Susan put an arm around her mother and patted her shoulder. “Now, see what you’ve done,” she said venomously, whether to me or to her sister I wasn’t sure.
“Now you’ve caused enough disturbance, you polack detective, whatever your name is,” Lucy began.
“Don’t you dare talk to her like that,” Jill cried, her voice partly muffled by my shoulder. “Her name is Miss Warshawski, and you should call her Miss Warshawski!”
“Well, Mother Thayer,” Jack said with a rueful laugh, “sorry to drag you into this, but since Jill won’t listen to her sister or me, will you tell her that she has to get this woman out of the house?”
“Oh, please, Jack,” his mother-in-law said, leaning on Susan. She stretched out a hand to him without looking at him, and I was interested to note that her eyes didn’t turn red with crying. “I just don’t have the strength to deal with Jill in one of her moods.” However, she pulled herself into a sitting position, still holding on to Jack’s hand, and looked at Jill earnestly. “Jill, I just cannot stand for you to have one of your temper tantrums right now. You and Peter never listen to what anyone has to say to you. If Petey had, he wouldn’t be dead now. With Petey dead, and John, I just can’t take anything else. So don’t talk to this private detective any longer. She’s taking advantage of you to get her name in the paper, and I can’t bear another scandal about this family.”
Before I could say anything, Jill tore herself away from me, her little face crimson. “Don’t talk like that to me!” she screamed. “I care about Pete and Daddy and you don’t! You’re the one who’s bringing scandals into the house. Everybody knows you didn’t love Daddy! Everybody knows what you and Dr. Mulgrave were up to! Daddy was probably-”
Susan leaped up from the couch and slapped her sister hard on the face. “You goddamn brat, be quiet!” Mrs. Thayer started weeping in earnest. Jill, overcome by assorted strong and uncontrollable feelings, began sobbing again.
At that moment a worried-looking man in a business suit came into the room, escorted by one of the patrolmen. He crossed to Mrs. Thayer and clasped her hands. “Margaret! I came as soon as I heard the news. How are you? ”
Susan blushed. Jill’s sobs died away. Jack looked as though he had been stuffed. Mrs. Thayer turned large tragic eyes to the newcomer’s face. “Ted. How kind of you,” she said in a brave voice, barely above a whisper.
“Dr. Mulgrave, I presume,” I said.
He dropped Mrs. Thayer’s wrists and stood up straight. “Yes, I’m Dr. Mulgrave.” He looked at Jack. “Is this a policewoman?”
“No,” I said. “I’m a private investigator. Miss Thayer has hired me to find out who killed her father and brother.”
“Margaret?” he asked incredulously.
“No. Miss Thayer. Jill,” I said.
Jack said, “Mrs. Thayer just ordered you to leave her house and leave her daughter alone. I’d think even an ambulance chaser like you would know how to take a hint like that.”
“Oh, cool it, Thorndale,” I said. “What’s eating you? Jill asked me to come up here because she’s scared silly-as any normal person would be with all this going on. But you guys are so defensive you make me wonder what you’re hiding.”
“What do you mean?” he scowled.
“Well, why don’t you want me looking into your father-in-law’s death? What are you afraid I’ll find out-that he and Peter caught you with your fingers in the till and you had them shot to shut them up?”
I ignored his outraged gasp. “What about you, Doctor? Did Mr. Thayer learn about your relations with his wife and threaten divorce-but you decided a wealthy widow was a better bet than a woman who couldn’t make a very good case for alimony?”
“Now look here, whatever your name is. I don’t have to listen to that kind of crap,” Mulgrave started.
“Then leave,” I said. “Maybe Lucy is using this house as a center for burglarizing wealthy homes on the North Shore-after all, as a maid, she probably hears a lot about where jewelry, documents, and so on are kept. When Mr. Thayer and his son got too hot on her trail, she hired a murderer.” I smiled enthusiastically at Susan, who was starting to babble-I was getting carried away by my own fantasies. “I could probably think of a motive for you too, Mrs. Thorn-dale. All I’m trying to say is, you people are so hostile that it starts me wondering. The less you want me to undertake a murder investigation, the more I start thinking there might be something to my ideas.”
When I stopped talking, they were silent for a minute. Mulgrave was clasping Mrs. Thayer’s hands again, sitting next to her now. Susan looked like a kitten getting ready to spit at a dog. My client was sitting on one of the bamboo side chairs, her hands clenched in her lap, her face intent. Then Mulgrave said, “Are you trying to threaten us-threaten the Thayer family?”
“If you mean, am I threatening to find out the truth, the answer is yes; if that means turning up a lot of sordid junk along the way, tough.”
“Just a minute, Ted,” Jack said, waving an arm at the older man. “I know how to deal with her.” He nodded at me. “Come on, name your price,” he said, pulling out his checkbook.
My fingers itched to bring out the Smith & Wesson and pistol-whip him. “Grow up, Thorndale,” I snapped. “There are things in this life that money can’t buy. Regardless of what you, or your mother-in-law, or the mayor of Winnetka says, I am investigating this murder-these murders.” I laughed a little, mirthlessly. “Two days ago, John Thayer tried to give me $5,000 to buy me out of this case. You guys up here on the North Shore live in some kind of dream world. You think you can buy a cover-up for anything that goes wrong in your lives, just like you hire the garbagemen to take away your filth, or Lucy here to clean it up and carry it outside for you. It doesn’t work that way. John Thayer is dead. He couldn’t pay enough to get whatever filth he was involved in away from him, nor away from his son. Now whatever it was that caused their deaths isn’t private anymore. It doesn’t belong to you. Anyone who wants it can find out about it. I intend to.”
Mrs. Thayer was moaning softly. Jack looked uncomfortable. With an effort to save his dignity he said, “Naturally, if you choose to poke around in something that’s none of your business we can’t stop you. It’s just that we think matters are better off left to the police.”
“Yeah, well, they’re not batting a thousand right now,” I said. “They thought they had a guy behind bars for the crime, but while he was eating his prison breakfast this morning John Thayer got killed.”
Susan turned to Jill. “This is all your fault! You brought this person up here. Now We’ve been insulted and embarrassed-I’ve never been more ashamed in my life. Daddy’s been killed and all you can think about is bringing in some outsider to call us names.”
Mulgrave turned back to Mrs. Thayer, and Jack and Susan both started talking to him at once. While this was going on, I walked over to Jill and knelt down to look her in the face. She was looking as though she might collapse or go into shock. “Look, I think you need to get away from all this. Is there any friend or relative you can visit until the worst of the fuss is over?”
She thought for a minute, then shook her head. “Not really. I’ve got lots of friends, you know, but I don’t think any of their mothers would like having me around right now.” She gave a wobbly smile. “The scandal, you know, like Jack said. I wish Anita were here.”
I hesitated a minute. “Would you like to come back to Chicago with me? My apartment’s been torn up, and I’m staying with a friend, but she’ll be glad to have you, too, for a few days.” Lotty would never mind another stray. I needed Jill where I could ask her some questions, and I wanted her away from her family. She was tough and could fight back, but she didn’t need to do that kind of fighting on top of the shock of her father’s death.