“You can cry if you like,” Gallantyne said. “That might help.”
“No.”
“All right, then, we’ll go on. Is that O.K.?”
“I guess so.”
“Did you and Jessie ever talk about running away together? Perhaps just in fun, like, let’s run away and join the circus.”
“That would be plain silly,” she said in a contemptuous voice. “Circuses don’t even come here.”
“Times have changed since I was a boy. The only thing that made life bearable when I was mad at my family was the thought of running away and joining the circus. Did Jessie often get mad at her family?”
“Sometimes. Mostly at Mike, her older brother. He bosses her around, he’s awfully mean. We think a bad witch put a curse on him when he was born.”
“Really? What kind of curse?”
“I’m not sure. But I made one up that sounds as if it might work.”
“Tell it to me.”
“It should be said in a more eerie-like voice, only I don’t feel like it right now.”
Gallantyne pursed his lips and nodded. “Sounds pretty authentic to me just the way it is. Do you know any more?”
“That one,” she added anxiously, “isn’t so good, is it?”
“Well, it’s not so much a curse as a statement. Uncle Howard’s the nastiest man in town, period. By the way, who’s Uncle Howard?”
“Mr. Arlington.”
“Why do you think he’s so nasty, Mary Martha?”
“I don’t. I only talked to him once and he was real nice. He gave me fifty cents.”
“Then why did you make up the curse about him?”
“Jessie asked me to. We were going to make up curses about all the people we hate and she wanted to start with Uncle — with Mr. Arlington.”
“Who was next on the list?”
“Nobody. We got tired of the game, and anyway my mother came to pick me up.”
“I wonder,” Gallantyne said softly, “why Jessie felt that way about Mr. Arlington. Do you have any idea?”
“No, sir. That was the first day she ever told me, when we were at the playground with Mike.”
“What day was that?”
“The day my mother and I went downtown to Mac’s office.”
“Thursday,” Mac said.
Gallantyne thanked him with a nod and turned his attention back to Mary Martha. “Previous to Thursday, you thought Jessie and the Arlingtons were good friends?”
“Yes, on account of the Arlingtons were always giving her presents and making a big fuss over her.”
“Both of the Arlingtons?”
“Well—” Mary Martha studied the toes of her shoes. “Well, I guess it was mostly Aunt Virginia, him being away so much on the road. But Jessie never said anything against him until Thursday.”
“Let’s assume that something happened, on Wednesday perhaps, that changed her opinion of him. Did you see Jessie on Wednesday?”
“Yes, I went over to her house and we sat on the porch steps and talked.”
“What about?”
“Lots of things.”
“Name one.”
“The book Aunt Virginia gave her. It was all about glaciers and mountains and rivers and wild things. It sounded real interesting. Only Jessie had to give it back because it cost too much money and her parents wouldn’t let her keep it. My mother,” she added virtuously, “won’t let me accept anything. When Sheridan sends me parcels, I’m not even allowed to peek inside. She sends them right back or throws them away, bang, into the garbage can.”
Gallantyne looked at the cat. “I gather you’re referring to another Sheridan, not this one.”
“Cats can’t send parcels,” Mary Martha said with a faint giggle. “That’s silly. They don’t have any money and they can’t wrap things or write any name and address on the outside.”
Gallantyne thought, wearily, of the anonymous letter. He’d been up all night, first with the Brants and Mrs. Arlington, and later in the police lab examining the letter. He was sure now that it had been written by a man, young, literate, and in good physical health. The description fitted hundreds of men in town. The fact that Howard Arlington was one of them meant nothing in itself.
He said, “Mary Martha, you and Jessie spend quite a lot of time at the school grounds, I’m told.”
“Yes. Because of the games and swings and jungle gym.”
“Have you ever noticed anyone watching you?”
“The coach. That’s his job.”
“Aside from the coach, have you seen any man hanging around the place, or perhaps the same car parked at the curb several days in a row?”
“No.” Mary Martha gave him a knowing look. “My mother told me all about men like that. They’re real nasty and I’m supposed to run home right away when I see one of them. Jessie is, too. She’s a very good runner.”
Perhaps not quite good enough, Gallantyne thought grimly. “How are you going to recognize these men when you see them?”
“Well, they offer you things like gum or candy or even a doll. Also, a ride in their car.”
“And nothing like this ever happened to you and Jessie?”
“No. We saw a mean-looking man at the playground once, but it was only Timmy’s father, who was mad because Timmy missed his appointment at the dentist. Timmy wears braces.”
One corner of Gallantyne’s mouth twitched impatiently. So Timmy wears braces, and he has a mean-looking father and I am getting exactly nowhere. “Do you know the story of Tom Sawyer, Mary Martha?”
“Our teacher told us some of it in school.”
“Perhaps you remember the cave that was the secret hide-out. Do you and Jessie have somewhere like that? Not a cave, particularly, but a special private place where you can meet or leave notes for each other and things like that?”
“No.”
“Think carefully now. You see, I and a great many other people have been searching for Jessie all night.”
“She wouldn’t hide all night,” Mary Martha said thoughtfully. “Not unless she took lots of sandwiches and potato chips along.”
“There’s no evidence that she did.”
“Then she’s not hiding. She’d be too hungry. Her father says he should get a double tax exemption for her because she eats so much. What’s a tax exemption?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Gallantyne turned to Mac, who was still standing beside the door as if on guard against a sudden intrusion by Kate Oakley. “Have you any questions you’d like to ask her?”
“One or two,” Mac said. “What time did you go to bed last night, Mary Martha?”
“About eight o’clock.”
“That’s pretty early for vacation time and daylight saving.”
“My mother and I like to go to bed early and get up early. She doesn’t — we don’t like the nights.”
“Did you go to sleep right away?”
“I must have. I don’t remember doing anything else.”
“That seems like logical reasoning,” Mac said with a wry smile. “Did you get up during the night?”
“No.”
“Not even to go to the bathroom?”
“No, but you’re not supposed to talk about things like that in front of strangers,” Mary Martha said severely.
“Lieutenant Gallantyne is a friend of mine.”
“Well, he’s not mine or my mother’s.”
“Let’s see if we can change that,” Gallantyne said. “Ask your mother to come in here, will you?”
“Yes, sir. Only... well, you better not keep her very long.”