Death and Circumstance by Waugh Hillary

Author:Waugh, Hillary [Waugh, Hillary]
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, NewBook
Published: 1963-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

Week of May 13 through 19

By Tuesday evening Lorraine, Tony and Allie had learned a few things about Miss Susan Partridge. Now that they knew her car her comings and goings to the college were easy to spot and it had been found that she arrived for class before eight in the morning and left at three-thirty. On Monday she and three other girls stopped for a soda at a drugstore hangout for the college crowd but on Tuesday she drove directly home and there was purpose and preoccupation in her manner. It was obvious she was thinking of her date that night and it was also obvious that the chances of kidnapping her in Pittsfield were very slim. The route she took was down through town and out the main highway south to Stockford. Nowhere along that road was there a chance of stopping her without being public about it. There were always cars.

Other things had to be done in preparation for the kidnapping and Lorraine wasn’t wasting time. She bought a five-gallon can of gasoline which she stored in the trunk of her car. She bought a large hunting knife and a length of clothesline. She started saving newspapers to cut the messages from.

At eight o’clock Tuesday night, the three climbed into the jalopy and rode down to Stockford and Pete and Dick’s Bar. Tony went in first with Lorraine and Allie following five minutes later and they stationed themselves to set up the best chance of flanking Susan and Jamie when they appeared.

Susan was first on the scene, arriving a good fifteen minutes ahead of time, and she moved directly to the booth behind Allie and Lorraine where she sat down facing the door and ordered a beer. There she stayed for an hour and a half but Jamie Hendel didn’t come.

Allie, refilling glasses frequently at the bar, used the opportunity to watch her and, as before, she was oblivious of his presence. She sat in silence, twisting the beer glass, smoking cigarettes, feeling and turning the ring on her finger. He thought she looked pale and nervous and he found himself wondering what her decision was going to be. Would she yield to the boy or would she stall?

By quarter past ten it was apparent there would be no decision that night. Jamie, with a beautiful doll waiting for him in a shabby dive, had chosen to stay away. Did he have another date? Was he twisting the knife? Allie felt both angry at the youth and envious. The only girl who’d ever paid attention to him was the lean and masculine Lorraine with her plain face and oppressive personality. No lovely damsel would demean herself to sit in a bar like this one and wait interminably for him to show up. No girl who was really pretty had ever given him the eye. Of course there was Valentine. She’d thrown herself at him that one time but she hardly counted. He was certain that Valentine would happily go to any man anywhere, any time.

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