Anything Goes

they asked Lily about it, too, Daddy. I’m not being a tattletale.“
    “What about my scarf?“
    “They said that you said you lost it. That nice green paisley one.“
    “That’s true.”
    Sissy looked confused. “No, you didn’t. You left it at our house the first time you called on us.”
    Lily cast her mind back to that first visit. Robert had been on the brink of saying something very rude to Major Winslow and she had hustled him out in a great hurry, pausing but a second to pick up her purse from the hall table. But she couldn’t remember having picked up the scarf. “I guess you’re right,“ she said warily.
    “And then I brought it back to you,“ Sissy added. “No, you didn’t. Not that I remember.“
    “Well, not directly. I went for a walk and decided to take it along to you, but I couldn’t get anyone to come to the door and so I just peeked in to call you and still no one answered. So I just put it on this chair right here. When I came back later to invite you to dinner, it was gone, so I assumed you had found it.”
    “You brought it back?“ Lily said dully.
    Major Winslow reentered the conversation. “Sissy, are you certain you didn’t lose it along the way? I saw you leave with it, but...“
    “Daddy, I put it on that chair. Oh!“ Sissy squealed again. “What is that thing?“
    “This is my new dog,“ Lily said. “She doesn’t have a name yet.“
    “Ought to get rid of her,“ Major Winslow said. “She’s a killer.”
    Both young women stared at him.
    “At least it looks like the same dog, just cleaner. We keep a dovecote and I saw that dog kill one of my doves the other day.“
    “She was starving,“ Lily said.
    “So are a lot of people. That doesn’t excuse theft,“ Winslow said.
    “But people know better. Dogs don’t,“ Lily said. “She was only doing what comes naturally to a starving animal.“
    “I must apologize again, Miss Brewster,“ Winslow said contritely. “I seem to be bringing up one unpleasant subject after another. It’s not like me. We came to express our sympathy for your situation, not to upset you. Please forgive me.“
    “It’s quite all right,“ Lily said politely. “I’m too easily upset anyway just now. It was my fault.“ She didn’t mean this sincerely, but suspected her parents would have been thrashing in their graves if she hadn’t said it. They had put such importance on good manners.
    With more apologies, more expressions of sympathy and offers to be of any help or comfort that they could be at this difficult time, Winslow and his daughter finally oozed compassionately out of the house.
    Lily closed the door, turned and stared at the chair in the hall. Had she ever seen the paisley scarf there? She couldn’t picture it. Maybe Sissy had folded it up very small and she just overlooked it. But probably not. It was a combination of rather bright greens and blues and it would have stood out against the light pink of the upholstery. Maybe Mrs. Prinney or Mimi had picked it up and put it away on a random trip upstairs.
    No, not Mrs. Prinney. She had seen the body when Lily screamed. She had come into the kitchen right behind Robert. If the police chief had asked her about it, and she’d said she put it back in Lily’s room, the chief would have been thrilled to have accused Lily openly of having had it in her possession. He’d interviewed Mrs. Prinney long before he’d been allowed to talk to Lily herself.
    It was more likely Mimi who moved it. That was much more along her line. She was always cleaning and tidying out of sheer habit. Every time Lily left her purse in the hall or a barrette on a side table or a mystery book on the sofa where she’d been reading, the item shortly turned up on the dressing table in her room. She felt a pang of guilt about suspecting Mimi, however momentarily, of having taken the scarf in the first place when it was Lily herself who had misplaced it.
    So, if Sissy had brought the scarf back, where had it been until it ended up around Billy Smith’s neck? Lily hadn’t seen it. She felt sure Mrs. Prinney hadn’t seen it or she would have said something. Mimi hadn’t picked it up and put it back in her room. Robert and Mr. Prinney wouldn’t have even noticed it on the pink chair, much less taken the trouble to move it. But it turned up in the kitchen.
    Could Billy himself have found it? Lily had assumed he’d come in through the kitchen door and had been killed there. But suppose he’d