Black Orchids

I suppose it would have been sensible to appease him, but he was really quite irritating. Tone and look both. So I said, "I came to play tag with Mister," and started for the house, but Janet appeared, cutting across the lawn. She looked prettier than I remembered her, or maybe not so much prettier as more interesting. Her hair was done differently or something. She said hello to me and let me have a hand to shake, and then told Larry:

"Maryella says you'll have to help her with those Corliss bills. Some of them go back before she came, and she doesn't seem to trust my memory."

Larry nodded at her, and, moving, was in front of me. "What do you want?" he demanded.

"Nothing special," I said. "Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom-"

"If you've got a bill, mail it. You'll get about three percent."

I suppressed impulses and shook my head. "No bill. I came to see Miss Nichols."

"Yes you did. You came to snoop-"

But Janet had her hand on his arm. "Please, Larry. Mr. Goodwin phoned and asked to see me. Please?"

I would have preferred smacking him, and it was irritating to see her with her hand on his arm looking up at him the way she did, but when he turned and marched off towards the house I restrained myself and let him go.

I asked Janet, "What's eating him?"

"Well," she said, "after all, you are a detective. And his aunt has died-terrible, it was terrible-"

"Sure. If you want to call that grief. What was the crack about three per cent?"

"Oh…" She hesitated. "But there's nothing secret about it, goodness knows. Miss Huddleston's affairs are tangled up. Everybody thought she was rich, but apparently she spent it as fast as she made it."

"Faster, if the creditors are going to get three percent." I got started towards the terrace, and she came beside me. "In that case, the brother and the nephew are out of luck. I apologize to Larry. He's probably overcome by grief, after all."

"That's a mean thing to say," Janet protested.

"Then I take it back." I waved it away. "Let's talk about something else."

I was thinking the best plan was to sit with her on the terrace, with the idea of getting her to leave me alone there for a few minutes, which was all I needed, but the hot noon sun was coming straight down, and she went on into the house with me behind her. She invited me to sit on a couch with her, but with the tools in my hip pockets I thought it was safer to take a chair facing her. We had a conversation.