Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 150, Nos. 5 & 6. Whole Nos. 914 & 915, November/December 2017
- Автор: Фузилли Джим, Харрис Шарлин
- Год: 2017
- Язык: английский
- Год: Dell Magazines
- ISBN: 0013-6328
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 150, Nos. 5 & 6. Whole Nos. 914 & 915, November/December 2017». Краткое содержание книги:
“Since you haven’t lived here for years, that’s hardly surprising.”
“I’m sure you didn’t miss me.”
“Hardly gave you a thought,” Charlotte said.
“That’s okay. What do you think about Will’s crush on Sarah?”
“I think she’s lapping it up. And he’s too stupid to see how she’s making a fool of him.”
“You don’t think the attraction is mutual?”
“I think sweet little Sarah used her self-righteous husband to get to the States and she’s using Will to—” Charlotte shoved her hands into her skirt pockets. “Who knows what she wants with Will. Maybe she wants another puppy dog.”
Charlotte was looking straight ahead, but Jo saw the tears glistening in her eyes, heard them beneath her anger.
“Before the war,” Jo said, “was Jim Fisher — was there someone else he—”
“If you want to know about Jim Fisher, ask him yourself. I’m sure he’ll have a lot to say about me.”
Charlotte marched on. Jo let her go.
It might be well and good for sleuths in novels to pry, but in real life it took a lot of gall.
But she should talk to Jim Fisher and find out what he had to say.
Jo glanced at her watch. Almost two-thirty. If he was in his office this afternoon, he’d be back from lunch by now.
His secretary gave no sign that she had recognized Jo’s name. Unless she always decided not to use her intercom and got up instead and went into her boss’s office to confer with him.
Jo waited. And a couple of minutes later, the door opened and the secretary reappeared.
Jim Fisher stepped out into the reception room.
Jo had never met him, but she had seen his photograph in the newspaper when he attended a bar-association conference and gave a speech. People said he might be a judge within the next few years.
“Come in, Miss Radcliffe,” he said. “Please have a seat.”
“I’m sorry to drop by without an appointment,” Jo said.
“Not at all. You caught me on the one afternoon this week when I have a few minutes.” He sat back down behind his mahogany desk. “Is this a legal matter? Do you need representation?”
“Not yet. But I am concerned. I know you must be concerned about Sarah too.”
“I take it you’re referring to Mildred Bloom’s death.”
“Yes. Her murder.” Jo leaned forward in her armchair. “Poor Mildred’s dead, and we’re all — everyone who was at the dress rehearsal — we’re all suspects.” Jo paused. “One of us could even be the killer’s next victim. I’m really so frightened. I don’t know who to turn to and I thought you—”
Jim Fisher burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, Miss Radcliffe. Forgive me. But your damsel in distress—”
Jo sat back in her chair. “Well, you needn’t laugh. I can’t help it if I don’t look dainty and helpless.”
“It’s not that,” Jim Fisher assured her. “I’m sure you could inspire any man’s chivalry. But your acting—”
“That’s why I was the stage manager for the play. How is Sarah? Has she recovered from last night?”
“She’s at home resting. She’ll be all right.”
“Good,” Jo said. “I spoke to Charlotte this afternoon. She said that I should speak to you.”
“About what?”
“I’m not sure. I gathered it was about her relationship with you.”
“Charlotte and I aren’t on the best of terms.”
“Because you married Sarah and brought her home when Charlotte hoped the two of you might—”
“The two of us? Charlotte and me? Where on earth did you get that idea? Charlotte couldn’t have told you—”
“No, she — but when Charlotte mentioned you and Sarah, she seemed upset.”
Or had it been Will that Charlotte was upset about? He was at least four or five years younger than they were, but—
Jim Fisher said, “My best friend was in love with Charlotte.”
“Oh... and you didn’t approve?”
“I thought she wasn’t that interested in him. But then along came the war, and she sent him off with the promise to write. And she did. He began to hope. He had a few days’ leave and he came home and asked her to marry him. The next time I saw him, he was calling her some names I can’t repeat to a lady.” Jim Fisher’s mouth tightened before he went on. “She had not only said no, but made him feel like a fool for even imagining she might consider marrying him. He went back to the front. By the next week he was dead. Killed while charging into enemy fire to rescue one of his men who was wounded.”
Jo shook her head. “You can’t blame Charlotte for that. He did something brave—”
“He did something reckless and pointless. The soldier he tried to rescue was already dying. They both died.”
“You make it sound as if he was reckless because Charlotte—”
“That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I said to her.”
“Do you think you’re being fair?”
“I don’t give a damn. Pardon my language.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Is there something else, Miss Radcliffe?”
Well, there is Will’s big-time crush on your wife, Jo thought.
“It must be difficult for Sarah, coming to a new country, leaving her family—”
“Her family’s dead. They were killed during the Blitz. I’m all the family she has now. Anything else?”
“No, I should be going. Thank you for your time, Mr. Fisher.”
Jim Fisher stood up and walked her to the door.
“You’re welcome, Miss Radcliffe. If you do find yourself in need of an attorney, I’m here.”
“Thank you, but I hope I won’t need your services.”
Jo decided to have a grilled-cheese sandwich at the drugstore. Then she could walk back and say “hello” to Will behind the pharmacy counter.
Eating took longer than she had expected because she was sitting on a stool at the lunch counter and people noticed her as they came in. Several felt called upon to stop and exclaim about how horrible it was that someone had killed poor Mildred right there in the Grange Hall basement. Had she heard anything else yet? They’d heard she was helping Chief Gordon with the investigation.
Just going through the prop logbook to see if anything was missing, Jo said.
She choked down the last of her sandwich as two of the people who had stopped to talk were talking to each other about Mildred’s funeral and when her cousin from Delaware might arrive.
When Will saw her coming, he came out from behind his counter. “I need a smoke,” he said. “Let’s go outside and get some air.”
She followed him out the back door of the drugstore. They walked to the end of the alley.
“Cigaret?” Will said, offering his pack.
Jo shook her head. “I quit when I fell asleep and set my blanket on fire.”
“Did I hear you say something about Chief Gordon going over Mildred’s logbook?”
“Yes. But nothing was missing.”
He took a long drag on his cigaret. “I still think someone came in. I can’t believe it could have been one of us.”
“Neither can I. I’ve talked to Barton and Charlotte and Jim Fisher—”
“Fisher? You went to the house?”
“No, I went to his office.”
Will threw down his cigaret and grounded it out. “So he was there in his office when Sarah needed him.”
“He said she was holding up okay.”
“He would say that.”
Jo said, “You and Sarah... you seem to care about her.”
“That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? I’m in love with her.”
“How does she feel?”
“She thinks she owes Fisher something. Loyalty. Gratitude.”
“I see.”
Will’s blue gaze swept over her. “No, you don’t. You think I should leave a married woman alone.”