Page 27 of Night Falls on Predicament Avenue
“Does no one care about Mr. Anderson’s feelings?” Effie startled them all with her audacity. The room fell silent as Mr. Anderson’sgaze dropped to her. She wasn’t one to be flippant and impulsive, but somehow the gravity of what they faced superseded propriety. “Considering his wife has potentially been—I apologize, Mr. Anderson—murdered, there is so much more here to contend with.”
Katherine eased slowly into her chair.
Carlton James cleared his throat.
Effie met the cavernous stare of Mr. Anderson, and for several long seconds neither of them blinked.
At last, Mr. Anderson broke eye contact.
“There is no doubt,” Carlton acknowledged, “that the situation in which we find ourselves is both reprehensible and tragic. There is no pleasant outcome to be had in any of it.”
“I-I have a possible solution,” Bethany inserted hesitantly. “It’s quite ridiculous perhaps, and I know I’m not a part of this family and so I really should excuse myself.”
Katherine waved off Bethany’s attempt to be polite. “You have been a dear friend to Effie her entire life. Even today in bringing us the newspaper.”
Bethany smiled gently, and Effie noticed that even in the clamor and tension, Bethany maintained a genteel delicacy. Effie wished she were half as beautiful and half as sweet. Instead, she was average in appearance and personality, and when pushed, she was more forthcoming than she was discreet. Bethany would never have gotten herself in such a dilemma, and yet somehow she still would have figured out how best to help Polly.
“Please tell us, what is your solution?” Carlton addressed Bethany, who folded a kerchief in her lap, probably for something to do besides give either of the men in the room her direct attention. It was intimidating, Effie was sure, to be proposing anything to Effie’s father and to a complete stranger.
Bethany issued a delicate cough. “I’m thinking that this outlandish problem requires an equally outlandish solution. At least a temporary one.”
The look of apology Bethany cast Effie made Effie straighten in her seat. She braced herself. Bethany would wish her no ill will, but...
“What if you were to announce your intentions toward each other?” Bethany asked. “If you were to do so, then it wouldn’t seem such a scandalous thing, your ... uh, proximity of yesterday.”
“Absolutely not!” Effie said.
Their father held up his hand to silence her.
Bethany continued, even as her voice lost confidence in the idea, as though hearing it aloud revealed its ludicrous elements. Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. “You announce your engagement to the papers, stating belatedly that circumstances regarding Predicament Avenue had gotten ahead of the announcement. It may not completely assuage the rumormongers, but at least it gives some backbone as to why you were together.”
“It will not rectify things.” Thankfully, Mr. Anderson looked none too enticed by Bethany’s bold proposition. “It would imply that Miss James had dalliances with a married manpriorto thepossibilityof his wife’s passing.”
“So true.” Effie’s father quickly shot down the notion, and the glance Bethany gave Effie was tinged with relief.
“Perhaps it sounded better in my head,” Bethany mumbled.
“I appreciate your desire to help,” Mr. Anderson offered Bethany the small comfort of his nod. She seemed to take respite in it, even as her cheeks warmed from embarrassment.
Effie gave her friend a wobbly smile. Bethany had meant well.
“The fact remains, what’s happened has happened,” Mr. Anderson stated. “Unfortunately, we shall have to deal with the repercussions. An investigation will be forthcoming into what occurred at Predicament Avenue. With no body, there is no confirmed victim and—”
“For your sake, I do hope it wasn’t your wife, Isabelle,” Katherineinterjected. Mr. Anderson dipped his head. “Still, it does nothing to help with respect to my daughter—mydaughters—and their involvement in this horrible set of events.”
Carlton leveled a dark look at Mr. Anderson.
“No. And I’m afraid, Mr. James, that the honest truth is that nothing can be done.” Mr. Anderson’s words began to take on an ominous, dark quality. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and I have no desire to sully your daughter’s reputation, but we’ve had a crime committed and, if the evidence is correct, a murder. A murderyourdaughter Polly witnessed, which has been reported in the papers.” He paused, letting his words—and the implications of them—sink in.
“What are you saying?” Carlton shot a look at Effie. She met her father’s eyes. They were both realizing the truth of Mr. Anderson’s statement.
“It appears there’s a killer loose in Shepherd, Mr. James, and Miss James here and her sister have been aligned with the heinous crime as witnesses. Andthatposes a far greater threat than a tarnished reputation.”
The clock on the mantel ticked away.
Effie could see the worry making its way into the fine lines of her mother’s face. Bethany sat looking very uncomfortable. Effie’s father was staring at the ceiling as though he could peer straight through the floorboards and into the room where Polly lay unresponsive, tended now by one of her brothers.
After his warning, Mr. Anderson had politely excused himself, and no one had the wherewithal to stop him from exiting.
