In the Heat of the Night

to use traveler’s checks, but he found them too much bother.” She looked up and asked a question of her own. “Was that what he was killed for—a few dollars?” she asked. There was bitterness in her voice and her lips seemed to quiver as she spoke. Her eyes grew wet again.
    “I very much doubt it, Miss Mantoli,” Tibbs answered her. “There are three other strong possibilities, at least, that will have to be investigated. But I don’t think it was that.”
    Grace Endicott interrupted. “Mr. Tibbs, I appreciate what you are doing for us, but may I make a suggestion: perhaps we can answer most of your questions between us and spare Duena. The shock has been a terrible thing for her; I know you understand that.”
    “Of course I do,” Tibbs acknowledged. “After Miss Mantoli has had a chance to recover somewhat, I can talk to her—if I need to.”
    Grace Endicott held out her hand to the girl. “Come on in and lie down,” she invited.
    The girl stood up, but shook her head. “I’d rather go outside for a little while,” she said. “I know it’s hot, but I want to go outside. Please.”
    The older woman understood. “I’ll get you a hat,” she suggested, “something to protect your head from the sun. You’ll need that.” As the two women left the room, George Endicott said, “I don’t like her out there alone. We’re well isolated up here, but until this thing is cleared up, I don’t want to take any chances—none whatsoever. Eric, would you please...” Then he stopped.
    Sam Wood felt something pulse through him that he had never experienced before. Quietly he got to his feet. “Let me go with her,” he volunteered. He was almost twice Kaufmann’s size and he was an officer of the law, in uniform or not. The responsibility was his.
    “I’m perfectly capable—” Kaufmann began.
    “You will probably be needed here,” George Endicott reminded him. Sam took this to mean his offer had been accepted. He nodded to Endicott and walked toward the front door. He knew there would be no danger outside in the bright light of day, and he almost regretted it. He would have preferred to have been in uniform so that his weapon would be conspicuously in sight to give the girl confidence. As it was, he was simply a good-size man in a business suit. Grace Endicott reappeared with Duena Mantoli. The girl had on a large-brimmed summer hat in which, despite her evident grief, she looked almost improperly attractive. Sam drew in his breath.
    “I’ll escort Miss Mantoli,” he announced firmly.
    "Thank you,” Grace Endicott replied. Sam held the door open so that the girl could walk outside.
    Without speaking, Duena Mantoli led the way around the house and to the beginning of a little footpath on the opposite side from the entrance drive. It led down the hillside at a gentle angle for two or three hundred feet and ended at a little roofed lookout platform which Sam had not known was there. It was set in an indentation in the hillside so that it was screened from above and both sides, with a bench seat built at its rear so that anyone who wished to could sit there unobserved and look out over the Great Smokies.
    Duena seated herself quietly and pulled her skirt over to indicate that Sam was permitted to sit beside her. Sam sat down, folded his hands, and looked out at the miles of country before him. He knew why the girl had come here: because this place seemed to be perched on the edge of the infinite; it was impossible to look out over the marching mountains and not feel that beyond the horizon they went on forever.
    They sat quietly together for some moments; then, without preamble, the girl asked a question. “You found my father’s body, didn’t you?”
    “Are you sure you want to talk about it?” Sam asked. “I want to know,” the girl answered him. “Did you find his body?”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “Where was it?”
    Sam hesitated before he answered. “In the middle of the highway.”
    “Could he have been struck by a car?”
    “No.” Sam paused, wondering how much more he should add. “He had been struck from behind with a blunt instrument. His stick was beside him—his cane, I mean. That might have been it.”
    “Was it”—the girl hesitated and chose her words carefully—“instantaneous?” For the first time she turned her head and looked at him.
    Sam nodded. “Not only that, but he had no knowledge, I’m sure, no pain.”
    The girl gripped the edge of the bench with