Part 13 (1/2)
”I don't think anyone thought that,” he told me. ”Mrs. Morgan wouldn't have allowed anyone to think it. The last thing she wanted was a scandal that would involve more of her family. It was bad enough that Richard was shot. No mother could have loved her son more than your grandmother loved your father, Laurie. His death almost destroyed her.”
”What did she think about Noah's running off?”
This time Caleb let himself go. ”Good riddance! She knew by then that she'd made a bad bargain. I think she'd been telling him to get out for some time. So if he chose to go-fine!”
That this usually controlled man should permit himself such an outburst was disturbing in itself. A smoldering beneath the surface hinted at explosive depths.
”What is it?” I asked. ”What is it you're not telling me?”
For the first time since I'd stepped into his office, he met my eyes directly. ”If you are wise, Laurie, you won't press to know any more than you do. Let it go. Leave while you can, before irreparable harm is done. To you as well as your grandmother.”
'59.
”What do you mean-leave while I can? What irreparable harm?”
”That's all I have to say. If you want to know more, you'll have to go to your grandmother.”
I wondered out loud. ”Perhaps she gave him the jewels. Perhaps they were never stolen at all, but were a bribe to get him to leave. What did they consist of-the things that were taken?”
Caleb was staring at me, appalled, and again alarmed, as though I threatened him in some way. It took him a moment or two to get himself in hand.
”Really, Laurie, you ask too much. How could I possibly remember what was taken after all these years?”
I suspected that his was the sort of mind which would remember such details exactly, and that if he wanted to he could probably list every item that had disappeared.
”I suppose there's a listing somewhere? I wonder if the Denver Library would have microfilm from the newspapers of that time. Perhaps I could read about what happened here?”
He seemed relieved. ”If that's what you want, Laurie, I can furnish you with those old papers myself. They have been kept on file right here in this house. But first I must ask your grandmother if she wishes you to see them.”
”I'll ask her myself,” I said, with the strong suspicion that he might prejudice any chance of my seeing such papers.
I left him to his calculator, and just as I reached the stairs, Jon Maddocks came out of Persis' room. I felt a small rush of joy at the sight of him.
For once he seemed warmly approving as he came toward me. ”You're good for her, Laurie. She's coming to life. She wanted to know all about your visit to Domino and how I thought you felt about the old place.”
”What did you tell her?”
”I told her you'd fallen too much in love with the past, but 160 *
that I thought there was still time for you to catch up with the present.”
The tiny rush of feeling in me died. ”Why must you always mock me?”
”Is that what you think I'm doing?” He stood close to me at the head of the stairs, and suddenly he reached out a finger to touch a tendril of hair that had come loose against my cheek, lifting it back. ”I don't mean to mock you, Laurie. I just hope you'll wake up in time to be useful to her. You were ready to be for a while this morning.”
I drew back from his touch, a little afraid of my reaction.
He came down with me, his hand on my arm. ”Witt you stay, Laurie?”
”I want to,” I said. ”I think I really do. But there's so much that I don't understand. Sometimes-”
”Trust yourself. Just trust yourself a little more. There's a lot of her in you.”
”You said that before. But why should you think it?”
”I think it because of what you did in facing up to Ingram this morning. That took courage. And because I can remember a s.p.u.n.ky small girl who loved her grandmother very much. A small girl who was so much like Persis Morgan that everyone around could spot it. Even a kid like me.”
”It's gone now!” I cried. ”I've lost a whole part of me somewhere and I don't know how to find it again.”
I leaned against the stair rail, sagging a little as we reached my floor, and he put an arm about me, walked me toward my door Behind us Gail came running up the stairs and stopped.
”h.e.l.lo!” Her look questioned, faintly derisive. ”I've left Hillary to explore that old theater. I needed to get back here for Mrs. Morgan's afternoon medication.”
”What is that medication?” I asked.
”Only a simple sedative.”
”Why does she have to be sedated? She seems fine to me.”
”Perhaps you'd better ask Dr. Burton when he comes. If you'll excuse me-” She ran lightly up to the floor above and disappeared from view.
Jon hadn't dropped his arm at her appearance. For an instant it tightened around me, and then he let me go.
”There's too much of this sedation going on,” he said. ”It's begun since that nurse came in. When Belle Durant was here things were better. I have a feeling she talks old Doc Burton into doing what she wants. Maybe you can put a stop to it.”
The moment of emotion was safely past for me.
”I'll try,” I said. ”I wonder if there's something you can tell me.” I gestured toward my door. ”Do you know why anyone would hang an old funeral wreath on my doork.n.o.b? There was one there when I came upstairs last night.”
”So that's where it came from. You must have dropped it out your window. I found it when I walked around the house early this morning.”
”Why would it be left there?”
”I can't even guess.”
”There was a card.” I'd kept it in my pocket, and I took it out to show him.
He read the words gravely and handed it back. ”I don't like this. It seems a cruel and stupid thing to do.”
”Where could a wreath like that come from?”
”There's an old cemetery out behind the ranch, where a few Morgans and those who worked with them are buried. It could have come from there.”
”Whoever wrote that card knew that my father had been murdered. Grandmother Persis told me this morning about what happened.”
Jon looked away uncomfortably.
”You knew too, didn't you?”
”I knew about his death, of course. I was living here at the i6a ranch with my mother at the time. There was a lot of excite^ ment, and it was in all the papers.”