House of Storm by Mignon G. Eberhart

Author:Mignon G. Eberhart [Eberhart, Mignon G. & Ebook Architects, Llc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781453257357
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2012-05-29T04:00:00+00:00

12

THOUGHTS ARE DANGEROUS. THOUGHTS are words, and communicate themselves as clearly as if they were spoken. They are even more dangerous than spoken words because spoken words may be selected so as to deal with surfaces and façades, with subterfuge and evasion.

Thoughts are dangerous, but also they can be denied. She saw the advantage to Jim of a substantiated attempt to attack her while Jim was actually in the company of the commissioner. Nevertheless she had not invented a footstep and a machete for that purpose. She started to speak and then realized that Roy was red with anger.

“Do you mean to say, Major Wells, that you doubt Miss Hovenden’s word?” he demanded.

“Now, now, Mr. Beadon …”

“Do you dare suggest that she is lying to you?”

“Mr. Beadon, this is an inquiry into murder. I don’t accuse Miss Hovenden of lying. I only say that if this, this incident she has told us about can be proved to have been an attempt to injure her it would go far to clear Jim Shaw. Not perhaps as to the actual evidence or lack of evidence concerning Miss Shaw’s murder, but in the minds of the people of the island, in the minds of the police, so far as our real inner conviction goes, and that is not unimportant. So any friend of young Shaw’s might have arrived at the same conclusion and invented such an incident.”

“But I tell you—all right—take it on your own grounds. She’d have no interest in trying to clear Jim Shaw. She …”

Major Wells interrupted again. “How well do you know Jim Shaw?” he asked Nonie directly.

Well enough to love him all my life and believe in him. Well enough to lie for him if I knew how, if I’d thought of a way. The words almost spoke themselves. Roy again replied: “He’s been here at the house; we’ve been there to dinner. Of course she’d defend him if she could. All of us who know him would do that. But she has no further interest in him. Your suggestion is preposterous …”

“I understand that you took Shaw in the motor boat to Elbow Beach, Miss Hovenden. Did he say then that he intended to return?”

That question at least was safe. “No,” she replied.

Major Wells turned, frowning, to Roy. “That’s a question he’s got to answer. Why did he come back?”

“He could invent a reason, a hundred reasons, if he wanted to.”

“Maybe,” Major Wells said. “But, what about a girl? Shaw is young. There must be a girl somewhere. Suppose that was the real reason for his quarrel with his aunt! If he wanted to marry and support a wife and Hermione Shaw blocked him it would strengthen his motive …”

“It is not fair of you, Major, to build a case against Jim like this! Take my word for it, that’s out. And the only girl on the island is my fiancée.”

It seemed to Nonie that Major Wells’ pause before replying was a little too long, a little too deliberate.

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