There is always love (24 page)

"Don't be absurd. What have you to say to me? Hurryl Keith has gone to get the picture started. I don't want to miss a footage of that and I must see Buff first." He hadn't touched her but she felt as if she were being held by steel chains.

"You'll get there, but before you go, you'll answer a question. Sanders came out of your room last night. He said he went in thinking it was his. Did you know he was tiiere?" 138

His face was white. His eyes burned straight down into her pounding heart. What should she say? If she admitted that she had, he might think she had asked Keith to come. If only they were good friends, if only he didn't think she was a double-crosser, she could tell him the truth and they would laugh about it. He wouldn't believe her. A storm of emotion was gathering within her, rising, rising, until her heart and mind were in a tumult. She shook her head slowly, speechless.

"Look at me. You can't?" His voice was rough with anger. "All right, you did know he was there. It seems I'm speaking out of turn, again. That saves him from getting the licking of his life. If it was okay with you it's nothing to me. That's all."

He stalked down the long room. She held out her hand, opened her lips to cry out the truth to him, shut them hard. What difference did it really make to him except that he thought now he had one more proof that she was a detestable person? Would her heart ever stop aching after this?

The butler wasn't in the pantry. She discovered him at last in the drawing room, straightening the hangings at the window from which she and Keith had looked out. What an old fusser he was. He'd doubtless have a nervous breakdown if the damask didn't fall in straight folds. She delivered the message.

"That's all about the supper. Buff. Come quickly. Mr. Sanders is holding up the picture for us."

Their entrance into the billiard room was the si^al for the lights to go out. Keith must have been watching for them. She sat on the edge of her chair while the cast of actors was being shown on the screen. Waited impatiently through the first two scenes. Now was her chance to get away without being seen. Ten o'clock, Annie had set the zero hour. Zero hour for what?"

Stealthily, soundlessly as a ghost, she reached the door that shut off the stairs to the third floor. The key was in the lock. Annie was waiting for her. A chill shivered through her veins. What would she hear? Why wouldn't it be safe for the maid or herself if they were seen together?

"Annie? Annie?" she whispered. She didn't dare switch on the electricity for fear the light would be seen outside.

"Here I am. Miss. Near the old chest by the window."

"What has happened? Tell me. Quick!" Even as she asked the question she knew with blinding suddenness that something dreadfully wrong threatened.

"Oh, Miss Linda, I had to cornel A couple of guys took Cline away that night you were to meet me at the game house and me with them. He'd told me to bring my clothes, that I couldn't ever go back to the Madam. When I found

what kind of company he was keepin' I was scared stijBf. They took him into the hospital and I beat it and hid. I saw him on the quiet last night. If they find me here they'll . . ." The dusk caught up her hoarse whisper and sent it echoing from corner to eerie corner. Sobs shook her, deep smothered sobs, terrible to hear.

Linda gripped her emotions tight. No time to be frightened. No time to imagine. The faint sounds of yells, whistles and shots rose from below. The picture was getting into its stride. Luckily it was a long one.

"Annie," she urged close to the girl's ear. 'Tell me what this means. Who will follow you?"

"Cline's pals and Cline's boss, if they find out he told, Miss. He's terrible sick in the hospital an' scared to die with this sin on him. It was planned weeks ago."

Linda strangled an urge to scream with impotence. The church bells were chiming the three quarters. Only fifteen minutes till ten o'clock. Danger was creeping toward them.

"Stop sniveling, Annie, or I'll go down and tell Madam Steele you're here. Ill shout, 'Come and get her I'"

"You wouldn't do that. Miss?" Annie's voice was horrified.

"I would and a lot more. Quick. Tell me or 111 go—"

"Don't! Don'tl I'll tell . . ." She whispered her information, stopping between every few words to listen. Linda shut her teeth hard mto her lips. She mustn't let the girl know she was terrified.

"At ten! It is almost ten now."

"Listen!" Annie's fingers bit into her arm. They crouched side by side, ears strained. Came the click of a key in a lock.

"Someone saw us come. We're locked in. We can't help now. Miss." The girl's shudder made Linda fighting mad.

"Oh, yes we can. I won't stay here and let a lot of crooks harm my relatives and friends." Brave words but it was action, not words needed now. At ten it would happen. The human brain was capable of holding three billion separate ideas and she couldn't rake up one that would help. What could she do? As clearly as if it had been radioed she heard Madam Steele's voice:

"What quality is it in some persons which keeps them hanging on in a desperate situation until somehow, in some miraculous way, they get out of it? What is that something which won't let them give up? That nine times out of ten pulls them through?"

Had she that intangible something? She had been handed the chance of her life to find out. Her blood which had been chilled rushed through her veins in a warm tide. She was angry enough to take chances, frightened enough to be shaky, determined enough to carry on. 140

"1*11 crawl through the window to the fire escape and go down that way, Annie.'*

"You can't, Miss. It'll be icy. You'll slip.'*

"Stop crying and help. People don't slip when something has to be done.'*

"But, Miss, if you fall?'*

"I won't fall. Stay here. I'll send someone to let you out if I make it. I must make it. Quick. Help push up the window. It's frozen! Dam! Push! Push! Only a few minutes to go before ten. There! It's up. Don't move. Someone may have heard the squeak."

They waited motionless. No sound broke the stillness.

"Now!" Linda whispered and caught up her gold skirts. She squeezed through the opening. Holding her breath to hear tiie hour chime. Praying that the minutes would lag. She slipped on the icy iron grating. Caught frantically at the rail. Looked down. The steps led only to the next floor. Some helpful person had removed the ladder to the ground.

"Oh, Miss! Oh, Miss. Take care! You'U fall!" Annie's whispered protest followed her like a refrain. Her skirt caught. She tore it free. Step by cautious step she backed down. Slipping. Clinging. A sound! Her heart drunomed. She flattened herself against the steps. Clung desperately. She mustn't be seen. A window was gently raised. Madam Steele's bedroom! Annie's story was true.

A dull thud. Had someone swimg from the window? No. It was being softly closed. She held herself rigid. Every nerve in her body twanged, "Hurry! Hurry!" Quiet again. Down she went. Minutes were racing. No more steps. She'd have to drop. She peered at the snowy ground. Some drop. Lucky there was no terrace below. Her bones would be mush were she to land on that. Perhaps she could reach the conductor at her left and slide. The carillon! Chiming "Silent Night." Striking ten. Too late! Late or not she must go on.

Every home should have a fire-house pole, she thought with a hysterical chuckle as she caught the iron pipe of the conductor and swung her feet from the steps. She gripped it. Slid. Lost her hold. Plunged. Landed in a snowdrift. Her outflung hand struck something hard. A big, knobby white-canvas bundle. Madam Steele's jewels!

Her heart pounded as she plodded through snow to the terrace steps. Crept along close to the house. The bundle in her arms was heavy. Annie had whispered that the crooks would enter through the library, that the end window of the drawing room would be unlocked for their quick getaway. The very window at which she and Keith had stood loolang out at the perfect night. Suppose she had been a quitter and gone with him as he suggested? Why let that

thought stop her breath? She hadn't. She was here to do what she could.

She touched the window cautiously. It swung slowly open. Someone had unlocked it from the outside since she and Keith had been there. She had heard the click as he turned the key. Outside? Maybe it had been unlocked from the inside. Who would do it? Buff! Buff arranging the hangings. Had it been he? Memory raced on. He had heard Madam Steele's shot that night in the library, had not gone to her assistance. Buff, Buff^ was the helper inside I

The thought set her ashiver. She held her breath to listen, "Union Pacific" should be at its noisiest by now. Engine whistles. Yells. Gunfire. Instead the house was deathly quiet A shot! Real. Not from a sound track. She was too late. It was just one of those things that couldn't happen—but it had.

XXVII

AS HE walked the length of the library Greg Merton resisted the urge to turn back and catch Linda in his arms, to hold her close till she told him the truth about Sanders' presence in her room last night. It had been easy enough to say, "If it was O.K. with you, it's nothing to me." It was something to him, something that hurt unbearably.

He had been a fool to pay so much attention to Hester through the afternoon and evening. He had been on top of the world when Ruth had intimated in her living room that Mrs. Bourne was responsible for Linda's coolness to him, that she wanted him for her elder daughter. He had come to The Castle determined that there should be no doubt in anyone's mind whom he loved—and then he had seen Sanders slip out of Linda's room.

"What's on your mind, Greg? You look as if you were about to chew nails." Grant's low voice greeted him as he stepped into the hall, Grant's arm slipped within his. "Got to talk to you. Anyone in the library?"

"No."

"Come back there."

"What's all the mystery about?" Greg asked as he was convoyed to one of the long windows. The hangings dropped between them and the room—the hangings which had been pierced by Aunt Jane's shot, he remembered.

"Lorillo's in the neighborhood."

"On Christmas Day! Sure, Skid?"

"Saw him in the Village when I went there after luncheon. 142

Had a hunch he might be usmg that cottage we visited as a hangout. Remember I left the skiing party at dusk? Beat it to 3ie cottage by the back road. Splinters of light at the windows. Something submarinian going on there and I'll bet the suave Senor is the master mind. We know Alix Crane sports one of Mother's bracelets. She says it's costume stuff, that she bought it 'off' a girl friend. I know she's lying. Jim Shaw agrees with me that the Brazilian gave it to her."

"That doesn't necessarily mean he stole it, Skid."

"No, but I'll bet he did. What's he domg in this neighborhood? It doesn't look good to me. Madam Steele has jewels to burn. She surprised a man in this room, didn't she?"

"She did. You've got something there. The servants are making a night of it in the village. Just to ease our minds, let's you and I go the rounds of the house after the others have gone to bed. You take the servants' cottage, check up on them when they come in. I'll patrol the front. We'd better get back to the billiard room before the lights are turned off for the picture. The reconnaissance may seem wheelly when we get through but it won't do any harm.'*

"It can't be more wheelly than parking a lot of fabulous jewels in an unprotected house like this one. If you ask me, you should have had a conservator appointed to take care of Madam Steele's property."

"Conservator! When she can outguess most of the men I know in a business deal? They are her jewels; if she's willing to run the risk of losing them, it's all right with m©—so long as no one is hurt. If Lindy—"

"Love her, don't you?"

"Yes."

"So much that your voice is husky when you admit it. Fair enough, fella. I hope you get her. To return to our G-man stunt. Buff will be the only servant left on the place. You suspected him before."

"Yes. But I changed my mind. He's on the level. Come on, let's go to the billiard room before we're missed." They stepped from behind the hangings. "Janet! What's happened?" Greg demanded as his sister hurriedly entered the room. Her face was colorless. She caught her brother's sleeve with one hand. The other was clenched till the knuckles showed white.

"Greg! Greg! I've found my bracelet!" He put his arm about her shoulders.

"Take it easy, honey. Where did you find it?"

She looked from him to Grant and back at hirn with anguished eyes.

"In Linda's room,"

^'Linda's room!" Gregory Merton stared at his sister. ^'Linda's room! My God!'*

"What are you muttering, Greg? You look as if you'd been blinded by lightning. You can't believe that Lindy stole it." Grant glared at Janet. "You're crazy. Where was it in her room?"

Breathlessly she told of seemg the bracelet dangling from Libby Hull's hand when she had gone to Linda's boudoir to ask for a Christmas tag. Had doubted her eyes. Had stolen back when they were all dancing. Had found the bracelet in the Chinese box.

*'Sure it's yours?" Greg Merton's voice was hoarse, his face livid.

In answer she opened her hand. Crushed in the palm lay the diamond bracelet he had seen her take from the case her husband had tossed mto her lap. With a muttered execration Skid Grant snatched it. Held it under a lamp. His face was colorless.

"See that 8 in small diamonds beside the big yellow one, Greg? It's one of Mother's."

"Your mother's I" Janet Colton repeated. "YouVe losing your mind, Skid. How could I get her bracelet? It's mine. Don't you remember the afternoon Bill gave it to me, Greg? He had been away for two days—" Color rushed to her face, tears came to her eyes. "He dropped it into my lap and said he hoped I'd wear it, that it was designed for a lovely woman. You must remember. Skid's looking at me as if he thought I had stolen it."

"I remember," her brother attested gravely.

"I'm more interested to know how it got into Lindy's jewel box than in how you got it, Janet. You surely don't believe she stole it?'*

"Unclench your hands. Skid. Neither Janet nor I think she stole it. We're not that crazy. It looks as if the person who snitched the bracelet from Janet must be in this house."