AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you see him leave?”
“Stormfield has its own phone system, you know, so you can call room to room. Mr. Pottinger phoned me and told me to let Mr. Marshal out.”
“Did either of them say anything as he was leaving?”
“Mr. Pottinger didn’t. But when I opened the front door for Mr. Marshal he looked at me funny and what he said was even funnier. Not laugh funny, but strange funny.”
“What was that?”
“He said, ‘I hope you’ll be able to find other work.’”
“Really? And what did you take that to mean?”
“Well, I thought Mr. Pottinger might be selling the place to this man and he’d bring in another staff. Never thought about him getting killed instead.”
“Did you see the car he’d driven up in?”
“Oh, yes. It was parked out front. She was in the driver’s seat.”
Clarisse sat forward again, tensed. “‘She’?”
“Yes, it was a woman. Couldn’t get a good look at her, but I noticed the long hair. And she had on a necklace. It was all shiny in the sunlight. He got in and they drove off.”
“And a week later you were given your notice?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mr. Pottinger ever mention the visit to you?”
“No, never.”
“Did you know about the secret room where he was found?”
“No, ma’am. When I read about that in the paper it nearly knocked me over. Me there all that time and never once noticed it.”
“Was the place fully furnished? Books in the library, that sort of thing?”
She knew the answer to that, but she wanted to hear it from Gross. And things might have been taken.
“Well, it wasn’t furnished like it ought to have been. Most rooms had nothing in ’em. Don’t know why he bought that place. He was never there and when he was he only ever went into a few rooms, but he demanded that we clean everything. There were never any books in the library. I remember I asked him about that once when he showed up.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he didn’t like anything that was written down. That’s pretty durn strange.”
“Anything else you can think of?”
“No, I think that’s all.”
“Have the police been by to see you?”
Gross started and said, “Oh, that’s right. I forgot.”
“A Detective Sullivan?”
“I think that was his name, yes.”
“Did he have a woman about my age with him? Around five seven, short, light brown hair, big blue eyes, by the name of Mickey Gibson?”
