Free Sins Out of School by Jeanne M. Dams Page B

your help.”
    Our eyes met and held for a long beat. Then she shrugged. “Very well. I suppose it can’t do any harm. If Amanda keeps on shying like a startled colt every time Miriam makes remarks, the police will catch on soon, anyway.”
    â€œExactly! Just what I thought. Now, look, Mrs. Beecham—”
    â€œIf we’re to be conspirators, or accessories after the fact, or whatever, you might as well call me Ruth,” she said with the ghost of a smile.
    â€œGood. And I’m Dorothy. What I was going to say was, what are the chances of Miriam going away for a while? It would calm Mrs. Doyle down and defuse the situation. Surely there must be
some
family she could go to, somewhere.”
    â€œI suppose there must, except Amanda never talks about them. Let me think, though. She mentioned a sister once, in—Canterbury, was it? If I remember properly, the sister wasn’t quite as off-putting as the rest of her people.”
    â€œI don’t suppose you remember her name?”
    â€œLord, no. I may even be wrong about the whole thing.”
    â€œWould Mrs. Doyle tell you?”
    â€œYou might as well stick to Amanda. She hates being called Doyle. I think she’s planning to go back to her maiden name. As for telling me the name of the sister—I don’t know. She’s stubborn, you know.”
    â€œShe’s also extremely frightened, for her daughter and perhaps for herself as well. Could you convince her that Miriam would be much better off away from her for a while?”
    Ruth groaned. “I don’t even know if Miriam could be persuaded to go. They’ve always been close, she and her mother, but now! They cling. Miriam isn’t going to school, even. That’ll come to a screeching halt soon; the authorities will see to it.”
    â€œThat reminds me. Did you know that Miriam had been enrolled at St. Stephen’s as of the beginning of next term? I heard Amanda talking about it to the school secretary.”
    â€œShe told me. Quite calmly, too, as if she hadn’t had major battles with John for years about that chapel school. Then one day she just coolly puts Miriam down for St. Stephen’s. I don’t know how she got the nerve.”
    I sighed. “That doesn’t look good, you know.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œShe defies her husband’s wishes, which she’s never had the courage to do before. A day or two later he’s dead. It doesn’t take too much imagination to believe that she knew he was going to be dead.”
    Ruth winced. “You’re a frightening person, Dorothy Martin. God, I wish I had a cigarette!”
    I picked up my purse and rummaged in it. “Here, have a chocolate bar instead. Chocolate makes you produce a lot of that feel-good stuff, what do they call it? Endorphins, that’s it.”
    â€œAnd puts on pounds and pounds.” She reached out a hand.
    â€œBut to return to the subject—I do believe that somehow we’ve got to get Miriam out of town. I can try to approach Amanda, but you’d be much more likely to get results. Tell her we know what she suspects, if you have to. If that won’t scare her into action, I don’t know what will.”
    Ruth swallowed a large bite of chocolate. “Okay, I’ll try. If I can’t manage it by myself, I’ll call you in for reinforcement. You can be a very persuasive lady.” Her eyes strayed for a moment to her shopping list.
    â€œAll right. I said half an hour and I’ve been here an hour
and
given you extra work to do. I’ll let you get on with your day if you’ll tell me one more thing. Did Amanda ever tell you why she didn’t show up to teach that day?”
    â€œNot a word. I tried and tried to get it out of her, but she just kept on saying it was necessary and she was sorry to have been a nuisance.”
    â€œAll right, once you’ve worked on her about Miriam,