Debutante Hill (23 page)

“Well,” Paul said, “to start with, of course, we drove over to Brad Morgan's apartment.”

“What was it like?” Lynn asked. “Was it a shabby place?”

“No, that surprised me. It was a ground floor apartment, in a nice neighborhood. It didn't look like the sort of place a guy would live in if he didn't have a job. We parked the car and went up and knocked on the door, but there wasn't any answer. Then we tried the door, and it was locked, so we were pretty sure Brad wasn't there.”

“So you waited?” Lynn asked eagerly.

“Yes. But after a few minutes we realized that, if we just stood there in plain sight, Brad Morgan would never come home, so Dirk suggested that we climb in a window and wait inside and really take him by surprise.”

Lynn's face paled. “But, Paul, that's breaking and entering! You could be arrested for something like that!”

Paul looked sheepish. “You're right, it wasn't a smart thing to do. I guess I was getting kind of carried away by
the cops and robbers game. Anyway, I tagged along after Dirk, while he tried the windows, and when he found one that was open, I scrambled in after him and we stationed ourselves on either side of the front door.”

“Weren't you scared to death?” Lynn asked in awe.

“I was nervous,” Paul admitted, “but I wasn't exactly what you'd call scared. Not until Dirk remembered the gun.”

“The gun!” Lynn cried in horror. “What gun?”

“We were standing there, waiting for Brad to arrive, when Dirk said, ‘My gosh, I forgot about the pistol!' It seemed Brad Morgan had a pistol, a thirty-eight revolver. Dirk said he'd seen it lots of times. Brad was proud of it and was always showing it off, and sometimes he carried it around with him. Dirk said he'd never seen Brad use it, and he always thought he just kept it to show off with, but still, it wasn't too pleasant a thought. Brad walking in with a gun was a little different from Brad just walking in.”

“It certainly was!” Lynn said shakily. “I hope you got out that window again in a hurry!”

“We started to,” Brad said, “and then suddenly Dirk said, ‘He usually keeps the gun in his bureau. Let's take a look and see if it's there.' I didn't want any part of that. By this time, I was plenty sorry I'd never been dope enough to come inside in the first place. I said, ‘Let's not go poking around. Let's just get out and wait in the car.' I was already swinging my legs out the window when Dirk let out a shout, “Come here, Kingsley! Look what Brad has in his drawer! It's a whole jewelry store!'”

“What did he mean?” Lynn asked in bewilderment

“Just that. Honestly, Lynn, I never saw anything like it in my whole life! Dirk had pulled open the top drawer
of the bureau, looking for the gun, and, instead, he'd found enough jewelry to stock a store—watches, pins, necklaces—piles and piles of them! It was like opening a pirates' treasure chest. And back behind them was a pile of empty wallets.”

“What did you do then?” Lynn breathed.

“Well, the first thing I did was to pull my legs back in the window and go over to that bureau to get a look for myself. The next thing I did was to say, ‘Let's call the police.' Dirk said, ‘We can't call from here—Brad doesn't have a telephone.'And then we heard the key turning in the door.”

“Oh, no!” Lynn felt her heart lurch. “Was it Brad?”

Paul nodded. “There wasn't time to move. We just stood there while the door swung open and Brad came in. He saw Dirk first and said, ‘What the devil are you doing here, Masters?' And then he saw the drawer open. And then he saw me.”

“The gun—” Lynn began.

“We didn't take time to think about the gun; we just dove at him, Dirk and I, one from each side. And boy, Lynn, that guy was built like a bull! I've played football, but I've never tried to tackle anybody like that. He just wouldn't go down. He threw himself sideways and slammed Dirk against the wall, then started across the room toward the bureau, dragging me right along with him. And then, of course, we knew where the gun was.”

“In the bureau?”

“Yes, otherwise he wouldn't be headed there in such a hurry. Dirk yelled, ‘You hang onto him, Kingsley, while I get it!'Well, I knew I couldn't possibly hang onto Brad—it would have been like hanging onto a charging rhino. So I
hauled back my fist to sock him, and just then he whirled out of the way and my fist smacked right into the wall.

“That pretty well wrecked one hand, and before I could think to use the other one, Brad gave me one hard sock in the midsection and down I went, flat on the floor. That would have been that if it hadn't been for Dirk. Brad was hauling back his foot, aiming a kick at my head, when Dirk said, ‘O.K., Brad, if you move again, you're going to be sorry.' And there he was, holding the pistol.”

“Thank goodness!” Lynn breathed. She felt weak with relief. “Oh, Paul, thank goodness!”

“Thank goodness is right.” Paul said with a grin. “The gun had been far back in the drawer, behind the wallets. When Brad saw it in Dirk's hand, he stopped where he was. He said, ‘You wouldn't use that, Masters.' And Dirk, (he was shaking like a leaf, with that pistol wobbling back and forth; I don't think he could have pulled the trigger if his life depended on it) said, ‘Wouldn't I? After the way you left me to take the blame for taking the Peterson girl's wallet?' Brad said, ‘I didn't like doing that, but it was the only thing I could do. You didn't have a record—I knew you'd get off light—but I would have gone to jail.' So Dirk said, ‘You heard him, Kingsley. You can tell the police what he said.'And I dragged myself up off the floor and said, ‘Sure I can.' So Dirk kept Brad covered while I went next door and phoned the police.”

“Oh, Paul!” Lynn said weakly. “I feel as though I'd been through it all myself. So the police came and arrested Brad?”

“That's right,” Paul said. “That stuff in the drawer was enough to convict him on half a dozen different counts. There's been a whole siege of housebreakings lately, and
they're sure that's where most of that jewelry came from. They have to check it out, of course, but as far as we're concerned, everything's settled. Dirk's cleared of the schoolyard robbery, and, of course, you're cleared of any connection with it. And it all took less than an hour.”

“An hour!” Lynn exclaimed. “You mean all this happened this afternoon, and you let me worry myself sick all through dinner without even phoning to tell me about it?”

“I'm sorry,” Paul said. “I probably should have called, but there was so much to do. I had to get this hand bandaged up, and then I went over to the Petersons' and asked Brenda if she was responsible for the way the kids have been treating you.”

“You didn't expect her to say yes, did you?” Lynn asked.

“She did say yes.”

Lynn stared at him in amazement. “You mean, she actually admitted it?”

“Sure she did. She looked pretty horrified, too, when she heard the real story. She said she'd get on the phone tonight and call every single one of the debutantes and tell them neither you nor Dirk had anything to do with the robbery. That's nineteen girls she has to call, and each of them will go to school on Monday and tell nineteen others, and if I know the way girls talk, by the end of the day, your reputation is going to be as clean as a whistle.”

“Oh, Paul, thank you!” It was as though the weight of pain and loneliness which had hung over her for three long months was suddenly lifted, and the abruptness of the release left her lightheaded. Lynn felt tears of relief and gratitude filling her eyes. “Oh, Paul—”

“Hey,” he said, “don't start crying. Everything's O.K. now. You don't have to cry.”

He pulled her toward him, and she moved forward, and then his arms were around her and everything was all right—really all right. Lynn took a deep breath and relaxed completely for the first time in months. She thought this is where I belong. I never want to move again. And yet even as she thought it she was drawing back a little, so she could see his face. And what she saw there was what she wanted to see.

“I missed you,” he said huskily.

“And I missed you,” Lynn whispered. “I never missed anybody so much in my whole life.”

Paul still had his arm around her a few minutes later when Ernie came thudding in.

“Don't mind me, lovebirds. I just live here.”

“Look who's talking!” Paul said with a grin. “I bet you were pretty darned glad to see your own girl, weren't you?”

“You're not kidding.” Ernie grinned back. “In fact, I'm heading for her place right now, to help cart a load of glasses over to the Country Club. The Presentation Ball's tomorrow.” He paused at the door and then added in a very off-hand manner, “Why don't the four of us double? The whole town's invited, you know.”

Lynn was afraid to meet her brother's eyes, for fear the gratitude would be too obvious on her face. She waited tensely for Paul's answer.

It was a moment in coming. When he did speak, it was slowly.

“I—I can't, Ern. I've already promised to take Brenda Peterson.”

“Hey, what's the big idea?” Ernie said in surprise. “Lynn sat home all Christmas while you beaued around the Peterson girl. This is the big dance of the year, of any year, for that matter. How can you refuse to take her?”

“Well, when you put it that way—” Paul turned to Lynn. “I want to take you, you know that. The thing is, I started taking Brenda to the Christmas parties and kind of got stuck in the role of escort. When she asked me if I'd take her to the Presentation Ball, I couldn't get out of it very well. Besides, at the time you and I—”

“I know,” Lynn said hastily.

“So I said I would, and she could never in the world get another escort this late. She's got her dress and shoes and everything, and they have been rehearsing the presentations for weeks. If Brenda doesn't make her debut now, because she doesn't have an escort, she'll be the laughing stock of the school.”

“And what about Lynn?” Ernie demanded, angry now.

“Don't you owe her anything? It's just great to be the Good Samaritan, but you can carry the thing too far. You're a good guy, Paul, and I know you've helped
me
out plenty of times, but Lynn's my sister, and I think she's getting the rough side of this deal.”

Paul said, “I don't know. I—I just don't know. I want to do the right thing.”

He looked so miserable and confused that Lynn felt a quick surge of sympathy. After all, this was Paul, Paul as she knew him best, warmhearted and eager to help everyone who seemed in need of him. It was the way he was and the way he would always be, and if she wanted Paul, she must take that too, because it was part of him. Perhaps even the
part that had made her fall in love with him in the first place.

So now she smiled and gave his good hand a quick pat.

“That's all right,” she said, as easily as she could. “Of course, you can't back out now. I understand.”

Ernie shot her a glance of complete amazement. “But I know you want to go to the Ball! You're dying to—”

“Please, Ern,” Lynn said softly. “I appreciate what you're trying to do, but this is something between Paul and me—for us to decide.”

Ernie shook his head in bewilderment. “I'll never understand women.”

He turned toward the door, and Paul rose to follow him. He gave Lynn a last, almost pleading look.

“You do understand? I mean, you know it's not that I don't want to take you.”

Lynn said, “Don't worry. I understand. I really do.”

And she did. That was the hard part of it. She could not be angry or resentful with Paul because she did understand. He had made a promise, and a promise meant a lot to Paul—more, perhaps, than it did to other people.

And yet the anger and resentment were there, deep inside her. They needed only a breath to stir them into flame, and that breath came an hour later, when the doorbell rang again.

Lynn had been playing checkers with Dodie. The sound of the bell startled her, and then she sprang to her feet with a thrill of joy. It's Paul, she thought. He's come back! He's thought it over and changed his mind. That's the only reason he would come back this evening!

Which was why it was so much more of a shock to
open the door and see Brenda Peterson.

The two girls stood looking at each other a moment. Then Brenda said, “May I come in?”

“Why, yes,” Lynn replied automatically. “Please do. I—I was just surprised to see you.”

“I suppose you are.” Brenda stepped into the hall and shut the door behind her. “I won't sit down. I can't stay long enough for that. Mother's outside, waiting for me in the car. I've come to apologize to you for the things I said about you at school.”

Lynn opened her mouth to answer and then closed it again. There was nothing she could think of to say.

“I really did think you must have some connection with the theft,” Brenda continued awkwardly. “I didn't mean to spread a story that was untrue. But now that I think back on it, to be perfectly honest, I guess I did kind of jump on the situation and—and sort of push it. You were always so popular, Lynn, and I never was. You—well, I've heard people speak of you as Princess of the Hill. Maybe I was jealous.
I
was never accepted in anything unless my mother engineered it.”

Lynn was flustered. She did not know what to say. The entire year long she had disliked this girl with all the passion that was in her. Because of Brenda, she had suffered through the unhappiest few months of her life. She had even lain awake nights, thinking of unpleasant things to say to her if the opportunity ever arose. But now, suddenly confronted with her, Lynn could think of nothing to say at all.