“In there in the—” But she wasn’t. The chair was empty. A cold breeze swept through the front door and struck our faces. With the coldness came the words Eleanor had half-whispered to me a few minutes ago.
She had said, “So long, boy.”
Somebody was running across the porch. Trudy Thompson appeared in the open door, her face excited.
“Someone’s coming,” she gasped. “Coming from the barn.”
Over her words came the sound of Thompson’s car starting. The motor revved furiously.
“Where’s Eleanor?” Thompson shouted, running.
“In the car. She said you needed me here. She said—”
Whatever else she said I didn’t find out. Thompson’s wife was nearly bowled over in our concerted rush out the door. Eleanor saw us coming across the porch. The car was moving. She flicked on the lights and gave it a rich burst of gas. The back wheels spun, caught, and the car leaped forward.
Running up from the barn, a gun in his hand, was Swisher. The lights picked him up, reflected on the weapon.
I realized what was going to happen, and was powerless to stop it. I think we all realized it about the same time. Swisher did, too. He saw his own trap closing on him. He hesitated in the glare of lights, suddenly turned and ran.
The damned fool ran towards the lake.
Eleanor whipped the car around in a tight curve, the wheels skidding on the snow. The lights found Swisher again. He stopped running, turned around, raised an arm and threw a shot at the car. Glass tinkled and one headlight went out.
That shot cost him precious time, cost him his life. He might have made it to some kind of safety if he hadn’t stopped. It had been foolish to run towards the lake. There were no trees there to protect him.
Eleanor caught him. Hard.
His breaking body whipped back over the hood of the car, pinned there by the stunning force of the blow. His hands groped desperately for a hold, found none, and fell loosely over the hood as the life force drained from them. Eleanor was at the lake’s edge.
She kept right on going.
The car shot off the bank into the air two or three feet above the ice. It hung there for a tick, suspended in the sky. And then it dropped. Smashing down on the ice, the tires let go with four simultaneous, muffled explosions. The ice cracked and parted.
When we reached the bank only the top of Thompson’s car appeared above the swirling water and broken ice.
Trudy Thompson said numbly, “That girl’s in there.”
I looked down at the roof of the car and whispered, because I didn’t want to be overheard.
“Good-bye, Eleanor.”
Climbing wearily up the stairs to my office, I found a light behind the door marked ELIZABETH SAARI, M.D. I pushed in on her without knocking. Elizabeth Saari glanced up from the desk, saw me, and quickly hung up the telephone she was using. On the floor beside the desk were two stuffed suitcases.
I guess I wasn’t any too pretty to look at.
She demanded, “Where have you been?”
“Why?” I wanted to know.
“Do you know the police are looking for you?”
“The police — what the hell for?”
“The hospital called me when they discovered your absence. I called the police. And I’ve just talked with Mother Hubbard.”
“What has she got to do with it?”
“I wanted to know if you had returned home.”
“Say — how come you know Mother Hubbard?”
She grinned at me in open amusement. “I’ve found out a lot of things about you, Charles Home. Most of it from Mother Hubbard. You see, I’ve learned a few of the principles of detection, too.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
“And now, where have you been? You look a sight.”
“To put it brutally, I’ve been helping to haul a car and a couple of bodies out of the lake.”
Her eyes widened. She waited a moment and then asked, “A couple of bodies?”
“A man named Swisher and a girl I know only as Eleanor. Do they mean anything to you?”
“Eleanor? You said Eleanor was—”
“Leonore’s sister,” I supplied. “Another Chinese doll.”
“Then... you’ve... caught up with them?”
I nodded. “Don Thompson, Doc Burbee and myself wound things up a few hours ago. All but the small fry who’ll be arrested whenever and wherever they turn up.” I paused. “And, of course, with the exception of the remaining silent partner.”
“And that will be...?”
“That will be the party who has never openly become involved in the case,” I said flatly. “The presumably unknown, silent partner who stayed behind the scenes, managed operations and issued the orders through either Swisher or Ashley, and most important, arranged for the protection with the right sources. Protection in exchange for guaranteed elections.”
She asked thoughtfully, slowly, “You said ‘presumably unknown, silent partner.’ That implies that you and Thompson know this person’s identity?”
“
My phone began to ring across the hall. I remained in her doorway, watching her.
She said impatiently, “That’s your phone.”
“I know it.”
“Aren’t you going to answer it?”
“No. Not now.”
“But... why not?”
“Because I know who it is and what he wants.”
“O...h?”
