the lobby.
“Not alone, you won’t,” Judith said, hurrying after her.
“I’ll join you,” Nadia put in, almost running to keep up
with the cousins. “Frank’s safe. The others are here.”
“Goodness,” Judith said in amazement she hoped didn’t
sound feigned, “your devotion to Mr. Killegrew is really admirable. But then I work for myself. When you’re your own
boss, you can’t look up to yourself.”
“Frank Killegrew is a very exceptional man,” Nadia declared as they reached the supply room. “I was with him
when he was a Bell System vice president. In fact, I worked
for him from the time I left my post with the Red Cross in
New Delhi and moved back to the States. Frank had just
made middle management. Twenty-four years. I was teasing
him the other day, and saying we had a silver anniversary
coming up this November.”
“Really.” Judith surveyed the towel supply, which was beginning to dwindle. “That’s a long time.”
“We’ve made a good team over the years.” Nadia’s voice
was wistful.
Judith started out of the supply room with her stack of
towels, then stopped. “Say, Nadia, I’ve got an odd question
for you. Remember last year when you were at the lodge?”
She paused for Nadia’s faint nod. “You told us you drove
the company van back to town after Barry disappeared.
Where did you get the key?”
Nadia rested her chin on the armload of towels. “The key?
Oh, dear—where did I get it?” She pursed her lips. “Oh! I
found it on the coffee table in the lobby.”
Judith’s face fell. “You don’t know who put the key there?”
perhaps four keys on it. One was for the ignition, one was
for the storage compartment in the undercarriage, and the
other one—or two—were…” She paused. “I’m not sure.
Maybe they were duplicates of the others.”
“But you still had no idea who left them on the coffee
table?” Judith persisted.
Nadia shook her head. “No. At the time, I assumed Barry
had left them after he’d…gone off.” Behind the big glasses,
Nadia lowered her eyes.
“I see.” Judith didn’t know what else to say. She’d come
up against a dead end. The three women traipsed back out
to the lobby.
“Drat!” Renie exclaimed as they reached the entrance. “It’s
snowing again. I can see it coming down by the top of the
door.”
“It must have gotten colder,” Ava said, getting up from
one of the sofas. “Once the sun—whatever there is of
it—starts going down around three or four o’clock, the temperature drops.”
