The Desert Moon Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan

"Well," he said, "I can talk all right. But I want to start with this understanding. I don't know any facts that amount to a damn. You're right that I have suspicions. If you weren't forcing them out of me, I'd have sense enough to keep my mouth shut, from now on, at least until airing them might do some good. But, since you are determined to have them now, at the point of a gun, I'll say that I think John did it, and that somebody else in the house is shielding him."

Danny gave a thin, sick little shriek and threw her arm around John in a protecting way. John straightened. Under his tan I could see the color seeping out of his face. Gently, he removed Danny's arm.

Sam lowered his white eyebrows until his eyes looked like two slits of blue light, glinting out from away behind his face. When he spoke his voice was iron.

"Why do you think John killed her?"

"In the first place, John is the only one here who hasn't a water-tight alibi -- "

"Not by a damn sight he isn't," Sam interrupted. "But never mind. Go on."

"At four o'clock Gaby came down through the room. While she was still in sight, Danny called down, trying to get her to come back. Now this is just another suspicion, I don't know whether anyone here will back me up in it or not-probably not,"-he added the last in a hateful, slurring way-"but I noticed that her voice sounded strange, like she was excited, maybe, or else afraid."

Sam asked, "Did anyone else here notice anything of that kind?"

I had decided, right at first, to keep my mouth shut about everything; so I did.

"I thought not," Hubert Hand said, as if he had known from the start that he was the only honest one in the crowd.

Mrs. Ricker spoke. "I noticed it," she said.

Hubert bowed at her, in a sort of mocking way. Knowing what I knew, I thought that her corroboration would do Hubert Hand more harm than good. But, of course, the others did not know what I knew. Nor were they going to know it, since Hubert Hand was keeping his part of our bargain. Right or wrong, I was thankful, just then, that we had made that bargain.

"Let me see," Hubert Hand continued, "where was I? Gaby, after going through the room, stopped on the porch for a minute to talk to Chad. He came into the house in a fine humor. Gaby then went around the house to the rabbit hutch, and for some reason, gave her bracelet to Martha. When Martha's turn comes, in this inquisition, I suggest that she be questioned rather closely."

Sam banged his fist on the table. "Never mind your suggestions. You are accusing John now. Stick to that."

"You bet," Hubert Hand accepted, "especially since Martha was in the house again within five or ten minutes, with every last one of us. Danny had come down by that time. From four to five, then, you and I were playing chess. Chad was at the piano. Danny and Mary were over there, talking together. Mrs. Ricker was tatting, where she is now, by the window. Martha was bothering us, part of the time, and part of the time she was just fooling around the room. I'm pretty certain not one of us left this room during that hour. You might check up on that, Sam."

Sam asked Mrs. Ricker, and Danny, and me, if we remembered anyone's leaving the room during that hour. We all said we did not. Danny added that she might not have noticed. I wished, seeing Hubert Hand smile, she had let well enough alone and not bothered to add that.

"At five," Hubert Hand resumed, "we three men went together to let the cows in and to milk. Mary, I believe, was in the kitchen alone, getting supper, during that time. Mrs. Ricker, Danny and Martha remained here in the living-room. Is that right?"

"Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't," Sam said. "There is the hour in there, before supper, that we'll all have to account for, right accurately, before any of us has that water-tight alibi you were talking about, Hand. And," Sam added, with his own sort of emphasis, "we won't have it then."

"All right," Hubert Hand agreed. "You and Chad and I went down to the barns together. We let the cows in. We milked them. At least, you and I did. Chad stayed with you and was kidding around down in your end of the barn. I heard you laughing and talking down there, together, the whole time. Is that right?"

"Practically," Sam answered. "All but, I couldn't swear that you were in the barn during the entire time."