Who's Sorry Now? by Jill Churchill Read Free Book Online

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    Dr. Toller was happily examining the skull. "No damage. He or she wasn't struck on the head." Then he started carefully removing the rib cage and the upper part of the spine. Washing them off, setting them down in order on a paper bag. He said to Lily, "They have to dry before I can number them for bagging.”
    Lily was once again struck by how very cheerful he was about this. But the day was turning dark and a cold breeze had sprung up so she went inside for a while. Watching a rib cage dry wasn't really all that interesting.
    Mrs. Prinney wasn't the only resident of Grace and Favor who had an obsession. Hers was cooking, but Mimi's great love was cleaning. Even as a child of seven, her late mother had cleaned for Mr. Horatio's aunt Flora and sometimes let Mimi come along. When Flora Brewster died, and left the house to Mr. Horatio, he kept Mimi and her mother on. After Horatio died, Mimi's mother had passed on, and the new Brewster brother and sister moved in. By then, she'd loved cleaning. She'd cover most of her curly platinum blond hair in a bright kerchief and she always wore an apron when she worked.
    When Mrs. Prinney asked Mimi to tidy up the big room at the far end of the second floor for the pathologist and the an thropologist, she added, "Then take away their clothes and brush them out. They're both muddy and may not have brought along a change of attire.”
    Naturally Mimi didn't need to clean the rooms. She dusted and shook out the rugs almost every day anyway. And she couldn't clean their clothes until they changed what they were wearing.
    Mrs. Prinney naturally provided the late-afternoon snack and invited the two strangers to join them for dinner and stay the night.
    “Harry an dJim," she added, "you two are welcome to stay for dinner as well."
    “Thank you, Mrs. Prinney, but Mom has planned a roast for dinner," Harry said.
    “Thank you, too," his brother Jim whispered when they were alone for a few minutes. "I'm sick of this job an dthese scientifIc fellows."
    “I think it's interesting. But I don't want to be roped into more work today. Nor tomorrow for that matter. We have other jobs we promised to do and they expect us to show up when we said we would.”
    After dinner, Robert quietly alerted Mr. Prinney an dLily that he wanted a private meeting with them. Mr. Prinney didn't ask why, but his curiosity was clear.
    Mrs. Prinney and Mimi were tending to the two guests, both of whom had a change of clothes so Mimi could just brush up and press the things they'd worn all day; Chief Walker had gone to his office in town to clear up some paperwork; Mrs. Tarkington had retired early to read a book; and Phoebe was in her own room turning up a hem for one of her best customers. Mrs. Prinney was already preparing a dessert for the next day.
    Lily and Robert could count on getting Mr. Prinneyto themselves, where in the library the threesome would not be disturbed.
    But just in case, Robert suggested that Mr. Prinney lock the door from the inside for a short time.
    “Why is that?" the attorney asked.
    “You'll see in a moment," Robert said.
    Robert had gone in earlier in the day, again picking the lock where the books he'd discovered yesterday filled with money—were. He'd shut the glass door, but had done so carefully so that the lock didn't engage. He signaled to Mr. Prinney to come close an dopened the door.
    “You found a key?" Mr. Prinney exclaimed.
    “Not exactly. I found another way to open it. I want you to look at two of these books. He selected the two that he and Lily had examined and put them on the big table in the middle of the room. "Open them, please."
    “Good heavens! I--I hardly know what to say. I always believed these were all real books," Mr. Prinney said.
    “Maybe the rest of them are," Lily said.
    Mr. Prinney closed both books. "Did you count the money in these?"
    “We didn't have time," Robe rt said.
    Mr. Prinney moved to one of the comfortable chairs by the French doors to