There was a little silence after Shayne’s purposefully melodramatic statement. Lois’ face was working and she swallowed back a sob before saying in a low voice, “I don’t see… how it can possibly help Jean for me to tell you. I just don’t see how…”
“Tell me,” said Shayne gently, “and let me decide, Lois. In strict confidence,” he went on. “You’ve bottled it up too long. Jeanette is dead now. But her sister is still alive. Think of her father. He’s lost one daughter already…”
“I… I don’t know.” Blinding tears streamed down Lois’ cheeks. She turned slowly, her girlish face a mask of fright and bewilderment.
Shayne put his right arm tightly about her shaking shoulders and she convulsively buried her face against his shoulder and wept uncontrollably. He held her tightly until the sobbing subsided, then got a clean handkerchief from his left hip pocket and pressed it into her hand.
He said, “Dry your eyes, Lois,” and got out a pack of cigarettes as she drew away shakily and dabbed the handkerchief at her wet cheeks. He held the pack out without looking at her and asked impersonally,
“Want one?”
“N-no thanks. I–I don’t smoke.”
He lit one for himself and went on without looking at her. “What happened to Jeanette may not have a thing in the world to do with Jean. But I have to be sure, Lois. What did happen that night?”
“Why, she had an accident and was killed. You know that. Not right off, but she died during an emergency operation. They said she never recovered consciousness.”
“I know all that, but… tell me the whole truth, Lois.”
“I will.” She spoke thinly, wetting her lips and staring straight ahead through the windshield. “She really wasn’t going to visit me. Except the last couple of days. It was something we fixed up. So her father and Jean wouldn’t know.”
“Wouldn’t know what, Lois?”
“That she was… well, that she was going off for a few days with… with a man. She didn’t tell me outright who it was, but I guessed and she didn’t deny it when I did. Because she had this sweetheart, you see. She was terribly in love with him and they were engaged but her father thought she was too young to be engaged and she was afraid to tell him. And he didn’t like for her to go around with Will. He wouldn’t let him come to their house to see her. It was all so thrilling and romantic. They were sort of going to elope, she said. But she was under-age and couldn’t get married yet. And she had a theory that every couple should… you know…” Lois’ cheeks blazed crimson but she forced herself to turn and meet Shayne’s grave eyes defiantly. “… well, sleep together before they got married. That way, they’d know, you see. Whether they were really suited or not. Anyhow, that’s what Jeanette thought, and she begged me to help her. So I did. She told her father she was coming to visit me all through the vacation and I promised not to give her away.”
“Where did they plan to go?” Shayne asked carefully.
“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me, except they had some place picked out where they’d pretend to be married and no one would ever know.”
“Were they going to take her car?”
“I don’t know. I guess so. I don’t think Will has one of his own.”
Shayne drew in a long breath. “So he was probably with her in the car when it happened.”
“I… I guess maybe he was,” she agreed miserably.
“And you didn’t tell anyone this?”
“Why should I have?” she demanded wildly. “It was done when I first heard. Jeanette was dead. Nothing in the world would change that. I felt so sorry for Professor Henderson. He just adored the ground Jeanette walked on. She was so much like her mother who died three years ago. I couldn’t tell him the truth. Promise me you won’t.”
Shayne said, “I promised that whatever you told me would be in strict confidence. I agree that Professor Henderson must never know if it can possibly be avoided. Now tell me this, Lois. Did Jean know anything about her younger sister’s plan?”
“Gosh no! I’m sure she didn’t. I don’t think she even really knew about Jeanette being engaged. Jeanette wouldn’t dare tell her. Not that Jean’s a prude or anything. She’s just older and… different, sort of. She wouldn’t have understood and she certainly wouldn’t have approved. She would have done something to prevent it if she had known. I just don’t understand about her now,” faltered Lois. “What kind of danger is she in? Why is she in Brockton? Does Professor Henderson know about it?”
“Not yet. He isn’t going to know if I can help it until Jean is safely home. Who is the Will, Jeanette was engaged to?”
“Will… Lomax,” she said unwillingly. “Does he… will you have to tell him I told you?”
Shayne shook his head. “No reason at all for him to know where I got my information. Is he in college here?”
“Oh, no. He’s a town boy. I don’t know him really. I only saw him twice. Jean always slipped off alone when she went out on a date with him.”
“Where will I find him?”
“He lives here in town. I don’t know just where. I’m afraid he has a sort of wild reputation. He’s pretty old,” she confided. “About twenty-two or three, I guess. And he’s got a motorcycle and is a member of some sort of club that go around on their cycles. Jeanette told about riding on it behind him a couple of times on trips and what a thrill it was.”
Shayne said, “I’ll find him in a town the size of Winter Park.” He lifted a big hand and put it on Lois’ shoulder and squeezed gently. “You’ve been wonderful. And a big help. Go on now and try to forget all about it. Don’t worry about having betrayed Jeanette’s confidence. If she were alive, I’m sure she would have done the same for her sister.”
He leaned over behind her and unlatched the door on her side. “When you get engaged to some lucky man, try not to be too impatient. There are long, long years ahead for… what Jeanette didn’t want to wait for.” He felt choked up and paternal as the young girl responded to his advice with a wistful smile and slowly got out. He watched her walk slowly up the pathway toward the dormitory with bowed head, and then pulled away fast to begin his search for Will Lomax.
13
Michael Shayne stopped in front of the first drug store he saw, went inside to consult the telephone directory. There was only one Lomax listed, and that number didn’t answer when he tried to call it.
He emerged from the booth and went across to the prescription counter where an elderly, mild-faced man came from behind a partition to ask what he wanted.
“I’m trying to locate a young man named Will Lomax. Do you know him?”
“Would that be Jasper Lomax’s boy? Goodness me, I remember him in knee britches. Would he be a young man now? I guess he would at that. Time does fly, doesn’t it?”
Shayne politely agreed that it did, and asked the druggist if he could suggest where to start looking for Jasper Lomax’s boy.
“I couldn’t say for sure. You try phoning the house?”
“They didn’t answer.”
“Jasper drives a taxi. U-m-m, let’s see now. I recollect hearing recently something about Will. In some sort of trouble, I think. Nothing serious but some cussedness he’d got into. Tell you what. You walk down to the next corner where you’ll find Officer Herschel directing school traffic. He knows every kid in town and where they hang out.”
Shayne thanked him and went down the street to the next corner where a big red-faced man was genially herding a group of small children across the street.
The elderly policeman nodded at once when Shayne asked about Will Lomax. “Known him since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.” He studied Shayne keenly. “What was it you wanted him for?”
“To ask a couple of questions about a college girl he’s been dating.”
Herschel had to step out to halt traffic for another group of children, and when he returned to the curb he asked Shayne bluntly, “You a dick?”