a command. Not tonight She softened her voice. “Please,” she said. “Something happened tonight, and I don’t know what it means or what we should do about it.”
Jack sank back into the chair he had been occupying. “You mean after I left?”
Rose nodded. “I couldn’t sleep, and after a while I decided to get something to eat. I went down to the kitchen, and while I was there Sarah came in.”
“So?”
“I’m sorry. She came in from outside. She was dripping wet and covered with mud. Needless to say, I haven’t the slightest idea where she’d been, or why.”
“What did you do?”
“What could I do? I took her upstairs, bathed her, and put her to bed. I waited till she fell asleep, then came down here. I’ve been here ever since, trying to figure out what she could have been doing.”
“Did she do anything in the kitchen?”
“If you mean, did she make one of her scenes, no. But I had the strangest feeling. I was burrowing around in the fridge when she came in, and I didn’t hear her. I didn’t realize there was anyone there till I felt the draft from the open door. When I realized there was someone in the room, my first thought was to grab a knife. And that’s when I saw Sarah. She was standing by the knife drawer, and it seemed like she was trying to make up her mind about something.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know,” Rose said uncomfortably. Then: “Oh, yes, I do know. It seemed to me that she was trying to choose one of the knives. I’m probably wrong, but that’s the way it seemed.”
Jack considered it, turning everything over in his mind, but he could come up with no answers.
“Is she still in her room?” he asked.
“Yes. I’d have heard her if she’d come down.”
“Well, I don’t see what we can do tonight. Let’s go to bed, and look in on her. Then I’ll call Dr. Belter in the morning. I doubt if it’s anything serious, though. She was probably sleepwalking.”
“No,” Rose said definitely. “She wasn’t sleepwalking, I’m sure she was awake, and I’m sure she knew what she was doing. And I’m very much afraid of what it might have been.”
She was thinking of Kathy Burton and Jimmy Tyler, and Jack knew it. But he saw no reason to try to talk to her about it. It would be better to let Dr. Belter handle it in the morning.
“Come on,” he said gently, “let’s go to bed.”
As he led her upstairs, he realized that Sylvia was right. He did love his wife. He loved her very much. He hoped it wasn’t too late for them.
23
The next day, Columbus Day, dawned bright and cold, with a north wind rattling the house at the end of Conger’s Point. By nine o’clock the brightness was gone, and the gray skies blended into an almost invisible horizon with the leaden sea. There was a heavy swell running, and the surf pounded at the Point with a winter strength.
“I know it’s a holiday,” Rose heard Jack saying into the telephone as she came down the stairs. “But I think it’s pretty important. She seems to have been sleepwalking.”
Fifteen miles away, in his cramped apartment at White Oaks, Charles Belter was stifling a yawn. He came awake at the word and his brows knit into a frown. Sleepwalking? It didn’t fit the pattern. “Just what do you mean by sleepwalking?” he inquired. He yawned again, covering the mouthpiece of the telephone, and reached for his coffee. He was glad Jack Conger was at least aware it was a holiday, even if he didn’t intend to respect the fact.
“Well,” Jack was saying, “I’m not really sure she was sleepwalking. It just seems to be the most logical explanation. She was wandering around in the rain last night.”
Belter set his coffee down and straightened up. “In the rain?” he said. “You mean outside?”
“That’s right.”
“What time was this?”
“I’d say about eleven thirty. Maybe midnight.”
“How long was she outside?”
“I don’t have any idea. We didn’t know she’d gone anywhere. My wife came down to get something to eat, and while she was in the kitchen Sarah came in. Soaking wet and muddy.”
“I see,” Dr. Belter said. “Did she seem to be all right otherwise?”
“I—I don’t really know,” Jack faltered. “I wasn’t home.”
When there was no reply, Jack felt he ought to explain a little more. “I had to go out for a while,” he said.
“What time did you get back?”