Calamity Town

* * *

Ellery took the wheel going back.

In the open car, with the wind striking his face and Pat shaking him, Jim began to revive. He goggled glassily at them.

“Jim, whatever made you do a silly thing like this?”

“Huh?” gurgled Jim, closing his eyes again.

“In midafternoon, when you should be at the bank!”

Jim sank lower in the seat, muttering.

“Stupefied,” said Ellery. There was a deep cleft between brows. His rear-vision mirror told him a car was overtaking them rapidly?Carter Bradford’s car.

Pat noticed and turned. And turned back, very quickly.

Ellery slowed down to let Bradford pass. But Bradford did not pass. He slowed down alongside and honked his horn. A lean gray Yankee with a red face and jellyfish eyes sat beside him.

Obediently, Ellery pulled up at the side of the road; and Bradford stopped his car, too.

Pat said: “Why, hel/o, Cart,” in a surprised voice. ”And Mr. Dakin! Ellery, this is Chief Dakin of the Wrightsville police. Mr. Ellery Smith.”

Chief Dakin said: “How do, Mr. Smith,” in a polite voice, and Ellery nodded.

“Anything wrong?” asked Carter Bradford, a little awkwardly. ”I noticed Jim here was?”

“Well, that’s extremely efficient, Cart,” said Pat warmly. ”Practically Scotland Yardish, or at the very least F.B.I. Isn’t it, Ellery? The Public Prosecutor and the Chief of Police?”

“There’s nothing wrong, Bradford,” said Ellery.

“Nothing that a bicarbonate of soda and a good night’s sleep won’t fix,” said Chief Dakin dryly. ”Carlatti’s?”

“Something like that,” said Ellery. ”Now if you don’t mind, gentlemen, Mr. Haight needs his bed?badly.”

“Anything I can do, Pat . . . ” Cart was flushed. ”Matter of fact, I was thinking of calling you up?”

“You were thinking of calling me up.”

“I mean?”

Jim stirred between Pat and Ellery, mumbling.

Pat said severely: “Jim, how do you feel?”

He opened his eyes again. They were still glassy, but something behind the glaze made Pat look at Ellery with a swift fear.

“Say, he’s in a bad way, at that,” said Dakin.

“Relax, now, Jim,” soothed Ellery. ”Go to sleep.”

Jim looked from Pat to Ellery to the men in the other car, but he did not recognize any of them. The mumble became intelligible: “Wife my wife damn her oh damn wife . . . ”

“Jim!” cried Pat. ”Ellery, get him home!”

Ellery released his hand brake quickly. But Jim was not to be repressed. He pulled himself up and his cheeks, pale from sickness, grew scarlet.

“Rid of her!” he shouted. ”Wait’n’ see! I’ll get rid of the bas’ard! I’ll kill ‘a bas’ard!”

Chief Dakin blinked, and Carter Bradford looked immensely surprised and opened his mouth to say something.

But Pat pulled Jim down savagely, and Ellery shot the convertible forward, leaving Bradford’s car behind. Jim began to sob, and in the middle of a sob he suddenly fell asleep again.

Pat shrank as far from him as she could. ”Did you hear what he said, Ellery? Did you?”

“He’s crazy blind.” Ellery stepped hard on the gas pedal.

“It’s true, then,” moaned Pat. ”The letters?Rosemary . . . Ellery, I tell you Rosemary and Jim have been putting on an act! They’re in cahoots to?to?And Cart and Chief Dakin heard him!”

“Pat”?Ellery kept his eyes on the road?”I haven’t wanted to ask you this before, but . . . Has Nora any considerable sum of money, or property, in her own right?”

Pat moistened her lips very slowly. ”Oh . . . no. It couldn’t be . . . that.”

“Then she has.”

“Yes,” Pat whispered. ”By my grandfather’s will. Pop’s father. Nora automatically inherited a lot of money when she married, held in trust for her if and when. Grandfather Wright died soon after Lola eloped with that actor?he’d cut Lola off because of that and divided his estate between Nora and me. I get half when I marry, too?”

“How much did Nora get?” asked Ellery. He glanced at Jim. But Jim was stertorously asleep.

“I don’t know. But Pop once told me it’s more than Nora and I could ever spend. Oh, Lord?Nora!”

“If you start to cry,” said Ellery grimly, “I’ll dump you overboard. Is this inheritance to you and Nora a secret?”

“Try to keep a secret in Wrightsville,” said Pat. ”Nora’s money . . . ” She began to laugh. ”It’s like a bad movie. Ellery, what are we going to do?” She laughed and laughed.

I i Ellery turned Pat’s car into the Hill drive. ”Put Jim to bed,” he muttered.

Chapter 11

Thanksgiving: The First Warning

The next morning Mr. Queen was knocking at Nora’s door before eight.

Nora’s eyes were swollen. ”Thanks for?yesterday. Putting Jim to bed while I was being so silly?”

“Rubbish,” said Ellery cheerfully. ”There hasn’t been a bride since Eve who didn’t think the world was going under when hubby staggered home under his first load. Where’s the erring husband?”

“Upstairs shaving.” Nora’s hand trembled as she fussed with the gleaming toaster on the breakfast table.

“May I go up? I shouldn’t want to embarrass your sister-in-law by prowling around the bedroom floor at this hour?”

“Oh, Rosemary doesn’t get up till ten,” said Nora. ”These wonderful November mornings! Please do?and tell Jim what you think of him!”

Ellery laughed and went upstairs. He knocked on the master-bedroom door, which was half open; and Jim called from the bathroom: “Nora? Gosh, darling, I knew you’d be my sweet baby and forgive?” His voice blurred when he spied Ellery. Jim’s face was half shaved; the shaved half was pasty and his eyes puffed. ”Morning, Smith. Come in.”

“I just dropped by for a minute to ask you how you were feeling, Jim.” Ellery draped himself against the bathroom jamb.

Jim turned, surprised. ”How did you know?”

“How did / know! Don’t tell me you don’t remember. Why, Pat and I brought you home.”

“Gosh,” groaned Jim. ”I wondered about that. Nora won’t talk to me. Can’t say I blame her. Say, I’m awfully grateful, Smith. Where’d you find me?”

“Carlatti’s place on Route 16. The Hot Spot”

“That dive?” Jim shook his head. ”No wonder Nora’s sore.” He grinned sheepishly. ”Was I sick during the night! Nora fixed me up, but she wouldn’t say a word to me. What a dumb stunt!”

“You did some pretty dumb talking on the ride home, too, Jim.”

“Talking? What did I say?”

“Oh . . . something about ‘getting rid of’ some bastard or other,” said Ellery lightly.

Jim blinked. He turned back to the mirror again. ”Out of my head, I guess. Or else I was thinking of Hitler.”

Ellery nodded, his eyes fixed on the razor. It was shaking.

“I don’t remember a damn thing,” said Jim. ”Not a damn thing.”