“He knows something about this,' Jane said. 'What makes you think that?' Shelley asked, staring at the small group.
“Because he's pretending to know nothing. Nobody knows nothing.'
“You can say that because you don't know my cousin Alfred.”
Jane laughed. 'Shelley, if somebody asks you something and you haven't got the answer, don't you at least pause and consider whether you might have some bit of information, no matter how trivial?'
“Yes, I guess so. But I'm not a cranky old recluse who isn't enjoying having his turf invaded.'
“That's the point,' Jane said. 'It is his turf. In his view, anyway. He's apparently lived here, quite alone most of the time, for years. And for all his crabbing around, acting too feeble to be of any use, I think he knows every stick of furniture in the dark.'
“You think he was one of the people roaming around last night during the storm?'
“I'd bet anything on it,' Jane said. 'And I'll bet he saw or heard things he's keeping to himself. That's why he's so vehemently denying any knowledge of what's going on here to Mel and Officer Smith. He doesn't seem to even like having family around. Imagine how he feels about The Law invading.”
The cat Jane had met up with the night before came strolling around the corner and sat down to evaluate them for a long moment before taking a really serious stretch and then jumping on Jane's lap. She scritched him behind his ears.
Shelley was staring toward, but not at, the football game. She was thinking so hard, Jane could almost hear the gears grinding. Finally Shelley said, with uncharacteristic timidity, 'Jane, I know this is nuts, but everybody seems to know something about this story of a hidden treasure. But nobody admits to believing in it. Don't you find that a bit suspicious?”
Jane kept petting the cat. 'I guess so, but let's define 'everybody.' Layla vaguely remembered the story. Eden more so, and it was she who said the aunts came up with the theory and Jack checked it out and denies that there is one. But that's all.”
Shelley shook her head. 'Larkspur is roaming around with spade and shovel and a wild, greedy, non-floral gleam in his eye.'
“That's right. I'd forgotten about him. How would he know?'
“We must ask,' Shelley said. 'If he's heard it, there are probably hundreds of other people who also have.'
“So where's this leading us?'
“Well—' Shelley hesitated. 'Not that I think this is necessarily right, but suppose there really is a treasure here—'
“If there were a hidden treasure,' Jane interrupted, 'why would it necessarily be at the hunting lodge? If I had a treasure, I'd buy a big old safe and stick it in there.'
“But then it wouldn't be hidden, just locked up,' Shelley said irritably. 'Just hear me out, will you? Suppose there was a treasure, and it was in Mrs. Crossthwait's room. If I'd been O. W. and wanted to hide something here, I'd have hidden it in my own room or the one next to it so I couldcheck on it while I was here, and be sure nobody else would be staying in the room when I wasn't here.'
“Okay,' Jane said. 'I'll buy that. So you think Mrs. Crossthwait found it?'
“She seemed to be a bit on the deaf side, but her eyesight must have been a wonder. You've seen her work. All that meticulous, tiny handwork.'
“But Shelley, she was here for less than a full day. How could she have found something Uncle Joe has never noticed? And if the whole Thatcher family and circle of friends plus a few strangers have heard this rumor, how could he not know about it? He's had years and years to look for it. My God! I'm starting to sound like I think it exists.”
Shelley was prepared to counter this argument. 'Look at the way he dresses. No one on earth has taste that bad unless they're at least color-blind.'
“Wrong. My grandfather was very fond of checks, plaids, and stripes together in his old age. And he had good vision. Just no taste.'
“Okay, I'll give you that one,' Shelley said. 'Paul's father wears the most awful hats in the world and doesn't seem to have any idea how silly he looks. But you do have to admit that Mrs. Crossthwait must have had exceptionally good vision.'
“That one I agree with.'
“So suppose she dropped a pin on the floor, bent over to get it, and realized the joints in the flooring formed a little door?'
“The room has a linoleum floor.'
“Don't be so picky. It was just an example,' Shelley snapped. 'Just suppose she spotted something that didn't look quite right, investigated, and found something valuable? It could have been something very small. The corner of an envelope barely visible at the edge of a rug or something.'
“What if she had?' Jane said. 'We don't know enough about her to guess whether she'd just pocket it among all that stuff she brought along and live the rest of her life in luxury or whether she'd have turned it over to the rightful owner.'
“The rightful owner, who is presumably Jack Thatcher, wasn't here yet when she died—'
“That we know of,' Jane reminded her. 'We have no idea where he was last night and it's only about an hour and a half from Chicago to here.'
“—but she might have dropped a hint to someone about having found something important. She was up in that room most of the time she was here and everybody else was roaming around wherever they wanted. Anyone could have visited her up there and no one else might have even noticed.”
There was a loud yelp from one of the football game participants. Jane watched in horror as two of the young men rushed over to where Dwayne Hessling was spread-eagled in the grass. But before she could act, he'd gotten up and was bending his arm experimentally. 'It's okay,' he said. 'I can still move everything.”
Jane let out the breath she'd been holding. 'All we need him to do is break an arm or leg,' she said.
“We'd just have to have Larkspur do something with tulips and baby's breath on his crutches,' Shelley said with a laugh.
Jane gave her friend the look she usually reserved for the mother of children who were misbehaving in the grocery store. 'Get back to your theory. We're already about six 'supposes' away from any sort of reality. Might as well run the whole course.'
“Hmmm. To tell the truth, I'm not sure where I was going with it. Except to say that it's possible Mrs. Crossthwait saw or found something valuable and put herself in danger by mentioning it.'
“You're ruining my theory that somebody who has nothing to do with this wedding discovered that she was a Nazi collaborator and followed her here to bump her off as an act of revenge,' Jane said.
Shelley smiled. 'Sorry about that. But why would anybody follow her here to kill her? They wouldn't know the layout of the place, especially in the dark.'
“Maybe it wasn't dark all night. We had lights on in the main room when the power failed. Maybe it came back on during the night.'
“But unless they'd been lurking under the furniture all day, how would an outsider even know what room she was in?' Shelley asked.
Jane thought about this for a long moment and couldn't dredge up an argument. 'Okay, okay. So if the police are right that somebody pushed her down the steps, and if it's somebody who was staying overnight, who do you suggest as chief suspect?'
“The aunts?' Shelley answered halfheartedly.
“Come on, Shelley! What threat could Mrs. Crossthwait have possibly been to either of them?'
“Well, there's the treasure story. From what we've heard, they're the ones who thought it up and the only ones, besides Larkspur, who seem to believe it. What if she found something valuable and mentioned it to them? Maybe something she didn't even recognize as being of value.'
“And they wanted it for themselves, not to share with Jack, who had never believed the story to begin with…?' Jane said.
“Or maybe it was just one of them,' Shelley said. 'One who wanted to keep it all to herself.”
Jane thought about it for a while. 'Maybe. But the aunts clearly snubbed her after dinner. A mere hireling
