Free Capacity for Murder (Professor Bradshaw Mysteries) by Bernadette Pajer Page B

you said you’d built it. Did you really build it?”
    “I did, years ago. I was shocked to find it here. How did it come to be?”
    “I think it started with a letter from Mr. Loomis to my husband. They corresponded a bit, and my husband became interested in the machine. He invited Loomis here a few weeks ago, and the sale was made. Mr. Loomis has been here ever since. Not a paying guest either, mind you.” She shook her head. “I’m not quite sure how that happened. He wasn’t expected to pay while he was training my husband on the machine, of course, but that took no more than a day. When he stayed on, we kept trying to bring up the subject of payment, but he would say how thankful he was for our generous hospitality and that he’d be sure to spread the word about Healing Sands when he left. But he never left. I used to think out here we’d never be bothered with men like him. But those types find you, don’t they? And with the railroad coming, people will be able to get here much more easily.”
    “You’re not happy about the train coming?”
    “No, I’m not. We moved here because it was isolated. We came for the peace and seclusion and nature’s beauty. It won’t be the same, once the railroad comes.”
    “How close will the nearest station be?”
    “Just up the beach, at Joe’s Creek. They’ve renamed the area Pacific Beach and have already begun to plat a town. And I hear Moclips is getting a great big grand hotel, with hundreds of rooms! It’ll be another year or two yet until the road is done. They’ve reached Copalis Crossing, that’s a few miles inland, but it’s slow going because of the terrain, and the lumbermen have so much timber to clear.”
    “You might be far enough away from a depot to stay isolated.”
    “Not the way Mr. Loomis tells it. He says we must expand or risk losing business to someone else.”
    “And has he proposed a way of helping you expand?”
    “Every chance he gets. I wanted him to leave, but my husband—well, my husband can be too kind. It sounds mean to say so, I know, but there are those who would try to take advantage, and Mr. Loomis is certainly one. If you’ll forgive me, Professor, I don’t completely understand what was said this morning. Did Mr. Loomis steal the Luminator from you?”
    “I’m not sure, at least not in the legal sense. I was not fully informed of how and where the machine I built was to be used.”
    She frowned at him. “You made it sound as if he stole from you, Professor.”
    “I won’t know if a law has been broken until I speak to my patent attorney, Mrs. Hornsby. There are legal crimes, and moral crimes. They don’t always coincide.”
    She worried the hem of her apron, picking at a loose thread, then gave a little huff. “He’s a confidence man, isn’t he?” She looked at him for confirmation.
    “Possibly so. I am still gathering information. I can state only my experience with Mr. Arnold Loomis. He certainly gained my confidence, then took advantage of my faith in him.”
    “If you’ll forgive my asking, what did happen? How did he take your machine from you? And why did it kill our David?”
    He was prepared for these questions and had decided in advance how much to reveal when asked them. “Mr. Loomis approached me as a medical salesman with an idea for an electric outfit. I had the knowledge to build it, he the knowledge to market it. Since nothing on it would be newly patentable, it wasn’t something I would have undertaken on my own. I don’t enjoy marketing. It’s much easier to simply collect royalties on patent contracts. When I’d done my work and the outfit was completed, Loomis claimed another similar cabinet had beat us to the market. It’s a common enough outcome these days, so I didn’t question it. Loomis told me he sold the prototype to a Seattle doctor and paid me for my time and materials. That was in ‘99.”
    “What? Mr. Loomis told us the machine was the latest and greatest. We’re