People began to take their places at the tables, and Faith stood and considered which group would provide the most fodder. She settled on the Cabots. There was another couple she didn't know at the table. Two places were left. She turned to Sylvia, 'Would you like to sit with me? I'm staying for lunch today. We could join the Cabots over there.'
“Oh yes, how lovely—and the Porters.”
So she'd be able to find out immediately if Charmaine had turned up, Faith realized.
The room was filling up rapidly. Dr. Hubbard sat at a table by the window, and Muriel joined him. She looked as imperturbable as ever and reached out to give her father's hand a reassuring pat as she sat down. Everything was proceeding normally at Hubbard House on the surface, anyway.
Mrs. P. was giving them beef pot pie today, which Faith had tried to bourguignonize a bit by adding mushrooms, diced bacon, and wine. It wasn't too bad.
She didn't have to worry about drawing people out. Eddie Russell's death was the topic of the moment. Julia seemed particularly upset that Faith had been in the same room.
“We have a couch that makes up into a bed. I should have had you stay with us.'
“Julia, please don't trouble yourself about it. Who could possibly have predicted something like this would ever happen?'
“I feel responsible too,' Sylvia said. 'There are any number of other places you could have slept. I don't know why Leandra took you to that old guest suite—it's so cold and drafty in the winter too. It is where we put our notables though,' she gushed on, 'and I suppose she meant it to be an honor.”
Some honor, Faith thought, and stifled the urge she had to giggle or say something naughty that she had had ever since she sat down to eat with all these grown-ups.
“It is so sad,' sighed Naomi Porter. 'Danforth and I were very fond of Edsel. He was such a help to us in the greenhouse, carrying sacks of loam and really doing all the dirty work. It was lovely that he took such an interest in horticulture. He even had his own little section. Whenever I water his plants, I'll think of him.”
Faith made a mental note to tell John Dunne tomake a surreptitious raid on the Porters' greenhouse. She had a pretty good idea of what Eddie had been growing there, and it wasn't oregano.
“Be that as it may,' Ellery Cabot was saying, 'I hope the young man's death doesn't bring all sorts of negative publicity to Hubbard House. Let's hope the police clear it up quickly and we can go about our business.”
Julia looked less sanguine. 'I have a feeling finding out who killed Eddie Russell could be very complicated.'
“Why do you say that?' Faith asked.
“Because he was—' The rest of Julia's words were interrupted by Denise's frenzied entrance into the dining room.
“Dr. Hubbard! Dr. Hubbard! Come quickly! Someone's attacked Charmaine and locked her up in the furnace room!”
Roland ran out of the room, closely followed by Muriel. Everyone looked at one another in stunned silence for a moment before a general hubbub broke out.
Faith got up.
“I have to make sure Detective Dunne has been notified.”
She dashed down the corridor to the annex and took the elevator to the ground floor. She assumed the furnace was in one of the maze of rooms across from the kitchen, and as she drew closer, she heard voices. When she opened the door, she saw Donald and Roland Hubbard bent over Charmaine, who was stretched out on the floor. Her blouse was torn and there was a pil- lowcase lying next to her. She was moaning softly.
“Now, honey, the shot should take effect any minute. Be brave, my darling,' Donald was saying.
“I'll call Emerson and we'll make arrangements to have her taken over there immediately,' Dr. Hubbard said. He was leaning over her, prodding deftly at various parts of her body.
“No!' screamed Charmaine. 'I hate hospitals! Don't make me go to a hospital!'
“Honey, it's just to make sure there are no internal injuries. We have to have some X rays.' Donald talked in a soothing tone of voice.
Muriel stepped out of the shadows and spoke to Donald in a low voice. 'Why don't we move her upstairs for now until she's less hysterical?”
Donald smiled at her gratefully.
Faith entered the room. She felt slightly awkward intruding on this domestic scene, but somebody had to.
“Has anyone notified the police?”
Donald looked up. 'I asked Denise Samuelson to do that immediately, Mrs. Fairchild. We expect them at any moment.'
“I know it's uncomfortable for her here, but I think they would probably not want her moved.”
Nobody likes a know-it-all, and all four Hub-bards looked at her with varying degrees of annoyance Charmaine's deathly pallor displaying the least.
“Do you happen to know if Denise was going to call the state police or the Byford police?' Faith asked.
“I didn't give her a list of telephone numbers.' There was no attempt to disguise the exasperation now. 'My wife had just been attacked. I told her to call the police.”
Faith was torn. She didn't know whether she ought to stay to make sure nothing was moved or go find Denise and make sure she had called Dunne. She decided to stay. If the Byford police arrived, she'd have to try to keep Chief Coffin from destroying whatever evidence there was. So far all she could see was the pillowcase and a piece of rope lying next to it. Presumably the attacker had pulled it over Charmaine's bouffant hairdo and tied it around her neck with the rope.
“Water, I need some water,' Charmaine groaned, and tried to get up.
“Don't move, my dear. Mrs. Fairchild is unfortunately correct and we must let the police see exactly what happened,' Dr. Hubbard advised. 'I'll get you something to drink.”
It was sweltering in the furnace room, and Faith half-heartedly hoped Roland would appear with a tray of frosty glasses for them all, but he returned with only one tumbler for Charmaine, which he lifted to her parched lips.
A few seconds later John Dunne appeared with Detective Sullivan and his paraphernalia. The room suddenly grew too small for the assemblage, and Faith found herself wedged next to Muriel. But leaving was out of the question.
Dunne took a stride over to where the victim lay. Faith could have sworn Charmaine's skirt had been hiked up several inches in the interim.
“Mrs. Hubbard, can you tell me what happened?”
Charmaine's accent moved south from the Carolinas to Georgia.
“I arrived here at about ten o'clock. I was meeting my husband, but first I went to find Mrs. Samuelson. We were supposed to have lunch today, and I wanted to tell her I couldn't make it. I thought I'd look in the kitchen when I didn't see her upstairs, and when I came out of the elevator, someone put a bag on my head and everything went black. When I came to, I was in here. I got the bag off, then I must have passed out again. I don't know how long it's been.' She looked up at Dunne piteously. He didn't budge.
“Did you get any impression at all of your assailant? Did he or she say anything?'
“Not a word. Whoever it was was taller than I am, though. I think it was a man. I tried to grab at the bag and I believe I hit a shoulder. I was knocked out right after that.' She touched her head gingerly. 'This is where I was hit.'
“She has a sizable contusion and there may be some concussion,' Donald said. 'There don't appear to be any other injuries, thank God,' he added.
“No indication of ...' Dunne glanced tactfully a little north of Charmaine's knees.
Donald choked slightly. 'Absolutely not.”
“Who found her?' He looked around the room. 'I did,' Donald said. 'Mrs. Samuelson and I were both beginning to get alarmed and were making a thorough search of the premises. My wife had made plans to meet each of us here, and her car was in the parking lot. And she's not a woman who breaks appointments.”
Faith bit her lip.
Donald continued, 'I was checking all the rooms just opening the doors and looking in. Of course I didn't
