The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

can tell you that he’ll be both evasive and maddening. Never marry a policeman!”
    After Thane had gone, Connie busied herself with supper. Fredericka, when her help was refused, sat by the window watching the stars come out in the darkening sky. How long the day had been between sunrise and sunset. But now her early morning’s contentment had returned. Thane was her friend, and Connie—and Peter. They didn’t suspect her. When all the ugliness of this evil thing had been wiped away, she would still have these friends and the beauty and peace of this New England country summer.
    As they ate their meal, night came down quickly and Connie lit a lamp on their table. It made a small warm glow in the darkness; like a camp fire in the woods, Fredericka thought. When their meal was finished they sat on, talking quietly and easily about themselves. Fredericka told Connie of her writing and why she had come to South Sutton. Connie confessed that she had been a New Yorker, too, and that she had given up a job in an advertising firm to marry Thane when they had met during a summer course at Columbia a year ago. Then, inevitably, they came back to talk about South Sutton and the murder of Catherine Clay.
    “I think there are plenty of people in the village who think I am a witch—even that I am guilty.” Fredericka now expressed the thought that had been worrying her all day and felt better for it.
    Connie laughed again. “It’s inevitable in a one-horse town like this. Unfortunately for you this business had to happen the minute you arrived—and in your hammock. Seriously, Fredericka, you can’t blame them for rolling all the horror up with you. It’s so much more convenient to put it on to an outsider.”
    “Oh, I know.”
    The day’s anxieties rushed back into the peaceful room. Sensing this, Connie said quickly: “Anyway, you know how we feel and I know Thane’s no fool and that he’s got his eye on the guilty one right now.” She hesitated, then she said slowly: “And I know for certain that he’s not looking at you.”
    “Who, then? Who do you think did it?” Fredericka asked. “I’ve made a list of suspects and I’ve been through it over and over again, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, but nothing makes sense.”
    “Murder doesn’t make sense in spite of all the books say.” Connie stopped suddenly and a silence fell between them. At last she went on slowly: “You ask me whom I suspect. I don’t. I know.” Fredericka started to break in but Connie hurried on. “Thane hasn’t told me his suspicions, as you can see, but he doesn’t need to. So—well, because I do know, I can’t very well speculate.” She stopped and then said; “Please let’s get away from this dreary subject. It—it’s giving me the creeps.” For a moment she seemed to be searching desperately for something to say. Then she went on: “I’ve been meaning to ask you what you’ve done with that quilt. It’s a wonder that I can bear the sight of you. I never wanted anything so much in my life. I even made Thane buy ten tickets.”
    “Oh, Connie, I’ll have to give it to you as a reward to Thane for saving the witch from burning. But I’d hate to. I’m mad about it, too; only I’m ashamed to say that I’ve not so much as looked at it since I won it. As a matter of fact, I think it’s still sitting on a chair in my kitchen—”
    Connie looked at her in unashamed horror, but before she could speak, Fredericka went on quickly: “I—I know I’ve been terribly careless but I’ve been trying to run a bookshop under difficulties. It was the very night I brought that home that I—I found the body.”
    Connie reached a hand across the table and grasped Fredericka’s firmly. “Don’t take everything I say seriously. The quilt was only a change of subject,” she said quietly.
    They both managed to laugh and then Fredericka said, “You know, Connie, Thane is a first-class chief of police. I could see that at a glance, but I hadn’t realized until this moment what a swell policeman’s wife you are. So subtle, too!”
    And, at that moment, Thane’s car drove into the driveway.
    Chapter 13
    Thane Carey braked the car sharply when they arrived back at the bookshop, and Fredericka decided that he had forgotten her presence completely as he honked the horn insistently and then leaned out to call Sergeant Brown.
    “Why don’t you come in?” Fredericka asked quietly. “You’ll wake the town