Free The Famous Dar Murder Mystery by Graham Landrum Page B

before Janie saw him.
    There were some papers for me to sign.
    â€œWhen does your plane leave?”

    â€œFour-thirty,” I said.
    â€œWhere would you like us to take you?”
    â€œSunset Inn,” I said, and he told the driver to take me there.
    Going back out that hilly road, I guess I was a little reflective, the way you are after a funeral. Lu and I had been friendly—a glass of wine, a good steak, that kind of thing. He had a real talent, and I was pretty depressed that it had come to this. In fact I didn’t realize for about ten minutes that it had begun to snow in a sort of neglectful way.
    By the time we got to the inn, the snow had got down to business. It had been a long time since I was in a real snowstorm. About three-thirty I opened my door and stood under the overhang just a minute. The snow was two and a half inches on the ground and there was not a sound. I looked over toward the control tower. As I thought about it, I hadn’t heard a plane come in for half an hour. I called the ticket counter. All flights canceled. There I was without even an Esquire. I had already found out that the TV in my room was one that Noah threw out of the ark. What to do? Then I happened to think that I had had that telephone contact with Helen Delaporte. I decided to give her a call.
    That turned out to be a smart move, because she came out and got me—through snow and ice—and gave me a big dinner that you couldn’t buy at a San Francisco restaurant and entertained me like a movie star.
    I finally flew out of Three City Airport at 3:00 the following afternoon.

WHO LUÍS GARCÍA VALERA REALLY WAS
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    Helen Delaporte
    Down here in the South, people don’t consider that they know a person until they know what his family is. Your family is who you are. It’s cozy, and it’s an attitude that makes it easier for a lot of women in this region to get into the DAR. But more of that shortly.
    That was quite a storm we showed Hornsby Roadheaver. But it meant that we got to know him, and through him we had finally got official recognition of García’s identity. Although Roadheaver was not the type, he had studied for a year at Juilliard; and he knew Julia and Mac Chapman. He also managed Rachel Gillfallon, a flutist whom I knew at Eastman.
    Actually, when I said good-bye to Hornsby at Three City, I thought the DAR part of the DAR mystery was over.
    Of course I was mistaken. The headlines of the next morning read DAR REGENT RIGHT ABOUT MURDER. Then there was a ream about me and the chapter, all of it a recap of what had already been printed. At that point I had not yet found out that Elizabeth Wheeler had been bribing the newspaper for publicity. Of course every scrap of publicity we got in that manner was tweaking the nose of Butch Gilroy, not to mention Ron Jefterson.
    I was immediately the town celebrity, and as soon as the telephone rates went down that evening, I found that I was a big hit with the Daughters all over the Commonwealth of Virginia.
    â€œWe’re proud of you, Helen,” the State Regent assured me. Actually, I was a little nervous because National is very touchy if we don’t live up to their standards of dignity. For example, there are rules as to where we can and can’t wear the DAR insignia. And there is a general atmosphere that, if not defensive, is at least cautious. And all the media are only too glad to ridicule us if we do anything in the least silly.
    I got calls from Tazewell, Roanoke, Bedford—just everywhere.
    Mabel Hazelhurst from the Royal Oak Chapter said, “Now, dear, you must go right ahead and solve that mystery.”
    She seemed to be serious about it, but I had no idea at all that our chapter would become further involved.
    Nevertheless we did, and things began to stir the very next Sunday. Nearly everybody had left the church, and I was winding down the postlude when I looked up and saw Frances Vogelsang, who