it just came pouring out of her. Soon she was crying, and he probably couldn't understand a word she was saying. She gave him that old, twisted little bit of card. She told about the ads she'd run, and how she'd told Deirdre that she could never find him.
Then came the difficult part. 'There are things that girl in California doesn't know! That property'? This, and maybe the lawyers will tell her that, but what about the curse, Mr Ligktner? I'm putting my trust in you, I'm telling you things my husband doesn't want me to tell a living soul. But if Deirdre put her trust in you back then, well, that's enough for me. I'm telling you, the jewels and the house are cursed.'
Finally, she told him everything. She told him all that Jerry had told her. She told him all that Red had ever said. She told him anything and everything she could remember.
And the funny thing was that he was never surprised or shocked. And over and over again, he assured her that he would do his best to get this information to the girl in California.
When it was all said, and she sat there wiping her nose, her white wine untouched, the man asked her if she would keep his card, if she would call him when there was any 'change' with Deirdre. If she could not reach him she was to leave a message. The people who answered the phone would understand. She need only say it was in connection with Deirdre May-fair.
She took her prayer book out of her purse. 'Give me those numbers again,' she said, and she wrote down the words, 'In connection with Deirdre Mayfair.'
Only after she had written it all out, did she think to ask, 'But tell me, Mr Lightner, how did you come to know Deirdre?'
'It's a long story, Mrs Lonigan,' he said. 'You might say I've been watching that family for years. I have two paintings done by Deirdre's father, Sean Lacy. One of them is of Antha. He was the one who was killed on the highway in New York before Deirdre was born.'
'He was killed on the highway? I never knew.'
'It's doubtful anyone down here ever did,' he said. 'Quite a painter he was. He did a beautiful portrait of Antha with the famous emerald necklace. I came by it through a New York dealer some years after both of them were dead. Deirdre was probably ten years old by that time. I didn't meet her until she went off to college.'
'That's a funny thing, about Deirdre's father going off the road,' she said. 'It's just what happened to Deirdre's boyfriend too, the man she was going to marry. Did you know that? That he went off the river road when he was driving down to New Orleans?'
She thought she saw a little change in the Englishman's face then, but she couldn't be sure. Seemed his eyes got smaller for just a second.
'Yes, I did know,' he said. He seemed to be thinking about things he didn't want to tell her. Then he started talking again. 'Mrs Lonigan, will you promise me something?'
'What is it, Mr Lightner?'
'If something should happen, something wholly unexpected, and the daughter from California should come home, please don't try to talk to her. Call me instead. Call me any time day or night, and I promise I shall be here as soon as I can get a plane out of London.'
'You mean I shouldn't tell her these things myself, that's what you're saying?'
'Yes,' he answered, very serious-like, touching her hand for the first time but in a very gentlemanly way that was completely proper. 'Don't go to that house again, especially not if the daughter is there. I promise you that if I cannot come myself, someone else will come, someone else who will accomplish what we want done, someone quite familiar with the whole story.'
'Oh, that would be a big load off my mind,' Rita said. She sure didn't want to talk to that girl, a total stranger, and try to tell her all these things. But suddenly the whole thing began to puzzle her. For the first time she started wondering - who was this nice man? Was she wrong to trust him?
'You can trust me, Mrs Lonigan,' he said, just as if he knew what she was thinking. 'Please be certain of it. And I've met Deirdre's daughter, and I know that she is a rather quiet