“But Charley, it was exactly because of what happened to Patricia that I had to—and you felt the same way. Even if it hadn't been your job, you would have tried to find out who killed your friend.”
Faith found she could be comfortably adamant now that she was alive.
“ And don 't blame Tom. He had no idea what I was doing. And really all I did was ask to borrow a book. You can 't imagine how surprised I was when she suddenly turned a gun on me.”
Tom tightened his already bone-crushing grip on her hand.
Pix gasped. "Faith, I 'm going to get the brownies I made yesterday morning and that champagne I mentioned. I have to have something to fortify myself and probably you'll say they don 't go with champagne, but you'll just have to bite the bullet—whoops, that's not exactly appropriate, I mean you'll just have to grin and bear it this once. Now don 't say a word until I get back."
“Champagne and chocolate are fine, especially your brownies," Faith reassured her. The idea of one of Pix's dense, dark brownies and a glass of champagne appealed to her, even on top of pizza and beer. She was tired, euphoric, and still hungry.
They all needed a stretch and got rid of the pizza boxes and empty beer bottles. Tom took out some ice cream and by the time Pix returned with her arms full,they had resumed positions and were ready for the next round.
It was Millicent 's turn.
“Of course," she said daintily, sipping at her champagne as if she never touched the stuff and had not earlier put away an entire bottle of beer, just this once for the shock. " Of course, I had no idea anyone was missing. I didn 't see you or Jenny go into Eleanor 's house, Faith.”
Faith was astonished. Was Millicent slipping?
“ I was having my hair done at the Beauty Shoppe." Faith was relieved. There had to have been some logical explanation. Since Millicent 's hair was unvarying in both its shade, white as snow, and style, Mamie Eisenhower, the Beauty Shoppe would never have suggested itself.
A thought struck her. How long does it take for a marcel wave or two ? "But Millicent, if you knew where we were, why didn't you get us out sooner?" Faith knew there was bound to be some retribution for ringing the belfry bell, yet this was going a little too far, even for Millicent.
“Yes, it was unfortunate," Millicent managed to make it sound like a nasty cold, "You see, I went straight from the hairdressers to a meeting of the Historical Society in Fitchburg." She turned and addressed the room at large, so no one would miss the importance of her next remarks, "I was the featured speaker. My talk was `The French Connection : Apollos Rivoire and Paul Revere.' " She hastened to add lest anyone think her title frivolous or worse, "I like to have a catchy opening. It gets people 's attention. The Reveres originated in France you know. " Everybody nodded solemnly except Scott. Millicent reminded him of his third-grade teacher—as cracked as the Liberty Bell, and was she strict ! He 'd spent most of the year in the cloakroom or the corner.
Since no one had offered to book Millicent for the season, even though she had paused meaningfully, she was forced to go on, " I stayed overnight with my cousin and didn't get back home until close to noon. Of course as soon as I heard the news I called the police.
“ I had begun to have very strong suspicions about Eleanor and while I was away I thought I would talk them over with someone. It struck me that Detective Dunne here was an intelligent and understanding man." Millicent managed to suggest that in this he was the only one in the greater Boston area.
Dunne blushed, or maybe it was the champagne. "So when I called the police department, I asked for him. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, because he was so busy looking for you." She looked at Faith in mild reproach for all the delay and inconvenience she had caused.
“You see, I knew about the will, but when I first thought of Eleanor, I found it hard to believe. Consider, she is a member of your church and the DAR. Then as I began to think, it seemed she was the only possibility.
“ I remember when Eleanor, Rose, and their mother moved to Aleford. They were so proud and you know," she turned to Tom and Reverend Sibley for support, "pride can be a sin. They were so proud they wouldn 't make friends with anyone and they made poor Patricia's mother terribly unhappy. On the one hand they expected her to give them everything, then on the other they wouldn 't take it. I knew right away that they were terribly jealous of the Harveys. That was Patricia's maiden name. I think it had all started even before the doctor, Eleanor and Rose 's father, died. They were brought up on their mother's stories of life in the Captain's house and when they went to visit, it must have been a greatcontrast. Doctor Whipple could never make much of his practice because he was a very lazy man. Just liked to take a bottle and a sandwich and fish in the Concord River. It drove his wife crazy. I think she actually was a bit disturbed anyhow. There always was a slightly hysterical strain in the Cox-Dudley line." Millicent took a breath and preened on her own impeccable nonpeccadilloed ancestry for a moment.
“Of course, after he died, he became a saint and it was `the doctor this,' `the doctor that.' But we all knew and felt sorry for them. Which of course they hated. There was really just no way things could work out as they wanted. Unless of course all the females between Eleanor and the inheritance died. When I realized this, I knew she was the killer."
“But," protested Faith, "she seemed to have so many friends here and she was always so kind."
“ When their mother died, Rose and Eleanor did come out of their shells, particularly Rose, who was always the more social of the two. It was a shame she never married, but her mother didn't think anyone was good enough for her. Rose got Eleanor out and active in things. Of course they had always gone to church," she assured Tom.
“After Rose died, Eleanor seemed all right, but I began to notice that she was very touchy about certain things, anything to do with Rose's memory, for example."
“She said Cindy had hurt Rose's feelings once. I think in her mind that justified the murder," Faith told them.
“Cindy called them `dried-up old maids' supposedly out of their hearing, but in a loud enough voice to be sure they did hear. Eleanor didn't particularly care, I imagine, but it must have hurt Rose bitterly, since she had had her chances and was always very pretty.”
Dunne had leaned forward. "So what you're saying, Millie, is that Eleanor began to lose touch with reality after Rose died. She put her up there with the rest of the family in her shrine.”
Millicent beamed. "Exactly. And Eleanor must have believed that she had been cheated out of her birthright. This was what I wanted to tell you and I thought you might want to borrow my books on the family," she added generously to one so obviously in tune.
Faith poured herself some more champagne and reached for a brownie before she thought better of it. When lightning did not strike John Dunne dead on the spot for calling Millicent "Millie," she knew for certain there were mysteries in life beyond our ken. Still, she wanted to find out more about the one to hand.
“I still don 't know how you found out where we were," she told him.
“ Robert Moore called us at about seven o'clock. He had come home from work at six and discovered that Jenny wasn't there. He telephoned every friend of Jenny 's he knew and had them all call around. It wasn't like her not to leave a note and he was worried. We started looking and then Tom called about a half an hour later. When we realized you were all missing with no word left for anyone, we knew it had to be connected. Especially after Tom told us you hadn 't given up your campaign to embarrass the police by unveiling the murderer first." He gave Faith a sidelong glance. " Which actually you did."