Voyage of the Dreadnaught: Four Stella Madison Capers Read Online Free PDF

famous
in where it wouldn’t be found out? If I didn’t know better, I’d say
she had an entirely different plan for herself. One that doesn’t
include the rest of us. You know, I don’t even think Gerald
knows—and he’s her cousin. Nobody does.”
    “What art?”
    “All those famous modern art pictures I
found in the dumbwaiter, this afternoon. The only reason I saw them
is because I was late and needed a ride up instead of climb those
hundreds of stairs. And there they were! All wrapped in brown paper
and tied up with string—ready to mail. You don’t do that just to
move something to another room or leave in a closet. And they
certainly aren’t to decorate her cabin on the Dreadful ,
either.”
    “ Dreadnaught , Stell. You know how it
physically pains Stuart to hear you call it that.”
    “It’s a much more fitting name, if you ask
me.”
    “Try thinking about it as our gateway to
adventure. By the time this trip is over, I’m sure we’ll be almost
as attached to it as Stuart is. Look how our Captain’s quarters
spruced up so well.”
    “Oh, they did! You know I was almost envious
of everyone else moving aboard before we did? I’m that fond of all
this, already. I thought Millie was, too. She did tell me those
pictures were worth a fortune, though. Then again, maybe she had
second thoughts about leaving them in an empty house and decided to
send them to the family directly. Do you think that’s what it
was?”
    “That sounds a lot more like our Millie than
absconding with them. Remember how upset she got at the prospect of
going to jail? She probably just forgot about the paintings in all
this confusion of moving. What do you want to bet she’ll remember
them halfway through Canada somewhere, and then fuss about it all
the way to Alaska.”
    “You’re probably right.”
    “We’ll ask her.”
    “Which is entirely possible, because we’ve
all worked ourselves into a stupor this week, trying to keep up
with Stuart. I wonder why the first thing we do, when anything
doesn’t seem quite right, is to think the absolute worst of people?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing turned out to be--”
    The familiar strains of the Marine Band
piped up from his shirt pocket, and Stella got up to put another
log on the fire while he answered the phone.
    “Henry, here. Oh, hello, Mason. Not back
yet? No, just Stella and I. Villa looked all dark and locked up
when we put the car back in the garage. Didn’t even go in.”
    Stella stopped poking at the fire and turned
around in time to see the Colonel’s gray eyebrows scrunch together
into his thinking expression. “Course we will. Be there as soon as
we can.”
    She felt a tightening in her chest. “Now,
what happened?”
    “Millie isn’t at the house, and it’s been
over an hour since she was supposed to meet Mason there.” He got to
his feet and slipped the phone back into his pocket in one smooth
motion. “Not answering her phone, either.”
     
     

 
    5
     
    What could only be called a “wild goose
chase” ensued. Stella threw some clothes on over her pajamas, and
rode back across the bay with the Colonel and Stuart (who was
driving all out), to search for Millie. By that time Mason was an
exhausted wreck, having called every emergency room in town,
thinking her heart condition may have got the better of her
somewhere with all the stresses and strains of the move. Then he
single-handedly began a search of all nooks and cupboards in the
mansion from the attic down.
    By the time the others arrived, he had
reached the kitchen on the main level.
    Stella forced herself not to think the worst
and hurried off to search on her own. But what Millie had told her
earlier about being stranded in the frozen north, hundreds of miles
from grocery stores (maybe even electricity!), she certainly
wouldn’t blame her if she decided to go live back east with one of
her children, after all. True, each of them had been sincere about
sticking together.