Beware the Young Stranger by Ellery Queen Page A

Ralph Hibbs’s prosperous portliness and the well-cut excellence that was Vallancourt.
    â€œWhat can I do for you?” She seemed to take it for granted that such men would not have chosen her place for lodging.
    â€œWe’re looking for a young couple,” Vallancourt said with absolute assurance, “who registered here this evening.”
    â€œWe only had one young couple. Don’t get much calls here nowadays. Folks have gone soft on fancies—swimming pools, air conditioning.”
    â€œOne couple is all we’re after,” Vallancourt smiled. “The boy is husky, with black hair in a widow’s peak—good-looking youngster, twenty-two years old. The girl is tall, blonde, with a golden tan.” He added, “Pretty.”
    The woman’s eyes flickered. “My husband registered them. What have they done?”
    â€œWhich unit are they in?”
    â€œThey took two cabins. Registered as brother and sister.”
    Bless you, Nancy, Vallancourt thought. And bless you, woman, for telling me.
    â€œThey said they wasn’t from the college,” the woman said. “We’re careful here, we don’t break no laws. They told my husband they was on the way downstate to see a sick relative and their car had broke down.”
    â€œThey gave you a plausible story,” Vallancourt said. “But they’re runaways.”
    â€œI didn’t know.”
    â€œOf course not.”
    The drab, pale pink of her lips curled inward until it disappeared. “If they’re what you say, I want them out of here.”
    â€œThey’re what I say. Where are they?”
    â€œYou the girl’s father?”
    â€œYes.”
    The woman sniffed like a wolverine. “Probably give her a nice home, car of her own, all the advantages. Kids nowadays are going to hell in a basket.”
    Vallancourt held himself in. It would do no good to rush her. A glimpse of his inner suffering would probably cause her to keep him dangling.
    â€œYou might as well sit down over there and wait,” she said. “They ain’t back yet.”
    â€œThey checked in and went out?”
    â€œPractically right away. I just had time to do a little shopping and come back. They was ready to leave when I drove in.”
    â€œDid you notice the car they were driving?”
    â€œIt was Newt’s and my car. Newt’s my husband. They came here in a taxi.”
    Dumped Nancy’s car, he thought.
    â€œMay I speak with him?”
    â€œNewt went with them. I let him talk me out of the keys. Should have knowed better.” Her lips curled. “They didn’t make even a show of going to the car-rental agency, like they said. Instead, they turned right on the state road. If you ask me, they’re over in Tuscawana by this time, lapping away in some gin mill. With Newt sitting next to your girl so’s he can let his leg bump hers now and then. When that old lech gets back …”
    â€œWill you describe your car?”
    â€œAn old one. Packard, about the last that was made. Black and gray; the gray part is on top.”
    â€œNow if you’ll give me the license number, please.”
    â€œI don’t want nothing to happen to my car.”
    â€œShall I call the police?” Vallancourt asked pleasantly.
    â€œBD-4418,” she said quickly.
    â€œThank you.” Vallancourt jotted the number down. “Come on, Ralph.”
    â€œI just don’t like trouble,” she said. And when Vallancourt reached the door, she called, “Better watch out for Newt. He’s got a mean streak a mile long, ’specially when he’s been drinking.”
    â€œWe’ll be careful.”
    â€œI didn’t know, remember,” she said. “You can’t law me. Newt was the one registered them.”
    â€œYou have nothing to worry about.”
    â€œMister, with Newt you always got something to worry about.”
    They went outside. When