didn't have the clothes, and being shy, you know, but then I thought maybe there was another reason.' She lowered her voice. 'I was waiting in her room once when we were going to a movie together. She was just getting dressed, and I was sort of looking at the things on her bureau while she was fixing her hair, and she had this sort of fancy box like a jewel box with a lot of pins and beads and hairpins, things like that in it. And I was just poking through, looking at her things-not nosy, you understand, but just looking-and I saw this wedding ring in the box. So I said, 'El, you getting ready to get married one of these days?' You know, sort of joking. Well, she got kind of red and closed the box and said something about it being her mother's.'
'You think she may have been secretly married?'
'That would explain her not going out with fellows, wouldn't it?'
'Yes, it might. What did Mrs. Hoskins think about it?'
'I didn't tell her. I figured it was El's secret. If I told Mrs. Hoskins, she might mention it to someone and it might get back to the Serafinos and then Elspeth could lose her job. Not that that would have been such a bad idea, and many a time I've told her she ought to get another place.'
'Didn't Mrs. Serafino treat her well?'
'I guess she treated her all right. Of course, they weren't pals the way I am with Mrs. Hoskins, but you can't expect that. What bothered me was her having to be in that house all alone night after night with just the kids, and her room right on the first floor.'
'She was frightened?'
'I know she was at first, and later I suppose she got used to it. This is a nice, quiet neighborhood and I guess after a while she felt safe enough.'
'I see. Now about yesterday. Did you know what her plans were?'
Ceha shook her head slowly. 'I didn't see her all week, not since Tuesday when we took the children out for a walk.' Her face brightened. 'She said something then about not feeling well and thinking she might make an appointment with a doctor for a check-up. Then she said she might go to a movie. Come to think of it, she said something about going to the Elysium and I said it was an awfully long picture, and she said she could still make the last bus home and didn't mind walking from the bus stop that late -and here just what I was afraid of and warned her against happens.' The tears came to Cetia's eyes and she dabbed at them with her handkerchief..
The children had returned and stood looking wide-eyed at the two adults. When Celia began to cry, one of them ran up to hug her and the other began punching Lanigan with a tiny fist.
He reached down to hold the child away. 'Take it easy, boy,' he said, laughing.
Mrs. Hoskins appeared in the doorway. 'He thinks you made Ceha cry? Isn't that precious? Come here, Stephen. Come to mother.'
It took some minutes before the children were mollified and once again ted from the room. 'Now Ceha,' said Lanigan when they were alone again, 'what was it you were afraid of and what did you warn her against?'
Celia looked at him blankly and then she remembered. 'Why, of going home late at night alone. I told her I wouldn't do it. It's so dark, that couple of blocks from the bus stop with the trees and all.'
'But wasn't there anything in particular?'
'Well, I think that's something particular.'
Again tears came to her eyes. 'She was young and real innocent, The girl they had before her, Gladys, wasn't much older than she was, but I was never really friendly with her, for all that we went to a lot of places together. She was a wise kid who knew all the answers, but Elspeth…' She left it hanging there and then impulsively, 'Tell me, was she all right when they found her? I mean, had she been, you know-mauled? I heard she was all naked when they found her.'
He shook his head. 'No. There was no sign that she had been sexually attacked. And she was decently dressed.'
'I'm glad you told me,' she said simply.
'It will be in the evening papers anyway.' He got up. 'You've been very helpful and I'm sure that if you think of something else, you'll let us know.'
'I will, I will,' she said and impulsively held out her hand. Lanigan took it and was mildly surprised to find she had the firm grip of a man. He started for the door, and then stopped as though a sudden thought had just occurred to him. 'By the way, how did Mr. Serafino treat Elspeth? Was he decent to her?'
She gave him a look of approval, even admiration. 'Now you're talking.'
'Yes?'
She nodded. 'He liked her. He let on that he didn't know she was alive, he hardly ever talked to her, but he was always watching her when he didn't think anyone was noticing. He's the kind that undresses a girl when he looks at her. That's what Gladys used to say, but she thought it was funny and kind of led him on.'
'And what happened to her?'
'Oh, Mrs. Serafino got jealous and gave her the sack. I say when a wife is jealous, she usually has reason.'
'I should think she would have hired an older woman then.'
'And where would she get an older woman to take a job like that, six days a week and baby-sitting until two and three every morning?'
'I see your point.'
'Besides, don't you think he had something to do with who got hired?'
12
Lieutenant Eban Jennings of the Barnard's Crossing police force was an angular man in his late fifties with watery blue eyes, and he dabbed at them constantly with a handkerchief.
'Damn eyes start tearing first week in June and keep on clear through September,' he remarked as Hugh Lamgan entered the office at the station house.
'Probably an allergy, Eban. You ought to get yourself tested.'
'I went through that a couple of years back. They found I was sensitive to a tot of things, but none of them that would hit just at this time. I figure maybe I'm sensitive to summer residents.'
'Could be, but they don't usually show up till the end of June.'
'Yes, but there's the anticipation. Get anything on the girl?'
Lanigan tossed the snapshot that Mrs. Serafino had given him onto the desk. 'We'll give that to the papers. Might start something.'
Jennings examined the picture carefully. 'She wasn't bad-looking-sure a tot prettier than when I saw her this morning. I like them built that way, kind of stocky. I don't much care for these skinny little dames you see nowadays. I like a girl to be well-cushioned, know what I mean?'
'I know what you mean, Eban.'
'And now I've got something for you, Hugh. The medical examiner's report came in.' He handed his chief a paper. 'Take a look at that last paragraph.'
Lanigan emitted a low whistle. 'The girl was two months pregnant.'
'Yep, how do you like that? Somebody upstumped our little girl.'
'It sort of gives a new slant to things, doesn't it? The people who knew her, Mrs. Serafino and her friend Celia and Mrs. Hoskins, are all agreed that she was quite shy and had no men friends at all.'
Just then a patrolman walked by the door and he called him in. 'Want to see you for a couple of minutes, Bill.'
'Yes, sir.' Patrolman William Norman was a young man with dark hair and a serious, businesslike demeanor. Although he had known Hugh Lanigan all his life and they had been on a first-name basis, characteristically he stood at attention and addressed the chief formally.
'Sit down, Bill.'
Norman took one of the office chairs, managing to give the impression that he was still at attention.
'Sorry I couldn't let you off last night, but I
