The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [40]
The officer looked around at the people who had gathered on the terrace. Newt and Thalia McAfee had come in response to a call from Terreano. Eleanor Hess, who had spent the night with Mrs. Collinwood, was sitting close to the housekeeper. Now and then Mrs. Collinwood reached out and patted her arm in a comforting way.
Jupiter, Pete and Bob had spent part of the evening with the sheriffs men in Centerdale and then had returned to Citrus Grove with Eleanor. They had seen the McAfees start up the road that morning and had trailed along.
Philip Terreano and James Brandon had come out of their workrooms. Dr. Hoffer, who had been in the pool when the deputy sheriff arrived, had climbed out, wrapped himself in a towel, and joined the circle on the terrace.
“What about my cave man?” said Newt McAfee. “When do I get him back?”
“The bones in that trunk are not your cave man!” cried Brandon. “They are the bones of my African hominid!”
“There were two fossil individuals,” said Terreano. “There simply had to be two!”
“Then why don’t you ask her,” Thalia McAfee pointed to Eleanor.
“Wouldn’t put it past her to have taken those bones and hid them, just to be difficult.”
Eleanor’s head came up in defiance. “No. I don’t know anything more than . . .
than what I’ve already told.”
“If you told so much, why aren’t you in jail right now?” demanded Thalia. She turned to the deputy sheriff. “You want us to go down and sign a complaint or something? She’s the one who helped that DiStefano, ain’t she?”
“Miss Hess is free on bail right now,” said the officer.
“Bail?” rumbled McAfee. “Who’d put up bail for her? I sure wouldn’t.”
“I did,” said James Brandon.
McAfee gasped. “You did? Why?”
“Because I chose to,” said Brandon. “Anyone who has had to live in your house all these years can be forgiven a great deal.”
Thalia McAfee quivered with indignation. “Don’t you talk like that!” she shrieked.
“We ain’t the ones who did wrong. She did it! And after we took her in and made a home for her!”
Eleanor sat straighter in her chair. “I only wanted to get back a little of what’s really mine! I wanted to leave here and go to work in San Diego or Los Angeles, and maybe get some more schooling and have a … a place of my own and some friends.
And every time I had any money, you took it away and talked about how much it cost to feed me. I was going to be stuck here forever, and you’d have everything!”
She leaned towards Thalia McAfee, who cringed back in her chair.
“I didn’t want much,” said Eleanor. “Maybe five hundred or so. Well, now I’m going to get a lot. I’m going to get a lawyer, and he’ll see that I get an accounting of my money.”
“What money did you ever have?” cried Thalia.
“My father had insurance, didn’t he?” said Eleanor.
Thalia pressed her lips together and looked away.
“And there’s the house in Hollywood,” said Eleanor. “It’s really mine, isn’t it?
What happened to the money from the rent on that house all these years?”
Newt McAfee cleared his throat. “Now, now, Ellie,” he said. “We don’t have to go running to lawyers about this. If you want to leave here, why, you’re old enough to know your own mind. We can set you up in an apartment in San Diego, or maybe Oceanside, and stake you a few hundred to get started. No need to take on so about it.”
“A few hundred?” cried Eleanor. “You think you’re going to get out of this for a few hundred?”
“A thousand,” said Thalia. “No. No, two thousand.”
Eleanor glared at her.
“Five thousand?” said Thalia.
“Ten!” said Eleanor.
“All right, Thalia,” said Newt, “Ten thousand. And nobody can say we ain’t done the right thing.”
Eleanor sat back. “I should have done this long ago,” she said. “Next time I’ll be smarter.”
“And braver, Eleanor,” said Terreano. “Try courage. It beats scheming every time.”
“Now about them bones,” said Newt McAfee. “I want …”
“I’m sorry,” said the deputy sheriff. “We have to hold the trunk and the bones until there is some disposition of DiStefano