He hobbled over and pulled it out—one single white rose, just starting to open. “You don’t think the florist —”
“Sure I think the florist. It’s a florist’s rose. But I think the florist put it there because Uncle Herbert told him to, somehow. It’s his way of letting me know he’s around.”
“It could’ve been part of the arrangement. Or a mistake.”
“Sure it could. Hey, here I’ve been stuffing myself with these and never offered you any. Try one of the dark chocolate-covered pecan clusters. They’re great.”
“Thank you, I will,” he said.
I let him take it and get back into the chair again. “I should have shown you, but I already ate it. You know what I found in here? One of those yellow marshmallow bunnies, like you get in your basket at Easter. Really.”
He looked at me.
“I supposed they meant for it to be there. Or maybe it was a mistake at the factory.”
I got the smile again, and this time it stayed so long he turned away so I wouldn’t see it. “You win, I believe.”
“Sure I do. You know as well as I do that florists don’t make mistakes like that. Look at that bouquet. It’s all mums and glads and greens. Bouquets are planned, and nobody would plan one that included one little white rose down at the bottom where it couldn’t be seen.”
“I said you win.”
“Yeah.”
I was quiet so long he started to stand up, but I waved a hand to let him know I wanted him to stay. “Listen, I told a lie a minute ago. I didn’t mean to, but it was a lie just the same.”
“A lie is an untruth stated with intent to deceive.”
“Okay, it wasn’t a lie—it was an untruth. I said I was rich. I should’ve said I come from a rich family. I actually don’t have much dough—just what my father gives me for clothes. So I can’t really hire you. But I want you to help me, and when I’m older I’ll pay you, honest. You’re a criminologist, right?”
Blue nodded.
“Well, I want you to help me find Uncle Herbert and send him back before he hurts somebody else.”
“Somebody else?”
“You told me about his wife.”
“Whom he killed before you were born,” Blue said. “Has he harmed anyone recently, as far as you know?”
I shook my head.
“But you believe he has. Your voice betrayed you a moment ago, and your face did just now. I’ll try to help, I promise—but I won’t stand a chance unless we’re open with each other. What is it you think he did?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The bomb.”
“You believe that he put the bomb in Pandora’s Box?”
“Not in the box. I was just talking to Elaine about that, and I realized it doesn’t have to have been there. Everyone was looking at the box when the bomb went off, so naturally we all think the bomb was in there. Only Elaine thinks that Munroe guy had dynamite around his waist.”
I got the eyebrows again. “And do you?”
“Huh uh. He was in the book sale with us, remember? He had his shirt out of his pants, so there could have been stuff under it. But I don’t think it could’ve been anything anywhere near as big as sticks of dynamite. I’d have seen the corners of something.”
“I agree. People have done that sort of thing successfully with explosives beneath a loose-fitting overcoat, but I’ve never heard of hiding them under a summer shirt, and I don’t think it could be done.” As he spoke, Blue had been getting up to stand up. Even crippled, he got across to the door pretty quickly.
“Come in,” he said. “You can hear better.”
The guy who stepped into my hospital room then was as big as my father, and maybe bigger—tall and wide; quite a bit of it was probably fat, but for sure quite a bit wasn’t. He had a big square face that looked like it had been hacked out of a block of wood with a machete. “By God, you’re right!” he said. “But I could hear well enough out there.”
Then to me: “My name’s Sandoz, Miss Hollander; I’m a county detective.” He got out his badge case like he was used to doing it and flipped it open.
As primly as I could, I said, “I’m delighted to meet you, Lieutenant Sandoz. May I ask why you were spying on me?”
“Because two people are dead, Miss Hollander, and at least two more are apt to die before tomorrow morning. Whoever killed them might get a dozen next time, and next time you might be one of them. I’d do worse things than listen outside your door for a minute to stop that from happening.”
Naturally I was trying as hard as I could to remember just exactly what Blue and I had said, and wondering when he’d started listening. I said, “I don’t think you’ll learn much from either one of us, Lieutenant Sandoz.”
He smiled. It wasn’t a very friendly smile, only a little twitch of his wooden lips, but I think it was probably about as friendly as he could make it. “I’ll be the judge of that, Miss Hollander. I’ve already learned, for example, that someone you call Elaine—that will be Elaine Calvat Hollander, your mother, I suppose—thinks Munroe had a bomb on him. Now when I see her I’ll have something else to talk about.”
