The Gladstone Bag (20 page)

“She was here and the door was about the way it is now. I don’t recall having touched it. Did I, Theonia?”

“No, I don’t believe either of us did. The hinges are rather stiff. I noticed that when I went to hang up my things. One would have had to give it a firm push to change the angle.”

“And Sandy was how?” demanded Franklin.

Emma promptly plunked herself down on the floor. “Like this, with her back resting against the bed.”

The doctor shook his head. “She couldn’t have hurt herself that way.”

“Of course she couldn’t,” Emma replied somewhat testily. “If I may venture another conjecture, I assumed at the time Sandy must have pulled herself up and braced herself against the bed because she still felt dizzy. She’d been missing for quite a while when we found her, you know. She could well have been knocked unconscious and had time to come out of it.”

“But she was definitely still groggy?”

“Oh yes, no question about that. I raised two accident-prone sons of my own, Doctor. I can tell when a youngster’s putting it on and when he’s really hurt. In any event, I shouldn’t think Sandy would be much good at faking an injury.”

Vincent emitted a little snort. “Not her. Sandy’s so consarned truthful it gets embarrassin’ sometimes. An’ you can’t get around that jeezledy great lump on ’er head, Frank.”

“Just so, Vince. Let me in there, will you, Mrs. Kelling?”

Emma made way for the doctor. He examined the edge of the door up, down, and sideways; he even went into some peculiar gymnastics of his own. At last he shook his head again.

“No way I can see she did that to herself, Vince. I’d say Sandy was standing in front of the open closet when somebody came around behind her and beaned her one.”

Vincent didn’t like that one bit. “Jesus H. Christ!” he exploded. “Then there’s two of ’em.”

“Two what?”

“Hell, Frank, look at the facts. That bugger who stole Mrs. Kelling’s fake diamonds was already dead by then. That means there’s got to be another crook still runnin’ loose on the island.”

“But why should he have hit Sandy, and why here?”

“Damned if I know. Nothin’ like this ever happened till now.”

He was glaring at Emma as if it were all her fault. She decided she’d better take the bull by the horns.

“I think it must have been a case of Sandy’s happening to be in this room at the wrong time. Am I to gather, Vincent, that the Sabines never told you about the safe?”

“What safe? Mean to say you know somethin’ about this house that I don’t?” He was furious and no wonder.

“I’m sure it’s not that they didn’t trust you, Vincent. I expect they were trying to shield you from suspicion in the event of a theft,” Emma improvised. It would have been unkind to say, Why should they? After all, you are only a servant.

“Anyway,” she went on, “since it’s unlikely Mrs. Sabine will ever set foot in this house again and I don’t suppose her heirs will care one way or the other, I see no reason to keep the secret any longer. There is in fact a small wall safe hidden behind the cedar paneling in this closet. Mrs. Sabine told me about it in case I was bringing any money or valuables with me that I didn’t want to leave lying around loose. She was a bit concerned, since she knew nothing about any of the crowd who’d be using the cottages.”

That rocked the handsome doctor. “Do you mean Mrs. Sabine has invited a bunch of people to stay here whom she doesn’t know from a hole in the ground?”

“As I understand it, she didn’t even invite them herself. She let Dr. Wont, whom she’d never met, invite them for her. I know that sounds totally irresponsible, but I think it was mainly that she didn’t much care. She’s been sick so long, and she’s so old. Mrs. Sabine was simply going through the motions, trying to carry on the way she always had so that her children wouldn’t feel she’d given up on life. Somebody she knew told her Dr. Wont wanted to bring a party of artists and writers here for the summer; it was a way of coping, so she simply let him organize the whole business sight unseen.”

This must have been something else Vincent hadn’t been aware of. “By Godfrey, if I’d o’ known that—”

“You’d have done exactly what you’re doing now,” his brother finished for him. “What else could you have done, Vince? It’s still Mrs. Sabine’s place; she’s still paying your wages. You’d no call to question her judgment unless she’d asked you to do something illegal or downright crazy. Would you care to show us that safe, Mrs. Kelling?”

“Yes, why not?” said Emma. “If this bulb were stronger, you could all see better.”

Vincent, naturally, produced a flashlight on the spot. Emma pushed the knothole and popped the cover. The safe was shut; she couldn’t see any sign that anybody had tried to force it. She twirled the combination and opened the little round metal door. The empty jewelry boxes and the papers she’d left in one neat stack were toppled into such disarray as the limited space allowed.

Emma hesitated. Should she mention the necklace? Theonia wasn’t offering any hint, but her lips were more tightly pressed together than they normally would be. No necklace, then. But she had to say something.

“Yes, somebody’s definitely been in here. I opened the safe last night myself, partly out of curiosity and partly to make sure Mrs. Sabine hadn’t left anything of value that ought to be sent along to her in Pleasaunce. I couldn’t quite bring myself to examine the papers because that would really have been prying, but I did look inside the boxes and found them all empty. I put them back precisely as I’d found them, not jumbled around like this. Somebody searched through them in a big hurry, don’t you think?”

“As though they wanted to get out of the room while Sandy was still unconscious,” Theonia offered.

“We ought to be thankful she didn’t come to at the wrong time,” said the doctor. “I suppose it would be hopeless to try to get fingerprints off those velvet covers. You didn’t put anything of your own in here, Mrs. Kelling?”

“I didn’t bring anything worth locking up except for my engagement ring, which I never take off, and some traveler’s checks, which would be hard for a thief to cash. They’re still in my purse, by the way.”

“Good for you. I suppose we should have a look at these papers, just in case. Here, Vince, you do it.”

They turned out to be nothing more earth-shaking than plans for the island’s septic system. Vincent studied them with some interest, then carefully stowed them back in the safe. “What beats me is why Mrs. Sabine left these boxes here with nothin’ in ’em.”

Emma shrugged. “Why shouldn’t she? That’s the sort of thing anybody might do. When they first started coming to Pocapuk, I expect the Sabines used to travel with steamer trunks. There’d have been plenty of room for this sort of thing in a trunk. Later, when they only brought suitcases, Mrs. Sabine would have used a jewelry roll of soft leather that would pack easily. She might have been in the habit of transferring her jewels to these cases when she unpacked, or the cases might simply have been left in the safe for the same reason you yourself probably have a couple of old cuff-link boxes or whatever stuck somewhere at the back of a dresser drawer. Vincent, do you think perhaps we ought to call your brother Lowell up here?”

“Dunno what for. He’s not a policeman. County sheriff’s the one to handle it, far’s I know. We never had any trouble out here before, not in all the years the Sabines kept comin’. Why’d it have to happen now?”

“Perhaps because somebody formed the mistaken impression that because Mrs. Sabine is too old and ill to travel, things on Pocapuk had got out of control and they could do as they please without getting caught,” Theonia suggested quietly. “Vincent, would it have been possible for anybody to get into this house long enough to discover the safe during the off-season? You don’t stay here in the wintertime, I don’t suppose.”

“No, I don’t, and yes, it would be possible. When I leave for the winter, I board up all the windows and double-lock the doors, but that’s not to say somebody couldn’t come along and take one of the boards off. They’d have had to put it back just the way I had it or I’d have noticed when I came to make my inspection, which I do faithfully once a week, all winter long. Unless the weather’s so bad I can’t get here,” he conceded, “in which case nobody else could, neither.”

“Do you always come on the same day?” Theonia asked him.

“Either Saturday or Sunday. Only time I have. I work five days a week at the college.”

As president, no doubt, Emma thought. One could hardly envision Vincent in a lesser post.

“So all a person would have to do would be to show up on Monday or Tuesday,” Franklin grunted. “You know as well as I do, Vince, anybody can get in anywhere if he wants to badly enough. How’s Ted making out?”

“All right, I guess. Cocky bugger, considerin’.”

“Think I’d better have a talk with him?”

“Wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’ll be back in a day or so, then. I expect Lowe’s about ready to be getting along. You keep Sandy quiet the rest of today and see how she feels in the morning. I’ll call later and tell you how I made out with your man there. I understand you ladies think he might be one of the Pences.”

“We sincerely hope he isn’t,” Theonia replied. “We’ve neither of us ever met Polydore alive, you see; it’s just that we shouldn’t like to see you run into trouble because of a misconception. If it is Polydore, his fingerprints are no doubt on file somewhere. He’s been picked up by the police at various times because of his bouts of amnesia and his unfortunate habit of collecting other people’s jewelry. Polydore doesn’t think of it as stealing but naturally the owners do. You do understand how awkward the situation could be.”

“One does have to wonder.” Emma decided that if Theonia could tell fairy tales, she might try her hand at it, too. “A member of the family might have had a better chance than an outsider to learn about this safe. The Pences are a clannish lot, like the Kellings. And like your own family, one gathers. But we really mustn’t keep you here chatting while your brother’s down there waiting. Then you think you may have the results of the autopsy by this evening?”

“With any luck, yes. I’ll get hold of the county sheriff’s office as soon as we get him ashore. Ready, Vince?” With the minimum allowable degree of courtesy, Dr. Franklin made his good-byes to the two women and followed his brother out of the room.

“Well,” said Emma. “Poor little Sandy! What a beastly thing to find out, but I can’t say I’m surprised. You really are the most charmingly plausible liar, Theonia.”

“Practice, my dear, practice. What about this fellow Ted?”

“An excellent question. Do you know, I hardly think I’ve spoken more than two words to that young man since I’ve been here. The only time I’ve been in Ted’s company, Vincent was ripping him and Neil to shreds for having brought your step-whatever into the house without permission.”

“For which one could hardly blame him,” said Theonia. “Where do you suppose Ted is right now?”

“The last I knew, Vincent had sent him out to clear up some of the damage from yesterday’s storm. Broken trees and all that.”

“Then let’s go find him.”

“Is it safe for us to be prowling the woods by ourselves?”

“My dear Emma, this from you? I didn’t think the word
safe
was in your vocabulary. You know, statistically it would appear we’d be safer out there than in here. I don’t suppose there’s any hope Sandy managed to get a look at whoever coshed her.”

“I don’t suppose we have a prayer of getting near enough to ask her,” said Emma. “Vincent’s going to guard her like a wolf with its cub. I had the impression he was more angry than surprised at what his brother told us, didn’t you?”

“Oh yes, decidedly so. One can hardly blame him. What a spot for a caretaker to be in!”

Emma thought it was rather a spot for an acting hostess to be in, but all she said was, “Just let me get my hat.” The sun was hot now and she wasn’t about to appear in that faded relic of Adelaide’s alongside Theonia’s fetching black boater. Not that one should be thinking of such things at a time like this, but old habits die hard. She adjusted her brim to its most becoming angle and led the way out toward the pine grove at the western side of the house.

The whine of a chain saw told her she’d guessed right. It didn’t take more than a couple of minutes to track the noise to its source. Ted was working by himself, cutting the branches off a pine tree he’d felled. He was clearly only too pleased at an excuse to shut off the saw’s motor.

“Something I can do for you, Mrs. Kelling?”

“I’m just showing Mrs. Brooks around the island. Where’s Neil?”

“Down at the dock talking to his uncle.”

“Isn’t Lowell your uncle, too?” Emma remarked innocently. “I had the impression you people were all related.”

“Huh! Better not let Vincent hear you say that.”

“Why, Ted?” Theonia spoke as though she’d known this young stranger all his life. “What were you in for?”

That rocked him. He jerked the saw toward her in an ugly, tentative gesture. “What are you talking about? In where? What for?”

“You tell me, Ted. You’ve violated your parole, haven’t you?”

He looked down at the saw, then slowly, carefully, laid it down on the fallen tree trunk. “You’re not a parole officer?”

“No,” said Theonia, “but you’d better come clean with me anyway. It’s all right, Ted; I won’t run you in if you tell us the truth.”

“How do I know you won’t?”

“You’ll just have to trust me. The way you trusted Jimmy Sorpende.”

“Jimmy?” Now he was totally demoralized. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Theonia Kelling, and I’m married to Mrs. Kelling’s cousin Brooks. That’s why she called me Mrs. Brooks, merely to avoid confusion. You may, too, if it makes you feel any better. What did they bust you for? As a guess, I’d say aggravated assault while under the influence.”

“The bastard had it coming,” he growled. “How’d I know his aunt was a cop?”

“Life is full of surprises, Ted. This was your first serious offense, I suppose, or you’d still be inside. You’re from around here somewhere. Your parents are respectable people and friends of Dr. Franklin. They think you got a bum rap, and you behaved in jail or you wouldn’t be here now. Vincent doesn’t know you’re only out on parole, though, does he? That was the hook Jimmy used to make you let him into the house, right?”