Asey Mayo 20 Proof of the Pudding by Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Author:Phoebe Atwood Taylor [Taylor, Phoebe Atwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780881501933
Google: gbchHAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0860150089
Goodreads: 1562697
Publisher: Detective Novels Magazine
Published: 1946-11-07T06:00:00+00:00

Then he coiled himself, and sprang.

The next second he was on Asey’s shoulder, noisily licking his face.

“What’s this Mayo like?” Elsie asked curiously.

“I never happened to see him, myself,” Steward said. “His pictures always make him out a bit of a hayseed, but bear in mind that that is an absolutely deceptive impression, my dear. If he should tend to impress you as—er—at all haystrewn, remember that the hay is merely camouflage for a steel trap underneath. I’ve always thought that King came back here just in the hopes of seeing him again. King had an intense admiration for the man. He genuinely liked him. I wonder,” he added, “how soon before he’ll get around to us.”

If. Asey thought, grimly fighting to keep playful paws out of his mouth, and victrola-needle claws out of his eyes, and fur out of his nose, if you’d let this creature get at me sooner, you’d have known me as an intimate friend by now!

He only hoped that he could hang on unsuspected in the hallway until the Steward family had talked themselves out. When he stepped out and faced them—if he had any face left!—he wanted to be in full possession of all the facts. If he had learned nothing else from his eavesdropping, he certainly knew that bluffing would never get him anywhere with Kemper Steward!

“Us?” Elsie said. “You don’t think he’ll really come and bother us, do you?”

“I’m very sure he will.”

“But Kemper, what will we do with him?”

“Treat him with every courtesy, of course. After all, he’s a director of Porter Motors. We’ll tell him just what I’ve told Hanson. We may even permit ourselves to tell him a little more. Yes,” Steward said, “with extreme reluctance. I think we shall bring to his attention many interesting sidelights on this tragic situation.”

“Whatever do you mean, Kemper?”

ASEY was wondering that, too, as he continued to struggle with the cat.

“We’ll tell him, for example, that Ann left here this afternoon to meet Lois Cook.”

“Oh, did she? I thought,” Elsie said, “that she was intending to go to some village affair. A bazaar, or sale, or something of the sort.”

“She was. But she was also planning to meet Lois first. She told me so. We won’t actually state that as a fact, of course. It might look too much as if we were deliberately trying to attach suspicion to Lois. We’ll merely remark that Ann often did meet Lois on her way to the post office in the afternoon."

Asey stood very still and let the cat claw away to his heart’s content.

“We’ll murmur,” Steward went on, “how sorry we are that dear Lois has never quite found her proper—shall we say niche? For such a lovely-looking girl, such a pleasant girl, with so many genuine virtues and talents, and with such a charming family—after all, the Cooks were quite all right, I knew Harry Cook—it’s regretful that Lois had to be expelled from quite so many schools and colleges. Just mischief, girlish mischief and high spirits, but it does mar the record, rather.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.