The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-05-08
OLD HOME WEEK MURDER
BY Phoebe Atwood Taylor

either. Under the circumstances,
] think you've done a noble task.
Will you finish your swim SOS we
can get back an look into it in a
large way? While you're gettin'
the mud off, I'm goin' to put the
car top up. Our showers just about
hoverin' over Ames's woods at
this point" .~.>
tI'll hurry"
Asey strolled back to the car and
put up the top, just as few tenta-
tive drops of rain fegan to fall.
Kay hurried back and wrapped
herself in a white terrycloth robe.
'That's not bad, really" she
said, shat water, / mean. It's
warm, but the airs getting cold. ]
have feeling that the clambake
is going to be rather soggy. Asey,
how do you get the car out of here?
Can you turn around?"
81 can ease her out" Asey
backed into a thicket. THAT'S the
one trouble with this beast, she
can take a pile of turnin' on these
lanes. The blow comes if someone
d'cides to drive down that little
path as we're comm up it. Some
one, say, like Sammy an his girl
friend" He leaned out to gauge
his distance from a clump OF scrub
oaks. "An' in that case we get
biff on the bumper or some
scratched paint. Ohio. My goodness
gracious! Shan't you die!"
whats wrong now?" Kay asked
as he stopped the car and pulled
on the brake.
Look yonder, will you? There's
food for thought" ea
Dear Miss Fairlawn'
DACK over by the ice house an
- other couple had appeared,
but these two were no tourists.
Not even a light drizzle could dis
guise the chubby figure of ]. Ar
thur Brinley.
With him, wrap over her bath
ing suit, was Madame Meaux.
ITCH, tch," Kay said. "Dear Miss
Fairlawn, always thought my
husband was true to me, but re-
Gently we had a guest staying to
our house, a Blonde Woman from
Another World, and find from my
many warm friends that she was
often seen in my husbands COM
pany, often in dishabille. Dear
Miss Fairlawn, should ] turn a
deaf ear towards this entangle-
ment, or should I bundle the little
weasel into the meat chopper. An
swer soon."
Asey chuckled.
IT wrote answers to a column
like that" Kay said, "for six
months, and for six months the
world seemed populated entirely
with Blonde Women and Tall
Dark Men and Sprightly Widows
and simply fiendish children, all
violently demented. Asey, what IS
your Blonde Woman doing with
that Faithful Husband?"
"ConSiderin' we're some of the
Virtuous Wife's many warm
friends" Asey said, "we'll park
right in this thicket an eavesdrop.
It's a wife's privilege to Know ALI"
They see us. don't they? They
simply must"
"They ought to, bat they amt
looked over this way, an the cars
blind bushes-wonder If we amt
misjudged j.. Arthur, Kay? See
him pursue her behind the ice
house? All the same, I bet on Ma
dame. This is what you might call
a new slant on Brother Brinley."
Madame Meaux strolled to a
little patch of sandy shore, took
off her robe and folded it with
immense deliberation, while ].
Arthur lowered restlessly in the
background. With the same point
ed deliberation, she walked to the
edge Of the water, dabbled q foot
in it, and then walked doggediy
into the pond.
J. Arthur called out something
indistinguishable to her, but she
never turned her head.
He called again, and then
shrugged and walked over to the
ice house and the old loading piles.
81 rather think" Kay said, THAT
]. Arthur has. been forward. Maybe
he's even made advances. Asey, by
heaven-lookl"
Brinley, after picking UP a piece
of broken oar, had walked out to
the end Of the piling and was
prodding around almost exactly
over the spot where Kay had found
the shotgun. @gE n
At think" Asey got out Of the
roadster, that wen 60 chat with
Arthur. II he seen us leavin' he
might feel we was miffed with him.
An ] don't know anyone. I have
kinder thoughts towards than Ar.
thur. I shouldn't want him to think
otherwise"
who" Kay agreed, fare we. TO
stink off like a couple OF ships in
the night?"
Brinley's head jerked up at the
sound of their approach, and he
began nervously to edge back to
shore.
"Hi." Asey's voice was silky.
ooh, hullo. How do you do? Err
how do you do?"
Zine" Asey said. ''Fine." After
all, he thought. ]. Arthur had
asked him twice.
'It looks rather like rain, doesn't
it?" Brinley dropped the broken
oar down on the sand.
'It is raining" Asey said truth
fully.