Brett Halliday - Stranger in Town

“I think so. All of her friends anyway.”

“Did she have many?”

“Scads. She was one of the most popular girls in the freshman class.”

“Had you known her long?”

“Ever since first year high-school. We used to live near Orlando until we moved to a farm near Diston two years ago.”

“And she was on her way to visit you there when it happened?”

There was the slightest indication of hesitancy before Lois answer firmly, “Yes. It was mid-term vacation beginning the fifteenth of last month.”

“Did you ever hear of the Brockton Sanitarium, Lois?”

This time there was no hesitancy in her reply. “That’s where they took Jeanette after the accident, wasn’t it? That’s the first I ever heard of it.”

“When did you first learn about Jeanette’s accident?”

“Early the next morning. Professor Henderson telephoned.” Lois shuddered and bit her underlip again. “I just couldn’t believe it at first. Not Jeanette. She was so… so vital if you know what I mean. So full of the joy of life. She was… wonderful,” she added softly.

“Hadn’t you been worried about her not reaching your house?” Shayne put in fast. “After all, you expected her the preceding evening.” He was guessing on this point, but it seemed reasonable to assume that a seventeen-year-old girl driving her own car would plan to arrive at her destination at a reasonable hour.

She was taken off base by the unexpected question and stammered, “I… I was surprised of course when she didn’t come and didn’t come. But I thought something had delayed her.”

“And you just went calmly to sleep that night,” asked Shayne harshly, “without bothering to call her home to see if she had left on schedule?”

Lois’ chin was set and her eyes flashed angrily as she faced Shayne again. “What right have you to ask me these questions? I had nothing to do with her accident.”

Shayne hesitated a moment, assaying the temperament of the girl beside him. His first impression remained strong. A sensible and trustworthy girl. And loyal to her friend’s memory. If she were concealing anything derogatory, wild horses wouldn’t drag it from her unless she were given a good reason for revealing it.

He said, “I don’t blame you, Lois, but I’m not just snooping for the fun of it. You know Jean Henderson, don’t you?”

“Of course. What about her?”

“I’m afraid she’s in trouble, Lois.”

Amazement and utter disbelief spread over the young girl’s face. She cried, “Jean? I don’t believe it. She’s not the type. She doesn’t… why I just don’t believe it.”

“I don’t know what type,” said Shayne wearily, “you expect to get into trouble, Lois. But I assure you that Jean is. And Brockton is the focal point again.”

“I thought Jean had gone on a cruise with the Larches in Apalachicola.”

“Her father also thinks that,” Shayne told her grimly. “But I saw Jean in Brockton last night. She’s in danger. In deadly danger, Lois. I’m working in the dark and I need any tiny bit of information I can get.”

“But what’s she doing in Brockton?”

“I don’t know. What,” asked Shayne deliberately, “was her younger sister doing in Brockton a month ago?”

“But I’ve told you. She was on her way to visit me.” The girl’s voice was pleading. She avoided Shayne’s eyes, nervously twisting her fingers together in her lap.

“And I don’t believe you,” Shayne told her promptly. “I’m convinced Jean’s presence in Brockton has some connection with her sister’s accident.” He was going out on a limb with that statement, but he had to convince the girl somehow and it was no time for half measures. “I tell you Jean is in danger and you’re the only one who can help me save her.”

There was a little silence after Shayne’s purposefully melodramatic statement. Lois’ face was working and she swallowed back a sob before saying in a low voice, “I don’t see… how it can possibly help Jean for me to tell you. I just don’t see how…”

“Tell me,” said Shayne gently, “and let me decide, Lois. In strict confidence,” he went on. “You’ve bottled it up too long. Jeanette is dead now. But her sister is still alive. Think of her father. He’s lost one daughter already…”

“I… I don’t know.” Blinding tears streamed down Lois’ cheeks. She turned slowly, her girlish face a mask of fright and bewilderment.

Shayne put his right arm tightly about her shaking shoulders and she convulsively buried her face against his shoulder and wept uncontrollably. He held her tightly until the sobbing subsided, then got a clean handkerchief from his left hip pocket and pressed it into her hand.

He said, “Dry your eyes, Lois,” and got out a pack of cigarettes as she drew away shakily and dabbed the handkerchief at her wet cheeks. He held the pack out without looking at her and asked impersonally,

“Want one?”

“N-no thanks. I–I don’t smoke.”

He lit one for himself and went on without looking at her. “What happened to Jeanette may not have a thing in the world to do with Jean. But I have to be sure, Lois. What did happen that night?”

“Why, she had an accident and was killed. You know that. Not right off, but she died during an emergency operation. They said she never recovered consciousness.”

“I know all that, but… tell me the whole truth, Lois.”

“I will.” She spoke thinly, wetting her lips and staring straight ahead through the windshield. “She really wasn’t going to visit me. Except the last couple of days. It was something we fixed up. So her father and Jean wouldn’t know.”

“Wouldn’t know what, Lois?”

“That she was… well, that she was going off for a few days with… with a man. She didn’t tell me outright who it was, but I guessed and she didn’t deny it when I did. Because she had this sweetheart, you see. She was terribly in love with him and they were engaged but her father thought she was too young to be engaged and she was afraid to tell him. And he didn’t like for her to go around with Will. He wouldn’t let him come to their house to see her. It was all so thrilling and romantic. They were sort of going to elope, she said. But she was under-age and couldn’t get married yet. And she had a theory that every couple should… you know…” Lois’ cheeks blazed crimson but she forced herself to turn and meet Shayne’s grave eyes defiantly. “… well, sleep together before they got married. That way, they’d know, you see. Whether they were really suited or not. Anyhow, that’s what Jeanette thought, and she begged me to help her. So I did. She told her father she was coming to visit me all through the vacation and I promised not to give her away.”

“Where did they plan to go?” Shayne asked carefully.

“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me, except they had some place picked out where they’d pretend to be married and no one would ever know.”

“Were they going to take her car?”

“I don’t know. I guess so. I don’t think Will has one of his own.”

Shayne drew in a long breath. “So he was probably with her in the car when it happened.”

“I… I guess maybe he was,” she agreed miserably.

“And you didn’t tell anyone this?”

“Why should I have?” she demanded wildly. “It was done when I first heard. Jeanette was dead. Nothing in the world would change that. I felt so sorry for Professor Henderson. He just adored the ground Jeanette walked on. She was so much like her mother who died three years ago. I couldn’t tell him the truth. Promise me you won’t.”

Shayne said, “I promised that whatever you told me would be in strict confidence. I agree that Professor Henderson must never know if it can possibly be avoided. Now tell me this, Lois. Did Jean know anything about her younger sister’s plan?”