Legacy Of Terror

reveal. That was, as it turned out, exactly the case.
    “I spoke with Captain Rand this afternoon,” Lee said. “He had some very interesting information.”
    Everyone at the table looked at him, the last bits of dessert and last sips of coffee forgotten.
    “Even without Celia's help, they're making some headway on this hitchhiker.”
    “Oh?” Dennis asked.
    “You didn't tell me,” Gordon said. He had been with his father that afternoon, though not when Rand had spoken to him.
    “I wanted to save it for now,” Lee said. “I know how bad everyone has been feeling over this, and I wanted to be the one to cheer you up.”
    “What did Rand have to say?” Dennis asked.
    “They know the hitchhiker was bound for Philadelphia,” Lee said.
    “Dammit, Lee, don't be so cryptic. Tell it all!” Paul Honneker was flushed: He was not drunk; but he had evidently had a nip or two earlier.
    “Apparently, the police have had this for a couple of days, ever since they went through Celia's car, but they've been holding it because they don't want the killer to know they're onto him.”
    “What?” Dennis asked. His face was hollow, his teeth bared. The way he leaned over the table reminded Elaine-perhaps melodramatically- of an animal tensing to leap.
    “A sign,” Lee Matherly said. “You know how hitchhikers carry signs that say where they're headed? They flash them up for oncoming traffic to see.”
    “And they found a sign in the car?” Gordon asked.
    “Yes. Jammed down between the seat and the back of the seat, a piece of cardboard with PHILADELPHIA lettered on it. They figured Celia picked him up in or near the city and brought him this way, as far as the turnoff from the main highway. At that point, he forced her to drive up here. Lord knows what he had in mind-perhaps holding us hostage or something. He apparently had second thoughts when she drove onto the grounds, and he made her get out and tried to kill her there.”
    Dennis relaxed again. “She always was one for picking up hitchhikers. We used to warn her about it all the time.”
    “I don't see,” Paul Honneker said, “where this sign is really very much of a clue. Unless they've taken fingerprints from it and the car.”
    “No,” Lee said. “Rand explained that paper didn't take prints too well and that none of the prints in the car lead them anywhere.”
    “Then how can this mean anything?” Paul asked.
    Lee said, “They plan to use the sign, if necessary, to jolt Celia's memory when the psychiatrist has her hypnotized.”
    Paul said, “And they think that'll work?”
    “The psychiatrist thinks it might. Anyway, it's a lead. And we can all breathe easier when they catch him, whoever he is.”
    Elaine realized that Lee Matherly had also wondered if one of his own household was the guilty party and that this bit of news from Rand, no matter how slight, relieved him of that awful burden of doubt.
    She was not convinced.
    She doubted very much that the hitchhiker had returned to prowl the corridors of the house last night. That had been a member of the family.
    “Well,” Lee said, rising, “I have some ledgers to look over before I can call the evening mine.” He nodded to them and left the dining room for his first floor den.
    Shortly, the others had left, all but she and Gordon, as if they both had planned to be left alone.
    “Come into the drawing room a while,” he said, standing and coming to her where he performed the courtesy of pulling her chair out for her. “I expected father to tell everyone about the psychiatrist who's treating Celia. We both met him, a Dr. Carter. I asked to sit in on his session, and he said I could, once Celia had been hypnotized. It was quite fascinating.”
    “I imagine so,” she said as he took her hand and led her from the dining room, through the archway, across the deep carpet to a sofa where he sat beside her.
    She felt warm and protected, and for a moment she forgot all about telling Lee Matherly her story.
    “Did you have any contact with psychiatrists in your nurses training?” Gordon asked.
    Elaine said, “Not much. Medical science still frowns a little on psychiatry, you know.”
    “Well,” Gordon said, “I don't know if Dr. Carter is an example of the average psychiatrist or whether he is superior to the average, but he is a most impressive man!”
    She felt herself smiling, and she realized that Gordon had put her more at ease than she had felt in days. She could hear Bess clearing the table. Lee was using the adding machine in the adjoining den.