McNally's luck by Lawrence Sanders Read Free Book Online Page A

creature on God's green earth. She listened intently, she asked pertinent questions, she expressed sympathy when needed. All with integrity and dignity. Can a woman be a mensch-or is that a term reserved for honorable men? If it is, then Lydia was a menschess.
    I knew the Gillsworths had no staff of live-in servants but employed a Haitian housekeeper who worked thrice a week. So I wasn't surprised when the mistress herself opened the door in answer to my knock. She drew me inside in a half-embrace and kissed my cheek.
    "Archy!" she cried. "This is nice! Guess what I have for you."
    "An autographed photo of Thelma Todd?"
    "No," she said, laughing, "a pitcher of pink lemonade. Let's go out on the patio. It's a super day."
    She led the way through the Gillsworth home. It was decorated in the French Country style: everything light, airy, in muted colors. Fresh flowers were abundant, and the high-ceilinged rooms seemed to float in the afternoon sunlight. Overhead fans billowed gossamer curtains, and the uncar-peted floor, random-planked and waxed to a high gloss, reflected the antique bestiary prints framed on the whitewashed walls.
    The patio was small but trig. It faced west but a striped awning shielded it from the glare of the setting sun. We sat at a glass-topped table and drank iced pink lemonade from pilsners engraved with a vine design.
    She wasted no time with small talk. "Archy," she said, "I do wish Roderick hadn't consulted your father and you about that letter." She was as close to petulance as I had ever seen her. "It's so embarrassing."
    "Embarrassing? Mrs. Gillsworth, through no fault of yours, you have received a very venomous message. I could understand your being concerned, but why should you be embarrassed?"
    "Because I seem to be causing such a foofaraw. Isn't that a lovely word? I've wanted to use it for ages. The letter doesn't bother me; it's such a stupid thing. But I am upset by the disturbance it's causing. Poor Rod hasn't been able to write a line since it arrived, and now you've been dragooned into trying to find the writer when I'm sure there are a dozen other things you'd rather be doing. That's why I'm embarrassed-because I'm causing so much trouble."
    "One," I said, "I wasn't dragooned; I volunteered. Two, there is nothing I'd rather be doing than getting to the bottom of this thing. Three, your welfare is important to your husband and to McNally and Son. None of us take the matter lightly. Speaking for my father and myself, we would be derelict in our duty if we did not make every effort possible to identify the sender. And only you can help."
    "I don't see how I can, Archy," she said, pouring us more lemonade. "I haven't the faintest idea who might want to murder me."
    "Have you ever been threatened in person?"
    "No."
    "Have you had any recent arguments with anyone?"
    "No."
    "What about some event in your past? Can you think of anyone who might have harbored a grudge, even for years and years?"
    "No."
    "Have you, however unintentionally, given anyone cause to believe he or she has been injured by you, insulted, offended, or even slighted?"
    "No."
    I sighed. "Mrs. Gillsworth, the writer of that piece of filth is obviously not playing with a full deck. Please think hard. Is there anyone amongst your friends and acquaintances you have felt, occasionally or often, might be emotionally or mentally off the wall?"
    She was silent a moment, and I hoped she was obeying my adjuration to "think hard."
    "No," she said finally, "I know of no one like that."
    "What about a chance meeting with someone unknown to you? A clerk in a store, for example. A parking attendant. A waiter. Have you had any problems at all with people who serve the public? Any disagreements, no matter how trivial? Complaints you've made?"
    "No, I can't recall anything like that."
    I could not believe this woman was deliberately lying, but I found it hard to believe her denial of any altercation whatsoever with clerk, waiter, or bureaucrat.