objective. According to Eileen, Michael Satisky was a knight in shining armor. She talked like a bride, in fact.”
“Which she was-or almost was. Well, if this turns out to be a suicide, we may have to check the shining armor for rust spots. Reckon I’ll have a talk with the young man. All right, Dr. Shepherd, that’s all I can think of. Is there anything else you want to tell us?”
“Well, let me remind you that I knew Eileen when she was away at school. Away from her family, I mean. That change of environment could make a big difference in her state of mind.”
“How’s that?” asked Rountree.
“Well, Eileen seemed anxious about coming home. As if she were dreading something.”
“You want to take a guess at what that was?”
“Well… offhand…” Shepherd glanced up at the ceiling. “Have you ever met her mother?”
CHAPTER TEN
“HE WASN’T MUCH HELP, was he?”
Clay shrugged. “Well, if she was suicidal, and he didn’t know it, it won’t look so good for him professionally.”
“Oh, hogwash!” sneered Rountree. “Her state of mind could have changed something awful since she got home. That’s what we got to figure out: what’s been going on around here-and could it have made her want to kill herself?”
Michael Satisky, who had been sent in by Shepherd, halted in the doorway. “Kill herself?” he echoed, forgetting his nervousness. “Is that what happened? Are you sure?”
“Will you sit down,” moaned Rountree. “And don’t jump to so dad-burned many conclusions. You probably know more than we do right now. So, what do you think? Did she kill herself?”
“How-how could I know?” Satisky stammered. The sheriff’s genial drawl did not make him feel at ease. It reminded him of the easy, philistine confidence of the high school athletes who had made his life miserable as a teenager. He felt that he was being baited, and he became even more tense.
“Well, since you were going to marry her, we thought you’d be able to tell us a little something about her state of mind,” said Rountree with heavy sarcasm.
Satisky winced. “She was upset about something,” he admitted. “But I don’t know why. It wasn’t about our engagement, because she didn’t know-”
Rountree pounced. “Didn’t know what?”
“Oh… well… nothing important. I mean, she didn’t know, so it couldn’t very well be relevant, could it?”
“I think I’d better hear this,” said Rountree. “You’d be surprised at what people know. They got the darndest ways of finding out-listening at doors and I don’t know what-all.”
Satisky blushed, remembering his opening words of the interview.
Rountree pretended not to notice that his shot had hit home. “Anyway, you never can tell what’s going to be important, so I think you’d better tell us what this is all about.”
“It’s nothing really,” Satisky insisted. “I was just… you know… getting nervous. About the wedding and all-uh, this is hard to discuss with police officers…”
Rountree snorted. “You think this is hard? You should have tried explaining to the bride that you’d changed your mind.”
“Well, I hadn’t actually made any decision…”
Too spineless to go through with it, Rountree’s look suggested; but he merely asked: “Are you sure Eileen Chandler couldn’t have figured this out?”
Satisky hesitated. “Well… I did mention something about it to her cousin last night.”
“Her cousin. Who would that be?”
“Elizabeth MacPherson.”
“Oh, that pretty little gal with the dark hair. I see!” Rountree beamed at him with understanding.
“No! I’m sure you don’t see at all. I merely mentioned to Elizabeth that I was somewhat apprehensive. I certainly did
“Talks just like a book, don’t he?” Rountree beamed happily at Clay.
Clay nodded. He had seen Rountree’s clown act pay off too many times to question it, but he couldn’t join in on the spirit of it. He contented himself with playing straight man.
“So, we know you had a little confidential talk with ‘Cousin Elizabeth,’ right here in the house of your intended. Is that right?”
“Uh-yes,” said Satisky miserably.
“Now, are you sure you couldn’t have been overheard?”
“Oh, I don’t think so! I mean, no one has mentioned it!” Rountree and Taylor exchanged glances of exasperation. “Anyway,” Satisky continued shrilly, “I don’t think that had anything to do with it! And I don’t think she killed herself! I think she was murdered for money. Have you heard about the will? Well, find out about
“Yes, I witnessed the will,” Elizabeth told them a few moments later. “She had her lawyer come out to talk to her about the inheritance, and she asked him to draw one up. But she had a handwritten one already done, and he told us it was legal-though he didn’t seem to like the idea much.”
“A will,” mused Rountree. “Did she have a lot to leave?” He wondered what the Chandlers would consider “a lot.”
Elizabeth explained the terms of Great-Aunt Augusta’s will, leaving her fortune to the first of the cousins to marry. “But I think Eileen left it all to Michael, anyway,” she concluded.
“Well,” drawled Rountree, “if I understand you right, she didn’t accomplish much there. She only got the trust fund when she was married-which she never was. So she had nothing to leave, did she?”
Elizabeth stared at him. “I never thought of that,” she said slowly.
“So there’s an inheritance up for grabs. This gets more interesting all the time. Is anybody else engaged? How about yourself?”
“Well, no, I’m not.”
“How about the others?”
“Not that I know of. My Cousin Alban was engaged once, about four years ago, but the girl broke it off, and he hasn’t seen her since. I haven’t heard of Charles or Geoffrey being interested in anybody, and my brother-oh, but he’s not even here! So-no, I don’t think any of us is considering getting married.”
“Bet you will now,” said Rountree.
When Elizabeth did not reply, Rountree tried another approach. “Now, Miss MacPherson, we need to get an idea about your cousin’s state of mind. I’d be obliged if you’d tell me when you saw her last.”
“Umm… last night after dinner. I went up to her room to see how she was.”
“Any reason why you might be worrying about her?”
Elizabeth recounted Eileen’s reaction to Dr. Shepherd’s arrival.
“Didn’t she want Dr. Shepherd here?”
“She didn’t seem to,” Elizabeth admitted. “But that doesn’t make sense. She invited him here herself.”
“Who told you that?” asked the sheriff.
“Well-he did. Dr. Shepherd.”
Rountree glanced over at Clay Taylor, who was still scribbling furiously.
“So you went up after dinner-to see if Miss Chandler was feeling better.”
“Yes. We talked for a little while, and she said she was nervous about the wedding-”
“Why do you suppose that was?”
Elizabeth sighed. “Probably because my Aunt Amanda is turning it into a three-ring circus. Poor Eileen was feeling like an exhibit. I’d have been nervous, too.”
“Could be. Anything else you can think of?”
“Well, I thought she might be overtiring herself trying to finish the oil painting she was working on. She’d work on it for hours every day.”
