The Mystery Of The Magic Circle-us by Alfred Hitchcock

Author:Alfred Hitchcock
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

50

The Witch’s Curse

Desparto’s secretary, she works for a broker out in Century City. Every once in a while I take her out to dinner.”

Jupiter took the photo and looked at it again. He pointed to the man who was identified in the caption as Charles Goodfellow. He was a very thin young fellow with dark hair that was slicked back. “He looks familiar,” said Jupe. “Is he still working in films?”

Farber frowned. “Goodfellow? I’d almost forgotten about him. He did bit parts back in the old days — you know, playing taxi drivers and doormen.

You’ve probably seen him if you watch a lot of old movies on TV. I don’t know what happened to him. He’s the only one I’ve completely lost track of. He’s one of those people who are easy to forget. About the only thing I remember is that he was American, but for some reason his parents lived in Holland when he was a child. He was a strange one. Very fussy. He almost had a fit when he found out that we were all supposed to sip honey and water out of the same cup at the Sabbats. He used to do it, but he always went and gargled afterwards.”

The three boys laughed. “You make a witch’s coven sound as sinister as a square dance,” said Jupiter.

“It was all very innocent,” said Farber. “Only, after Desparto died, some of the people began to wonder whether Madeline didn’t, in fact, have some power.”

“She put a curse on Desparto?” asked Jupiter.

Farber sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. It was … well, the sort of thing people say when they’re very angry. She told him to go hang himself. Now that’s just an expression. I’m sure she didn’t mean it. Only right after she’d said it, Ramon Desparto climbed into his car and drove away — and the brakes failed so that he drove into a tree. There were no seat belts in those days, and he was thrown clear of the car. We found him wedged in the fork of a tree part way down an embankment on the side of the road. He was just hanging there with his head to one side. His neck was broken.”

“My gosh!” said Pete.

“So the coven broke up, and Madeline withdrew, and that was the end of that. Now no one talks to Madeline, and I guess not many talk about her.”

“How about her manager? He used to be her chauffeur,” said Jupe.

“Didn’t really know him,” said Farber. He took a piece of paper from a pad on the counter and wrote Estelle DuBarry’s address on it. Then he added

Ted Finley’s telephone number and the address where Gloria Gibbs worked in

Century City. He gave the paper to the boys, and when they left the shop he stood leaning on his counter, staring straight ahead in an unseeing fashion.

“Nice guy,” said Pete, when they were outside, “and he sure likes to talk.”

“Yes, even though I guess we stirred up some bad memories for him,” said

Bob.

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