“No, it was at the Last Hurrah," Sam retorted. Dunne nodded. "Much more appropriate." Everybody laughed.
“Anyway, Sam had too much to lose. Not that a murderer doesn 't, but somehow I didn 't see this guy giving up home, job, not to mention the Porsche for the satisfaction of doing away with an adolescent, but pretty professional, blackmailer.”
Sam spoke up, " I had just about decided to tell Pix, then explain as best I could to the kids. Cindy did have me rattled, but I know what happens with blackmail. I've seen enough of it. The ante keeps going up and up. I like to think I would have been able to say no."
“Of course you would have!" exclaimed Pix. "And ifI hadn't been so dimwitted, I would have figured out that something terrible was bothering you and we would have taken care of her, believe me.”
Sam looked at her gratefully. Faith was glad that neither one of them knew that in fact almost every teenager in town had known of Sam and Cindy's affair. They might never get ice cream at Friendly 's again.
Dunne 's deep voice resumed, "So that left Robert Moore. He had been in medical school before he went to law school. Bet you didn 't know that, Faith. And he didn 't have much of an alibi. I began to sniff around for a motive. Everyone has money troubles, so why not him ? He wasn 't exactly going to starve, but he had put a lot of money in the house in New Hampshire and the boats, plus the kid's college expenses. Things were a bit tight just at a slack time at work.
“ I had checked with the lawyers and they said the money went to Patricia, a lot of money. Unfortunately they didn 't tell me about this fool thing with the female descendants of the Captain and Persis. I had to read the books to find that out.”
Faith was annoyed. So that was who had taken the books out. She might have guessed. If he had left them where they should have been, she wouldn 't have had to go to Eleanor 's for them. But then she might have gone anyway to ask her more about the family and how she was related, so it would have ended up the same. Maybe.
“ He had the knowledge, opportunity, and it all made a lot of sense, but I didn 't have any evidence. So I figured I'd let things ride for a bit and see what he did. Sam and Dave weren 't exactly in the clear, but no one was hurting."
“That's what you say," Sam said. Dave nodded in vehement agreement.
Faith interrupted, " What made you change your mind?"
“Something completely unscientific. A guu reaction. I just couldn't see this guy killing his wife. And I had the advantage of having Charley here, who practically knows the number of cavities every person in this town has. He told me not to waste time on Dave and Sam, then after Patricia was murdered, to forget Robert.”
Charley looked a bit abashed. "I'd never want Robert to know I suspected him, but of course we had to consider everybody. My God, Faith here even thought it might be you, Millicent."
“Thanks a lot, Charley," said Faith.
Millicent just smiled and stored it all away.
Charley spoke sadly, "I knew how Robert felt about Cindy. It had been going on for years. She was almost destroying his home and family. If a man isn't driven to kill for that, I don't know what for."
“She was about to leave, true," Dunne picked up the narrative, "but he might have wanted to cast some blame elsewhere—Dave maybe. And besides the wedding was going to set him back a lot. All that made sense. Then came his wife's death. I've seen people grieve, but few like this.”
He paused and they all thought of Patricia.
“Then there was the rose in Faith's mailbox. I still had him pegged at the time, in fact he was under surveillance. But the rose business. It seemed more like something a woman would do. All right, all right," he said as a sea of accusing fingers was raised, "That's sexist, but I was right, wasn't I ? It was Eleanor Whipple."
“Only partly right, John," Faith was glad to supply some new information. "It was a female, but it wasn't Eleanor and I think it was told to me in confidence, so I can't tell."
“Okay, so it wasn't Eleanor." He grinned. "It's not really hard to guess, Faith. After all, who have you beenwith for the last nineteen or twenty hours? Jenny—protecting her old man, right ? “
Faith flushed. "You're beginning to talk like cops on TV. I thought you went to Harvard."
“Better. Columbia." He reached across the table for her hand, " So don 't tell. As long as the three of you are safe, I don 't care what girlish secrets you may have shared.”
Faith was touched. Tom had left his post behind her and sat down in the chair by her side. He grabbed her other hand. For a moment she felt like some sort of electrical connection and a pleasant feeling of warmth came over her. Dunne let go. Tom didn 't.
“No." Millicent hadn't heard her own voice for a while and must have been lonely. " Robert loved Patricia very much. I was at their wedding—I was almost a child, of course."
“Of course," everyone murmured tactfully, smiling slightly into their sleeves.
“ Perhaps you were the flower girl ? " queried Faith, not so tactfully.
“Not as young as all that, dear," Millicent answered tolerantly, " I do remember thinking, however, that if they looked at each other for the rest of their marriage the way they did when they exchanged their vows it would be a very happy marriage indeed. And they always did. Cindy was a terrific burden, but she never caused problems between the two of them.”
She gave a regal little nod to John and he acknowledged it with one in return and continued.
“When two people in the same family are killed, the obvious thing to do is start digging around in the past—their common past. So that's what I did. And I gather," he looked at Faith quizzically, " the same idea occurred to you, despite all our warnings and all your assurances?”
Charley looked particularly downcast. "Really, Faith, I thought you had promised. I never would have forgiven myself if something had happened to you. I mean something much worse. We figured you wouldn 't get involved, not after Patricia's murder."
“But Charley, it was exactly because of what happened to Patricia that I had to—and you felt the same way. Even if it hadn't been your job, you would have tried to find out who killed your friend.”
Faith found she could be comfortably adamant now that she was alive.
“ And don 't blame Tom. He had no idea what I was doing. And really all I did was ask to borrow a book. You can 't imagine how surprised I was when she suddenly turned a gun on me.”
Tom tightened his already bone-crushing grip on her hand.
Pix gasped. "Faith, I 'm going to get the brownies I made yesterday morning and that champagne I mentioned. I have to have something to fortify myself and probably you'll say they don 't go with champagne, but you'll just have to bite the bullet—whoops, that's not exactly appropriate, I mean you'll just have to grin and bear it this once. Now don 't say a word until I get back."
“Champagne and chocolate are fine, especially your brownies," Faith reassured her. The idea of one of Pix's dense, dark brownies and a glass of champagne appealed to her, even on top of pizza and beer. She was tired, euphoric, and still hungry.
They all needed a stretch and got rid of the pizza boxes and empty beer bottles. Tom took out some ice cream and by the time Pix returned with her arms full,they had resumed positions and were ready for the next round.
It was Millicent 's turn.
“Of course," she said daintily, sipping at her champagne as if she never touched the stuff and had not earlier put away an entire bottle of beer, just this once for the shock. " Of course, I had no idea anyone was missing. I didn 't see you or Jenny go into Eleanor 's house, Faith.”
Faith was astonished. Was Millicent slipping?
“ I was having my hair done at the Beauty Shoppe." Faith was relieved. There had to have been some logical explanation. Since Millicent 's hair was unvarying in both its shade, white as snow, and style, Mamie Eisenhower, the Beauty Shoppe would never have suggested itself.
A thought struck her. How long does it take for a marcel wav
e or two ? "But Millicent, if you knew where we were, why didn't you get us out sooner?" Faith knew there was bound to be some retribution for ringing the belfry bell, yet this was going a little too far, even for Millicent.
“Yes, it was unfortunate," Millicent managed to make it sound like a nasty cold, "You see, I went straight from the hairdressers to a meeting of the Historical Society in Fitchburg." She turned and addressed the room at large, so no one would miss the importance of her next remarks, "I was the featured speaker. My talk was `The French Connection : Apollos Rivoire and Paul Revere.' " She hastened to add lest anyone think her title frivolous or worse, "I like to have a catchy opening. It gets people 's attention. The Reveres originated in France you know. " Everybody nodded solemnly except Scott. Millicent reminded him of his third-grade teacher—as cracked as the Liberty Bell, and was she strict ! He 'd spent most of the year in the cloakroom or the corner.
Since no one had offered to book Millicent for the season, even though she had paused meaningfully, she was forced to go on, " I stayed overnight with my cousin and didn't get back home until close to noon. Of course as soon as I heard the news I called the police.
“ I had begun to have very strong suspicions about Eleanor and while I was away I thought I would talk them over with someone. It struck me that Detective Dunne here was an intelligent and understanding man." Millicent managed to suggest that in this he was the only one in the greater Boston area.
Dunne blushed, or maybe it was the champagne. "So when I called the police department, I asked for him. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, because he was so busy looking for you." She looked at Faith in mild reproach for all the delay and inconvenience she had caused.
“You see, I knew about the will, but when I first thought of Eleanor, I found it hard to believe. Consider, she is a member of your church and the DAR. Then as I began to think, it seemed she was the only possibility.
“ I remember when Eleanor, Rose, and their mother moved to Aleford. They were so proud and you know," she turned to Tom and Reverend Sibley for support, "pride can be a sin. They were so proud they wouldn 't make friends with anyone and they made poor Patricia's mother terribly unhappy. On the one hand they expected her to give them everything, then on the other they wouldn 't take it. I knew right away that they were terribly jealous of the Harveys. That was Patricia's maiden name. I think it had all started even before the doctor, Eleanor and Rose 's father, died. They were brought up on their mother's stories of life in the Captain's house and when they went to visit, it must have been a greatcontrast. Doctor Whipple could never make much of his practice because he was a very lazy man. Just liked to take a bottle and a sandwich and fish in the Concord River. It drove his wife crazy. I think she actually was a bit disturbed anyhow. There always was a slightly hysterical strain in the Cox-Dudley line." Millicent took a breath and preened on her own impeccable nonpeccadilloed ancestry for a moment.
“Of course, after he died, he became a saint and it was `the doctor this,' `the doctor that.' But we all knew and felt sorry for them. Which of course they hated. There was really just no way things could work out as they wanted. Unless of course all the females between Eleanor and the inheritance died. When I realized this, I knew she was the killer."
“But," protested Faith, "she seemed to have so many friends here and she was always so kind."
“ When their mother died, Rose and Eleanor did come out of their shells, particularly Rose, who was always the more social of the two. It was a shame she never married, but her mother didn't think anyone was good enough for her. Rose got Eleanor out and active in things. Of course they had always gone to church," she assured Tom.
“After Rose died, Eleanor seemed all right, but I began to notice that she was very touchy about certain things, anything to do with Rose's memory, for example."
“She said Cindy had hurt Rose's feelings once. I think in her mind that justified the murder," Faith told them.
“Cindy called them `dried-up old maids' supposedly out of their hearing, but in a loud enough voice to be sure they did hear. Eleanor didn't particularly care, I imagine, but it must have hurt Rose bitterly, since she had had her chances and was always very pretty.”
Dunne had leaned forward. "So what you're saying, Millie, is that Eleanor began to lose touch with reality after Rose died. She put her up there with the rest of the family in her shrine.”
Millicent beamed. "Exactly. And Eleanor must have believed that she had been cheated out of her birthright. This was what I wanted to tell you and I thought you might want to borrow my books on the family," she added generously to one so obviously in tune.
Faith poured herself some more champagne and reached for a brownie before she thought better of it. When lightning did not strike John Dunne dead on the spot for calling Millicent "Millie," she knew for certain there were mysteries in life beyond our ken. Still, she wanted to find out more about the one to hand.
“I still don 't know how you found out where we were," she told him.
“ Robert Moore called us at about seven o'clock. He had come home from work at six and discovered that Jenny wasn't there. He telephoned every friend of Jenny 's he knew and had them all call around. It wasn't like her not to leave a note and he was worried. We started looking and then Tom called about a half an hour later. When we realized you were all missing with no word left for anyone, we knew it had to be connected. Especially after Tom told us you hadn 't given up your campaign to embarrass the police by unveiling the murderer first." He gave Faith a sidelong glance. " Which actually you did."
“Are there awards for this?" Faith wondered.
“Faith, this isn't like merit badges, you know," said Tom. " We were all frantic. I came home and assumed you were at Pix 's or someplace and had lost track of the time. The car was here, so I knew you hadn 't gone far. It was getting darker, though, and I began to feel uneasy. I started calling people.
“I even called Eleanor and she was very concerned.She hadn't seen you, but could she help in any way ? I was completely taken in.
“Then I phoned Charley and we all fanned out to search.”
Faith shuddered as she pictured them combing the areas, afraid of what they might or might not find.
Millicent picked up the thread. "The young man at the station told me that John and Charley might be at the church, so I ran over there." Faith pictured Millicent trotting across the green as fast as her Enna Jet-tick's would allow.
“John was coming down the front stairs of the church and...”
Dunne interrupted, "She grabbed me by the arm and started pulling me toward the street. All she said was, `They must be at Eleanor 's and I pray they are still alive.' I called back to Dale Warren to get Charley and come back up over there, and we took off.
“I didn 't want Millie to come in, but she just said I 'd never find you and she was right. Or it would have taken a whole lot longer.
“Eleanor answered the door. If you can believe this, she had been out searching with the rest of us and had even brought some pies over to the church. She must have assumed we wanted more help and invited us in. We went into some kind of living room crammed with stuff and the place was as silent as the grave, pardon the expression. Before I had a chance to do anything, Millie here walks right up to her and says, All right, Eleanor, where are they? We know all about Cindy and Patricia, so you might as well tell us what you've done with Faith and Benjamin and Jenny.'
“Eleanor just folded her arms across her chest and said, ` If you're so smart, Millicent Revere McKinley, you can figure it out for yourself.'
“Millie looked at her and I was about to have the guys start searching the house, when she said, `It's got to be the preserves closet. The attic has windows. Follow me.' And you know the rest.”
Faith felt a little foolish. Millicent was Millicent, true, but she was also a hell of a smart woman and brave. Just like her ancestors, if she was to be believed—and Faith rather suspected she was.
After t
hat it was Faith's turn and she was duly admired for her valiant efforts to escape.
“I wondered where that pie crust table was," mused Millicent. "You must have broken it, Faith. I'm sure Eleanor was quite upset."
“ She's not going to need a tea service or table where she's going," said Pix grimly. She had moved her chair close to Faith 's as Faith was recounting the hours in the closet and her efforts to locate a window. She looked as though she would have liked to take Faith in her lap, like one of her children or dogs, and hold her tight. Both sets of parents had been alternately losing and gaining color since Dunne had started filling them in.
“But why didn't Robert say something about Eleanor? Surely Patricia must have told him she suspected her ? " Faith suddenly remembered.
Charley answered, "Apparently Patricia never mentioned anything about Eleanor to him, Faith. And we don't know for sure that Patricia herself suspected her cousin. It could be that she wanted to tell us something completely different, maybe something about some man and Cindy. This is a part of the puzzle we'll never know."
“I don't want to contradict you, Charley," Millicent interrupted. Could Faith be hearing correctly? Contradiction was the spice of life to Millicent—or Millie, as she seemed to be now. " But I am pretty certain that Patricia did suspect Eleanor. If I tumbled onto it, I know she must have too and probably sooner, since sheknew her better. I think she must have been absolutely horrified that a member of her own family could have committed a murder. So horrified that she couldn't talk about it to anybody. Patricia was certainly not an ancestor worshipper—rather an odious trait I've always thought—" Pause while the audience sat suspended in disbelief. "Yet she was proud of them and I'm sure she found it difficult to share her fears about Eleanor, even with Robert. To be sure, it is rather a terrible thing to suspect that someone you know may be a murderer," she concluded, shooting a rapierlike glance at Faith.
Faith saw the scene on the deck in New Hampshire and heard Patricia's voice. She knew Millicent was right. Patricia was trying to protect Eleanor. She must never have suspected the full extent of her madness. It was also possible she wasn't sure and hoped the police would prove her wrong. Faith's mind whirled.
Body In The Belfry ff-1 Page 22
