Beckoning Trails by Emilie Loring

Author:Emilie Loring [Loring, Emilie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

XIII

McGregor’s accusation that she was shielding someone brought Deborah to her feet. Tim rose impulsively to go to her but a look from the chunky man in stage center stopped him. He might do more harm than good to the girl by interfering in her testimony. What had she heard?

“I’m not trying to shield anyone,” she asserted indignantly. “I heard Judge Lander’s voice on the terrace at 4 a.m. this morning.”

“How come you know it so well that you could recognize it two stories below?”

“I told you it was raised in anger. I have visited in this house for years, you know how long, Sandy McGregor, you used to hold up traffic for me. During that time Judge Lander was legal adviser first to Roger Stewart, then to his wife. I’d be pretty dumb if I didn’t recognize his voice when I heard it, wouldn’t I?”

“Atta girl, don’t let him get you down,” Tim encouraged under his breath. For the first time since he had entered the badminton court and seen the motionless figure his mind settled to normal thinking. Was this crime tied up with the theft of the papers from Molly B.’s safe, and the threat Deb had overheard, “If you don’t, you know the consequences to you”? What was on McGregor’s mind now?

“If you are sure you heard the voice of the Judge, Miss Deb, the next step is to find out who he was talking with. Sit down, you’ve told your story. I want a report from each person present as to where he or she was from the time the snack party broke up in the hall till 5 a.m.,” he announced blandly, and boy, could he be bland. “What’s your business here, Miss Dane?” he growled as Stella appeared in the doorway. The long, sinister face of the butler loomed above her shining hair, his livery made a dark blue background for her white gabardine frock.

“We came to find out how come police cars were shooting all over the place. Scragg had about lost his mind because you’d all rushed to the game house and the popovers —” Her voice caught. “What is it? Who are you after now, Sandy McGregor?”

“Not the Wild Danes this time, for a wonder.”

“Sit down, Stella.” Molly B. motioned to a chair. “Scragg, you’d better remain also. Never mind lunch. Judge Lander is — is gone.”

“Gone?” Stella Dane echoed stridently. “Has he at last beaten it from this burg? You won’t catch me crying about it. I loathed the old wolf. My two brothers will beat the drums —”

“Softly, softly, sister,” Sam Farr interrupted her hysterical outburst. “Don’t talk without advice of counsel. We are all before the bar of justice. The Judge is dead. Murdered.”

“Dead. Mur —” Stella slumped into the chair and stared into space. Her face was colorless. Had she suddenly remembered that Lander had recently foreclosed the mortgages on the estate of her family, that her brothers had been muttering threats? Tim’s eyes flew to the butler, who stood straight and tense against the wall.

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