The Case of the Weird Sisters

'I thought so myself,' said Duff. 'Let's look at Maud.'

'You look,' said Fred. 'Maud's my pet aversion.' Every once in a while Fred let out a three-syllable word. His college education, thought Alice.

'What would Maud want to buy with money?' Duff demanded.

'Candy,' said Alice.

'Peanuts,' said Fred.

'That's it. Her little comforts,' said Duff. 'Maud's sensual and lazy.'

'Maud's a pig, and she'd as soon kill anybody as squash a fly,' said Fred, 'for all she'd worry about it.'

'Unmoral,' said Duff, 'yes. But for all that, Maud has a certain directness about her.' -

'She'd call a spade a God-damned shovel,' said Fred. 'Excuse me, Alice.'

Alice said, 'I know. She's terrible.'

'There's another element in our Maud,' Duff said, 'and that's curiosity. For aJl her sloppiness and her happy- go-luckiness, as Innes says, and her sloth, she's curious. Also, she's intelligent.' 'Who? Maud!'

'Comparatively speaking,' said Duff. 'Yes, I think so. Because she doesn't deceive herself. Maud knows she's a slob. She doesn't give a damn, but she knows it.'

'If she's intelligent, give me somebody who's dumb enough to take a bath,' said Fred in disgust.

'Nevertheless,' Duff said, 'I don't think Maud fits the psychological pattern, the unconscious murderer.'

'Sure she does,' Fred insisted. 'That's just her sloppiness. It's the same thing, same effect, I mean. Either i she's half-fooling herself, or she's just sloppy.' 1'

'You may be right,' said Duff thoughtfully. 'I can be wrong. I can be baffled,' he warned them.

'I think she knows more than she lets on,' admitted Alice. 'Her eyes are 'so bright, in that fat pasty face. . . .'

'But the trouble it takes,' murmured Duff. 'Life's too short, you know.' x

'Damned merry, for Maud, though,' said Fred and '' stopped. 'Well, what about Izzy?'

'Isabel,' said Duff. 'Well, now, what is Isabel? Grasping, eh? She'd buy things. What's more, she'd keep them. She's not only grasping, but I'd say she never lets go.'

'That's what Innes said,' Alice told him. 'Innes says she never takes her losses.'

'Yes,' said Duff, 'that fits in. She's got the Woman's Home Companion complete since 1939.' 'What's her room like?' 'Her room is a hoard.' 'Oh,' said Alice, 'the sleeves?' Duff said, 'Sleeves come later, but I'll tell you for now that nobody has any stained sleeve or any sleeve that looks as if it had been recently washed, nor has Josephine washed any.'

'What does that mean?'

'A bare arm,' said Duff. 'Speaking of arms, I think we may take it that Isabel is still wearing her original artificial arm, since a new one would surely seem a waste of money to her. At least, she'd hoard the old one, and I found no

extra limb lying about among her possessions. Qose your mouth, Alice.' Alice's jaws closed in a snap, while Duff went serenely on. 'Isabel, then, is grasping. Isabel has energy, too. Don't you think so?'

'Oh, yes, nervous energy,' said Alice. 'She's awfully nervous. I hate the way she puts her hand on me.'

'Can you imagine Isabel setting these traps for her brother's life?'

'Yes,' said AHce, 'I'm afraid I can. I loathe them all, but if I have a pet aversion, it's Isabel.'

'Maud,' said Fred.

'Isabel,' said Alice.

'Yet why not all three,' said Duff. 'It could be, of course. Suppose one drops the lamp. Suppose another flies down the hiU in the dark and tugs at the sawhorse. Suppose the third, seeing her sisters fail, as in a fairy tale, slips into the cellar and makes her rounds of the pipes. There isn't a thing to show that one and only one was guilty. And the motive holds for them all, just as you said, Fred, though I scarcely believed you then.'

'Do you mean they have a conspiracy?' said Alice, troubled.

'Why not?'

'I don't know. I can't imagine that.'

'Neither can I,' said Fred. 'They're so kinda separated.'

'Disconnected,' agreed Alice.

'I can't imagine a conspiracy, either,' admitted Duff, 'because I truly believe that neither Gertrude nor Isabel would admit to her sisters that she was a murderess. Not even to themselves,' he said, ''will they admit anything. So how admit a thing like that to anyone else?'

'Maud would, though,' said Fred.

'Maud might.'

'Well,' said Alice, ''maybe Maud could have done it all, with Mr. Johnson helping.'

Fred's eyes flickered. Duff said, 'Please don't bring up Mr. Johnson.'