The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-09-07

it I hesitated, wondering If he
would think / was forcing my way
into matters that did not concern
me. But the other cara police
car from the neighboring town
decided me. had to see Julia.
Sulky black Cora answered the
doorbell and grudgingly admitted
me. She would see if Miss Julia
was home. She went upstairs
muttering about morning callers
and Sunday dinners. / waited in
the hall, hearing mems voices in
distinctly beyond a closed door
and trying. with a horrible sense
Of guilt. not to know that some
thing was scorchins in the
kitchen.
Cora must have gone down the
back Substantially, no doubt
for | did not see her again. In
stead, Julia came to the landing
in tailored satin robe the shade
of red peony and beekoned me
with gestures warning silence.
We'll go to my ROOM" she
whispered as / reached her, and
led me, feathered mules hurrying
along the oriental runner, to a
room at the end of the hali-a
neat room of Quaker simplicity,
furnished in early American ma
pie, with two brown hooked rugs
on the floor, a white candlewick
spread on the poster bed, tailored
yellow curtains It the windows
and two framed photographs on
the plain, cream-colored walls.
The pictured woman must have
been Julia'S mother-a woman in
wartime fashions "a woman of
that same strange. salty ugliness
but with a light of great happi-
ness in her eyes stach as I had not
seen in Julia's.
The other picture was of jeff,
in cadet uniform. And his eyes,
too, surprised me. Though it must
have been taken no more than
two or three years before, he
looked much younger, much more
trusting. I thought of dog who
had lost a good home and found
that the world is not all cracked
marrow bones and an easy chair
by the fire.
DriftWoOd
JULIA said, in a voice pitched
- very low, "You haven't told
anyone what we saw on the
barge?"
"Of course not. That's what l
came to warn you about. f.. How
do they know it was murder?"
She motioned me to a low
slipper chair and, dropping down
on rug at my feet, leaned back
against a pine chest.
Il listened at the landing be-
fore they shut the library door.
When they moved him-the body
there was a stick of driftwood
under it. The tick was still
pretty dry, especially the part
he was lying on And there was
blood and hair OF it from a
wound on the back of his head"
$50 they think someone hit him
over the head and pushed him in?
| don't see why he couldn't have
fallen IN and struck his head on
the stick-it may have already
been in the water"
mo, because it wasn't wet
enough, or something. I don't
know just how they know, but
they do; it was murder, all right"
We stared at each other, and
| saw dread in her eyes.
II wonder if Sandra knows
that" / said, thinking out loud.
asleep"
"You mean to say you haven't
missed her?"
Julia looked shocked, so I told
her of Sandra's early call, of her
interview with jeff. and of the
construction Gerald had put upon
it.
Julia's face was flushed when I
finished.
"She can't do that to him." she
said angrily. 'T'll tell her she
] felt bound to point out to her
something which had Just oc-
CURED to me-belatedlv.
There's a chance she may be
right. Maybe she does know
something she'd rather not be
forced to tell. About jeff"
That's the same as saying you /
think he murdered that - that !
screwball." Julia retorted with
heat. "It's what everyone will
think. I'll talk to her-I'r show
her what she's doing to him" She /
paused, looked suddenly tired. 81 !
suppose they'll both think I'm
jealous" she added bitterly.
Where is Sandra?"
In church, told her. She stood
up and dropped the cerise robe
at her feet and stood. high
breasted and proud in a belted
white georgette gown. For a
moment she might have posed for
a Red Cross poster. or something
equally noble and self-sacrificing.
Then wry grin twisted her face.
albright" she said. 81 am
jealous. So what? Let them think
what they please. People aren't
going TO have a chance to say
things like that about jeff if !
can help it"
She swirled the gown over her
head and dropped it to the floor
with an expression of defiant di5-
dain.
I watched her dress and told
her that il wasn't any use, that !
had tried, that no appeal on be-
half of jeff would move Sandra
because it was Ivan she had loved:
but Julia dismissed that with a