Free There was an Old Woman by Howard Engel Page A

canal, but from the look of him now, you wouldn’t believe it. Even in a blazer and flannels, he didn’t have the look of a Cranmer old boy.
    â€œKogan, you have a way with everybody. How come you haven’t figured me out yet?”
    â€œI don’t know what you mean, Mr. Cooperman. What you’re doing on the Lizzy Oldridge case—”
    â€œYou got a name for it already. Good. Keep going.”
    â€œâ€”is for her, not for me. You would have liked her. She had a swell voice.”
    â€œGreat! Too bad she didn’t think enough of it to play up to some of the people who tried to help her.
    â€œShe had an independent streak.”
    â€œYou’re telling me!” I walked around and sat behind my desk. “Kogan,” I said, “I don’t know any more about your friend than you can see in the paper. Thurleigh Ramsden doesn’t come off as a hero, but he won’t land in jail. He’s covered his tracks too well. The question that’s bothering me, Kogan, is why did Ramsden do this to Lizzy Oldridge? Why did she trust him with her money and her life and why did he take her on?”
    â€œThey both belong to the Bede Bunch.”
    â€œThe what?”
    â€œThe Guild of the Venerable Bede. It’s a place for people to go who want to listen to patriotic speeches and then have an old-fashioned ‘Knees up, Mother Brown.’”
    â€œSorry, Kogan. I don’t follow.”
    â€œIt’s mostly old dears like Lizzy, you know; getting on and remembering the old country through rose-coloured glasses. They sing the old songs, salute the flag and toast the Queen on her birthday.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with that?”
    â€œWell, if you ask me, the old country never did all that much for them and half of them have forgotten what itwas like over there. They give themselves airs, talk about the UK as though a bottle of milk never went sour on a window-sill. Some of them are harmless, but there are a few like Ramsden, who think this country’s going soft because it did away with the noose and lash. They need their heads examined.”
    â€œApart from that, Kogan, it doesn’t sound like they eat their young. This is still a free country. You can join the Flat Earth Society if you want to.” Kogan gave me a look. He wasn’t convinced. “Apart from wringing its hands at the creeping disintegration of society, Kogan, what else does the Guild of the Venerable Bede do?”
    â€œSponsor scholarships for poor bluebloods.”
    â€œIs it a wealthy organization?”
    â€œLizzy could have told you. You better ask Mr. Ramsden. He’s the executive officer.”
    â€œHave you any idea why Ramsden singled Lizzy out, Kogan? There were other old-timers. Was Lizzy richer than the others?”
    â€œNone of ’em is rich. Lizzy had her own place, that’s all. She had a few dollars put by, like you heard at the inquest. And the house is worth something, being downtown and all.”
    â€œI still don’t—”
    â€œThe thing about Lizzy is that she did everything her own way She never listened to advice; she never would have taken it. She had her own ways for everything.”
    â€œI had a look at that house of hers.”
    â€œYeah, you wouldn’t see that in House Beautiful.”
    â€œWho holds the mortgage on it? Do you know?”
    â€œOh, there’s no mortgage. Lizzy didn’t hold with mortgages. She paid that off years ago.”
    â€œSo Ramsden, as executor, passes on her house to the Bede Bunch.”
    â€œYeah, that’s about the size of it.”
    â€œBut he’s part of the executive, isn’t he? Wouldn’t he have some say in what happens to the property?”
    â€œPlace like that needs a lot of upkeep. Could become the international headquarters of the Bede Bunch.”
    Kogan went on talking, but I tuned him out. Slowly I was becoming aware that there was an