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.It was too pale and too narrow to make animpression, much less a statement. I don t know what you mean, Mr. She made a show ofconsulting the card. Sweet.You ll have to excuse me now.Since I m not empowered to act for the Nicholsons in anyway, there s no point in my talking to you. His eyes narrowed. You ve got the wrong impression,Ms.Reed.I m not Mr.and Mrs.Nicholson s attorney more sthe pity.I represent the late Miss Musser. I see. She studied him with renewed interest, and thenremembered that she had no reason to be interested in MissMusser s lawyer. Or rather I still don t see.What is it youwant? May I come in for a moment? No. She added, in a less hostile tone, The Nicholsonsleft me in charge, Mr.Sweet, and frankly, I don t know youfrom Adam.I d be a damned fool to invite you in, nowwouldn t I? He let out a short bark of laughter, his blue eyes dancing. Yes, you would.But I doubt, Ms.Reed, that anyone wouldtake you for a fool.Let me explain. Please do. Diana folded her arms. The Nicholsons asked me about certain items of MissMusser s property, Sweet explained easily. She left theentire estate to various charities, so it was necessary to 76 Barbara Michaelsconsult the boards of those charities before disposing ofindividual items. What items? The answer surprised her. Photographs.The Nicholsonshave a fancy to collect pictures of the former owners of thehouse, and of the house itself, in its various stages of devel-opment.It was only this week that I was able to obtain them.I fear I may have inadvertently misled you when I implied Ihad a specific appointment with the Nicholsons; we countryfolk are casual about such things, we feel free to drop in onone another without warning. He was about as casual as a barracuda, Diana thought andthat suit hadn t come from a country store. It was kind ofyou to bring the pictures, she said. You can leave themwith me, unless you d rather do it by the book. No problem, Sweet said.He opened his car door andtook out a thick manila envelope. Here you are.If you dcare to sign a receipt. Certainly. She scribbled her name on the paper hehanded her. Thank you.It was nice to have met you. Likewise, I m sure. Instead of offering to shake handshe nodded country to the point of caricature got in hiscar and drove away.Diana let out an unconscious sigh of relief as she closed thedoor behind her.Sanctuary at last.She wondered what thedevil the lawyer had really wanted.Even in a small town aprofessional man surely wouldn t make a business call withouttelephoning first.In any case, he had no right to prowl aroundthe outside of the house.He hadn t even offered a speciousexcuse to explain what he had been doing in the backyard.The cats collected, scolding her for keeping them waitingfor dinner.She went to the kitchen, opened cans, and ar-ranged the bowls in the places Charles had shown her; theycouldn t be too close to one another or vulgar squabbleswould ensue.The dogs bowls were lined up on the backstep.So were the dogs.They always turned up at meal time,no matter how far afield they had wandered.Diana won-dered how long they had been waiting it was an hour pastthe usual time and what they had been doing while Sweet Vanish with the Rose 77snooped around the house.They weren t worth a damn asguard dogs, but they usually greeted a visitor with a chorusof barks and trailed him carrying balls, sticks and bones,hoping to induce him to play with them.She poured a glass of wine and stood by the back door,admiring the golden light and soft shadows across the pas-ture.Animals came and went; some of the ones who hadbeen in wanted out, and vice versa.As the big Maine Coonpushed past her, she realized she hadn t seen Miss Matilda.The little white cat seldom went out.No doubt she washandicapped as a hunter because of her hearing deficiency.She had never missed a meal, though.The cat wasn t in the library or on her bed.With mountinguneasiness Diana searched the rest of the bedrooms.Emilywould never forgive her if anything happened to Miss Ma-tilda.She was an engaging little creature, whose very vulner-ability added to her appeal, and Emily had made a point ofwarning Diana not to let Matilda outside unsupervised
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