02 - Mrs. Jeffries Dusts for Clues by Emily Brightwell Read Free Book Online Page A

settee, her bright orange skirts clashing horribly with the deep red of the overstuffed wing chair. “And you bein’ the kind of woman you are, I knowed you wouldn’t waste any time tellin’ me what you’ve learned.”
    Mrs. Jeffries could see she was very worried. There was a decided slump to her shoulders and deepening lines of worry around her black eyes and thin lips.
    “We’ve learned several interesting things,” Mrs. Jeffries began briskly.
    Luty’s face brightened. “I knowed I could count on you,” she said earnestly. “I knowed you’d come up with something!”
    “First of all, we’ve learned that Mary came back here the day she was supposed to have gone to the Everdenes. She wasseen in the gardens on the evening of the tenth. A witness saw her get into a hansom cab.”
    “But that don’t make no sense,” Luty said. “Why’d she come back here after she’d gone to all that trouble to git that danged job?”
    “We’re not sure. Are you sure that your butler’s information is correct? Are you absolutely certain he actually went to the Everdenes’ home and inquired after Mary?”
    “Course I’m sure. Hatchet’s got no reason to lie. He might be an old stuffed shirt, but he does what I tells him. If he says he went to there, then he did.” Luty shook her head. “And they told him that Mary had come that day, worked the one evenin’ and then left.”
    “Hmm, yes. Then obviously, either we have a case of mistaken identity here or someone is not telling the truth.”
    “Well, I know it ain’t Hatchet,” Luty said. “Why’d you think Mary come back? She was mighty anxious to git away from here. Kinda give me the idea she wanted to put plenty of distance between herself and the Lutterbanks.”
    “She may have had equally good reason for wanting to put some distance between herself and the Everdenes,” Mrs. Jeffries said. “We don’t know that she didn’t go there and then decide to leave. There are some that say that the Reverend Everdene isn’t an honorable man.”
    Luty’s lips curled in disgust. “Couldn’t keep his hands to himself, eh? Mary wouldn’t put up with bein’ pawed by the likes of Andrew Lutterbank, I don’t reckon she’d put up with it from some preacher either. That might explain why she hightailed it back here. Maybe she was hopin’ I hadn’t left yet.”
    “Did she know what time you were leaving?”
    “Yup. All the servants except Hatchet left right after breakfast. Mary was still here then, but she knew I were fixin’ to be on the noon train. She left at nine o’clock, after she’d helped me do a bit o’ packin’, and Hatchet and I left for the station about eleven-fifteen.”
    “Is it possible she came back, hoping to get into the houseand stay here until you returned?” Mrs. Jeffries asked.
    “Don’t reckon so,” Luty said slowly. “Mary helped Hatchet and me lock this place up tighter than a floozie’s corset early that mornin’. She’d a had to break out a window or knock down a door to git in, and I knowed she wouldn’t do somethin’ like that no matter how desperate she was.”
    “Do you think she came back to get help from Garrett McGraw?”
    “Maybe,” Luty said doubtfully. “Like I told ya yesterday, Garrett was right sweet on Mary. But I’m purty sure that Mary has an understandin’ with Mark McGraw. Too bad Mark’s at sea. He’d a made danged sure that no one was botherin’ the girl. But he ain’t even due back in the country for another week or two, so he couldn’t a taken Mary in. And I don’t rightly see why she’d come to git help from Garrett. Ain’t nothin’ he could do.”
    “Perhaps he sent her to his home?” Mrs. Jeffries suggested. “The witness said Garrett put her into a hansom cab.”
    “Nah,” Luty said. “The McGraws are as poor as church mice. Mark sends money home whenever he can, but it don’t go very far when you’ve got seven mouths to feed. Mr. McGraw was hurt in a bad accident a