The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1943-02-19
grinly.

"Pitiful little fool!" Fran said in
a whisper. "Of course he's COM
plete rotter. Jud would have killed
him. Old lady know" she asked,
with a jerk of her head in the di-
rection of Mrs. Marshbanks' room.
"Amy just told her."
"Wild?"
II imagine so. I believe she said
that there was a curse on the fam
ily."
81 believe there isl" Fran said
gloomily, staring into space.
They'll never find out who muir
dered Jud. But" she added, ''you
can be pretty sure that the police
are keeping an eye on that pre-
cious Gogo."
"Gogo had a motive" Cherry
said. 'Not only was the judge vio-
lently opposed to Amy's marrying
him, but what he was discussing
that very night with her and with
his mother and with me was-you
knew something about that, Franz"
81 couldn't be in this house with
out knowing something about it. 1t
was some claim that your aunt
understanding she said about
Fred Marshbanks' will? Of course,
that was all long before came into
the family, but Jud did tell me
did tell me about his brother Fred,
and that-you don't mind my men
tioning it?''
'That Fred Marshbanks was my
father? Oh, no. 1 seem to have
known that for long, long time. But
there was more to it than that.
There was a will, drawn up by
Judge Thomas Comstock. Nobody
knew what was in that. But Mrs.
Marshbanks burned it. She wouldn't
risk Amy's being hurt or any of her
money taken away"
$780," Fran said musingly, "Amy
and Gogo had their motives for get
ting rid of Jud, and certainly old
Mrs. Marshbanks had. If you be-
lieve what some old dodo of an Eng
lish judge once said, l had. He
said that between married couples
there might always be motive. I
don't see that you had"
There was pause, then Fran
said suddenly, kelly might have
had a motive"
''Kelly!" Cherry echoed, her voice
suddenly failing. Is"
"Well, if you're searching for mo-
tives. And that wasn't quite what
I meant anyway" Fran said. what
I meant was that Kelly didn't have
an alibi."
"But, Fran-you certainly don't
think-you certainly can't think that
Kelly ;"
'No, I DON'T" Fran interrupted
promptly. 'The police didn't hold
him; just took his statement and let
it 60 at that. You can tell by the
way he acts that Kelly doesn't know
anything about it. And at the same
time-that's what's bothering me-"
she added.
whats bothering your" Cherry
asked apprehensively.
'sOh, it's making me sick! I don't
know whether to tell you or not"
'Tell me WHAT" Cherry managed
to ask, with a sinking heart.
"You might as well know. After
you went out this morning the man
named Mullins asked me to step
into the library. He had fiat little
packet of letters in his hand; he
asked me if I recognized them. l
said yes, certainly. They were the
letters Kelly Coates wrote me last
year. About a dozen of them. Love
letters"
Cherry felt faint.
How'd they get them?"
81 haven't the slightest idea,"
Fran said. 81 hid them two weeks
ago, the day after Jud was killed. I
slipped them into the lining of my
dressing case. It had come loose,
and that morning I complained to
Molly about it, and while she was
right here in the room I pasted it
with glue"
s'What sort of letters are they?"
Cherry asked, with the world gone
suddenly black.
Love letters. Letters that will
look bad if they're given to the news
papers, can tell you that. What
he and could do if we were free,
frantic sort of letters. He said
Mullins said-that they were very
discriminating"
.'But they couldn't suspect Kellyl"
"These letters won't help Kelly"
Fran said dryly. She had finished
the slow business of oils, pastes,
powders, rouge for her face, eye
lashes, brows. a
The ballooning of a negligee dis