Part 29 (2/2)
”You're home early,” he said. ”I was going to join you again in a little while. It sounds as though the festivities have moved outdoors. What do you mean-you needed me?”
”It's too late now,” I told him. ”Belle-” But I couldn't get the words past the choke in my throat.
Caleb helped Persis up the steps to where she could sit in the swing. Then in dry, unemotional terms he explained what had happened, and Jon listened grimly.
”Belle was pushed out on that catwalk,” Persis said when Caleb finished. ”She must have been pushed.”
”You can't say that,” Caleb reproached her. ”We don't know any such thing.”
I broke in to tell Jon what Belle had whispered to me.
”Tully?” he said. ”I wonder why Tully. Maybe I'd better ride over to Domino in the morning and see what I can find out from the old man. I came back to the house so I could have it to myself and make a search that I've wanted to make for a long time. You'd better come inside and see what I've done, Mrs. Morgan. You won't like it, but I had to try, and I wasn't sure you'd agree if I asked permission.”
She let Caleb help her up from the swing. ”First I want to know how Belle is. Laurie, will you call the hotel?”
I went into the hall to the telephone, and a stranger answered. ”Belle is dead,” he said shortly. I hung up, feeling ill. Ill and surrounded by evil, by the constant threat of an evil that could strike any of us down at any time. Belle, so warmly outspoken, had drawn fire. We would all miss her terribly.
The others saw my face when I came back.
”She's gone?” Persis said.
I nodded, and Caleb bent toward her.
She pushed him away. ”I'm all right. Just angry for now. I'll cry later. Belle was my friend, and this has happened because of me. We've got to fight that man, punish whoever did this. You must go to Domino as soon as you can, Jon.”
”I'll go,” he said. ”But right now come into the back parlor, Mrs. Morgan, so you can see the mess I've made.”
He led the way to the open door and reached in to turn on lights. Persis closed her eyes, and I remembered that she hadn't set foot in this room for twenty years. Lights flashed on, and she opened her eyes and looked about the room. It had obvi- 1.ously been searched, for old dust and cobwebs had been disturbed, a rug thrown back at one comer, furniture moved about, one of the draperies down in a heap by the window. Persis said nothing, her eyes searching, remembering.
”What were you looking for?” Caleb asked, his voice oddly harsh.
”For something I didn't find,” Jon said. ”Though I think someone else did. Not the police, or it would have come out in the papers. I always wondered about that missing deringer.”
”Let it go, Jon,” Caleb said. ”Just let it all go. It can't possibly matter now.”
”It can matter a lot if we find a way to prove that Laurie never killed her father.”
The hush was suddenly intense, and I found that my knees wouldn't hold me. I went shakily to the old horsehair sofa and sat down on its slippery surface. Persis followed me carefully into the room, ignoring Caleb's offer of his arm, and sat in a chair. How strange we all looked in our costumes for the ball. Strange and somehow appropriate in this old room.
”Go on,” Persis said. ”What are you talking about?”
”One of those guns was missing, wasn't it? So it might have been fired when the other one was fired. Perhaps at the same time, so that only one shot seemed to be heard. In that case there ought to be another .4i-gauge bullet around somewhere. There were no traces of blood found at the time to show that Noah might have been wounded when he left. So the second bullet, if there was one, should be here in this room. But no one ever reported finding such a bullet, though I understand the police went over the room thoroughly.”
Both Persis and Caleb were staring fixedly, and he went on.
”Tonight I decided to come in here while you were all away and make a real search myself. Of course I didn't find anything. But I think the second gun was fired-not the one that killed Richard Morgan, but a second deringer in Laurie's I.
hands. The bullet could have gone astray-and I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I think it must have struck up there near the corner of the ceiling, so that it cut the wallpaper and cracked the plaster, but its force must have been spent, so that it ricocheted to the carpet, or some other part of the room.”
I found myself shaken by a mingling of hope and anxiety and disbelief. ”But-but then who-”
”Found the bullet? That's what I'd like to know. Was it you, Mrs. Morgan?”
She looked both shocked and confused, and her face told us the truth. ”No, of course not, Jon,” she said. ”I never thought of such a thing. What are you getting at?”
”Mr. Hawes?” Jon questioned.
The creases that ran down Caleb Hawes' cheeks looked deeper than ever, and his color was a pasty gray. He came to stand beside Persis' chair, beseeching her.
”Yes, I found the bullet. It's with those jewels that were hidden away. I searched before the police came and I found it, just as Jon has said.” He broke off for a moment, seeking control, then went on. ”Will }<ou forgive=”” me=”” for=”” what=”” i=”” thought?=”” i=”” believed=”” that=”” you=”” fired=”” the=”” gun=”” that=”” killed=”” richard,=”” mrs.=”” morgan.=”” and=”” if=”” that=”” was=”” what=”” you'd=”” done,=”” i=”” had=”” to=”” protect=””></ou>< p=””>
”I? Kill my son?”
He stumbled on, all his careful control crumbling. ”I thought you'd picked up the second gun that Laurie had loaded and you'd tried to shoot Noah Armand. But in the struggle Richard must have stepped in the way and you shot him instead. I always thought that was why you concocted the story of an intruder, faked the theft of the jewelry. I thought you had hidden the gun, and all I wanted was to see that your secret was kept.”
For a long moment no one said anything. Then Persis spoke sadly. ”My old friend' But what a fool you've been. Of course it was Laurie. She was the one I was protecting. And her 1.mother. From all the scandal that would have made the newspapers and the investigation a circus.”
But Jon was already contradicting her. ”No-I doubt that it was Laurie. The spent bullet must have come from Laurie's wildly fired gun. But it would have been Noah Armand who shot and killed your son, Mrs. Morgan. Then it was he who took away the second deringer that he had used.”
I still couldn't believe or understand, and I was shaking my head. ”Even if what you say is true, Jon, how can we ever know which gun killed my father?”
”Noah wouldn't have missed. Not when they were so close.”
”But then my mother must have seen it all. My mother was here in this room, and she would have known that Noah killed my father. Yet she never said anything.” Tears carne into my eyes, and I looked at my grandmother. ”She let me believe-”
”Stop that!” Persis said. ”You didn't believe anything. You didn't remember, and you can't start judging her now. Love does crazy things to people. I know. I loved that man once, and it took a long while for rne to come to my senses and face my mistake. Just be glad. Be grateful to Jon for working this out, and let everything else go-including any blame you may want to heap on Caleb.”
I roused myself to stare at Caleb Hawes. ”That was why you hated to have me come here, wasn't it? Because you wanted to protect my grandmother.”
His look was still unforgiving-of me. ”I owe Mrs. Morgan a great deal. She was kinder to me than my own family. I -wanted to do what I did.”
Jon came to sit on the sofa beside me, taking my hand. ”Just hang in there, Laurie. Don't try to sort it all out right away. Just try to believe. That's all you need to do.”
”I wish I could,” I said. ”But I don't think we'll ever really know.”
Grudgingly Caleb had arrived at a moment of total confes- sion. ”There's more. Mrs. Morgan, I was the one who put the sleeping capsules in your milk.”
”You?” Persis made a despairing gesture. ”But why-why?”
He stumbled on desperately-a man I could hardly recognize. ”I thought if I could stop you from making a new willjust for a little while-you might fall out with Laurie. Or she might leave. That was why I hung that wreath on her door.” He turned to me. ”And that's why I opened your door the first night you were here. I wanted to frighten you so that you wouldn't stay. I hoped you'd go back to New York before you could further damage your grandmother. I knew you would think it the sort of trick that Gail would play. You'd never have blamed me.”
To my surprise, Persis had recovered from her first astonishment and was nodding her head thoughtfully. ”Yes. Perhaps I can understand-a little. None of us ever gave you a chance to use your own talents, did we, Caleb? And desperation always gives bad advice.”
I wished that I could be as generous, but there was nothing I could say to this man now. Perhaps I would never really know the truth about Caleb Hawes. Whether it was my grandmother's well-being he protected or his own interest in her will -how could anyone tell? Perhaps he didn't know himself by this time.
”At least this would explain Noah Armand's disappearance,” Jon said. ”He knew he'd murdered Richard Morgan, and he took himself off as fast as he could, and was never heard from again.”
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