Someone to watch over me

think she’s better off without him. He was a horrible man.“
    “Was he?“
    “Just a year ago I heard him trying to seduce my daughter, Helga. Asking her if she’d like to go for a walk in the woods with him. Poor girl didn’t even know what he was up to. I gave him a piece of my mind, and he’s never come around again.“
    “Did you tell Roxanne about it?“
    “Heavens, no! I didn’t want to embarrass her.”
    Lily went outside when Nina had finished with her, feeling that she’d spread some valuable gossip and received a lot in return. But it wasn’t relevant to anything she’d been puzzling over.
    Come to think about it, why had she asked about the ladies in the Voorburg Ladies League in the first place? She was trying to find suspects for Donald Anderson’s murder that would get Roxanne off the hook. It wasn’t remotely likely that any of those women had anything whatsoever to do with his death. Why would they?
    She brooded over this for quite a while. Maybe the urge to find out more about them was instinctive in some way. After all, they were the only friends Roxanne carved time out in her life for. They were probably as fond of her as Lily was. Maybe one of them had known Donald Anderson far better than she wanted to and wanted to save Roxanne from him.
    But certainly not Edith White or the minister’s wife. Apparently Donald only went after younger women.
    Or maybe not. And both women had a strong sense of duty to others.
    “Hey, Toots! You look like the cat’s pajamas,“ Robert called out from the car as he pulled up in front of the Pratt house. “If you were a platinum blonde and twice as heavy you’d look just like Mae West.“
    “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,“ Lily said, as she got in the Duesie.
    “I picked up a couple of copies of the newspaper Jack wouldn’t show us before it went to print. Take a look while I’m driving and tell me what you think.”
    Chapter 23
    Lily read all the way home. When Robert opened the door of the Duesie for her, she’d just finished Jack’s long editorial.
    “It’s titled ‘The Ones Who Were There’ and says the second in the series will be called ‘The Ones Who Were Lost.’ “
    “But is it good?“ Robert asked.
    “It’s stunning. You must read it for yourself. Did you get another copy for the Prinneys? I think Mr. Prinney will agree that it’s time to stop riding herd on Jack.”
    She took a copy to Mrs. Prinney and left Robert to sit in the car to read his own paper. She sat down in the library with the third copy to read it again more carefully.
    Jack had a real gift for making the reader feel as if he or she had been along with him on this extraordinary trip. She could smell the refuse. She pitied those who were giving up and looked ashamed of themselves. She wanted to brush the flies and mosquitoes away when he described the mess tent. She’d just finished the second reading and was more impressed than before when Robert burst into the library.
    “I’ve got to call Jack! I’ve got to know what he means by saying the second one is ‘The Ones Who Were Lost.’ “
    “Why?“
    “It might give me a clue to the mummy, if it means what I think.“
    “Oh. The veterans from Voorburg who didn’t go to the Bonus March?“
    “Or weren’t there because they were dead,“ Robert said.
    Lily shook her head. “My guess would be that he means the ones who died in the war.”
    Mrs. Prinney heard this conversation as she entered the library with tears in her eyes. “I never thought the boy had it in him. I’ve never read anything so touching and terrible. Robert, would you go to town to speak to Mr. Summer instead of telephoning and be sure my husband’s read this before you go? I think Elgin will be as surprised and pleased as I am.
    “Oh, and, Robert,“ she went on. “Mr. Bradley is holding two pounds of asparagus for me. Would you mind picking it up? Elgin wouldn’t remember if I stuck a note about it to his hand. He gets so busy at his office he almost forgets he has a home to go to sometimes.“
    “That’s a good idea. Want to come along, Lily?”
    “I do. I gush better than you do.”
    They did as Mrs. Prinney asked and interrupted Mr. Prinney as he was dictating a first draft of a will to his secretary, an elderly woman who looked as if her hair were in pin curls without the pins. “I’ll get to it when we’re finished with this,“ he said.
    “I think it’s best to read it now,“ Lily said.