The Galton Case Read Free Page A

Anthony coming back to claim his inheritance and all that. In the last few weeks it’s become an obsession with her.”
    “I wouldn’t go that far,” the doctor said. “I still think somebody put a bee in her bonnet, and I can’t help wondering why.”
    “Who do you have in mind?”
    “Cassie Hildreth, perhaps. She has a lot of influence on Maria. And speaking of dreams, she had a few of her own when she was a kid. She used to follow Tony around as if he was the light of the world. Which he was far from being, as you know.” Howell’s smile was one-sided and saturnine.
    “This is news to me. I’ll talk to Miss Hildreth.”
    “It’s pure speculation on my part, don’t misunderstand me. I do think this business should be played down as much as possible.”
    “I’ve been trying to play it down. On the other hand I can’t downright refuse to lift a finger.”
    “No, but it would be all to the good if you could just keep it going along, without any definite results, until she gets interested in something different.” The doctor included me in his shrewd glance. “You understand me?”
    “I understand you all right,” I said. “Go through the motions but don’t do any real investigating. Isn’t that pretty expensive therapy?”
    “She can afford it, if that’s what worries you. Maria has more coming in every month than she spends every year.” He regarded me in silence for a moment, stroking his prow of a nose. “I don’t mean you shouldn’t do your job. I wouldn’t ask any man to lie down on a job he’s paid to do. But if you find out anything that might upset Mrs. Galton—”
    Sable put in quickly: “I’ve already taken that up with Archer. He’ll report to me. I think you know you can rely on my discretion.”
    “I think I know I can.”
    Sable’s face changed subtly. His eyelids flickered as though he had been threatened with a blow, and remained heavy over his watchful eyes. For a man of his age and financial weight, he was very easily hurt.
    I said to the doctor: “Did you know Anthony Galton?”
    “Somewhat.”
    “What kind of person was he?”
    Howell glanced toward the maid, who was still waiting in the doorway. She caught his look and withdrew out of sight. Howell lowered his voice:
    “Tony was a sport. I mean that in the biological sense, as well as the sociological. He didn’t inherit the Galton characteristics. He had utter contempt for business of any kind. Tony used to say he wanted to be a writer, but I never saw any evidence of talent. What he was really good at was boozing and fornicating. I gather he ran with a very rough crowd in San Francisco. I’ve always believed myself that one of them killed him for the money in his pockets and threw him in the Bay.”
    “Was there any indication of that sort of thing?”
    “Not to my certain knowledge. But San Francisco in the thirties was a dangerous place for a boy to play around in. He must have dredged pretty deep to turn up the girl he married.”
    “You knew her, did you?” Sable said.
    “I examined her. His mother sent her to me, and I examined her.”
    “Was she here in town?” I said.
    “Briefly. Tony brought her home the week he married her. I don’t believe he had any notion the family would accept her. It was more a case of flinging her in their faces. If that was his idea, it succeeded very well.”
    “What was the matter with the girl?”
    “The obvious thing, and it was obvious—she was seven months’ pregnant.”
    “And you say they’d just been married?”
    “That’s correct. She hooked him. I talked with her a little, and I’d wager he picked her up, hot off the streets. She was a pretty enough little thing, in spite of her big belly, but she’d had a hard life. There were scars on her thighs and buttocks. She wouldn’t explain them to me, but it was evident that she’d been beaten, more than once.” The cruel memory raised faint traces of scarlet on the doctor’s cheekbones.
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