Queens Full by Ellery Queen Page B

blacks and whites of his moonlit face made her swollen eyes widen.
    Ellery sat down on the step beside her and took her little cold hands in his. “You strike me as a girl who’s had to face up to a lot of disagreeable realities, Amy. I hope I’m not wrong. Because I’m going to throw the book at you.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œBella Livingston made a tragic mistake when she wrote out that new will Friday night.”
    â€œOh, I know! She should never have left me the money—”
    â€œThat wasn’t her mistake. Her mistake, Amy, was in leaving you merely the income from it for your lifetime. And providing that thereafter the principal go to her stepchildren.”
    Amy looked bewildered. “She didn’t want to cut them off altogether—”
    â€œShe also didn’t know one of them would kill her in the belief that the old will was still in force.” Ellery tightened his grip on her hands. “Amy,” he said urgently, “lock your door at night. Try never to be alone.” Her whole slender body strained about as she stared up at him. “That clause in the new will gives Bella Livingston’s murderer a second chance. Because now the only thing that stands between him and a third of a million dollars is you.”
    Amy’s face went white as the face of the moon. “He’d kill me? ”
    â€œDakin and Wentworth don’t think he’ll risk it. I do. That’s why I had to warn you.”
    She looked utterly lost. It made him touch her reassuringly, and his touch undid her.
    He gathered her up in his arms, and she hung on to him, sobbing. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid …”

II
    Even at the door of her room Amy would not let go of him.
    â€œI know I’m being stupidly silly, but I can’t help it …” Her teeth were chattering.
    â€œHow could you, after I’ve scared you half to death?” Ellery squeezed her arm. “Let’s have a look together.”
    He searched her bedroom and bathroom. “Nobody here but us chickens,” he said, and she smiled very faintly. “Now you lock and bolt your door and go to bed. I can get to you in five seconds from across the hall. All right, Amy?”
    â€œAll right,” said Amy, and not altogether to his surprise she stood on tiptoe and kissed him. She flushed scarlet and pushed him into the hall.
    He did not move from before her door until he heard the key turn over and the bolt slide into place.
    Ellery made a groping tour of the sleeping rooms, soundlessly trying doors. Old Dorcas’s and Morris Hunker’s on the attic floor were unlocked, as was the door to the guest room where Mr. Wentworth snored melodiously. But the Livingston brothers had locked themselves in. He could hear them tossing about in their beds.
    The door of their sister’s room gave to his touch. He nudged it open, listening.
    â€œWho is that?” Olivia’s voice came out of the dark sharply.
    â€œOh,” said Ellery. “Sorry. I thought this was my room.”
    He let the door click shut loudly.
    She must sleep like a cat … It seemed to him, as he crawled into bed, that there was a mocking quality to the darkness.
    He floundered and wallowed after sleep, his cheeks still tingling where Amy had put her kiss. Lonely little thing … remarkably strong, too; his biceps ached where she had clutched him in her terror. Old Bella’s money would make a full life possible for her … And sudden death, too, unless by some miracle he could perceive guilt where no guilt showed.
    He kept straining after every sound in the old house until, exhausted, he fell asleep.
    When he came downstairs Wednesday morning, Ellery found Olivia and Herbert Wentworth at breakfast.
    â€œAh, the man who mislaid his bedroom,” said Olivia. “Did you ever find it, Mr. Detective?”
    Ellery smiled back. “Your brothers still