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HE WAS A perfect statue, standing exactly in line with a tall, potted plant His subdued clothing blended with the darkness and et and still be solid
The sight gave me a bad start and I had to choke back the surprise; then I wanted to belt him one for the scare Escott read it all off h to say it wasn&039;t his fault that I was so juhten poor nerved-up vampires
"What is it?" de, just checking the weather We&039;ve been having an awful lot of it lately" I left the veranda to Escott and went inside to take a seat on the sofa In order to face me, Hundley had to turn his back on the open s He commandeered the banker&039;s chair as I&039;d hoped he would
&039;Nohat is this about?" Fro up to try a little blackainst the memory of his late client
"Barrett and Emily Francher," I said
"So I&039;ve assuested they had an intimate relationship"
"I stated they were lovers"
"Gossip is common, Mr Flynn, very common"
"I know it for a fact"
"And have you evidence?"
"We&039;re not in court, Mr Handley, so just for laughs, let&039;s pretend it&039;s true Can you think of any kind of errand that would keep Barrett away froht not have heard the news yet"
"Laura just said that he had"
"Granted, but I can hardly supply you with the specific reason you see to do with the relationship of two people is bound to be coe difference is involved"
"More than you think," IEven with this talk of complexities, you think he&039;d run out at a time like this?"
"I really couldn&039;t say"
"I&039;ll put emotions aside, then Let&039;s say that his only attach around here I assume Miss Emily left a will?"
"You may assume correctly"
"Don&039;t you think Barrett would want to stick around to hear it?"
"You presu man We don&039;t know if he has You also imply that Mr Barrett is some type of fortune hunter, but I can tell you that Miss Eard"
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said Miss Eht prefer her money over herself, and allowed for it"
"I want to knohat you mean"
"That is my business and none of yours, sir Why are you so concerned?"
"Because I think it&039;s daet herself killed at this time"
"What is so particularly special about this time?"
Watch it, I toldirregular about her death?"
"Convince me it wasn&039;t Convince me that someone didn&039;t push her down the stairs"
He kneas being utterly ridiculous "Do you fully realize the serious nature of such a suggestion?"
"No one better For instance, why did the doctor call in the police?"
"Miss E in this community--"
"Bosh, she hardly left the house"
"She was certainly an important taxpayer, then Dr Evans called in Chief Curtis because he is a very careful, conscientious man The nature of the accident was such that he wanted an informed professional to look at the scene in order to specifically allay the very rumors which you see fishy, too?"
"That is not what I--"
"What&039;d the doctor have to say? And Chief Curtis?"
"You may ask the for soic occurrence you are certain to be disappointed"
"Are you protecting Laura?"
"What do younowhere fast and lostwith my scruples
"Handley, listen to me Listen very carefully"
It was harder with souard and didn&039;t want to hear what I had to say, so I stepped up the pressure
"This is very i I say"
He blinked once, twice
"Listen to my voice"
His eyes softened, the stubborn expression gradually went slack, and his world closed and centered on my words and will I told him to shut his eyes because I hate that dull look, like what the ani
Escott was peering around the edge of oneIhih to watch
I kept my voice even and conversational "Handley, do you knohere Barrett is?"
"No"
"What did E"
That surprised us Escott i at all?"
"No"
"What about for Laura?"
"Yes"
Playing twenty questions would take us all night at this rate "Have you a copy of Emily&039;s ith you?"
"Yes"
That was a relief "Where is it?"
"My briefcase"
Escott spotted the black leather case andthe document in question I left him to read it and kept Handley busy
"What did the doctor say about Emily? How did she die?"
"She fractured her skull in a fall"
"Why&039;d he call the cops?"
"The man likes to dramatize, thinks he sees more than what&039;s really there" Handley didn&039;t like Dr Evans, either I wondered if he liked anyone at all
"Did they find anything odd or suspicious?"
"No"
"What time did it happen?"
"About two o&039;clock today"
"Where was Laura Francher at two o&039;clock?"
"Outside Horseback riding"
"For how long?"
"I don&039;t know"
"Anyone witness this?"
"Haskell, the groom"
"Where were the other servants?"
Thebread respectively Mrs Mayfair was there as well, working with the cook on the week&039;s newup stor and left the kitchen to take the linens upstairs Instead of using the servants&039; passage, she went through the front hall to see if May-fair had restocked the wood for the parlor fireplace She found Emily at the foot of the stairs and raised the alars, Mrs Mayfair sent someone after Barrett His door was locked and no one could find the key They assuet all that?" I whispered to Escort
"The germane points Did Miss Emily not have a key to Barrett&039;s room?"
I asked, but Handley didn&039;t know
"Odd, that"
"Not if Barrett wants to keep his secret He&039;d have allowed for an eency like this"
"He an intervieith this Haskell for the exact time of Laura&039;s ride and where she went"
"If we can interview Laura, on&039;t have to"
"True" He skies of the will "I believe I see Barrett&039;s guiding hand in this"
"Yeah?"
"There are soenerous trust for Laura, pensions for retired servants, and onestate a close friendship she formed with one of her British in-laws She had a special place in her heart for a young cousin whose name was also E "In the event of Emily Francher&039;s death, her secretary has instructions to contact this person If she appears within one year after the reading of the will, the rest of the estate goes to her This person&039;s fingerprints are on file with the Franchers&039; bank er and with Handley so that she may be correctly identified"
"I can see the riot that&039;s going to cause a her cutout relatives"
"Yes, this is hardly sohtly accept"
"What happens if this other Emily doesn&039;t show up?"
His eyes zipped back and forth "Then the estate goes to Laura In the event of Laura&039;s death, and/or if the other Emily never appears, then it&039;s to be sold off and the money distributed to a number of charities"
"You think Laura knows about this will? If she does, then she could have made an investment for her future"
"Unless Emily&039;s death was an accident, after all"
"We&039;ll find out"
He looked at Handley with some amusement "I take it from your question to our silent friend here that you haven&039;t found Barrett?"
"You take right Nobody&039;s found hiht and left"
"Why should he do that?"
"I dunno,he didn&039;t like, and took off to think things over"
He folded the will and put it back in the briefcase "Did you see Laura?"
"Yeah, I even had a fast ith her She gave out with a song and dance that he was gone because of his duties, whatever the hell that ested
"During the day, yes, but he&039;d be up by now Heto avoid the relatives, and I can&039;t blame him for that, but it looks bad"
"True I was considering that if Emily&039;s fall were no accident, then Mr
Barrett is the only one in the house with no alibi"
"Except with us We know he couldn&039;t have done anything"
"Possibly Can you guide us to his sanctum?"
"No sweat, but he won&039;t want to see us"
We started for the door, but Escott abruptly stopped I didn&039;t understand why until he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the lawyer, as still on the far side of dreao back to your work, now Coet we had this little talk, okay?"
"Very well," he replied, sounding perfectly normal He opened his eyes, swiveled his chair around to face the desk, and started shuffling papers Escott and I slipped out and paced down the hall
"What were you doing in there?" I asked
"Virtually nothing, as I had no tiotten to Barrett&039;s office and was about to search the briefcase when the two of you walked in The rest of the tiet a look at Emily&039;s body?"
"Yeah"
"And her condition?"
"She&039;s really dead, as far as I can tell"
"Then God forgiveout here sooner"
"You think it was no accident, then?"
"To do so would be to make an assumption without the benefit of facts"
he said stiffly
Okay, he had to be logical about things, but at least one part of his , and he didn&039;t like that part one bit
We went down by way of theup on fa on their financial future I was teo home
No one paid any attention to us, and after a little thought I found the right hall and the right door, the only one in the wing that was locked
I slipped through it, found the stairanted, and caain
"No key on that side," I said "I&039;ll just--"
"I think I can e" He pulled out an impressive set of skeleton keys and picks froan to experiular Raffles," I co"
"Look, I can just go down for a quick gander If he&039;s really gone you won&039;t need to--"
"There!" He turned the knob and pushed open the door "That was a bit of luck Usually it takes er"
"Where&039;d you learn to do that?" I was impressed
"You acquire all kinds of skills in the theater" He replaced his picks and shut the case "We once had a leading lady prone to the sulks and locking herself in her dressing rooet her door open so the stage o to work"
"Crazy world"
"Very"
"But where&039;d you get that?" I gestured at the case as ent down the carpeted stairs
"Oh, they&039;re sort of an inheritance," he dismissed "Let&039;s see about this one now"
I didn&039;t bother trying to slip through again; I enjoy watching an artist at work The wood-covered metal door at the bottom of the steps had a different lock than the one in the upper hall and took longer to break, but it was fascinating to see hiave way to his efforts
Barrett wasn&039;t there to greet us
"Bolts on the inside I see," he noted as he walked in "I suppose if he were still here he&039;d have shot them and your special assistance would be necessary, after all This looks ed open, their contents gutted, and there were gaps in the closet
My shoulders were tightening and I didn&039;t think it had to do with Barrett skipping out So else had crept into the back of my mind and I couldn&039;t identify it
Escott went to the library/living area and returned "He&039;s quite the reader These books are well used He also did a bit of writingI&039;ve found some sort of journal It&039;s odd that he left so personal an item behind, unless he&039;s on a short tripWhere are you?"
"Closet," I called The so me wasn&039;t in here
He looked in "Good heavens, it&039;s as big asroom"
I pointed "He left his trunk"