Jane Carter Investigates: Episode Sixty
Shep started off across the
velvety green lawn toward the arbor where the service was to be held. I
followed reluctantly. I watched Shep take several pictures before a servant
approached him.
“I beg your pardon,” the man
said, “but Mrs. Furstenberg gave orders no pictures were to be taken. If you
are from one of the papers—”
“Oh, I saw her in the house just
a minute ago,” Shep replied.
“Sorry, sir,” the servant
apologized, retreating.
Shep finished taking the pictures
and slipped the miniature camera back into his pocket.
“Now let’s amble down toward the
river and wait,” he said. “We’ll blossom forth just as the ceremony starts.
Mrs. Furstenberg won’t dare interrupt it to have us thrown off the grounds.”
We walked down a sloping path,
past a glass-enclosed hothouse, and on toward a grove of giant oak and maple
trees.
“It’s pleasant here when you’re
away from the crowd,” I said as we strolled along under a light shower of
falling leaves. “I wonder where this path leads?”
“Oh, down to the river, probably.
With water on three sides of us, that’s a fairly safe guess.”
“Which rivers flow past the
estate, Shep?”
“The Big Bear and the Grassy.”
“The same Grassy River which is
near Greenville? I’ll always think of it as a river of adventure.”
“Because of Mud Cat Joe and his
vanishing houseboat?”
“So much happened on the Grassy,
Shep. Remember that big party Dad and I threw at Old Mansion?”
“That’s not a party I’ll soon
forget,” said Shep. “Not after Jack Bancroft decided to sleep in Room Seven
where so many people had disappeared.”
“And then he was spirited away
before our very eyes,” I said. “It’s hard to believe that days later, Mud Cat
Joe helped me fish him out of this same Grassy River. For a while, we didn’t
think he’d ever pull through or be able to tell what had happened to him.”
“But as the grand finale you and
your friend, Flo Radcliff, solved the mystery and secured a dandy story for the
Examiner. Those were the days!”
“My friend? Flo is your friend, too. What is it with you two? Ever
since you called her ‘stout’ last April, you’ll barely say a word to one
another,” I said. “And why are you talking as if the days of good stories were
gone forever? Other good stories will come along.”
“Maybe,” Shep answered, pointedly
ignoring my mention of Flo.
“But you’ll have to admit,
covering a wedding is pretty tame in comparison.”
“Yet this one does have several
interesting angles,” I insisted. “Can’t you feel mystery lurking about the
place?”
“No, but I do feel a mosquito
sinking his stinger into me.” Shep slapped vigorously at his ankle. “You’d
think by this time they would have all gone into hibernation, or whatever it is
mosquitoes do in the fall.”
We followed the path on toward the
river, soon coming to a trail that branched off to the right. Across this
righthand trail had been stretched a wire barrier and a neatly-lettered sign
which read: NO ADMITTANCE BEYOND THIS POINT.
“Why do you suppose the path is
blocked off?” I said.
“Let’s find out. Maybe we’ll run
into something worth a picture.”
I don’t like to disregard warning
signs as a rule, but we were already trespassers on the premises, and I was
curious to find out what lay beyond the barrier.
“Lead on,” I said to Shep. “I’ll
follow you. Only isn’t it getting late?”
Shep looked at his watch.
“We still have a safe fifteen
minutes.”
He had one leg over the wire when
I reached out to grasp his hand.
“Wait!” I whispered.
“What’s the idea?”
“I think someone is watching us!
I’m sure I saw the bushes move.”
“Your nerves are jumpy,” Shep
teased. “It’s only the wind.”
But even as he spoke, the yellow and orange foliage to the left moved ever so slightly, and we both saw a dark form creeping stealthily away along the ground.
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