It had to be You

family? His wife had grown to dislike him. But what wife wouldn’t if she lived with a man like that? Did he have daughters, sisters, or brothers he had also lied to or cheated? Another note was made to check further into family relations. That might be something Jack Summer would like to snoop around and find out about. Jack was good at snooping.
    He considered Miss Twibell out of the picture as a suspect. She had the heart of a saint and the bossiness of a general. She’d probably treated a great many other sick, cranky patients over the years. If she couldn’t put up with them, she wouldn’t have kept taking them in over such a long time. It would have been easier to simply take in boarders and get to choose who could live in her home, instead of having to put up with someone like Sean Connor.
    Finally he closed his notebook and let his mind just wander. Sometimes that helped. This time it didn’t.

    Lily, Robert, and Betty were exhausted at the end of their Sunday duty. Miss Twibell had worked them hard all afternoon. None of them had even had the opportunity to sit down the whole time she had them restocking the storeroom and the pharmacy. They’d been run off their feet, criticized for putting things in the wrong places, complimented when they did it right. But they’d worked like horses hauling mops, buckets, flasks, bottles, rolls of bandages, and laundry baskets. To be fair, Lily knew that Miss Twibell, in spite of her feet still hurting, had worked as hard as they had. Miss Twibell, the tallest of the women, had even held the glass doors in place while Robert reattached them.
    Robert was unusually anxious to get home. President Roosevelt was going to give his first “Fireside Chat“ on the radio that evening, and he didn’t want to miss it.
    When they were finally released and dragged themselves back to Grace and Favor, Robert called Howard Walker. “Want to have dinner here and listen to the President with us?“
    “I’d be grateful for that,“ Howard said. “It’s been a long day. Dinner here is cabbage, and the rest of the boarders will talk through the radio show. You’re sure it’s okay with Mrs. Prinney?“
    “She’s agreed. She loves cooking, and the more she can feed, the happier she is.”
    Dinner was wonderful but Lily nearly fell asleep over her plate. She even turned down dessert. “I’m so tired and I smell of disinfectant and soap. I’m taking a bath and going to bed. Robert, you can tell me tomorrow what the President said.”
    Jack Summer had also been invited, because Robert knew that the reporter’s radio didn’t work as well as the one at Grace and Favor and that he’d want to listen. And he thought that maybe after the program he could pry some more information out of Chief Walker.
    Mrs. Prinney and Mimi, the maid, hustled the plates to the kitchen to soak so that they could listen, too. Miss Phoebe Twinkle, one of their two boarders, helped out with this as well. Mrs. Tarkington, the other boarder and school principal, was exempted from this chore.
    The men all went into the library to smoke and have some nice smooth old whiskey while Robert made sure the radio was tuned right. They put out their cigars and cigarettes and opened the French doors for a few minutes to air out the room before Mimi, Mrs. Prinney, Miss Twinkle, and Mrs. Tarkington joined them.
    They all sat and stared at the radio as Franklin Roosevelt started speaking in a powerful, friendly, confident voice.
    “My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking...”

Chapter 16
    Monday, March 13

    Lily, having had a good night’s sleep, was the first to arrive for breakfast. Only hot tea, coffee, cups, plates, and silverware were set out. Robert was next to arrive in the dining room. He poured each of them a cup of tea and sat down across the table from her.
    “You’re an early bird for a change,“ Lily said.
    “So are you,“ Robert replied. “You have a mind that’s good with arithmetic. What do you know about how banks operate?“
    “Not much,“ Lily said, getting up to find the sugar bowl. “You put your money in, and when you take it back out, they pay you a little bit of interest.“
    “You must know more than that. You once worked at a bank.”
    Lily had tried hard to forget that dismal part of her life when she and Robert were living in a fifth-floor cold-water apartment in New York City and too poor to even eat well.
    “I only