Calamity Town

go through that rail into the ravine by accident.”

“I see,” said Ellery.

“I didn’t want to tell that to the Wrights. But Dakin and I both think Jim drove that car off the road deliberately.”

Mr. Queen said nothing.

“And somehow that made me think?don’t know why it should have?Well, I began to wonder. Queen!” Carter jumped up. ”For God’s sake, tell me if you know! I won’t sleep until I’m sure. Did Jim Haight commit that murder?”

“No.”

Carter stared at him. ”Then who did?” he asked hoarsely.

Mr. Queen rose, too. ”I shan’t tell you.”

“Then you do know!”

“Yes,” sighed Ellery.

“But Queen, you can’t?”

“Oh, but I can. Don’t think it’s easy for me. My whole training rebels against this sort of?well, connivance. But I like these people. They’re nice people, and they’ve been through too much. I shouldn’t want to hurt them anymore. Let it go. The hell with it.”

“But you can tell me, Queen!” implored Cart.

“No. You’re not sure of yourself; not yet, Bradford. You’re rather a nice chap. But the growing-up process?it’s been retarded.” Ellery shook his head. ”The best thing you can do is forget it and get Patty to marry you. She’s crazy in love with you.”

Carter grasped Ellery’s arm so powerfully that Ellery winced. ”But you’ve got to tell me!” he cried. ”How could I . . . knowing that anyone . . . any one of them . . . might be . . . ?”

Mr. Queen frowned in the darkness.

“Tell you what I’ll do with you, Cart,” he said at last. ”You help these people get back to normal in Wrightsville. You chase Patty Wright off her feet. Wear her down.

“But if you’re not successful, if you feel you’re not making any headway, wire me. I’m going back home. Send me a wire in New York, and I’ll come back. And maybe what I’ll have to say to you and Patty will solve your problem.”

“Thanks,” said Carter Bradford hoarsely.

“I don’t know that it will,” sighed Mr. Queen. ”But who can tell? This has been the oddest case of mixed-up people, emotions, and events I’ve ever run across. Good-bye, Bradford.”

Chapter 29

The Return of Ellery Queen

This, thought Mr. Ellery Queen as he stood on the station platform, makes me an admiral all over again. The second voyage of Columbus . . .

He glanced moodily at the station sign. The tail of the train that had brought him from New York was just disappearing around the curve at Wrightsville Junction three miles down the line. He could have sworn that the two small boys swinging their dirty legs on the hand truck under the eaves of the station were the same boys he had seen?in another century!?on his first arrival in Wrightsville.

Gabby Warrum, the station agent, strolled out to stare at him. Ellery waved and made hastily for Ed Hotchkiss’s cab, drawn up on the gravel.

As Ed drove him “uptown,” Ellery’s hand tightened in his pocket about the telegram he had received the night before. It was from Carter Bradford, and it said simply: come, please.

* * *

He had not been away long?a matter of three weeks or so?but just the same it seemed to him that Wrightsville had changed. Or perhaps it would be truer to say that Wrightsville had changed back. It was the old Wrightsville again, the town he had come into so hopefully the previous August, nine months ago. It had the same air of unhurried peace this lovely Sunday afternoon. Even the people seemed the old people, not the maddened horde of January and February and March and April.

Mr. Queen made a telephone call from the Hollis Hotel, then had Ed Hotchkiss drive him up the Hill. It was late afternoon, and the birds were whizzing and chirping at a great rate around the old Wright house. He paid Ed off, watched the cab chug down the Hill, and then strolled up the walk.

The little house next door?the house of Nora and Jim?was shuttered up; it looked opaque and ugly in its blindness. Mr. Queen felt a tremor in his spine. That was a house to avoid.

He hesitated at the front steps of the big house and listened. There were voices from the rear gardens. So he went around, walking on the grass.

He paused in the shadow of the oleander bush, where he could see them without being seen.

The sun was bright on Hermy, joggling a brand-new baby carriage in an extremely critical way. John F. was grinning, and Lola and Pat were making serious remarks about professional grandmothers and how about giving a couple of aunts a chance to practice, for goodness’ sake? The baby would be home from the hospital in just a couple of weeks!

Mr. Queen watched, unobserved, for a long time. His face was very grave. Once he half turned away, as if he meant to flee once and for all. But then he saw Patricia Wright’s face again and how it had grown older and thinner since last he had seen it, and so he sighed and set about making an end of things. After five minutes of delicate reconnaissance he managed to catch Pat’s eye while the others were occupied?caught her eye and put his finger to his lips, shaking his head in warning.

Pat said something casual to her family and strolled toward him. He backed off, and then she came around the corner of the house and flew into his arms.

“Ellery! Darling! Oh, I’m so glad to see you! When did you come? What’s the mystery for? Oh, you bug?I am glad!” She kissed him and held him close, and for a moment her face was the gay young face he had remembered.

He let her sprinkle his shoulder, and then he took her by the hand and drew her toward the front of the house. ”That’s your convertible at the curb, isn’t it? Let’s go for a ride.”

“But Ellery, Pop and Muth and Lola?they’ll be heartbroken if you don’t?”

“I don’t want to disturb them now, Patty. They look really happy, getting ready for the baby. How is she, by the way?” Ellery drove Pat’s car down the Hill.

“Oh, wonderful. Such a clever little thing! And do you know? She looks just like?” Pat stopped. Then she said quietly: “Just like Nora.”

“Does she? Then she must be a beautiful young lady indeed.”

“Oh, she is! And I’ll swear she knows Muth! Really, I mean it. We can’t wait for her to come home from the hospital. Of course, Mother won’t let any of us touch little Nora?that’s her name, you know?when we visit her?we’re there practically all the time! except that I sneak over there alone once in a while when I’m not supposed to . . . Little Nora is going to have Nora’s old bedroom?ought to see how we’ve fixed it up, with ivory furniture and gewgaws and big teddy bears and special nursery wallpaper and all. Anyway, the little atom and I have secrets . . . Well, we do! . . . Of course, she’s out of the incubator . . . and she gurgles at me and hangs on to my hand for dear life and squeezes. She’s so fat, Ellery, you’d laugh!”

Ellery laughed.

“You’re talking like the old Patty I knew?”

“You think so?” asked Pat in a queer voice.

“But you don’tlook?”

“No,” said Pat. ”No, I don’t. I’m getting to be an old hag. Where are we going?”