Love for Sale

truck. Walker inspected it. The cab was blocked off from the back part with metal and a very small thick glass window. The body of it was sturdy. The truck had no windows except in front, and the back door had three separate locks on it.
    Walker had decided to send all the guests to the asylum. He’d considered keeping Edward Price at Grace and Favor and close at hand, but on second thought had decided against it. Price seemed honest and his best source of information about this Institute. But Walker simply didn’t like Price and didn’t feel he could trust him. Price was obviously now out of work and might disappear. What’s more, the Brewsters and Prinneys deserved to be rid of all their guests.
    Price was the last to get in the truck and was looking scared to death. Lily and Robert were watching from a window above.
    “I know!“ Lily exclaimed.
    “Know what?“
    “Who Edward Price reminds me of. Albert Campion.“
    “Who is that?“
    “Margery Allingham’s detective. That’s not his real name, of course. He’s Rupert and some kind of relative of royalty. But he detects as Albert and acts like a stupid idiot and tricks people out of information to solve the murders.”
    Robert stared at her for a long moment. “What on earth are you talking about? How do you know these people and who is Margery Allingham? Does she live around here?“
    “No, she writes mystery novels.“
    “You’re not talking about real people?“
    “They seem real to me. She’s a good writer. The first one I read was The Black Dudley Murder. And I just finished Police at the Funeral. Campion is better in that. Miss Exley ordered it especially for me and let me borrow it first.“
    “And how do you know Price looks like this fictional Campion?“
    “Because Miss Allingham describes him so well, I know exactly what he looks like. But he wears a different kind of glasses. Horn-rimmed, instead of metal. I knew it would come to me eventually.”
    Robert puffed up dramatically and said, “Lily, you really shouldn’t believe everything you read. You’re sounding like a thirteen-year-old instead of a grown woman.”
    Lily said, “I’ll lend you Police at the Funeral. I still have it in my room. You’ll see what I mean. It’s not due back at the library for another week.“
    “I think I better finish reading up on croquet first,“ Robert said, leaving her watching the truck disappear with its own collection of stupid idiots. And probably at least one real murderer.
    Chapter 10
    Howard Walker knew this crime wasn’t going to be solved very soon. Too much waiting on the people in Albany working over the paperwork. Too much investigation to complete. He’d have to question everyone he’d just sent away in the truck to the asylum much more thoroughly. And he had only three days to do it before most of them would be let out to go their own ways. Reverend Nobby Hazard was the only one loony enough likely to be kept there. Now that the Institute had lost its kingpin, they’d all scatter as fast as they could. He didn’t have the staff or the budget or a location to put the suspects under house arrest.
    He had to interview Mrs. Rennie about the evening of the murder. He needed to wait for the fingerprint information on the knife and the suspects’ belongings and get all the suspects questioned intensively as well. Not that there was much hope of any of them telling the truth.
    And he wasn’t at all sure he even had all the suspects locked up. How could he guess how many other people were employed at the Institute of Divine Intervention? And there were outsiders to consider as well.
    A man like Pottinger probably had lots of enemies. All fanatics did. And most fanatics hated other fanatics.
    The first thing to do was to search all their rooms. They hadn’t been allowed to take away their belongings. All of the rooms and their contents were now gray with f ingerprinting dust.
    He released Harry Harbinger to get back to his life and kept Ralph Summer and Officer Lawrence to help with the search of the rooms. Detective Williams had taken his evidence to Colling’s office to examine and compare his data. Jack Summer, the nosy editor, had gone home to change his clothes and come back to snoop around and ask a lot of questions. Most of which Walker refused to answer.
    “Jack, I only know there was a murder so far. You can print that and give the name of the victim. That’s all. Leave me alone to learn more about it before you nag