It had to be You

say.“
    “You’ll marry someone someday,“ Robert said, further goading her.
    “Robert, look how many spinsters and widows just in Voorburg make their own way. Roxanne Anderson. Mrs. Tarkington. Miss Jurgen. And I’ll bet that young woman who is the visiting nurse is single, too.“
    “There’s no shortage of bachelors either, Lily. Howard Walker, the Harbinger boys, Jack and Ralph Summer. They’re all doing fine, too. And so am I.”
    Lily shuddered at the idea of anyone having Ralph as a husband. Ralph was a lout.
    She said, “Hmm. Maybe I could train as a matchmaker instead of a policewoman.“ She took her mystery and stomped upstairs to her room. She was irritated with Robert for taking no interest in Mr. Connor’s death and for teasing her about Howard. But she found herself unable to concentrate on her book.
    It was bizarre that anyone would have a motive for killing a man who was certainly going to die anyway within the day. Who would need to do that? Whatever the mean old man had done to someone, he clearly couldn’t ever do it again.
    On the other hand, Robert might have made a better argument for Betty or Miss Twibell having done the deed. Both of them, in a desperate effort to save Mr. Connor’s life, were clearly inflicting pain on him by cleaning the wound. This was their job and it probably made him angry and even meaner. Could he have tried to attack one or the other of them to make them stop? Perhaps repeatedly? Miss Twibell was larger and stronger in mind and body than Betty, who was young. Could one of them have taken revenge on him for something he’d said or done to her?
    Lily couldn’t picture Betty as the murderer, because Betty was a nice girl and a workhorse. But it was possible. Lily didn’t know her well enough to judge.
    She was certain, however, that Miss Twibell, who was so proud of what she did, taking excellent care of the infirm and dotty, wouldn’t have taken the risk. She, better than anyone else, recognized that he was doomed to die that day. In spite of Robert’s theory, which was probably thought up to annoy Lily, Miss Twibell ran a tight ship. And Lily knew for sure that neither Miss Smith nor Miss Jones had the strength or the endurance to have smothered the old man.
    Then there was the mysterious gardener, Mr. Farleigh. Miss Twibell had been very wary of saying anything at all about him except that he was often outdoors. Did anyone else who was a patient know anything about him? Even Miss Jones and Miss Smith hadn’t gossiped about him. But then, she hadn’t asked them their opinion. She might have to do that.
    She gave a brief thought to Doreen and immediately dismissed her as a suspect. She had to be strong enough to smother him, doing all that heavy work with the laundry. But as far as Lily knew, she didn’t come upstairs and probably didn’t even know the patients. The same thing applied to the cook and the skivvy, she assumed. What could either of them have had against Mr. Connor? What did they stand to gain from his death? She couldn’t imagine an answer to either question.
    Was there any tactful way to question Miss Twibell about her patients? Lily didn’t think she could or should do it, in spite of her curious nature. And Robert had been right about one thing. It was Chief of Police Howard Walker’s job to ask the questions.
    She tried hard to put her own questions out of her mind and read her book. Fictional murder was harmless and rather silly sometimes. The real thing could be dangerous at the hands of snoops, as she’d learned.
    But there was always a chance to eavesdrop.

    Howard Walker wasn’t surprised when Jack Summer called on him at the boardinghouse that evening.
    “I hear by the grapevine that there was a meeting at Grace and Favor.“
    “That’s true. A judge has ruled that the old man was murdered by a person or persons unknown.“
    “What else can you tell me? I should probably write up an obituary.“
    “I question that. He wasn’t from Voorburg. The Beacon newspaper will do that.“
    “Could I interview the widow?“ Jack asked. “If you want to. But she’s a big tough woman you’re not going to like.“
    “Then what can I say in the paper?“
    “Just what I told you officially. A man named Sean Connor, from Beacon, died under suspicious circumstances in Voorburg. And don’t mention the nursing home. Miss Twibell has an excellent reputation for caring for her patients and doesn’t deserve to be