Had Penny Crain once enjoyed this
delightful little sitting-room, with its tiny balcony built out upon the
sloping roof?... And it gave him pleasure to think that this big,
well-furnished but not fussily feminine bedroom had once been hers, as
well as the small but perfect bathroom whose high narrow window
overlooked the back garden. The closets, dresser drawers and highboy
drawers were completely empty, however, of any traces of her occupancy
or that of any other....
With these rooms going to waste, why--he suddenly asked himself--had
Nita Selim coaxed Judge Marshall to have the unfinished half of the
gabled attic turned into bedrooms and baths? Why couldn't Lydia have
slept up here, if Nita thought so much of her "faithful and beloved
maid"?
But even as he asked himself the question Dundee realized that the
answer to it had been struggling to attract his attention.
_These rooms had not been wasted!_ Someone had been occupying them as
late as last night! Weaving swiftly through the three rooms, like a
bloodhound on the scent, Dundee collected the few but sufficient proofs
to back up his intuitive conviction. A copy of _The Hamilton Evening
Sun_, dated Friday, May 23, left in an armchair in the sitting-room. All
windows raised about six inches from the bottom, so that the night
breeze stirred the hand-blocked linen drapes.
Pages:
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