Legacy Of Terror

up the stairs that night and had asked if Elaine had called out. On the other hand, if he had been the wielder of the blade, he might also have been returning from the drive where he had tried to kill the girl. She remembered his strange paintings, his manic frivolity. She recalled Lee's favoritism for Dennis, and she remembered that Dennis had admitted to being deeply psychologically shaken by his mother's madness. Could he have been so shaken that he, himself, had gradually relinquished his sanity over the years?
    Paul Honneker. He shared the same parents, carried the same sort of genes that Amelia had carried. Had the faulty gene, the bad seed, which his grandfather possessed, been passed to him as well as to his sister? She remembered his drunkenness, his inability to hold a job for any length of time, though he was a grown man nearing middle age. Surely, that indicated an unstable individual. And there was the way he smashed mirrors, unable to face himself. Was that because he knew what he was and remembered terrible things he once had done? She remembered, too, his fascination with the eerie paintings that Dennis Matherly labored over in his attic studio.
    Gordon Matherly. She would even have to consider Gordon, no matter how much she might care for him. He did, after all, come of the same gene pool as Dennis and from somewhat the same heritage as Paul Honneker. She remembered his swift reaction to her mention of the Christmas Eve murders, the way he had gone cold and withdrawn from her. That might be attributed to a reasonable shame for the family's history-or to something darker.
    That was the list she could give Captain Rand. All the household except herself and Lee Matherly, who was clearly shaken by the attempted murder of Celia Tamlin and who-besides-had no Honneker blood.
    Abruptly, she remembered that Jerry and Bess were also members of the household. Although she could see no motive for their having been involved, she could not discount them. When she considered the books in their front room and the unswaying belief in ghosts which they had manifested in their recent conversation, she had to consider the possibility of some unpleasant connection between the old couple and the killer. Either or both of them, after all, could have stabbed Celia and fled into their own home, without any risk of being seen returning to the main house from the scene of the crime.
    Paranoia?
    Perhaps it was.
    Common sense?
    Definitely.
    She would have to suspect everyone, or nearly everyone, until the real culprit was apprehended and his guilt was proven. That could not be more than a few days, what with Celia being treated by a psychiatrist. And if she helped Captain Rand now, today, the end might come even more quickly.
    She stood up, stretched, and brushed the dust from the back of her skirt.
    The sky was an incredible shade of blue. Perhaps that was a good omen, a promise of better times to come.
    Somewhere nearby, a bird sang, a long trilling note caught in its throat, and that was somehow a positive omen as well.
    She decided against phoning Captain Rand on her own hook. For one thing, she might find it hard to reach him, and she would not want to impart her information to a clerk or a lesser officer who would not respect the privacy of what she said. This evening, after supper, she would tell Lee Matherly exactly what she had heard and seen last night, about the intruder at her door and about the attempt on Jacob's life which he now denied (or maybe there had been no attempt and his story had been concocted for her benefit, to generate her sympathy). If Lee then took it to Captain Rand, it would have more power, be more believable. She did not trust herself to make important news sound important.
    She looked at her watch. It was 1:18, and she had been sitting here far longer than she would have guessed. It was time for another of Jacob's checkups.
    She started back for the house, feeling better.
    Tonight.
    Tonight, it just all might break open. And then she should be able to live in peace again…

Chapter 14
    Lee Matherly finished his coffee and looked around the full table, smiling at everyone, as if they were all his children, even Elaine and Paul Honneker. He had been in an especially good mood ever since he had come to the table, though the reason for this was not entirely clear to Elaine. It was almost, she eventually decided, as if he had some big secret which he was hiding from them but which he would soon