Love for Sale

them.”
    Phoebe had another question. “Was she the woman who took Mrs. Towerton’s child as well?“
    “She denies it. Though I’m certain she was,“ Walker said. “She has the idea that murdering Pottinger was justified in her warped opinion. But not even she can sound noble if she admits to kidnapping a child. I’m trying to figure out a way to let Joey see her, but not vice versa. I couldn’t put a three-year-old on the stand, of course, but if he recognizes her, it would help me apply more pressure on her if I had a witness. She needn’t know the witness is the boy.”
    He went on, “I think she believed that Mrs. Towerton knew something about her and that was the reason she was consulting with Mr. Prinney. Now that we have her fingerprints, we might be able to identify them on the note.“
    “I don’t understand why she wrote the words on it wrong though,“ Lily said. “She was a teacher. She knew how to spell.”
    Walker replied, “She probably did it deliberately to focus attention away from herself to someone, anyone, less well educated.”
    This made more sense to Lily once he’d pointed it out.
    Mrs. Prinney asked, “But why was she staying at the Gerrits’ home? Why didn’t she just leave the area once she’d had her revenge? Run away somewhere else, take yet another name?“
    “It’s my guess,“ Walker said, “that she knew they’d moved to California, so she was hiding there, waiting for a chance to remove the last of her belongings from Miss Jurgen’s home before she permanently disappeared. She’s clearly not a rational person. We probably won’t ever know why she hung around. It was a stupid thing to do.“
    “How did she know the door was unlocked?“ Robert asked.
    “She didn’t,“ Walker said. “She planned to break the lock.”
    Robert suddenly stood up, looking shocked, and slapped his forehead, ran out of the dining room, and galloped upstairs. He returned a moment later flourishing the key. “I suddenly remembered that I didn’t want the key to get lost and I put it in that little urn on the table by the head of the stairs.”
    He looked very pleased with himself for a moment, then said, “Why didn’t I know anything about this before? Lily, you’ve been hiding things from me. I thought we were a partnership.“
    “Robert, it just all fell together, largely by coincidence, this afternoon while you were teaching school. Did you expect me to burst into the classroom and tell you all this in front of the children?“ Lily asked.
    “Why not? The whole country will know about it tomorrow since Jack interviewed her today. He’ll send out another of his special bulletins to every newspaper in the country.“
    “And my name will be in all of them,“ Walker said smugly, “as the arresting officer.”
    The next afternoon, Robert, who had forgiven Lily, said, “Let’s go to the pictures tonight. There’s a ‘weeper’ movie running you’d like. We could take Howard along if he’s free. Maybe Miss Exley and Mrs. Tarkington would like it, too.”
    The arrangements were made. Howard Walker wasn’t interested in the movie. But he liked both Lily and Mrs. Tarkington and went along to see if either of them would cry. He made sure he sat between them.
    Before the movie began, Lily said to Howard, “I didn’t get a chance to tell you this earlier. Mrs. Taylor told me to pass on to you that Mrs. Rennie is taking the last of the orphans into her home along with their teacher. She’ll see to it that they go to good homes. And if she can’t find the teacher another job, she’ll keep her as a secretary and companion.”
    Howard said, “I knew she was a good woman. Thanks for letting me know that.”
    As the picture began, a beautiful young woman was walking toward the screen in a slinky white dress. Howard suddenly leaned forward to get a better look at her.
    “What’s wrong?“ Lily whispered.
    “I’d swear that’s Hildy Gerrit!“
    “Who?“
    “By all that’s holy. Yoast Gerrit was right!”