Beware the Young Stranger by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online Page A

matter.”
    â€œOf course not, Keith. I didn’t mind waiting.”
    â€œWhen I got there, the place looked deserted. No sign of the servants, so I figured she’d sent them out. I called her name a couple of times, looked in her study. Even went through the kitchen and had a look out back from the windows.”
    He broke off, sat looking at the ground. “You know, a funny thing happened then. I’ll remember it a long time. I got sore at her, Nancy, really miffed. I was anxious to get up here. I thought to myself, she has one hell of a nerve, jerking strings any time she feels like it, making people jump.”
    â€œShe wasn’t like that, Keith. Not at all.”
    â€œDon’t I know it? All my life she did for me, for my mother, for that louse of a father of mine. If it hadn’t been for Aunt Dorcas, we’d have gone hungry plenty of times. My old man with his rotten liquor and his big deals that never paid off … Always Aunt Dorcas was a kind of fairy godmother to us.
    â€œThe old man … Being married to Dorcas Ferguson’s sister gave him a leg up on a pretty soft life. He could be a country club bum instead of a saloon rummy.”
    â€œKeith.”
    â€œNo, I’ve got to say it, Nancy. The way I got so put out with her this morning, just because she wasn’t there. As if she’d ever failed me! The way she came to my rescue after that Florida nightmare, and afterward, in my home town. God, I hope she forgives me, wherever she is.
    â€œAll the time I was swearing at her, she was lying in the living room dead.”
    â€œKeith. Don’t. No more, darling.”
    He raised his head slowly. “I decided to go into the living room and wait for her. That’s when I found her.”
    She took his hand and held it protectively.
    â€œThen I heard them coming, Nancy, Aunt Ivy’s husband and your father. All of a sudden I realized the spot I was in. So I really corned the whole deal off. I hid.”
    â€œOh, Keith!”
    He ground the cigarette under his heel, savagely. “Your father found me, skulking behind the drapes. All I could think of was making a break for it. I lost my head—what there is of it.”
    An early jay berated them from a nearby sapling. Water whispered against the pier and boathouse.
    â€œI’m in real trouble this time, Nancy.”
    â€œYes,” she said. “Yes, we are.”
    â€œNot we!”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œNancy, I can’t involve you in this. You’ve got to go back.”
    â€œDid you do it, Keith? Look at me and tell me. Did you?”
    â€œAs God is my witness, I loved Aunt Dorcas. I didn’t lay a finger on her.”
    â€œThen how can I turn my back on you?”
    â€œYou’ve got to.”
    â€œYou don’t understand,” she said softly. “You’re everything that has meaning for me. Keith?”
    â€œYou’re crazy, Nancy,” he said in a hoarse voice. But a part of him was wildly rejoicing. He sat struggling with himself.
    â€œI’m not being altogether unselfish,” he heard Nancy say. He wished she would get up and leave, now, while he could still let her go. “If I turned my back on you at the first sign of trouble, Keith, what would I think of myself? Keith, this is so new to you, isn’t it? Having someone … You don’t know how to react, do you?”
    â€œI should have passed up the lake and kept going,” he muttered.
    Her hand slipped from his arm. She uttered a shaky laugh. “If I were swimming naked, you’d hesitate to get your feet wet. Jump in, bud, there’s water enough for two.”
    Without moving any other part of his body, he thrust out his hand. “Keys,” he said.
    â€œKeys?”
    â€œTo your car. We’ll leave the MG. They’ll be looking for it.”
    The keys clashed. His hand closed over them. He got to his feet and brushed off the seat of his