Hunt With the Hounds by Mignon G. Eberhart

Author:Mignon G. Eberhart [Eberhart, Mignon G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781497655508
Amazon: B00MG7BCPM
Goodreads: 22878032
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 1950-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

14

HENLEY SEEMED rather taken aback; his bright, sharp eyes were fixed on Woody with a kind of surprise as if he had not expected Woody to capitulate so soon. If so, however, he recovered himself quickly; he said, “Do you know who did kill her?”

“Woody,” whispered Sue and put out her hand toward him. “Don’t …” She didn’t know what she meant; don’t say too much, perhaps. Henley’s bright gaze observed it and her. Woody’s face looked dirty but was really only very pale under his tan. He said, “I thought Jed did it. And I still think Jed did it.”

“Woody!” Jed stared at Woody in angry bewilderment. “Woody, what do you mean? What …”

Captain Henley took control. “Wait a minute, Mr. Baily. Now then, youngster, that is, Ensign, just why did you think that? Did Mrs. Baily lead you to believe that she was—say, afraid of her husband? Had he threatened her?”

Woody blinked; the line of his thin jaw was bony and hard but he had lost some of his composure. “Well,” he said finally, “no.”

Jed started forward toward Woody, not angrily but in a helpless and bewildered way; Henley made an imperative motion that stopped him and said, “Exactly why, then, are you accusing Baily?”

Woody’s throat moved as he swallowed. “Because I don’t see what else could have happened. He—Jed—he and Ernestine didn’t get along; she told me that. And Jed was …” a little flush crept into his cheeks, “… Jed liked my sister; he was always around, wherever she was; he—everybody was talking about it. Sue was new here; she’d just come home, she was away when Jed came here and Ernestine and he were married and he bought the Duval place and settled down, only he didn’t settle down. Just the minute he saw Sue, he was after her and …”

“Woody,” cried Sue.

“I thought she’d see through it; I thought she’d see she was getting into deep water and make an end to it. But she—she’s awfully young in a lot of ways,” said Woody looking very young himself, “and Jed’s—well, I suppose she got to liking him too. And then he—anyway when Ernestine was shot and I think Sue was afraid they’d turn in a guilty verdict for Jed and I think she got to thinking that if he did quarrel with Ernestine and lose his head and shoot her, like that, I think that Sue got to thinking she was responsible. So I think she made up that alibi to save him and I don’t think she’d care about herself, I mean I don’t think she thought about the kind of place it was putting her in, and even if she had she would have gone straight ahead and alibied him, she’s like that. You don’t know her,” said Woody and stopped.

There was a silence except for the frenzied pencil of the stenographer; he finished and sighed and gave Woody a wary look as if the well of Woody’s articulacy might burst out again.

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