Who's Sorry Now? Read online

  “Good advice," Lily said.

  “What's that smell?" Jim said, looking at Lily as he stood beside her.

  “Me," Lily said. "Or rather my dog. She rolled in some dead creature and I just bathed her, but I haven't washed the stench off myself yet.”

  Harry said, "Jim, quit embarrassing Miss Brewster and help me with digging out around these stumps, tying a chain around them so we can haul them to the dump.”

  Lily and Robert stood back to watch as the first stump was jerked out of the ground.

  “Oh, how horrible!" she exclaimed as the big root ball was dragged a few feet away. "That's the skeleton of someone's hand sticking out of the roots." She sat down on the ground, breathing hard to keep from fainting.

  Chief Walker was there in fifteen minutes. He'd looked at the hand and told the Harbinger boys to find a tarp to cover the hole. "Nobody touch anything. I'm going to call for some experts.”

  Chief Walker was lucky. He found two experts that were attending a professional meeting in Fishkill. There was a pathologist from Albany and an anthropologist from New York City with a bag of tools he'd been using to demonstrate techniques of detailed, careful investigation.

  On Tuesday they were both at Grace and Favor. The pathologist, a Dr. Meredith, was all for simply digging up the rest of the bones as quickly as possible so he could examine them. The anthropologist disagreed. "Haste in such a case is wrong. He or she has been here a long time. There is no hurry and valuable hints might be lost.”

  He introduced himself as Dr. Sam Toller and set about getting out his equipment from a bag he'd brought along. He was a long-limbed, sandy-haired man in his late thirties. He had a perpetual smile.

  The hole wasn't terribly deep and he and the Harbinger boys got flat on their stomachs with tiny trowels and small brushes he'd brought in the bag. "It's a good thing this is loose soil. It won't take long. All I need is the skull and pelvis to determine the age and sex of the victim.”

  Chief Walker was assigned to sit behind them with an assortment of paper bags in a variety of sizes. Robert went inside, fearing what nasty things might be revealed, but Lily stayed back, fascinated once she'd gotten over the shock. It was tedious work as the expert and the Harbingers kept delicately scooping away soil. Lily was assigned to sift the dirt in a set of sieves. First with large holes, then smaller ones, and then very fine ones. She was the first to notice the beads.

  “Get someone to bring a big pot of warm water, would you, miss?" Dr. Toller said with excitement.

  Dr. Meredith was impatient, but had found a bench not far away to sit and read a textbook he'd had in his automobile.

  Robert was quick to return with a pot. The beads were swished gently and then the water was poured back out through the finest sieve. The beads turned out to be rather pretty balls about the size of a child's fingernail. They were various shades of brown, green, dark red, orange, and yellow, and had holes through them. "Whatever they were strung on at one time has been dissolved. They've been fired to make them this hard and durable," Dr. Toller said. "We'll keep sieving them.”

  The next discovery was a bit of leather about the size of a postage stamp. Toller said, "Probably deerskin that's been heavily oiled or beeswaxed. Otherwise it would have rotted.”

  Are we talking about an Indian?" Chief Walker asked.

  “Most likely. If it had been a white hunter, there probably wouldn't be the beads," Dr. Toller said. "We're progressing well. But I imagine everybody's hungry. At least I am."

  “If Mrs. Prinney were here she'd make us lunch," Lily said.

  “Let's just pack up and go to town to Mabel's," Chief Walker said.

  Everybody went along, Chief Walker with the pathologist and the anthropologist in his police car. Robert, Lily, and the Harbinger boys in the Duesie. They discussed what had already been found with various levels of interest. Lily and Harry were the most enthusiastic about what they might learn about the skeleton. Jim was a bit bored with the chore of sifting and brushing around dirt when there were other things he and his brother needed to do for other customers.

  Robert didn't want to see the rest of the bones. "Bones and bagworms all in one day," he said with a shudder. "It's too much to bear.”

  Lily said, "You've always been afraid of things in nature. Remember the day we first came here and you admitted that you were afraid of trees?"

  “I never said that," Robert claimed.

  “Yes, you did," Lily said, laughing and gently poking her elbow into his ribs.

  Since Lily was right, he didn't pursue the conversation.

  CHAPTER SIX

  REFRESHED BY A HEARTY LUNCH, the anthropologist, Dr. Toller, was eager to unearth the rest of the skeleton. "I can see the front and top of the skull now and it's a young person," he said, addressing his remarks to Lily because she seemed the most interested. After delivering the pathologist and anthropologist, Chief Walker had left to investigate a house that had been broken into.

  “How can you tell?" Lily asked Dr. Toller.

  “By the way the various parts of skull come together. They don't entirely knit together until a person is close to eighteen or twenty. I'd guess the subject was perhaps early teens. Possibly as young as fifteen or even younger."

  “You can't tell anything else from the skull?”

  “Yes, the teeth indicate it's an American Indian."

  “They have different teeth?"

  “Yes, the front ones are 'shoveled.' That means that they—" He thought for a moment how to describe it to a stranger. "The calcium they're made of goes around the sides and they are a bit concave at the back. Sort of like a little shovel."

  “That's fascinating. I'd have never guessed front teeth weren't always the same," Lily responded.

  He nearly preened. It wasn't often that an attractive young woman found his information interesting. He'd never had a young woman sign up for his classes, and most of the young men who took the class did so because they thought it would be easy to get a good grade. He'd only had two young men, on average, each year, who seemed genuinely interested in the subject that fascinated him.

  “What's more," he went on, knowing he was showing off, "the molars, as far as I can see before the skull is totally released from the soil where it is resting, aren't worn down at all.”

  And what does that mean?"

  “Most of the tribes in this part of the country ate a lot of corn, ground to powder between two stones. Some of the stone dust gets into it. It gradually files down the molars. But let's get back to work. I'll try to get the entire skull out. And Harry and Jim, you can get on with pulling the other stump out. But go easy, if you can. We don't want to destroy any evidence.”

  The Harbinger brothers soon eased the stump out of its hole with the chain and the truck. Dr. Toller looked over the bottom of the ball of roots and said, "There don't seem to be any bones attached to this one. But just put it aside. I want to look more carefully at it later.”

  He stared into the hole, obviously anxious to see what they'd find under the dirt. But he doggedly went back to unearthing the skull.

  Harry thought this was interesting, but even he was becoming a bit annoyed at how long it was taking. He'd expected to be finished with this easy job in one morning and then get back to other higher-paying jobs. They had two people right now waiting for Harry and Jim—one with a sagging, dangerous porch, and another customer with a leaking roof.

  When Emmaline Prinney arrived, flushed with victory, the bake sale having made a record amount of money, she was slightly alarmed by all the people in front of Grace and Favor, most of them looking at two holes. One of the two people she didn't recognize was on his stomach doing something in the hole.

  As she watched, he pulled up a big ball of dirt, washed it off in a bucket, and brought out a dirty skull.

  She joined the group and touched Lily's arm. "What in the world is going on here?"

  “The Harbinger boys pulled up a stump of a bush yesterday, and there was a
skeletal hand sticking out of the roots. Didn't anyone tell you?"

  “No. I guess I was in the kitchen baking all day. Why didn't anyone mention it over dinner?"

  “I don't know," Lily apologized. "I guess we were all just too hungry to mention it."

  “I'll need to go back to town to get things to make late-afternoon sandwiches for this crowd," Mrs. Prinney said, not sounding the least put out. She always loved to feed a crowd.

  Dr. Toller was happily examining the skull. "No damage. He or she wasn't struck on the head." Then he started carefully removing the rib cage and the upper part of the spine. Washing them off, setting them down in order on a paper bag. He said to Lily, "They have to dry before I can number them for bagging.”

  Lily was once again struck by how very cheerful he was about this. But the day was turning dark and a cold breeze had sprung up so she went inside for a while. Watching a rib cage dry wasn't really all that interesting.

  Mrs. Prinney wasn't the only resident of Grace and Favor who had an obsession. Hers was cooking, but Mimi's great love was cleaning. Even as a child of seven, her late mother had cleaned for Mr. Horatio's aunt Flora and sometimes let Mimi come along. When Flora Brewster died, and left the house to Mr. Horatio, he kept Mimi and her mother on. After Horatio died, Mimi's mother had passed on, and the new Brewster brother and sister moved in. By then, she'd loved cleaning. She'd cover most of her curly platinum blond hair in a bright kerchief and she always wore an apron when she worked.

  When Mrs. Prinney asked Mimi to tidy up the big room at the far end of the second floor for the pathologist and the anthropologist, she added, "Then take away their clothes and brush them out. They're both muddy and may not have brought along a change of attire.”

  Naturally Mimi didn't need to clean the rooms. She dusted and shook out the rugs almost every day anyway. And she couldn't clean their clothes until they changed what they were wearing.

  Mrs. Prinney naturally provided the late-afternoon snack and invited the two strangers to join them for dinner and stay the night.

  “Harry and Jim," she added, "you two are welcome to stay for dinner as well."

  “Thank you, Mrs. Prinney, but Mom has planned a roast for dinner," Harry said.

  “Thank you, too," his brother Jim whispered when they were alone for a few minutes. "I'm sick of this job and these scientifIc fellows."

  “I think it's interesting. But I don't want to be roped into more work today. Nor tomorrow for that matter. We have other jobs we promised to do and they expect us to show up when we said we would.”

  After dinner, Robert quietly alerted Mr. Prinney and Lily that he wanted a private meeting with them. Mr. Prinney didn't ask why, but his curiosity was clear.

  Mrs. Prinney and Mimi were tending to the two guests, both of whom had a change of clothes so Mimi could just brush up and press the things they'd worn all day; Chief Walker had gone to his office in town to clear up some paperwork; Mrs. Tarkington had retired early to read a book; and Phoebe was in her own room turning up a hem for one of her best customers. Mrs. Prinney was already preparing a dessert for the next day.

  Lily and Robert could count on getting Mr. Prinneyto themselves, where in the library the threesome would not be disturbed.

  But just in case, Robert suggested that Mr. Prinney lock the door from the inside for a short time.

  “Why is that?" the attorney asked.

  “You'll see in a moment," Robert said.

  Robert had gone in earlier in the day, again picking the lock where the books he'd discovered yesterday filled with money—were. He'd shut the glass door, but had done so carefully so that the lock didn't engage. He signaled to Mr. Prinney to come close and opened the door.

  “You found a key?" Mr. Prinney exclaimed.

  “Not exactly. I found another way to open it. I want you to look at two of these books. He selected the two that he and Lily had examined and put them on the big table in the middle of the room. "Open them, please."

  “Good heavens! I--I hardly know what to say. I always believed these were all real books," Mr. Prinney said.

  “Maybe the rest of them are," Lily said.

  Mr. Prinney closed both books. "Did you count the money in these?"

  “We didn't have time," Robert said.

  Mr. Prinney moved to one of the comfortable chairs by the French doors to the balcony outside. He sat silently for a long time, and both siblings kept a good eye on him, wondering what he was thinking.

  Finally Mr. Prinney tented his fingers and said, "I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed."

  “What is there to be disappointed about?"

  “Your great-uncle didn't live here very long between his Aunt Flora's death and his own, but as soon as he moved to Voorburg, he put all his financial matters in my hands. Then later, he had me write his will. I thought I knew about all his assets, but he never mentioned the money in the fake books. I knew he'd sold all his stock early in 1929. That was when he bought the then-fertile farms in the Midwest, and the extensive properties near Los Angeles. Later he mentioned that he should have waited until later because the stock market hit its all-time high a month or two before the Crash. I suspect now that he did hold on to some of it until then and took the money in cash.”

  Lily said, "It would naturally make you sad to know that, if that's the case, he didn't confide in you at the time."

  “Well, now it's neither here nor there," Mr. Prinney said rather prissily. "What we need to do is take a tally of what's here." He paused for a moment and frowned. "Robert, a few minutes ago you told me you hadn't found the key. How did you manage to open the glass door?”

  Robert had the good grace to look embarrassed. "That day I went to New York, remember?"

  “Yes, I made a note of it, per your great-uncle's will.”

  “I was shopping for Lily's birthday and met up with a guy on a street next to Central Park who sold me a set of lock picks and a badly written set of instructions.”

  “You picked the lock?"

  “Yes," Robert admitted. "Everyone who lives here has commented at one time or another wondering why the bookcases are locked, and there is no sign of a key."

  “What do we do now?" Lily asked. "Is it our money? It apparently isn't mentioned in the will. Does that mean we can't use it until we serve our full ten years of providing for ourselves?"

  “It's a tricky question, isn't it?" Mr. Prinney agreed. "The intention of his will is that you have to earn your own living for ten years. However, whatever money is here wasn't accounted for. I'll have to think this out carefully. But first, we need a complete account of how much cash is here."

  “How are we going to explain this to the rest of the residents? We need to lock them out," Lily said in her usual practical manner.

  Robert said, "Couldn't we just say that the library is out of bounds until some important estate business is completed?"

  “We could," Lily said, "but this seems to be everybody's favorite room in which to sit and smoke, read, play cards, listen to the radio, or have a drink. Besides, Mimi would go haywire if she couldn't dust and polish in here every day."

  “How's this?" Robert suggested. "We let Mimi come in to clean first thing in the morning, then we lock it up for a couple of hours a day. Lily makes a detailed account of how much was in every book. After she's done, we put the books back. Then Mr. Prinney locks the records up in the safe at his office. We just keep adding to the records.”

  Lily gawked. "Robert, that's brilliant. I applaud you for this idea. Frankly, I wouldn't want to spend whole days counting money. Much as I like cash.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  DR. MEREDITH, the pathologist, had packed up and left early that Wednesday morning, saying to Lily as he saw her come down the stairs, "Dr. Toller isn't going to release that skeleton until he's through with it." He clearly disapproved of this behavior. "I could see him last night from my bedroom window. He was crouched over the hole where the second bush was with a lantern, d
igging around. I do appreciate your letting me stay overnight, and have thanked Mrs. Prinney for putting me up and feeding me, and left a tip for the maid. I wish I had time to stay and thank everyone."

  “No thanks are required, Dr. Meredith. Mrs. Prinney loves to cook, and the maid loves to clean. It was nice to meet you. Have a good trip home.”

  As the residents assembled for breakfast, Mr. Prinney announced that the library would be closed and locked for several days from eight in the morning until eleven. It would be open for Mimi to clean or anyone to visit until one in the afternoon. It would be locked again at that time and be free to use by four-thirty. He emphasized that he, Robert, and Lily had important information to go over regarding the estate. It wouldn't interest or influence anyone else who lived at Grace and Favor.

  Everyone was naturally curious. Emmaline Prinney took her husband aside in his home office and asked, "The estate isn't in financial trouble, is it?"

  “Don't worry. Quite the opposite is true. But I can't tell you more," he assured her.

  When Chief Walker, Mrs. Tarkington, and Phoebe Twinkle left for work, Mr. Prinney joined Robert and Lily in the library, saying, "Robert, get your lock picks and open this first door again. Lily, would you use the fresh ledger I put on the big table to take down what Robert and I count and name the book the cash came from?"

  “I'd be glad to be the one sitting down comfortably," Lily said with a sigh. "My back hurts a bit from bending down yesterday to wash off all those beads.”

  Robert already had the hang of the lock picks, and they got started.

  After the third book in the row, which contained well-used one-dollar bills, Elgin Prinney took down the fourth one, and it was half full of fifty-dollar bills. There was, to his surprise, a sheet of paper in Horatio Brewster's handwriting on top of the fake book.

  “Hmm," Mr. Prinney said. "It was as I suspected. He did leave money in the market until it reached its last peak and demanded cash for what remained. But there's more.”