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of what was evidently one of them. "I mean, they're lived in, but there's a
kind of& of disused air about them. A little dust beginning to settle. Know
what I mean?"
"Lived in, but disused? No, I don't know exactly.''
She closed her eyes, thinking. "All right, I can be more accurate than that. A
house with children is normally in constant turmoil. Toys and clothes and
things are moved and broken and thrown around.
Laundry piles up, walls and furniture get marked. Adults can leave a mess,
too, but they tend to run in ruts, in tracks, unless they're deliberately
being destructive. This house has adult ruts. As if the kids have hardly lived
here since the last time I saw them."
"I don't know& "
"And downstairs, that little brown paper bag on the sofa. In that are a couple
of toys that I brought for the children when I was here two nights ago. It's
still sitting there forgotten, beside the suitcase with some of my things in
it."
Baer didn't know what to say in the way of reassurance, but he wasn't required
to try as yet, because Nancy moved off down the hall abruptly to stop inside
another doorway. "This was this is going to be our room."
Following, Baer saw that the double bed had been slept in and was unmade. Mild
disorder generally prevailed. A small click nearby made him turn his head
sharply; it was only the digital clock-radio switching numerals. Two-fifteen.
Nancy for a change had almost a smile on her
face; he saw that she was gazing at her own picture, which was prominent at
bedside.
"Well, Nancy, we could wait around for Dan to come home. Or, we could move on
and come back a little later."
"Move on? Where would we go?"
He thought. "Do you know any of the neighbors at all? How about the lady who
found the points?"
"Mrs. Follett, yes. I've scarcely met any of the others."
"Then I think we ought to go and see if Mrs. Follett is home. Talk about
archaeology, if nothing else. Maybe we'll learn something."
She was too nervous to consider waiting around in the house. "I'll leave Dan a
note," she said as they went quickly down the stairs.
"If you wish. You could say& " It seemed to be growing hotter in the old house,
and coming down behind Nancy he lost the thread of his thought somewhere on
the upper steps. He wiped at his forehead with his handkerchief. What was this
bulge in his inside coat pocket? Oh yes, the red book, the& the diary.
"Say what?" she questioned vaguely, looking back at him from the bottom of the
stairs, her eyes now as uncertain as he knew his must be.
"Let's get outside, Nancy, it's stifling in here."
Outside, she had taken three steps toward the car before she remembered to
turn back and lock the front door of the house.
In the Toronado, he flipped on the airconditioning at once. "Better,"
he said, as the cool air came. He looked at his watch again, with the feeling
of reorienting himself after a nap. Only two-eighteen. "Now for
Mrs. Follett. I deduce that must be her house right ahead."
"Right. Wow, that cool air does feel better. I was getting a little dizzy in
the house."
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Baer eased the car out into the road, and downhill a hundred feet or so before
turning off onto the grassy shoulder again, to park under the shade of a large
elm before the Folletts' house. Mr. Patrick Follett evidently saw them arrive,
for he, graying and wiry, copy of
Time in hand, met them at the door before they had a chance to ring a bell or
knock. Behind him came Mrs. Follett, aproned, wiping her hands. The smell of
something baking was in the air.
Mrs. Follett hugged Nancy as if she were a long-lost friend. "How are you,
dear? And how are Dan and the children?" She led her visitors
inside.
"I I was hoping you could tell us something."
"Oh? Won't you sit down?''
"The truth is, I'm worried about Dan. Oh, I'm sorry. This is Dr.
Baer, from the Museum. He drove me out today. He he's interested in the
projectile points, and also in the chance that our house may be on an Indian
mound."
"How do you do.'' Baer shook hands with his hosts, studied them, and decided
not to waste time pretending to talk science. "Nancy here is really concerned
about her fiancée, and I admit I am getting that way too. Maybe there's
nothing to worry about, but& "
Mrs. Follett was already nodding understandingly, for some reason not
surprised at their worry. But she said, in hopeful tones: "I saw him walking
out yesterday afternoon, and he seemed well enough. Waved to me, but didn't
stop to talk."
Nancy asked: "And the children?"
Mrs. Follett blinked. "Well, I understand that they were sent away to school.
Dan told me that let's see, on Wednesday morning."
"Wednesday?" Nancy sounded stupid.
"Yes."
"Away to school?" She took the chair she had been offered earlier, and Baer
came to stand at her side.
"That's what Dan told me. Dear& I hardly know how to say this, but for once
I've really acted like the neighborhood busybody. I
suppose I'd better tell you about it now."
Follett cleared his throat, and put a hand on his wife's shoulder.
"Well, I don't know if you can say 'for once', as if it were the absolute
first time. But anyway, Nancy, Dr. Baer, you see I used to be associated with
the sheriff's office in this county, and the police chief here and some of the
boys are old buddies of mine. So maybe the wife and I call them up a little
more casually than we would otherwise."
"What my husband is trying to say, dear, is that on Tuesday night I
heard some sounds like& well, like screaming, from over there, or so I
thought. Patrick had fallen asleep on the sofa, and he sleeps like a log.
Didn't hear anything. But then Wednesday morning I saw Dan, and he looked
so& so strange. I made Pat call the station, and later on in the day a couple
of detectives came over and paid Dan a visit. They looked through the house
and talked with him, and they were satisfied there's
nothing wrong. The children had been Sent away somewhere to school."
Nancy was shaking her head, stubbornly and with an expression on her face that
looked like mounting horror. "Are you sure? I mean, did you actually talk,
yourself, with the police after they went over there?"
Follett shook his head. "No, honey, Chief Wallace called me back.
Said everything seemed okay. He's a good man, and I'm sure the men he sent
were competent."
"But Dan told me Wednesday night that the children were having dinner at some
neighbor's house." She could get no help from any of the faces looking at her.
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"What school were they supposed to have been sent to? Did the police say
that?"
"I didn't ask them, honey," Follett said with the ghost of a chuckle.
"Figured we'd stuck our noses in far enough."
Baer was looking toward the piano, where there stood the photos of a couple of
grown-up young people. "Mrs. Follett, may I ask, are those your kids by any
chance? Yes, well, then you've raised a couple of your own. You know how kids
yell sometimes when they're being spanked or if they're just upset. Like
they're being murdered."
"I understand what you're getting at, Dr. Baer. My husband suggested the same
thing. But no, this didn't sound like any ordinary outburst. And then when I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]