Laura Lee Guhrke by Not So Innocent Page A

made on his life unless I were involved.”
    Violet did not seem offended by that. She actually laughed and shook her head at Dunbar as if he were a naughty child. “You don’t believe in psychic ability, Inspector?”
    “I confess that when your niece first came to me yesterday, I was skeptical of her story. It did sound farfetched.”
    “That’s because you don’t know Sophie,” Violet answered. “If you did, you would know how accurate her predictions arc, and would have believed her at once. Spirits work through her.”
    “It’s no use, Auntie,” Sophie said. “Inspector Dunbar is a nonbeliever. He thinks people like you and I are quite mad.”
    “Your niece misunderstands me,” Dunbar protested, smiling in the face of Sophie’s annoyance, which only annoyed her more. “I know that there are many baffling things in life,” he went on, “things that cannot always be explained by conventional means.”
    Violet laughed. “That’s a polite way of saying you are a nonbeliever, Mr. Dunbar.”
    “Perhaps,” he admitted, laughing with her.
    Sophie seemed to be the only one who didn’t find it amusing.
    “I understand you take in lodgers here, Mrs. Summer-street,” he said, changing the subject.
    “That is so, yes. We have four lodgers at present. Two of them are spiritualists like myself. We hold meetings every other Friday night to discuss the phenomena in and around London. I believe you would find it quite fascinating, even though you are a nonbeliever. Last night we discussed the ghosts of Apsley House at great length.”
    “Really?” he said in a conversational tone. “How interesting. Are there ghosts in Apsley House?”
    His pretended interest in the subject of spiritualism was galling enough, but as Auntie answered him, Sophie sensed his interest in the subject had a deeper purpose than simply making conversation. His next question proved it.
    “Did all four of your lodgers attend this meeting?” he asked. “And how long did it last?”
    He was trying to find out what everyone had been up to when the shot had been fired at him, and Sophie realized this might be her chance to be rid of him. Perhaps if he knew no one in her household could have done it, he’d go away and leave them alone.
    “The colonel didn’t attend, of course,” Violet answered. “He plays dominoes with Mr. Shelton, the neighbor who lives behind us, on those nights. Mr. Dawes was out as well, at a coffeehouse in Chelsea with his friends, a place called Kelly’s, if I remember what he said when he left last night. They were studying,I believe, since his examinations are in June. He’s a medical student, you see.”
    She saw Violet smile at Dunbar, and she realized Auntie liked him, a fact that baffled her. “Like you,” Violet continued, “Edward and the colonel are nonbelievers. But Miss Peabody, Miss Atwood, Mrs. Shelton, myself, and two of our other neighbors attended the meeting here. Sophie, of course, had gone to see you and make sure you were still alive. Our meeting lasted from half past eight to about eleven. When Sophie came home, we were just finishing our coffee.”
    Seeming to be satisfied by that explanation of everyone’s whereabouts, Dunbar glanced at his surroundings, then returned his attention to Violet. “You have a beautiful home. It must be a very pleasant place for your lodgers to live.”
    Sophie stiffened, her suspicions about him sharpening again. Why was he buttering up Auntie? What did he want?
    “Thank you,” Violet replied, sounding pleased. “Sophie runs things, of course, but both of us think of the people who stay here as family, and we try to provide them with all the comforts of a home.”
    “Your lodgers are fortunate, ma’am. You seem to be concerned with their welfare. I wish my landlady had that same sense of consideration about her tenants. She doesn’t much care about those of us who live in her lodging house, I’m sorry to say.”
    Somehow, Sophie felt a sudden