Show MURDER masquerade by INEZ HAYNES IRWIN copyright lots haynes irwin service SYNOPSIS mary avery widow who lives live in a the bar hot bor town of mm mass with two negro maids tuai ili sarah darbe and bessie williams writer manuscript describing the famous second read head murder which occurred on her estate nut next to mary live mr and mra bits peter stow who every year give a summer masquerade party one ol of the guests 0 ol 01 I 1 this thia unction function li is murdered murd murdered eted nearby live dr and mr bits geary and their married daughter edith and her hu husband ile b alfred bray doctor myron marden and a n d his hi step granddaughter caro prentiss ft a beautiful young girl who was wai born bora in france next live paul and lora eames and their daughter molly molly wax was enraged to the murdered man ace blaikie BI ailcie she had bad been engaged to walter Ta treadway dway who had been the murdered mana secretary but the engagement was suddenly denly broken and he had left town other neighbors are the fairweather ei bisters flora a hopeless invalid and margaret all but the latter two attended the masquerade mary marrs eight year old nece niece sylvia sard is visiting her for or the summer the wooded part of marys estate is called the th spinney in it is a tiny log cabin near a stone atone wall is a tiny circular pond called the merry mere FRIDAY continued the day of the stow masquerade Is s always frightfully exciting everybody is at home frantically putting the last touches or more frantically putting the first touches to liis his costume and yet invariably my telephone buzzes all day this year it was oll oh mary do you ha hap P pen to have any black velvet ribbon about an inch wide 7 oh thank good goodness mary do you happen to have a white dress of any description I 1 want to use it for a foundation lace chiff chiffon on crepe d de e chine youre quite right ill never throw any dress away agaibi ill send right over for it of course I 1 remember every detail of the day of this masquerade in the first place I 1 keep a diary of sorts and I 1 always scribble a few lines in it before I 1 go to bed in the second place less than twenty four hours after the party we were all scraping our memories to dig out of them every detail of that fateful friday and then it happens that year after year on the day of this most important social event of the season my household arrangements fall into the same pattern all day long my two maids are at the stow house helping matties two maids to get the big house ready for dancing and to prepare the delicious food which mattie always serves bessie williams my cook comes back at noon to bring me my luncheon on a tray and sarah darbe my second maid returns at night to prepare my simple dinner and to fuss about me while I 1 dress my maids are the only people in who ever see my costume before I 1 appear in it these two women have been in my employ I 1 prefer to say have been members of my household for many years sarah for a little more than twenty bessie for a little less bessie is a simple loy loyal al being much darker than sarah short and very stout a warm dark balloon of a woman plentifully dimpled still wearing her hair in the braided kinky masses masse S which marked it when I 1 first engaged her sarah is coffee colored slender and shapely sarah takes as much care of her complexion her teeth and her figure as I 1 do her tate taste in clothes in impeccable quiet becoming when I 1 go to europe I 1 always bring back to sarah something to wear from paris moreover as fast as I 1 finish a book or a magazine I 1 hand over to sarah we discuss articles and stories this summer as I 1 have said my niece sylvia sard was staying with me sylvia is eight years old she is the youngest daughter of my youngest sister the bards had gone to europe on a two months business trip I 1 have several nieces and nephews but sylvia is my favorite it is not because she is the YO youngest although she is the youngest or the prettiest for she the prettiest but because she is the most enchanting she is a friendly little being and but that ts Is only part of her charm she possesses to an extraordinary degree the astute observation of children that primitive plastic naked quality of mind which graves pictures so deeply on the memory but friendliness and that special intelligence are by no means all of sylvias charm I 1 find it hard to describe a certain precocious quality there are moments when because of a casual originality of expression an accidental wisdom in thought an unexpected of phrase every child seems a gerdus genius in her very babyhood sylvia said many things of the type which adoring relatives always treasure but when I 1 say bay she has something that thai I 1 have never seen in other children I 1 do not refer to that sort of thing it is an unknown X perhaps that X is merely a common sense astonishing in one so young whatever it is I 1 find myself talking with sylvia exactly as though she were of my own age it was a remark that sarah darbe had made several days before which put it into my head to take sylvia to the masquerade of course sylvia had begged me to take her as she had bad begged the preceding year and of course I 1 had refused her this year as I 1 had then on the plea that children never went what sarah said was it be cute it if sylvia could go as your child mrs avery I 1 mean dressed exactly like you of course I 1 will confess now that I 1 had been racking my brain for an excuse to take her and in instantly sta antly I 1 made up on my mind that I 1 would take her but keep her there only until the unmasking the moment I 1 came to this decision sarah and I 1 rushed up the narrow wooden staircase to the attic and began turning over the things in the huge costume trunk in fifteen minutes we had got to work the long and short of this story is that before that afternoon was over we had thrown together a costume for sylvia which as exactly as possible followed the lines of mine had I 1 not taken sylvia to the party I 1 have often wondered since how soon if ever would we have discovered who killed ace blaikie perhaps the truth would have come out in time certainly not so soon nobody in makes calls on the afternoon of this important day and so it was with a groan 0 of quite hypocritical self pity for I 1 was really conscious of a pleasurable excitement tha ha I 1 saw molly eimess roadster come cur curving vine into the driveway about two caro prentiss was with her we know just how welcome we are aunt mary molly announced cheerfully as they came onto the piazza steps but we knew it was worse to go home everybody is so busy and so snappish the after I 1 if r 4 4 0 here comes ace molly she exclaimed noon of the masquerade that I 1 become practically a pariah who could bear to watch us peacefully taking a cool drink you can have all the cool drinks y you ou want I 1 assured her if get them yourself how does it happen mrs avery caro asked me that youre not working on your costume everybody else in is that is except molly and myself mine has been finished for many days I 1 answerer answer ea eck so has hollys Mol lys caro replied and I 1 brought mine from europe lucky me ive not had to put a stitch in anything I 1 remember thinking that this was the first time molly had not worked on her costume until the moment she put it on hollys costumes were events I 1 wondered why she was so a forehanded fore handed this year presently molly returned with a tray loaded with bottles glasses and ice As I 1 sipped my ginger ale I 1 studied the two types they presented re a marvelous contrast molly eames is one of the most beautiful girls I 1 have ever seen A botticelli but a robust botticelli flesh white as a gardenias petal but rich and thick hair pale gold but thick and deeply waved stiff like a brilliant pliable wire eyes pale blue and suen silken lashed but with a strange compelling quality As she lounged in my great peacock backed wicker chair I 1 noticed what carnival the sun was exciting in the big diamond on her left hand ace Blai kies engagement ring I 1 noticed above all that although she did not look tired she looked wrung mentally weary I 1 mean yet her eyes stormed often their gaze set for an instant on the distant view but they were not studying it they were watching something that was going on within herself talk went on lazily between us three I 1 am one of those who is always thrilled by beauty in other women no more beautiful pair ever sat on my piazza caro was a perfect contrast to molly in color she is all brown and reds reddish brown hair tiny brown freckles warm red lips her features are piquant but her profile is as perfectly marked off as though drawn with a ruler I 1 love to follow the straight line of her brow the tip tilted line ot of her nose culminating in the combination of short upper lip curved lower one and cleft dell delicate chin I 1 liked our lazy chat caro was doing most of the talking hollys preoccupation permitted me to study her closely molly had I 1 was sure power power of 0 many sorts above all tremendous will 7 U power I 1 like to think of the iron interior under the sheath ot of her pellucid beauty caros talkativeness permitted me to enjoy what was her most fascinating quality a bounding abounding vitality caro possessed that understanding and sympathy which makes for tact I 1 felt that she sensed her friends preoccupation that she was trying to cover it up I 1 helped her you like america caro I 1 drew her out you would like to live here always uh oh yosl caro exclaimed oh yest yes it has opened a whole new wo world ald to me and a whole new life caros quick ears caught before mine the sound of an automobile turning into the drive here comes ace mollym she exclaimed it seemed to me I 1 read into her voice voice a faint note of warning As though caro herself caught and regretted that involuntary cr cry y she added in a casual tone in mr Hex sons car and my beloved granddads grand dads with them 1 I knew as well as you two girls where to go for a drink ace blaikie threw out of the murmur of greetings he seated himself between molly and caro doctor marden chose a seat beside me that was the last time those three men were to sit on my piazza together all ali wore the legion dh 0 mineur doctor marden himself a tall man the shortest of the three appeared first he wore his abundant silvery hair straight back from his forehead on his chin lay an imperial still black A thin aquiline nose cut like the blade of a scimitar out of the planes of his face his black eyes extremely fine lighted a long pallid pear shaped face those eyes were definitely sad and yet they watched au all the time watched what I 1 know then what they watched next came ace a noticeably tall man though in the late forties ace retained his magnificent figure although his golden curls were shot with white and his face had developed lines he was still one of those men you would turn to look at in the street tallest of all was bruce bexson physically he differed as widely from ace as he did in character and personality he was big with enormous muscular stooped shoulders in some aspects standing straight his figure recalled statues of lincoln in others crouching over he looked like a grizzly bear his huge head was made huger by the tangled dark shag of his hair his hazel eyes once brilliant now luminous lay like lonely lakes in the depths of great hollows As usual when ace entered a company he became its center insensibly our talk focused upon him bruce bexson sat very quiet a little absent as one drifting in and out of the conversation myron marden threw in an occasional comment occasionally A c es glance rested on molly for an instant I 1 noted a new element in his look and I 1 did not like ita triumphant possessiveness in spite of aces vivacity a constraint had fallen upon us caro prentiss had completely quieted a veu vei of reserve seemed to deaden her animation bruce Hex sons eyes wandered from aces face to the distant marsh and there set in a preoccupied serenity I 1 conscious of conflicting psychological currents in my little party was beginning to develop socia social embarrassment when diversion came I 1 caught the scamper of sylvias little feet over the lawn as she came up from the pool she came racing up the steps carrying her favorite doll dorinda belle who is sylvia ace greeted her come herel sylvia went to him unhesitatingly perched on the high knee to which he invited her from the precarious height she responded with her shy composure to all their greetings how is dorinda be belle ue ace asked ashes very well thank you sylvia answered in her prim conventional vent ional little girl way dorinda belle had been my doll now she is sylvias sylvia pos besses au all kinds of dolls but ot of them au all she loves dorinda I 1 lelle best why I 1 dont know dorinda belle baue possesses a sawdust filled cloth body a china head bead china arms china legs her hair is painted on her skull in great jet black waves which part in the middle and scallop over her forehead hr blue eyes stare her red UP lips simper but somehow she is a real doll and subconsciously sylvia recognizes that ace knows dorinda belle once during a call which was purely social sylvia told ace that dorinda belle was ill ace solemnly took her pulse and temperature and wrote out a prescription are you going to the ade tonight ace inquired what a question acel ace I 1 crr cn f P to sylvias rescue dont pat ideas into her head TO BF BE boltl COl at Tl 7 JV |