The Case of the Weird Sisters Page 14

  Duffs long face grew roimder in a wide clownish smile. He winked at Alice and made, with his forefinger, the time-honored circular gesture near the head that means "crazy."

  Alice knew that if Gertrude could see, she would be driven wild with fury. But Gertrude was not furious. Gertrude went on speaking. "Fortunately," she said, with shrieking modesty, "I am a person of very simple tastes and requirements."

  "This is an interesting house," said Duff, dropping his facial monkeyshines and leaning back. "Your father built it?"

  "Yes, indeed. We have always lived here, on the hill." Gertrude proceeded to unroll a panoramic view of herself as she saw her. The Whitlocks who lived on the hill, apart, above. The eldest daughter, upon whom the mantle of distinction most surely felL Now a woman of great sensitivity, fine and refined, bearing nobly and even triumphantly her tragic affliction.

  Duff said, as if her words had decided him, "Miss Gertrude, I hadn't thought of asking you these questions. But now that I meet you, I feel that you may perhaps be the one best able to answer them for me. I had thought that, because you cannot see, you would not know. But I do believe your perceptions are far more alert and your intelligence more keen . . ." He appeared to stumble. "That is to say, of course, I haven't met your sisters. But. . ."

  "What questions do you mean, Mr. Duff?" said Gertrude in a most friendly fashion.

  "Well, you see, last night ..."

  Gertrude stiffened just a little.

  "Young Alice, here, tells me she believes there was an intruder in this house."

  "An intruder?" said Gertrude slowly.

  "Yes, I do," said Alice truculently. One had to look sharp with this Duff. He gave you a role without warning. Duff's confident smile was sweet praise, though.

  "My dear, whatever makes you think . . . ?"

  "I had a feeling," Alice said. "I woke up and I felt just as if there was somebody in the hall."

  "Where, my dear?"

  "In the hall. downstalrs," faltered Alice.

  "Your brother is rather concerned about it," Duff put in, "because, of course, that very queer accident with the furnace has made him quite imeasy, and he wonders if someone has a way of getting in here, if you are safe."

  "Safe?" said Gertrude. "Of course we are safe. You must have misunderstood Innes, Mr. Duff. I doubt if my half-brother is thinking of our safety."

  "Indeed?" murmured Duff.'

  "He has less family feeling than you think. I am afraid that he considers us three insignificant old women." She held her head higher, if possible. "That is quite natural, and I do understand it. Why, Mr. Duff, perhaps we are."

  Somebody had to say, "Oh, no!" in a shocked voice, and somebody was Alice who found herself reacting as required. Gertrude smiled. "But an intruder, dear . . ."

  "My dear Miss Gertrude," said Duff, "you fail to realize that if there is a thief in Ogaunee, this house would attract him." Gertrude seemed pleased. Her long narrow teeth showed in another smile. "Now, I am wondering if your very keen ears might not have noticed something."

  Gertrude appeared to cast her mind back. "I retired to this room early. Quite early. Immediately after bidding Innes good night. I remember nothing out of the ordinary. I heard the telephone bell, of course, and Isabel answering it She came in to me, right afterward."

  "At what time was this, Miss Gertrude, do you know?"

  "I really caimot tell you," said Gertrude. "My own watch is, unfortunately, out of order."

  "Your own watch has no crystal," said Duff.

  "I read it with my fingers," said Gertrude majestically. "Why do you wish to know the time, Mr. Duff? I believe it was raining. I believe we spoke of the storm."

  "Had it been raining long?"

  "I am very sensitive to a storm," said Gertrude. "I have learned to disregard them. I have taught myself a certain amount of inattention."

  "How wise," Duff murmured. "You see, I was thinking that no intruder could have been moving about the house while your sister was still . . . er . . . downstairs. But you heard nothing then. Or later?"

  "Isabel went upstairs to her own room when she left me. I heard nothing after that Nothing at all, that I remember, until people began to shout and bang."

  "I wonder if Miss Isabel heard something before she went upstairs."

  "She would have told me," said Gertrude a little petulantly.

  "Not necessarily," said Duff gently. "I wondered if she did not look in to see if you were all right, not caring to worry you . . ."

  "Isabel would find it very difficult to deceive me," said Gertrude haughtily. "If she had been worried about me, I should have known it. She came in because she wanted witch hazel on her ... her injury."

  "I don't imderstand," said Duff.

  "My sister is rather helpless," said Gertrude. "She had bruised her . . . her limb."

  "I don't imderstand," said Duff again, sounding lost in bewilderment.

  "I applied the witch hazel," said Gertrude. "I have two hands. She came in with the botde and the cotton, but she finds it very difficult to manage. So often other people have to do the simplest things for Isabel."

  Duff said, "Miss Gerttude, I am afraid I am being utterly stupid, but I seem to have quite lost the thread of what you are saying. Your sister had hurt herself?"

  "Yes, days ago."

  "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I see now. Your sister came to you for help. Of course. And you very kindly did help her. You dabbed the witch hazel on her arm."

  "It was not her arm," said Gertrude severely. "Really, Mr. Duff . . ."

  "Forgive me," said Duff quickly. "I am struggling with a reversal of feeling. You see, I had been thinking of your sister taking care of you. I find, instead, that you, in the goodness of your heart and the fortitude of your spirit, are, instead, the one to whom she appeals."

  Gertrude never winced, though Alice did. It was so sticky and so thick. Gertrude said, "It was nothing." But she didn't mean it

  Duff bit his lip and cast a look at Alice. "Another question," he said humbly. "When you were out of doors, just before Mr. Whitlock and Miss Brennan and the chauffeur set forth in the car, do you remember ... ?"

  "Yes," said Gertrude. "I had stepped out for a breath of air."

  "You heard no stranger?"

  "No," she said, puzzled. "Why?"

  "Perhaps there was no stranger," said Duff soothingly. "Your brother is unwell and nervous, of course." He rose. "I hope," he said, "that I may come in and chat with you another time."

  "Please do," said Gertrude cordially.

  Duff drifted across to the table where the weaving lay. "You are doing some charming work," he said.

  "My weaving?"

  "Yes. Lovely."

  "K you will hand it to me, Alice dear, perhaps I shall do a litde now."

  Alice gave her the frame and the wool. They went away, leaving Gertrude upright in the rocker, her thin hands busy with the work, the very portrait of saintly patience.

  Duff said, "Well? The sleeves?"

  "They were all right," said Alice.

  "None recently washed?"

  "They were all silk. And not wrinkled. And pretty clean."

  "The only hope was that she might have stained her sleeve and not known it."

  "It's no help, though, is it?"

  "Is she blind, Alice?"

  "There's only one thing," said Alice slowly.

  "Yes?"

  "Those playing cards."

  "I managed to look. They are special cards with tiny raised dots in the comers. For the blind."

  "Oh. Well, what about the flowers?"

  "Narcissus," said Duff. "Very fragrant"

  Alice sighed. "And the mirror?"

  "There's always a mirror."

  "Then you think she's blind?"

  "It does seem so," said Duff. "That's a monstrous woman, Alice."

  They were m the hall, and Art Killeen came down the stairs.

  "I'm off to the post office," he said.

  "With
the new will?"

  "Yes. Innes wants it safely away. He is going to announce what he's done, as soon as it's safe with Uncle Sam."

  "I see," said Duff.

  "Want to help me find the post office, Alice?"

  "I can't," she said. "Mr. Duff and I . . ."

  "I'd like to talk to you," said Art Killeen wistfully. "For just a minute. Do you mind if I keep her just a minute, Mr. Duff?"

  Duff drifted down the hall as if something were drawing him toward the kitchen.

  Alice said sharply, "I won't be long."

  Duff flapped his hand at her and disappeared.

  18

  "I'm not going to the post office. Art. No, really. What did you want to say?"

  He drew her into the sitting room with an arm across her shoulders. "I don't know how I'm going to say it, exactly," he confessed. He turned her so that she faced him. "Darling, you've put Innes in a state. Fve tried to be helpful."

  "What do you mean?" Alice felt choked and angry. She wanted to reject his help, whatever it was.

  "You're going to marry him, aren't you?"

  "That's up to him," she said bitterly.

  "He'll be all right." Killeen spoke with a soft confidence.

  Alice shook herself away from him. "I don't know why you think you've got to interfere."

  "Interfere? Darling, I'm not. I'm helping."

  "Helping what?"

  "To clear up a misunderstanding," said Killeen, "between you and Innes." She was speechless, and he went on. "Really, darling, I think you ought to be less hostile. It's costing me something."

  "Oh?" said Alice.

  "I'm a little jealous," he said.

  Alice felt as if firecrackers were going off in the black back of her eyes, but she managed to laugh.

  "You may laugh," said Art Killeen, "but you're darned sweet, Alice. I told him he was a lucky man."

  "What else did you tell him?" said Alice with an effort She wasn't angry any more.

  "I convinced him that you meant the opposite of what you said."

  'That was clever." Her voice shook a little.

  "You said you were after his dough, darling, but actions speak louder than words, as I pointed out"

  "What actions?"

  "You can't be after the dough, sweet Alice. You didn't want him to sign that wilL"

  "But . . ."

  "He sees that, now."

  "Maybe I don't understand myself," said Alice. As a matter of fact, she did feel all confused.

  "I understand you, darling."

  Alice caught a glimpse of a scheme of things in which wheels went around within wheels, and one seemed mercenary for the purpose of seeming unmercenary, though on the next layer down . ..

  "Besides that," said Killeen, "I had to convince him that you weren't in love with me."

  "Did he think ... I was?"

  "I'm afraid he did there for a minute."

  "Wasn't that bright of Innes?" she said flatly and openly.

  He chose to take it for sarcasm. "Quite a brainstorm," he said.

  "As if there was any percentage," Alice heard herself saying coolly, "in that."

  His eye leaped to hers. She saw him come up to the very brink of an impulse, felt the surge of recklessness that almost carried him away. She saw it fail, too, come to the brink and not go over.

  "I wanted to tell you," he said lamely, "but now I'd better get down to the post office. Innes would have a fit if he could see me dawdling."

  'Then don't dawdle," she said.

  He came rather near. "I hope everything is going to be all right," he said, with warmth left out of the wish.

  "Do you, by any chance, mean the opposite of what you say?" asked Alice.

  Light leaped in his eye. He bent and kissed her and made his exit without a curtain line.

  A curious mmibness took hold of Alice. She didn't seem to be able to go over that little scene and analyze it. Her mind wanted to put it off. She had, besides, a sense of having been interrupted. There was something she had been in the middle of doing. Something absorbing. Mr. Duff.

  It's that Indian! she thought. What's Duff saying to that Indian, I wonder.

  Through the kitchen window she saw Duff and Mr. Johnson sitting on the back steps, side by side. Their eyes were fixed on the horizon. No duel this time. They gazed across the pit to the hills and distant trees. Mr. Johnson spat in the dust from time to time. Duff seemed to dream in the sun.

  "I went down to the reservation yesterday," he said lazily.

  Mr. Johnson grunted.

  "Ever stay there?"

  "Naw."

  "What do you think of them?"

  Mr. Johnson grinned and spat.

  Duff said, "By the way, are you a Christian?''

  "Sure," said Mr. Johnson. "You?"

  "I am," said Duff, suppressing a sense of outrage. "Some of the Oneidas down there stick to the old religion, they tell me."

  "The old man gimme a dollar."

  "That so?" said Duff cautiously.

  "Yeah." Mr. Johnson spat "To get baptized."

  "The old man. That would be Stephen?"

  "He's dead."

  The dialogue seemed to have come to a dead end

  "Go to school, did you?" ventured Duff.

  "Sure."

  "Where?"

  "Here."

  "How long?"

  Mr. Johnson moved his shoulders. "The old man gimme a dollar to spht half a cord of wood. So I quit."

  "What," said Duff rather desperately, "did you want to be?"

  "Huh?"

  "I mean when you were a kid." No answer. "For instance, didn't you ever want to drive the engine?"

  'The train engine?" Duff nodded. "Naw," said Mr. Johnson.

  "I guess you'd just as soon have a lot of money," said Duff artfully.

  "What for?"

  "To spend."

  "Naw. I mean what for?"

  "Beg pardon?"

  "Wadd'ya want me to do?"

  "Nothing. Why?"

  "Thought you had a job," said Mr. Johnson.

  "Would you kill somebody if I paid you for it?"

  Mr. Johnson's dark face didn't change. "Who?"

  "Anybody."

  "Innes, hey?"

  Duff looked at him. "What makes you say that?"

  134

  Mr. Johnson scratched himself. "That's whatcha want to know," he stated.

  Duff admitted "Yes. Well?"

  "What's tlie matter with Innes?" said Mr. Johnson. "He gimme a dollar."

  "Suppose somebody gave you more than that?"

  Duff searched the brown face. It was expressionless. "Listen," said Mr. Johnson, "do it yourself."

  Alice stifled a giggle. Duff turned and saw her. He got up and jouied her in the kitchen.

  "How's the poor Indian?" she whispered.

  "Lo," said Duff ruefully, "now, I think he's kidding me."

  They went toward the front of the house together. Alice looked up at Duffs face and caught him with the feathers of his spirit ruffled. "Is he super-naive or is he super-subtle? Alice, he's got the Indian sign on me."

  "Well, I don't believe it," said Alice stoudy. "What shall we do now?"

  "Shall we beard Maud?"

  "One could," giggled Alice. "But I won't be able to search her closet right under her eyes."

  "No. By the way, how does one communicate with her?"

  "Can you talk on your fingers?''

  "No. You must be my secretary."

  "Are you going to try any tricks?"

  "Oh, certainly."

  "All right," said Alice. "Oh, don't tell me, let me guess. It's great sport, not knowing what you're going to do next."

  "Did I give you an A?" asked DufL "I should have. Forward."

  Outside Maud's door, Alice said, "I don't know what we're supposed to do. She wouldn't hear a knock."

  "Open it and look in," suggested Duff. "If she isn't decent, you can warn me and we'U go away."

  Alice turned the knob and
the door moved. She looked in almost fearfully. The room was empty.

  "Nobody."

  "Go ahead," said Duff. "Quick."

  When they were inside Duff said, "Sit down and beginto write a note, explaining that we called, anything . . ."

  Alice saw one of Maud's pads and found a pencil in her pocket. She could see, out of the comer of her eye. Duff in the closet.

  "Dear Miss Maud: I brought Mr. Duff here to see you but you were out" How silly I "When you find this will you please . . .'' Please what?

  "She's coming!"

  Duff seemed to conjure himself across the room, so quickly was he there, standing Innocendy and rather languidly at her side.

  Maud came in pell-mell The doorknob struck the wall as she flung the door open. She stopped when she saw them.

  "Hello. What are you doing in here? Hey?"

  Alice rose and smiled and handed her the unfinished note. She motioned toward Duff. Duff bowed. Alice felt she ought to cmtsy. It seemed a long time that they bowed and bobbed their heaxls, before Maud's eyes went down to the writing.

  "Name's Duff, ehr' she said. "How ja do. Sit down if you want to. What's up?"

  Duff said to Alice, "Write that I wanted to meet her because I am interested in the early history of Ogaunee."

  Ahce wrote.

  Meanwhile, Maud said, "I know who you are now. You're the fella that's staying down at Susan's."

  She plunged herself down in a low chair beside the fireplace, imfolded a paper napkin she had in her hand, revealing a pUe of five or six pieces of Melba toast.

  "Isabel says I've got to reduce," she cackled. "Can you tie that?"

  Alice handed her the note.

  "What do you mean, early history?" the woman demanded in a flash. "How old do you think I am?"

  "I'm sorry," said Duff.

  Maud guffawed. "I don't know anything about all that stuff. You ask GerL She can talk."

  "He did," wrote Alice.

  "Talked your ear off, I'll bet," Maud said.

  She crunched into the toast Alice looked around the room for the first time. It was a mess. Things were piled around in a disorder so thorough as to seem maxl. Cardboard boxes and paper-wrapped packages, some half-opened, stood on the seats of chairs. Three pairs of shoes and an uneven number of varicolored stockings lay helter skelter under the bed on a floor thick with dust The bed itself wore its spread askew, and there were four pillows.