Ralph looked uneasy, and Susan lowered her eyes.
Nora said: “Cute way of describing marriage — a low design.”
“That’s as good a way as any,” Emily said severely. “To continue, I honestly believe Alfonse would have tried to marry Ralph if Tom Little had not been murdered. But the fact that she became a reluctant accessory to the murder upset all her plans. She had intended to marry for money but here was a situation which would bring her a lot of money with no trouble at all beyond keeping silent. She accepted Mary Little’s offer and promised to keep her mouth shut.
“As soon as Prye found out that Alfonse had made a date with Tom Little at nine o’clock the night he was murdered, Alfonse realized that she would have to get away from Muskoka immediately. If she stayed, Mary Little might confess to the murders and implicate her. If she got away, she could go into hiding somewhere and contact Mary Little later on to get her hush money. The chief difficulties in escaping were that the road was guarded at each end by policemen and that she had not much money on hand.
“I don’t know how she found out about my five thousand dollars, but I have an idea that it was right after Tom’s death when she came into my room with a case of hysterics. Perhaps the hysterics were feigned and she wanted to get me excited so she could see if I had the money hidden in my clothes. I suspect she heard Prye and me talking about it in my room.
“Anyway, I did have the money in my clothes and she did find out about it. So she made her plans for taking the money. It was easy enough for her to go down to the kitchen and dope my coffee. When I was asleep she came into my room and stole the bills. Back in her own room she put on a girdle so as to have some place to keep the money safe, and over it she wore a bathing suit. With a pair of suture scissors she cut her left arm, let the blood flow on to the floor, and then bandaged her arm and waited for her chance to go downstairs without being seen, I suppose. She couldn’t take any of the boats to escape because she had deliberately planned her actions to suggest that she had been murdered. So she was forced to swim across the lake. Well, she didn’t make it. And that’s all.”
Miss Alfonse’s epitaph, Prye thought: “And that’s all.” Aloud he said: “She cut her arm too deeply, you see. The loss of blood weakened her and she drowned. Perhaps it was a longer swim than it looked.”
“Shall we have coffee now?” Susan suggested. She rose from her chair, self-consciously smoothing out the new red dress. The fires of hell, her father thought, the fires of hell licking at Susan, thank God. Smiling, he pushed back his chair and went to the door.
The others followed him, Emily tapping her cane and leaning on Mr. Smith’s arm; Ralph and Susan walking stiffly, far apart, not looking at each other.
Nora tugged at Prye’s coat sleeve and held him back.
“One more question,” she said ominously.
“Name it.”
“Just how many murders do you average a year?”
“One doesn’t average murders,” Prye said with dignity. “One cannot help them. One is powerless to dam the flow of destiny.”
“You can drag your feet out of the current,” Nora said coldly. “I don’t want to be widowed while I’m walking up the aisle.”
“Aisle?” Prye paused. “Did you say aisle?”
“I did.”
“You’re surely not one of those women who’d ask a man to go waltzing up an aisle in spats and striped pants—”
“That’s me,” Nora said amiably. “You’ll be disarming. As for me, I won’t want to spoil your effect, so I’ll content myself with looking ethereal in white satin, with a long, long veil and a single calla lily.”
Prye sighed and bent down and kissed her.
“No greater love,” he said sadly.