"Eavesdropping and snooping are bad habits" Dinah said, shrugging "but how else could we find out what was happening and how our lives would change? Mother made decisions and then told us and it was up to us to accept them. No back talk. So, we needed to know what she and Rupert were planning"
-0-
"We should go on a cruise after the wedding."
"That would mean leaving the cellar where anyone could dig."
"Clark shook her head. "When I buried… it... I did not mean it to be a prison for you. I just thought that it would be the safest place. But I will dig it out and take care of it. I will come up with an excuse about a gas leak."
"You would to that? Really?"
"Yes. So that we can be finally be free. You have paid more than enough."
Dinah grinned from her listening post "So it has to do with the cellar. I think that Louis and I can dig before Clark and find out what Mother is hiding."
-0-
"Have you talked with Mr. Benchley?" Heather Mattox asked Lawson.
"Yes. He discussed with me. He wanted my opinion."
"And you said to do it, of course."
"I counseled caution. That it would mean some adjustments and he better prepare for them"
"And you are happy letting him go on as he is feeding on the townspeople?"
"If he was any danger to the community, I'd urge him… but he is not. "
"You are willing to let him go on as he is?"
"I cannot in good conscience make him go through a change that he is not prepared for."
"Ah you are full of scruples."
"First do no harm." I do not wish to do him harm.
"If George Midler was so fussy as you are, he'd never get any results"
-0-
Clark followed Danny as he left town. So, Danny was visiting a pawn shop? What did he have to pawn? He waited until Danny left and talked to the pawnbroker "What did this young man give you?"
"I cannot give you that information… for free"
Clark paid and smiled as the pawnbroker showed the small jewel.
"So he found the treasure, after all. I am marrying Mrs. Grady I will let him keep most of it, if not… it is good to have a backup plan."
-0-
"We should have dug in the cellar while she was at the hospital" Dinah says to Louis "we missed our chance"
"Well, we can still do it."
"She will not let us"
"We can give her something to let her sleep soundly. She'd never expect that from us. You or I can add a sleeping pill to her milk."
"Right! "Then there is Beverly… we need to drug her to keep her from interfering… but unlike mother, she will not accept anything we give her. Ever since that business with Victor she does not trust us in the least…. But maybe we can get Charlie to do it:
-0-
"And you did?"
"Yes. Got talking to him when he was complaining about how unreasonable Beverly was, and how annoying… So, I told him about my own problems with my governess and how I had doctored her drink with a laxative... he laughed and asked me for a laxative… I said I hoped he did nothing of the sort. and then after a while I went to the bathroom where I emptied the laxative bottle and put a couple of sleeping pills in. "
"So you poisoned me... and let Charlie take the blame"
"I admit it. " Dinah sighed. "What can I say? I was quite desperate then, we were, me and Louis. We wanted our freedom and we thought we would get it this way"
-0-
"Lawson was quite upset when I saw him that evening." Amos continued. "He wanted to talk to me. And he did not want to wait. He offered me his wrist so that I would not have to go out, and he could tell me what bothered him"
-0-
""I talked to Miss Mattox today. And something she said bothered me. About the man she works for, George Midler"
"What did she say"
"Enough to make me suspect that he is conducting unethical experiments in his clinic. It is his clinic, and his patients are mentally disturbed, so they cannot tell people what he does to them."
"And you think that Miss Mattox is helping him do it.?"
"She is conducting experiments about the biochemical basis for mental disorders, or at least that's what she says. I want to know more of what is going on there."
"Why?"
"I am affiliated with the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine. If I run across an unethical doctor, I am supposed to turn them in."
"And you want to know more about what she and Dr. Midler are doing?"
"Could you try to get information out of Miss Hoffman? Pretend that you want her to try to cure you? And then try to pump her for information?