Calamity Town Read Online Free PDF Page B

back to their birthplace…to die? Sometimes I think it’s almost as if Lola’s…hiding.’ Pat’s silk taffeta rustled suddenly. ‘You make me talk and talk. Good night, Ellery.’
    â€˜Night, Pat.’
    Mr Queen stared into the dark for a long time. Yes, it was taking shape. He’d been lucky. The makings were here, rich and bloody. But the crime—the crime. Where was it? Or had it already occurred?
    Ellery went to bed in Calamity House with a sense of events past, present, and future.
    On the afternoon of Sunday, August twenty-fifth, nearly three weeks from the day of Ellery’s arrival in Wrightsville, he was smoking a postprandial cigarette on his porch and enjoying the improbable sunset when Ed Hotchkiss’s taxicab charged up the Hill and squealed to a stop before the Wright house next door. A hatless young man jumped out of the cab. Mr Queen felt a sudden agitation and rose for a better view.
    The young man shouted something to Ed Hotchkiss, bounded up the steps, and jabbed at the Wright doorbell. Old Ludie opened the door. Ellery saw her fat arm rise as if to ward off a blow. Then Ludie scuttled back out of sight, and the young man dashed after her. The door banged. Five minutes later it was yanked open; the young man rushed out, stumbled into the waiting cab, and yelled to be driven away.
    Ellery sat down slowly. It might be. He would soon know. Pat would come flying across the lawn…There she was…‘Ellery! You’ll never guess!’
    â€˜ Jim Haight’s come back ,’ said Ellery.
    Pat stared. ‘You’re wonderful. Imagine—after three years! After the way Jim ran out on Nora! I can’t believe it yet. He looks so much older…He had to see Nora, he yelled. Where was she? Why didn’t she come down? Yes, he knew what Muth and Pop thought of him, but that could wait—where was Nora? And all the time he kept shaking his fist in poor Pop’s face and hopping up and down on one foot like a maniac!’
    â€˜What happened then?’
    â€˜I ran upstairs to tell Nora. She went deathly pale and plopped down on her bed. She said: “Jim?” and started to bawl. Said she’d rather be dead, and why hadn’t he stayed away, and she wouldn’t see him if he came crawling to her on his hands and knees—the usual feminine tripe. Poor Nora!’
    Pat was in tears herself.
    â€˜I knew it was no good arguing with her—Nora’s awfully stubborn when she wants to be. So I told Jim, and he got even more excited and wanted to run upstairs, and Pop got mad and waved his best mashie at the foot of the stairs, like Horatius at the bridge, and ordered Jim out of the house, and—well, Jim would have had to knock Pop down to get by him, so he ran out of the house screaming that he’d see Nora if he had to throw bombs to get in. And all of this time I was trying to revive Muth, who conveniently fainted as a sort of strategic diversion…I’ve got to get back!’ Pat ran off. Then she stopped and turned around. ‘Why in heaven’s name,’ she asked slowly, ‘do I come running to you with the most intimate details of my family’s affairs, Mr Ellery Smith?’
    â€˜Maybe,’ smiled Ellery, ‘because I have a kind face.’
    â€˜Don’t be foul. Do you suppose I’m f—’ Pat bit her lip, a faint blush staining her tan. Then she loped away.
    Mr Queen lit another cigarette with fingers not quite steady. Despite the heat, he felt chilled suddenly. He threw the unsmoked butt into the grass and went into the house to haul out his typewriter.

5
    Lover Come Back
    Gabby Warrum, the one-toothed agent at the railroad station, saw Jim Haight get off the train. Gabby told Emmeline DuPré. By the time Ed Hotchkiss dropped Jim off at Upham House, where Ma for old times’ sake managed to wangle a bed for him, Emmy DuPré had phoned nearly everyone in town