Calamity Town by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online

Jim and Nora ran out of the kitchen to get into the cab. But the weeping willow wept quietly, and as soon as the taxi disappeared F. Lloyd left his hiding place and stamped off into the woods behind the house.
    Pat Wright trudged up onto Ellery’s porch the Tuesday night after the wedding and said with artificial cheeriness: ‘Well, Jim and Nora are somewhere on the Atlantic’
    â€˜Holding hands under the moon.’
    Pat sighed. Ellery sat down beside her on the swing. They rocked together, shoulders touching. ‘What happened to your bridge game tonight?’ Ellery finally asked.
    â€˜Oh, Mother called it off. She’s exhausted—been in bed practically since Sunday. And poor old Pop’s pottering around with his stamp albums, looking lost. I didn’t realize—quite—what it means to lose a daughter.’
    â€˜I noticed your sister Lola—’
    â€˜Lola wouldn’t come. Mother drove down to Low Village to ask her. Let’s not talk about…Lola.’
    â€˜Then whom shall we talk about?’
    Patty mumbled: ‘You.’
    â€˜Me?’ Ellery was astonished. Then he chuckled. ‘The answer is yes.’
    â€˜ What? ’ cried Pat. ‘Ellery, you’re ribbing me!’
    â€˜Not at all. Your dad has a problem. Nora’s just married. This house, under lease to me, was originally designed for her. He’s thinking—’
    â€˜Oh, El, you’re such a darling! Pop hasn’t known what to do, the coward! So he asked me to talk to you. Jim and Nora do want to live in their…well, I mean who’d have thought it would turn out this way? As soon as they get back from their honeymoon. But it’s not fair to you—’
    â€˜All’s fair,’ said Ellery. ‘I’ll vacate at once.’
    â€˜Oh, no!’ said Pat. ‘You’ve a six-month lease, you’re writing your novel, we’ve really no right, Pop feels just awful—’
    â€˜Nonsense,’ smiled Ellery. ‘That hair of yours drives me quite mad. It isn’t human. I mean it’s like raw silk with lightning bugs in it.’
    Pat grew very still. And then she wiggled into the corner of the swing and pulled her skirt down over her knees.
    â€˜Yes?’ said Pat in a queer voice.
    Mr Queen fumbled for a match. ‘That’s all. It’s just—extraordinary’
    â€˜I see. My hair isn’t human, it’s just extraordinary,’ Pat mocked him. ‘Well, in that case I must dash. Cart’s waiting.’
    Mr Queen abruptly rose. ‘Mustn’t offend Carter! Will Saturday be time enough? I imagine your mother will want to renovate the house, and I’ll be leaving Wrightsville, considering the housing shortage—’
    â€˜How stupid of me,’ said Pat. ‘I almost forgot the most important thing.’ She got off the swing and stretched lazily. ‘Pop and Mother are inviting you to be our house guest for as long as you like. Goodniiiiiight!’
    And she was gone, leaving Mr Queen on the porch of Calamity House in a remarkably better humor.

7
    Hallowe’en: The Mask
    Jim and Nora returned from their honeymoon cruise in the middle of October, just when the slopes of Bald Mountain looked as if they had been set on fire and everywhere you went in town you breathed the cider smoke of leaves burning. The State Fair was roaring full blast in Slocum: Jess Watkins’s black-and-white milker, Fanny IX , took first prize in the Fancy Milch class, making Wrightsville proud. Kids were sporting red-rubber hands from going without gloves, the stars were frostbitten, and the nights had a twang to them. Out in the country you could see the pumpkins squatting in mysterious rows, like little orange men from Mars. Town Clerk Amos Bluefield, a distant cousin of Hermione’s, obligingly died of thrombosis on October eleventh, so there was even the usual ‘important’ fall funeral. Nora