Someone to watch over me

come back later and see if I can catch her.”
    She really didn’t intend to do this. Edith White would get the whole story out of Roxanne.
    Nobody would be in town to gossip with on a late Sunday afternoon. Voorburg was a virtual ghost town then. The thought made Lily shiver. If the economy got worse, the Brewsters and the Prinneys might be the only ones left. She shook this thought away, saving it to brood over later.
    For now she was convinced that if Donald Anderson had in fact been murdered, it would be sheer gossip that solved the case. On Monday she’d catch up with some of the women as they did their shopping. She realized that in cases of murder most often the spouse was the first suspect, and she hoped to find out something about Donald Anderson that would spare Roxanne Anderson that additional horror. She had come to like Roxanne a great deal in their short acquaintance. She was a woman who took charge of her life. Lily aspired to be the same kind of woman—so long as she didn’t turn into an Edith White. The thought made her smile.
    Since the day had grown hotter and hotter, the prospect of walking clear up the hill was daunting. She’d go down by the railroad tracks and see if Robert and the Duesie were still in town.

    “Where’s the satchel?“ Walker asked, as he got out of Robert’s car and approached his two deputies. As he sometimes did, he’d hired Harry Harbinger to be a temporary deputy. Harry was the elder of the two boys who’d been helping Robert take down the icehouse. He’d been a senior with the best grades in the county and headed for college in the fall of 1930, but he’d had to give this up to help the family. He was a very bright young man. Harry often helped with routine paperwork when Ralph Summer was off duty, because Ralph, the only full-time deputy, could hardly spell his own name, and his forms ended up looking as if they’d been wrapped around a sandwich.
    Robert quietly followed Walker, not wanting to appear to be interfering but wanting to know what the deputies had been up to.
    “What satchel?“ Ralph asked.
    “Mrs. Anderson said Donald always took along a satchel with his work clothes to save wear and tear on the suit he wore when he was looking for a job,“ Walker explained, wanting to smack Ralph. It was a characteristic of Donald Anderson that nearly everyone had noticed.
    “You’re right. I’ve seen him often with that satchel,“ Harry Harbinger said. “I didn’t see it anywhere today, but I wasn’t looking for it.“
    “What have you found while I was taking Mrs. Anderson home?“ Walker asked. He knew he should really have stayed on the site where the body was found, but he hadn’t wanted one of these young men to be the one to break the news to the victim’s wife. Ralph would have botched it, and it would have broken Harry’s heart.
    “He was moved,“ Harry Harbinger said. Ralph was too busy chewing his gum to speak up. “There’s a trail of blood coming from farther north along the tracks.“
    “Past that slight curve?“ Walker asked, nodding. “Yes, where you can’t see from town what’s behind the woods,“ Harry said.
    “I wonder why he wasn’t just left there?“ Walker mused.
    “Because the woods ain’t as thick there,“ Ralph Summer explained, having put his gum behind his ear for future use.
    “I’ll take a look,“ Walker said. “You two come along and hunt along the edge of the woods for the satchel while we’re at it. Don’t step on the evidence of him having been moved. Robert, you come with me.”
    The trail was easy to follow. There weren’t footprints as such, just scuffs in the dirt and crushed weeds. Robert and Howard Walker walked a safe distance from each side of the obvious path that led from where Donald Anderson had been left to the site of the attack.
    “Who found him?“ Robert asked.
    “Two old guys in a railroad handcar checking sleepers due for replacement.“
    “Sleepers?“ Robert asked. “Oh, you mean railroad ties,“ he added, saving himself from appearing an utter idiot. “Too bad there hasn’t been any rain recently.”
    Walker nodded. “Apparently the person who moved the body couldn’t carry it and had to drag it along. The body itself would have wiped out any footprints anyway.”
    But there were streaks of blood that a suspicious eye could catch on some lighter-colored leaves and grass along the way. Walker had some small paper bags along and picked up a few of the leaves