Deadly Hall Page 6

  “Ah, our own man of mystery! Yes, I’ve seen him. Well? What happened?”

  “Nothing actually happened, in the way of definite action.”

  “If you ask me—” began Kate, who again wore white.

  “If you ask me, woman,” Dave interrupted, “he had his eye on me and not you, though that’s an odd one for anybody’s book. When we slowed down,” Dave continued, turning again to Jeff, “old mystery man slowed down and didn’t overtake. All of a sudden we did an about-face and marched in the other direction. Then, after a little while to make it less obvious, so did he.”

  They stood well forward near the texas lounge, whose windows formed a three-sided wall with deck-chairs ranged underneath. Dave turned his back to the lounge.

  “Maybe I’m a bit jumpy this morning. But, when mystery man had been on our trail for what seemed like half an hour, it was getting me down. I stopped; I went straight up to him and said, very politely, ‘Anything I can do for you?’ He just said he’d been taking a constitutional, and drifted into the lounge there.”

  Glancing through the nearest window, Jeff could see three sides of an oblong mahogany counter dispensing soft drinks and soda water either as drinks in themselves or to mix with alcohol provided by passengers. One heavy moustache could also be discerned.

  “Dave, you poor boy!” Kate cried in sympathy. “If only you’d do what I want you to do … !”

  “Whenever I do what you want me to do, pet, it leaves me in worse shape than I am now. Seriously, though,” Dave addressed them both, “it’s not an easy situation to deal with, you’ll admit. There’s nothing I can complain about or bawl him out for; the pursuing phantom’s got as much right here as we have. It’s this spooky feeling of being watched or spied on, that’s all! And it can’t go on all day, or I’ll see Captain Josh and have some steps taken. Meanwhile …”

  “We haven’t done ten rounds of the deck, you know,” Kate reminded him. “Shall we go on walking, all three of us?”

  “No, thanks; I’ve had enough. Meanwhile, as I was saying, the boat won’t stop here for long. In what ought to be a very short time—” Dave broke off, galvanized. “Yes, of course! Jeff, what time is it?”

  Automatically Jeff thrust out his left wrist before remembering.

  “Watch!” he said. “I left my watch on that ledge beside the shower; I’d better run up and get it before it disappears. No, don’t trouble yourselves to follow; back in just one moment.”

  At least, he hoped as he hastened towards the open stairs aft, he had silenced Chuck Saylor for as long as the letter’s assurances should last. It might prove no great respite. Mr. Saylor, irrepressible, would return inevitably to the image of the killer staircase he had conjured up. Killer staircase? What poisonous nonsense!’

  ‘There’s been one staircase in my life,’ Jeff told himself. ‘I don’t want something lethal, in addition to that idiotic business thirteen years ago.’

  Idiotic, yes. As he thought of Penny Lynn, so shapely and yet so angry at the St. Charles Hotel, he knew he should have dismissed that incident from his mind long before he had done so. Youth’s inexperience and youth’s self-consciousness, encountering unforeseeable if ridiculous accident, had made them both behave as youth will.

  But it was all past and done with; it could become almost a tender memory touched with nostalgia. When he reached New Orleans, he need not even try to avoid Penny. The combination of circumstances which so embarrassed her must be unique among all mishaps; it was unique; it could never recur.

  In this frame of mind, intent only on recovering his wrist-watch, Jeff ran up to his room, opened the door, and closed it behind him. The little cubicle which housed toilet and shower had been built in the far corner of the left-hand wall, between that wall and the partition separating Room 340 from Room 339 on the other side of the sun deck. He need not even switch on the light in the cubicle; enough sun entered through both windows.

  He dashed into that confined space, reaching out for the ledge with his watch and glancing into the shower-stall on his right, just as someone turned on the shower. He saw a bathing cap of yellow rubber, he saw vivid gray-blue eyes, and he saw female flesh. He saw this one split second before her sudden gasp became a cry, before the shower curtain was yanked shut and the water turned off.

  Jeff retreated in haste, shutting the bathroom door. It had been a shock, but he must not let it throw him. He leaned towards the closed door.

  “This time, Penny,” he called, “not even your parents could say I’m guilty. It makes quite a change, doesn’t it?”

  5

  PENNY HESITATED LONG before replying. When she raised her soft voice, it was with less of stunned outrage than he had been expecting, but with a tendency to stammer.

  “You—you didn’t know I was here? Can’t you see that chair near one of the beds?”

  Over the back of the straight chair she meant hung a light-brown cloth jacket, a skirt of the same material, an orange-colored cashmere sweater, and a white silk slip. The chair’s seat carried folded tan stockings and a pair of garters, with tan shoes underneath. On the nearby bed a very small soft-leather travelling bag had been opened to show further feminine apparel. Jeff addressed the door.

  “There wasn’t time to notice anything, Penny. May I offer one suggestion, though? If you must take a shower in someone else’s quarters, you might latch the bathroom door or at least close the shower curtain.”

  “Someone else’s—” Stupefaction momentarily choked her. “But it’s my room! I’m to share it with Serena!”

  “Did Serena tell you so?”

  “I haven’t s-seen her! I thought she’d m-meet me, but I haven’t even s-seen her! She phoned long-distance when I was in Louisville …”

  “In Louisville?”

  “It’s my home town; I was born here! Don’t you know that?”

  “I knew your family came to New Orleans from Kentucky, not where in Kentucky. What did Serena tell you, then?”

  “She hadn’t made the reservation when she phoned. But she said it’d be the large stateroom at the stern of the sun deck, something about a ‘back porch.’ It’s ex-expensive, she said, and never t-taken at this t-time of year!”

  “There are two staterooms at the stern of the sun deck, opening on opposite sides. There’s this one, 340, which is mine …”

  “You—you …”

  “Do you doubt it’s my room? On the ledge outside the shower you’ll see my watch, which I charged in to get. If Serena’s been occupying 339, on the other side of the partition, she hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

  “And they told me this was her room! An officer in uniform told me. I—I wondered why they hadn’t brought up my big suitcase; I was carrying the little bag myself. It may even b-be your room, but … !”

  “Once more I apologize, Penny, for what couldn’t have been helped. Do you want to finish taking your shower?”

  “No; I—I couldn’t! I’ve been in enough hot water already, for one cause or another. Honestly, Jeff … !”

  “Then I’ll clear out and let you dress in peace.”

  Retreating to the open deck, carefully closing the outer door, he came face to face with Serena Hobart as she rounded the back of the deck from the one-whistle side. The fair-haired girl showed concern, but also a certain self-satisfaction.

  “Serena—”

  “I know, Jeff. I was on my way here in any case; the windows are open; I know what happened this time. And I must say …”

  “Whatever you say, Serena, kindly don’t tell me I stripped her clothes off and threw her under the shower. Isn’t it time we ended this fable about my passion for undressing Penny on every possible occasion?”

  Up went Serena’s eyebrows.

  “I had no intention of making any such remark. When I say I know what happened, I mean I can tell you exactly what happened and how it happened.”

  “Then you might tell me.”

  “Very well. I meant to meet Penny when she came
on board. But I was in the purser’s office with Mr. Learoyd, the purser, asking questions about that man with the moustache; and it took longer than anybody would have expected.”

  Serena shook her head, musing.

  “Really! For a person born in Louisville, brought up both here and in New Orleans, Penny knows less about the river than you do. She knows nothing, absolutely nothing!”

  “Well?”

  “When she did come aboard, instead of making reasonable inquiries at the purser’s office on the cabin deck, the poor dear girl wandered down to the main deck again. Ernie Aspern, Mr. Learoyd’s assistant, was sent down on some errand. Penny met him in the hall between the Plantation Room and the Old South Lounge, and said, ‘Miss Serena Hobart?’ Ernie, who’d seen her on the cabin deck only a few moments before—Penny does take a man’s eye, as you’re aware—just made a gesture and answered, ‘Up there, miss.’ He meant the purser’s office, where I actually was. Since they were standing in the hall on this side forward, and she knew my room would be on the back porch at the top. Penny thought that’s what he meant.

  “But would she ask anybody to show her or conduct her? Oh, no! She must find it for herself.

  “Ernie came back up to the office, and told us a young lady had been looking for me. That’s where I began to see what must be happening. I asked about her luggage. Ernie said she hadn’t been carrying anything except a tiny little bag that might have been a visitor’s. But I’ve known Penny well for some time. I knew she’d have taken her big suitcase, which is marked P.L., when she went to visit her grandparents. So I told them to have a porter find that suitcase, wherever it was, and hoick it up to 339 in a hurry. I also started to wonder.”

  “About a possible mistake?”

  “Naturally; what else? I’d gotten Room 339, the one I wanted. Still, I thought I’d better come up. But I’m no prophetess or crystal-gazer. Until I heard you two talking in there, I couldn’t have guessed in what state she’d be when you walked in on her.—In heaven’s name, Jeff, what’s the matter? Have you taken leave of your senses?”

  It may have been loss of dignity; it may have been near-loss of her balance. Unceremoniously he had seized Serena’s wrist and yanked her some distance away along the deck.

  “If you could hear Penny and me in there,” he said, “she can just as well hear us now. There’s no need to let on you’ve learned everything!”

  “You were both shouting, you know; you were positively shouting. I have been speaking in a low, self-restrained tone hardly above a whisper; she can’t have heard, and I won’t tell her later. My dear, good idiot, exercise your own self-restraint! Nobody really thinks you’re a wandering rapist on the prowl. Besides,”—and sudden, unexpected sympathy warmed Serena’s manner—”she can’t have been so very dreadfully upset, now can she?”

  “Since I lose whichever way I answer that question, I’ll take a tip from you and avoid answering. Have they found the missing suitcase?”

  “Yes; it’s in my room now. As for the sinister character with the moustache …”

  “Learned anything?”

  “If it’s about old mystery man,” interposed Dave Hobart, bounding up the steps from the deck below and joining them, “I want to be in on this too. Well, Serena?”

  “I can tell you his name, which is Minnoch, and his destination: New Orleans. He’s travelling with another man called Bull, also for New Orleans. That’s all anybody can say about either of them. Mr. Learoyd never saw or heard of Minnoch before this trip. Even Captain Josh, who usually knows everybody, can supply no information whatever.”

  “But—!” protested Dave.

  “On the river, after all, you don’t have to show a passport or establish your identity; it’s enough to pay the fare. Mr. Learoyd thinks Minnoch is just a businessman and a busybody. Whatever his game may be, it needn’t trouble any of us. He may be a bore and a nuisance; he’s scarcely very menacing.”

  “Why not, little sister?”

  “My poor Dave, the lout’s so obvious! He couldn’t have shown less subtlety if he’d used a battering-ram or thrown a custard pie.”

  “Who were you expecting, Dr. Fu Manchu? He won’t have to pour poisonous spiders through the window before he gets on my own nerves. It’ll be a fine state of affairs, won’t it, if I can’t even make a pass at Kate without finding old mystery man in the wardrobe?”

  “Is that what happened, Dave? Were you and Kate—?”

  “No, and I’m not going to! I was only saying, for the sake of argument …”

  At this point Penny Lynn, entirely self-possessed in the brown-and-orange outfit Jeff had already seen, opened the door of Room 340 and smiled at them.

  “Hello, Serena! Hello, Dave! Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  Dave pantomimed astonishment.

  “Hel-lo to you, Penny; and at least the sun’s shining.” He looked at Serena. “Is this the one with the place reserved at your table? Yes, I see it is. You didn’t tell me Penny would be honoring us, Serena.”

  “No, Dave, and I didn’t tell Jeff either. I thought it would be a pleasant surprise for you both.”

  “It has produced some surprises, hasn’t it?” smiled Penny. “But, before we all go downstairs or whatever we do, may I please have a word aside with Jeff?”

  If for the moment he felt a certain reluctance about approaching her, Penny herself showed no reluctance. She had never seemed so alluring as when he met her again that morning after almost thirteen years. She retreated before him into the room, sweater and skirt defining her figure, gray-blue eyes raised, and he followed.

  “You’ll close the door, won’t you, Jeff?”

  He closed it.

  “I hope you don’t think, Penny, I’m going to refer to …”

  “Well, I’m going to refer to it. You don’t imagine I’m angry, do you? When I got over the surprise of seeing you, which may have taken all of two minutes, I knew I wasn’t angry in the least. I was glad.”

  “Glad?”

  Penny shook back her soft golden-brown hair, worn in a long bob that caught the light from the windows.

  “Because I know now what I should have known all along. Those other times, when I lost my dress or when I lost my dress and part of my underwear too, weren’t your idea of a huge joke, as some said. That was what I couldn’t bear: to have you think it was funny. And you never did think so, did you? Are you angry with me?”

  “No, of course not; why should I be?”

  “For acting like the silly, bad-tempered little beast I must have seemed! When I think of the outrageous things I said and did or was made to do … !”

  “Incidentally, Penny, how are your mother and father?”

  “Subdued these days; very subdued. They don’t rule my life as though they were keeping a very strict boarding-school; I’m glad to say they don’t even try. Those past events I distorted so much were simply accidents that pursued us then and are still pursuing. If I could just make you understand how much I’ve thought about it, how often I’ve thought about it … !”

  Penny clasped her hands together. Suddenly tears glimmered on dark lashes that accentuated the gray-blue eyes and luminous whites. He had to restrain an almost overpowering impulse to take her in his arms.

  “Sorry!” said Penny, moving back. “It’s only my equally silly way of showing I’m happy. But I mustn’t start blubbering on your shoulder, must I? Or those people out there might hear me and misunderstand.”

  “You’re certainly unpredictable, young lady. Never mind! Choose your mood or change it; weep, laugh, or whatever pleases you. It’s sufficient for me just to be with you again.”

  “Do you really mean that?”

  “You know I mean it, don’t you?”

  “Well, I—I hoped you might. Your life, at least, has been a success through your own efforts. You chose the course you wanted; you wouldn’t be put off or diverted by too much ‘sensible’ advice; and you’ve become the distinguished author you always wanted to be.
”

  “I’m not very distinguished, Penny. But I may make a living from it if I stay on the job.”

  “Hasn’t the work itself been a great satisfaction? All those books have been good, Jeff; two or three of them are awfully good.”

  “Romantic foolery, for the most part!”

  “What’s wrong with romantic foolery, if it’s well done or realistic of its own kind?” Penny raised her eyes. “In The Inn of the Seven Swords, for instance, I’ve never forgotten that fight on the battlements of Falworth Moat House. And the love scene with Lady Phillida in the garden might have been in the garden behind Delys Hall. Speaking of Delys Hall …”

  He did not tell her that the character of Lady Phillida Falworth had been suggested by Penny Lynn. Penny wandered over to the deck window and peered out.

  “They’ve gone!” she reported, turning back. “Both Serena and Dave have gone. Speaking of Delys Hall, I was saying, would it seem too out of place if my up-in-the-sky mood contained a touch of depression or gloom?”

  “Gloom?”

  “I’m worried,” confessed Penny. “I’m worried about Serena because Serena herself is so worried and distraught that sometimes she hardly knows where she is or what she’s doing.”

  “Does anything ever worry Serena?”

  “Don’t be misled by that manner of hers! She puts on a great show; she always has. Underneath the la-di-da it’s different.”

  “Well, what would worry her?”

  “I don’t know, though I might make a guess. She hasn’t confided in me, please understand! Serena wouldn’t confide in anybody about something that really mattered to her, and I couldn’t even mention it if she had. But—”

  “But what?”

  “She does talk to me a little more than she does to other people. In things that concern her own affairs, of course, Serena’s so reticent that …”

  “Serena—and Dave too, under his own show—are not only reticent about things that concern their own affairs. They’re equally and mysteriously close-mouthed about what doesn’t concern ’em at all, but affects somebody else.”