proceeded to make up for lost time.
She raised such a din that Uncle Jeff and Brinley and Weston, who had been solving town problems down in the living room, came flying up the stairs.
“You can’t help.” Briefly Asey summed up what had taken place. “You might as well go. Oh, Zeb, see if you can find where Jane went to. In the mood she’s in, she’s capable of anything at all.”
“Asey,” Zeb said, “with a great respect for your wishes, the answer is no. The door mat has resigned. This particular worm has turned. Let someone else find Jane and cope with her mood. Not me. She’s fooled me once too often. I thought, after yesterday – but that doesn’t matter. I’ll help you with Eloise, but as for Jane, no.”
“I can see how you feel,” Asey said. “Wes, you or Brinley, or someone – find Jane for me. Thanks.”
“What’s the matter with her now?” Brinley nodded his head toward Eloise. “What’s happened to her? She sounds as if she was crazy.”
“Just lisping,” Asey said. “To use an old Cape phrase, she’s gummin’ it. You all get along and find Jane.”
Obediently the selectmen of Billingsgate marched off to find Jane.
After a while Eloise quieted down. “Thank God,” Cummings said. “My, what a nervous system she must have. To be able to take this sort of outburst in your stride, the way she does – by George, you can call women the weaker sex if you want to, but no man would be able to work himself into a frothing state like this, and then snap out of it – what’s that you say?”
“Thee theece. In the thace.” Eloise pointed to Asey. “Thee theese, thee?”
“She sells sea shells,” Cummings recited cheerfully. “By the sea shore. Sea shells she sells, and of that – Eloise, what do you want? Say it again.”
She said it again, but the results were not any better.
“I got it,” Asey said. “The teeth – you got spares, have you?”
Eloise nodded vigorously.
“Where?”
She pointed.
“Oh, the case. The teeth are in the case. Sara, that’s your department. Get her teeth.”
He tactfully strolled over and stared at a picture of four fat sheep in a field until the process of equipping Eloise with new teeth was completed.
“How fortunate,” Eloise said in a moment or two, “I thought to bring them – several times I haven’t, and really, it’s most embarrassing – but how could one anticipate – after all, falling down, or dropping them, yes. Why, everybody has accidents. But one can’t anticipate – er – a blow, I’m sure. But I do think it was fortunate I had them.”
With that commentary, Eloise dismissed the situation.
“It was unfortunate,” Sara said, “but I know that none of us there will mention it. Jane has been terribly upset, and she’s not demonstrative. I suppose everything’s seething inside her, and it came out all at once. It’s too bad she landed on you and proceeded to make you her safety valve – she’s probably crying her eyes out somewhere, and wondering how she can apologize.”
“Poor Jane!” Eloise said. “Of course her father – that ruined her life, I know – you couldn’t call her mother anything but flighty. Just flighty. Mother warned! me – of course mother understood Jane. But I couldn’t help wishing – Zeb is such a nice boy. So nice-looking, and of course his family is beyond – but when I saw how things have been going lately, I just couldn’t help sugges
ting – and I’m sure she’d have found it a very wise choice. Mother thought so, and we both hoped – but I suppose she knows her own mind.”
“I’m afraid she does,” Sara said.
Eloise nodded. “My own fault, I suppose – but I’m sure I didn’t mean to plague her so that – really, no! My, no! I’ve just been trying to point out to her how Zeb – after all, that red man – and particularly now.”
“I take it,” Asey said, “you been suggestin’ that there was a lot of sanity in hookin’ Zeb, instead of botherin’ with Slade, considerin’ this situation?”
“Why yes, of course. I’m sure I didn’t mean to plague her till she – but one never knows, does one—” her voice trailed off.
“One doesn’t, I’m sure – it,” Asey said. “It – oh, Sara, if I stay here any longer, I’ll talk like that too. See to her, will you? I’ll be back.”
He could well understand how Jane might have been driven to the breaking point if Eloise had been pumping out a steady if disconnected stream of propaganda in favor of Zeb Chase, and apparently she had been doing just that. That accounted for Jane’s spending the previous day with Zeb. Eloise had simply driven her into it.
Weston and Jeff were in the living room, busy over a batch of papers.
“Nice hunters you are,” Asey said. “Where’s Jane?”
Weston smiled. “Brinley found her. I didn’t know he was such a lady killer. He found her out under the trees, and brought her in, and she’s crying on his shoulder in the dining room, and he seems to be handling her so well that Jeff and I decided to leave the affair to him. Asey, what’s to be done? I’m going crazy and that’s a fact!”
Asey shrugged. “About all we can do is wait an’ hope, right now.”
“I worry about tomorrow,” Weston said. “It’s town day, and tag day for our new hospital. I want it to go off. Friday is the historical day – that doesn’t count much, and Saturday’ll take care of itself, with the week-end crowd, and all. But tomorrow has simply got to go smoothly. Oh, I forgot. The state police head wanted you to call him. He didn’t come with the governor, he came later and stayed only a few minutes. He said he’d call Lane. Asey, isn’t there anything we can do to keep tomorrow from being spoiled?”
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