Tenth Commandment

I was wondering if she'd want to be present while I questioned Mrs Dark, but I needn't have worried. She led me into the brightly lighted kitchen and said to the woman there: 'Effie, this is Mr Bigg. He's looking into Father's disappearance for the lawyers. Please answer his questions and tell him whatever he wants to know. Mr Bigg, this is Mrs Effie Dark. When you're finished here, I'm sure you can find your way back to the living room.' Then she turned and left.

Mrs Dark was a tub of a woman with three chins and a bosom that encircled her like a pneumatic tube. She had sausage arms, and ankles that lopped over nurse's shoes.

Stuck in that roly-poly face were bright little eyes, shiny as blueberries in a pie. Her hips were so wide, I knew she had to go through doors sideways.

'Mrs Dark,' I said, 'I hope I'm not disturbing you?'

'Why no,' she said. 'I'm just waiting for the water to boil, and then I'm going to have a nice cup of tea. Would you like one?'

'I'd love a cup of tea,' I lied.

She heaved herself to her feet and went to the counter.

While the tea was steeping, she set out cups, saucers, and spoons for us. I held my saucer up to the light and admired its translucence.

'Beautiful,' I said.

'Nothing but the best,' she said. 'When it came to his own comfort, he didn't stint.'

'How long have you been with the Stonehouse family, Mrs Dark?'

'Since the Year One,' she said. 'I was the Professor's cook and housekeeper whilst I was married and before he was. Then my mister got took, and the Professor got married, so I moved in with him and his family.'

I watched her pour us cups of russet-coloured tea. She held her cup in both hands and savoured the aroma before she took a sip. I did the same.

'Mrs Stonehouse and Glynis told me what happened the night the Professor disappeared,' I started. 'They said they noted nothing unusual in his behaviour that night. Did you?'

She thought a moment.

'Nooo,' she said, drawling it out. 'He was about the same as usual. He was a devil.' She tasted the word on her plump lips, seemed to like it, and repeated it forcefully: 'A devil! But I wouldn't take any guff from him, and he knew it. He liked my cooking, and I kept the place nice for him.

He knew his wife couldn't run this menagerie, and his daughter wasn't interested. That's why he was as nice as pie as far as I was concerned. And he paid a good dollar, I'll say that.'

'All this on a professor's salary?'

'Oh no. No no no. He comes from old money. His grandfather and father were in shipping. He inherited a pile.'

'What was he so sore about?' I asked her. 'He seems to have hated the world.'

She shrugged her thick shoulders.

'Who can tell a thing like that? I know he had some disappointments in his life, but who hasn't? I know he got passed over for promotion at the University — that's why he resigned — and once, when he was younger, he got jilted.

But nothing important enough that I know of that would turn him into the kind of man he was. To tell you the truth, I think he just enjoyed being mean. More tea?'

'Please.'

I watched her pour and dilute with hot water. 'They've been looking for the Professor's will,' I said. 'It's missing.

Did you know that?'

'Did I? They tore my kitchen apart looking for it. Even the flour bin. Took me hours to get it tidy again.'

'Glynis told me her father cleaned his study himself.

Wouldn't let anyone in there. Is that right?'

'Recently,' she said. 'In the month before he disappeared.

Before that, he let me in to dust and straighten up. We have a cleaning crew that comes in once a week to give the place a good going-over, vacuum the rugs and wash down the bathrooms — things like that. He'd let them in his study if I was there. Then, about a month before he vanished, he wouldn't let anyone in. Said he'd clean the place himself.'

'Did he give any reason for this change?'

'Said he was working on this book, had valuable papers in there and didn't want them disturbed.'

'Uh-huh,' I said. 'Mrs Stonehouse and her daughter told me that just before he walked out on the evening of January 10th, he went into his study for a few minutes. Did you see him?'

'I did. I was in the dining room. It was Olga's night off, so I was cleaning up after dinner. He came in from the living room, went into the study, and came out a few minutes later. That was the last time I saw him.'

'Did he close the study door after he went in?'

'Yes.'

'Did you hear anything in there?'

'Like what?' she asked.

'Anything. Anything that might give me an idea of what he was doing. Thumping around? Moving furniture?'

She was silent, trying to remember. I waited patiently.

'I don't k n o w. . ' she said. 'It was a month ago. Maybe I heard him slam a desk drawer. But I couldn't swear to it.'

'That's another thing,' I said. 'The desk drawers. Did he keep them locked?'

'Yes,' she said definitely. 'He did keep them locked when he wasn't there. I remember because once he lost his keys and we had to have a locksmith come in and open the desk.'

'No one else had a key to his desk?'

'Not that I know of.'

'Effie, what happened between the Professor and his son?'

'The poor lamb,' she mourned. 'Powell got kicked out of the house.'

'Why?'

'He wouldn't get a job, and he wouldn't go back to the University to get his degree, and he was running with a wild bunch in Greenwich Village. Then the Professor caught Powell smoking pot in his bedroom, and that did it.'

'Does Powell have a job now?'

'Not that I know of.'

'How does he live?'

'I think he has a little money of his own that his grandmother left him. Also, I think Mrs Stonehouse and 66

Glynis help him out now and then, unbeknownst to the Professor.'

'When did this happen?'

'Powell getting kicked out? More than a year ago.'

'But he still comes here for dinner?'

'Only in the last two or three months. Mrs Stonehouse cried and carried on so and said Powell was starving, and Glynis worked on her father, too, and eventually he said it would be all right for Powell to have dinner here if he wanted to, but he couldn't move back in.'

'All right,' I said. 'Now what about Glynis? Does she work?'

'Not anymore. She did for a year or two, but she quit.'

'Where did she work?'

'I think she was a secretary in a medical laboratory.

Something like that.'

'But now she does nothing?'

'She's a volunteer three days a week in a clinic downtown. But no regular job.'

'Have many friends?'

'Seems to. She goes out a lot. The theatre and ballet and so forth. Some weeks she's out every night.'

'One particular boyfriend?'

'Not that I know of.'

'Does she ever have her friends here? Does she entertain?'

'No,' Mrs Effie Dark said sadly. 'I never see any of her friends. And there hasn't been much in the way of entertaining in this house. Not for years.'

She waved a plump hand around, gesturing towards overhead racks, the utensils, the bins and spice racks, stove, in-the-wall oven, refrigerator, freezer.

'See all this? I don't use half this stuff for months on end. But when the kids were growing up, things were different. The Professor was at the University most of the day, and this place was filled with the kids' friends. There 67

were parties and dances right here. Even Mrs Stonehouse had teas and bridge games and get-togethers for her friends. My, I was busy. But we had another maid then, a live-in, and I didn't mind. There was noise and everyone laughed. A real ruckus. Then the Professor resigned, and he was home all day. He put a stop to the parties and dances. Gradually, people stopped coming, he was such a meany. Then we began living like hermits, tiptoeing around so as not to disturb him. Not like the old days.'