The Motive by Evelyn Piper

Author:Evelyn Piper
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504028271
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

CHAPTER 5

7 P.M., Wilsetta … Sunday

Because Mary Day had walked into the dining room of the Hartley House and sat down at the next table twenty minutes after Gavin More had flipped out his napkin and spread it across his knees, anybody noticing would have thought that she was following him, rather than the other way round. Certainly it was Mary Day who raised her head from her tepid chicken-noodle soup several times to peer at Gavin More, whereas he glanced at her only once, and that was when she entered the dining room.

Mary Day was puzzled about Gavin More because he seemed familiar, but it took those three long glances to place him. Because she was thinking constantly of Leo, she tried to fit Gavin in among her husband’s friends, first thing. (“You’ve made me able to have friends again, Mary Day. If you love me, I can have friends. I can believe, while you love me, that people would want me for a friend.”) Mary Day could not see Gavin as one of Leo’s friends. Shirley? Was this man somehow connected with Shirley? When she wasn’t thinking of Leo, she was thinking of Shirley. She pressed her napkin to her lips, suppressing the desire to run, unable to finish the soup. She looked at Gavin again when the waiter took the full plate away. No, she did not believe he was in any way connected with Shirley. She tried to eat her dinner and forget him completely.

It was while Mary Day was struggling with the leathery crust of the apple pie à la mode that she placed Gavin More as the movie actor. The Hartley House offered either the pie or jello. On the previous evening Mary Day had chosen the jello, feeling that it would slide down more easily, but it was stale jello, with a rubber layer on top. She chewed on the pie until she got Gavin’s name. Then she could dismiss him, then she could forget him, because even if it seemed queer for a movie actor to be in Wilsetta, his presence could have no connection with her. She forgot him.

Gavin had a second cup of the abominable coffee in order to be finished at the same time as Mary Day. He followed her out of the dining room, and stood just inside the glass door of the hotel until she turned up the street in the direction of the Wing Hotel; then he started after her.

Mary Day heard his steps on the empty pavement, for the street was Sunday quiet. Wilsetta had finished its supper: the adults were reading their papers and listening to their digestions purr, or complaining of indigestion, or doing dishes; the children were listening to Jack Benny and Rochester. Mary Day, to shake the footsteps—for of course he was not following her; it just seemed that way because the street was empty—paused to glance into Anne Dian’s hatshop window to stare at the hats, which nowadays were not

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.