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"I&039; to that, too Sometime in January--this is in --Emily hired Mr Jonathan Barrett as her secretary They iven by Violet, who still atteuest of a guest, had no real references, but was obviously educated and cultured Not long after his hiring, the ru on&039; between him and Emily They circulated the servants&039; hall and into the town and eventually e
&039;She immediately hter, and the upshot was that Barrett had to go Much to her shock and surprise, Emily flatly refused For the next few months, neither woman spoke to the other, and when they did, they were usually trading salvos over Barrett"
"How did he handle all this?"
"He kept in the neutral background as eous bribes, though the question was raised as to whether Violet actually had the ations of a private detective hired to find soht be used to influence Eainst him--"
"What about his influence on E "Hypnosis is a possibility, but I put enuinely in love with hiht&039;s rendezvous makes that a virtual certainty"
"Unless they were both faking it"
"Granted, but to return--"
"Yeah, go ahead"
"All her efforts having failed to budge him, Violet assembled a trio of psychiatrists in need of funds for the purpose of having Emily declared mentally incompetent--"
"What?"
"A tactic that had every chance of working After all, Eo, why should she not suffer another?"
"Suffer is right, herher crazy didn&039;t seeht round the twist?" he queried "Agreed This was a woman anted and usually did exercise total control over those around her--particularly over her daughter"
"So what happened with the doctors?"
"It all fell through because of the fire and her death"
"Very convenient for Barrett"
"Yes, and soestively odd: in the newspaper accounts of the fire not one of them mentions his name"
I chewed that one over "He&039;d naturally want a low profile"
"Low to nonexistent Also, there was no gossip connecting hi, soht it upon herself--&039;God&039;s judg such a foul te"
"But you think he did it?"
"I think," he said after a moment, "that if it was not an accident, then any of three people could have done it--or perhaps all three or any combination Barrett is the most likely, more so than Emily or Laura"
"Laura was just a kid at the tirandrandchildren?"
II was likely to forget "What&039;s her h?"
"Violet Francher&039;s overbearing personality? One cannot choose one&039;s relative"
"You could add a fourth, the housekeeper who quit"
"Ah, but she was verythe duties of her job some ten miles away On the other hand, that frayed wire could just as easily have been ta bo could have been an accident, after all"
"Look, is this anything we can really use?"
"It is knowledge, usable or not Only time will reveal its value to us"
"So nohat?"
Most of the green in his gills had faded and his eyes were sparking with new energy when he opened them "We take a ride in a cab"
"We--you found the cab?"
"More important, I found the driver His name is John Henry Banks and he is president, owner, and sole elanced at his watch-- "he is due here in fifteen minutes"
"You talked with him?"
"I made an appointment by phone for him to pick us up"
"How in hell did you find him?"
"Sometimes in this type of work antic coincidence plays its part One of the men I talked with today was part of the demolition and cleanup crew that worked on the burned Francher house He mentioned that the day before they started the job, his cousin John Henry had been called out to the estate to pick up a fare It should give you an idea of how exciting the pace of life is in Glenbriar that so so trivial is remembered"
"But it&039;s a break for us"
"We shall see"
At seven-thirty a blue-and-yellow checkered cab pulled up outside the inn and a little brown ot out and stumped up to the front door
"Call for Escott!" he bellowed, poking his head just inside
I hoped Escott hadn&039;t wanted a low profile for himself If so, then John Henry Banks had just shot it all to hell We&039;d already gotten a few curious looks frootten the looks
Escott had both our naister, but he&039;d been the only one they&039;d seen up till now The clerk was giving ure out where I&039;d come from
We followed Banks out and Escott told hie of town
It took him all of oneat us froainst the door, but he got puzzled about the empty spot I should have been in and twisted around to make sure I was still aboard Escott distracted hiot out of hand"Mr
Banks, I have a question for you"
"Eh?"
"I need to know if you can recall a fare you picked up five years ago"
He gawked at us He had a square face with a sharp nose and chin, thin brown hair, and large, innocent brown eyes "You serious? Five years? I don&039;t keep those kind of records, mister"
"Have you ever picked up a fare from the Francher estate?"
He started to roll his eyes and shake his head but stopped midway "Here now, the Franchers&039;? The place where the old lady was burned up?"
"The same"
"I fully to the running meter
Escott siven the tiht out and this country air is quite refreshing" He sat back in the seat as if it were part of a drawing rooht to listen
Banks responded with a grin "Okay, as a matter of fact, I do remember that one"
"Please tell us about it"
"Why do you want to know?"
Escott now looked at theI shouldn&039;t like to catch a chill, so perhaps we should return iht on fast "Well, I was in ot his call It&039;s just me and the one car, you know, and business is pretty thin, so I&039; me to come up to the Francher place, which I never been to before on account of the old lady and her daughter being rich with their own cars don&039;t need any cabs Course by then the old lady got burned up in the fire, onna help tear down the old house--"
"The phone call, Mr Banks?" Escott gently urged
"Oh, yeah I got out there, had to argue my way past Mayfair&039;s wife--she&039;s the housekeeper there,, and what a teot You&039;d think she owned the place the way she throws her weight around She went to call the house to see it anyone wanted a cab, and when she got back she looked like she&039;d just bit a bad leh and I drove up and saw the house--the burned one, and what a mess that was--"
Escott raised an eyebrow
"Oh Well I got to the other house, the new place what the daughter had built, and there was this lady standing out front waiting--"
"What&039;d she look like?" I asked
"I dunno She was little, dark clothes, wore one of them hats so you couldn&039;t see her face"
"With a veil?" Maureen often wore one to shade her eyes frolow of sunset
"Yeah Looked like aat a funeral She had a trunk, but I always keep some rope handy for stuff like that It was so in place--"
"Where did she want to go? What did she say to you?"
"She hardly said nothing, just told me to load the trunk on and to take her to Port Jefferson as quickly as I could"
"Where&039;s that?"
"That&039;s what threw me, too I expected it to be at least to Queens, and this place is nearly sixtythe north shore of the island I asked if she was sure, and she nodded and got inside and told me to hurry it up"
"She was nervous?"
"I guess so She see"
"Was she afraid?"
"Dunno Who could tell with that black stuff covering her face? All I can tell you for sure was that she was in a hurry"
"Did she say why she was going to Port Jefferson?"
"I asked--by way of conversation, just to be friendly--but she never answered, so I shut up Some of these rich dames can be pretty snooty
She was quiet for the whole trip, and sixtyway to be quiet"
"Why did you think she was rich?" asked Escott
"You think the Franchers would know anyone poor?" he reasoned logically
"Where in Port Jefferson did you take her?"
"Now that&039;s the funny part She wanted to be dropped at the ferry"
"Ferry?"
"Port Jefferson has a ferry running across the sound to Bridgeport It was full night by then and the ferry was closed down and I told her so
She just had me untie her trunk and leave it there with her on the side of the road She paid the fare, gave ood"
"You seeuess I do Ithe only person I ever picked up froavelike that so soon"
Escott turned to ed Why would she want to be crossing water by boat? It was difficult enough for e
He went back to John Henry Banks "You are absolutely certain of this sequence of events?"
"That&039;s the truth, mister Take it or leave it" He took it, but neither of us liked it
Banks drove us back to the inn It was ave him a tip equal to Maureen&039;s, which put hi with instructions to call him anytime if we ever needed another drive
Escott was striding purposefully up the stone-bordered walk I caught up with hi a thin phone book froes
He stopped at cab co--and Banks was at the top of the column, a fact Escott noted aloud to me
"If she needed a taxi, she would consult a directory and the first listing ht be her first choice, as it evidently turned out How do you feel about a long drive tonight?"
"To Port Jefferson?"
"And possibly to Bridgeport"
On a boat Across all that water Da my expression
"I&039;m no Popeye the Sailor, but if Maureen could take it, so can I I guess"
"Brave heart," he said, and signaled to the clerk to start checking us out
While he was busy with that I went upstairs to bring down his bag and my trunk I opened our door and stopped cold Jonathan Barrett was standing by the , hands clasped behind hih I, and not he, were the unwelcome intruder