03 What I Tell You Three Times is False by Samuel Holt

Author:Samuel Holt [Holt, Samuel]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

19

“Sam.”

I woke up, instantly, and saw Bly leaning over me, wearing her robe and her grin. “Num,” I said, to demonstrate that I was perfectly wide awake and capable of all necessary responses.

“It’s Clement,” she said.

Almost all necessary responses. I frowned at her through sudden clouds. “What’s Clement?”

“At the door. He wants to know if you can come out and play.”

When had I fallen asleep? Sometime after the water had become hot again, which was sometime after Bly had discovered it wasn’t hot. So what time was it now? I asked Bly, who said, “Ten minutes to six.”

Beyond the windows was a kind of roiling darkness in lieu of a sunset. I said, “And Clement wants…”

“Your aid and support, is how he phrased it.”

“Tell him to give me two minutes,” I said, throwing off the covers and getting out of bed.

In fact, it took six minutes, and then I found Clement down one level in the guest parlor, where he’d told Bly he would wait for me. With him was Fred, looking as bemused as I felt. “Hello, Clement,” I said. “I’m afraid I dropped off for a while.”

“We all did,” Fred told me with satisfaction.

“We all needed our rest,” Clement announced with the faintest hint of disapproval. “But it has now occurred to me that there’s one more potentially useful move we might make.”

Fred and I glanced at each other. Fred said, “What’s that, Clement?”

“Search Jack’s room,” he said.

Astonished, I said, “Jack isn’t in his room, Clement!”

“Not looking for Jack, certainly not,” he said. “But he will have left all his personal possessions and clothing behind. It seemed to me there might be some indication, some suggestion of what had happened, some, umm…”

“Clue?” I asked.

“In a word, yes,” he agreed, unabashed. “Something that might cast more light on this situation. I see nothing to be lost by the attempt, do you?”

“Except time,” said Fred.

“We have plenty of that, I think,” Clement said dryly. “In any event, I didn’t want to take the responsibility on myself of going into his room alone for the search. If you two are willing. I’d prefer you to accompany me.”

Well, well. Even Sherlock never had this; two Watsons at once. Still, there just might be sense in Clement’s idea after all, so I said, “Be happy to accompany you.”

“Me, too,” said Fred, though grinning.

Clement ignored the grin. “Come along, then,” he said, turning away.

Fred beamed at me, having a whole lot of fun. “Come, Holt,” he said sternly. “The game’s afoot.”

We went through the Hasbroucks’ bedroom, where we found Betsy reading in a chair by the stormy windows. She gave us a mild look as we trooped through, and Clement told her, “We’re just having a look at Jack’s room, my dear.”

“Of course,” she said without much interest, and went back to her reading.

As we went through the shared bathroom, I saw that Clement or Betsy had rearranged Jack’s toiletries from their former spread-out mess to a neat cluster at the end of the counter farthest from their own sink.

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