Anything Goes

accepted. Mr. Prinney leaned toward Robert. “Tell me about coming home this evening.“
    “We left the Winslows’ house in search of food,“ Robert said. “The meal was inedible. Drove to town. Not even Mabel’s Cafe was open.“
    “What time was this?“ Mr. Prinney asked.
    “I don’t know. Dinner at the Winslows’ had seemed to last for days. What time does Mabel’s close?“
    “Whenever Mabel feels like it.“
    “I just don’t know the time,“ Robert said. “We looked around for anywhere to get some food, then drove home. I dropped Lily at the door, then went to put the Duesie in the garage. Gave her a bit of a polish—the automobile, not Lily—then came inside.“
    “Through the front door?“ Prinney asked.
    “Of course. If I’d come through the kitchen door in back, I’d have been the one who found the body. I went to my room and as I was closing my door, I heard another door open. Lily’s, I know now. A couple minutes later, I heard her scream.“
    “About this dinner at the Winslows’...“ Mr. Prinney said. “Were both of you with the rest of the company the entire time?”
    Robert opened his eyes very wide. “We need alibis?”
    Mr. Prinney said nothing.
    “All right. We were and we weren’t. So to speak. What I mean is, we were both with someone or another the whole evening, but some of the others weren’t. You see what I mean?“
    “Not exactly.“
    “Sissy didn’t appear for a long while because she was fixing the food—if you could call it food. And our Cousin Claude choked on something and was gone for quite a while later on. Major Winslow also got sick on the dinner and left the table for some time. But Lily and I stuck it out.“
    “Good. That’s very good,“ Mr. Prinney said. There was the sound of a vehicle pulling up to the front door and Mr. Prinney suggested they adjourn to the library to get out of the way of the removal of the body. Jack wasn’t specifically invited, but trailed along anyway. He was wondering if he dared get out his notebook and pencil and take notes but decided it wouldn’t be tactful and would probably get him sent away. He’d have to trust his memory.
    As they sat down in the library, Robert said, “Oh, and there was someone else there when we arrived. Your editor,“ he said, turning to Jack.
    “Mr. Kessler was at the dinner?“ Jack asked. “No, he was just leaving as we arrived.“
    “I wonder what he was doing there?“ Jack said. “I can tell you that,“ Mr. Prinney said briskly. “He also stopped by the home we were visiting this evening. There’s a group of townspeople who want to have a festival of some sort in the fall. Just to perk everyone up a bit. He was out soliciting funds for it.”
    Robert hadn’t been paying attention. “You can’t honestly believe Lily and I are suspects in this murder,“ he said, still brooding about being asked for their alibis.
    “I don’t believe any such thing,“ Mr. Prinney said. “But the police are going to be asking a lot of questions in the morning. And I wanted the most important answer now.”
     
    Saturday morning Lily woke at dawn. Her mouth felt gummy, her mind fuzzy, her legs wobbly. She was brushing her teeth when she suddenly remembered what had happened last night. Fortunately, she was still so doped up from the draught the doctor had given her that she was more curious than alarmed.
    Billy Smith was dead on the kitchen floor of Grace and Favor. She shook her head. That couldn’t be right. It must have been a bad dream. She stumbled back into bed and slept for a few more hours.
    When she next awoke, well after nine in the morning, her mind was working better and she knew that the horror she’d stumbled onto last night hadn’t been a dream. She sat for a long time on the side of the bed, trying to work it out. She certainly wasn’t grieved by Billy Smith’s death. He’d frightened her, beat up his wife, possibly killed Uncle Horatio and she didn’t regret that he was dead. But she hated that it was a violent death, and hated more than anything that it happened inside Grace and Favor. It was like an attack on the house itself, a desecration, somehow. Not just in a physical sense, but in amoral sense. No matter what Billy had done to provoke someone to such desperate means, it wasn’t right that it took place here.
    There was a knock on the door and Mimi came in the room. She was subdued, but no longer crying. “Would you like a breakfast tray up here,