“I’d like that. Rod’s a nice chap, and truly, Fred had nothing against him, except that he wanted to take Betty away from us. It would be no slighting of Fred’s wishes if I should have to do with Mr Granniss,—and nobody could be better help to me in my search.”
“I can’t see, Minna,” said Janet, “what you hope from that search. Every nook and cranny of this whole place has been thoroughly examined, and as nothing has been found——”
“That’s just it, Janet,” Minna spoke patiently, “because nothing has been found is the very reason I must search more and further. I shall, first of all, offer a large reward. The size of the reward may bring information when no other means would.”
“Make the offer as large as you like, Minna,” Varian said, but not unkindly, “for you’ll never be called upon to pay it. Why, child, there’s no hope. I don’t want to be brutal, but really, Minna, dear, you oughtn’t to buoy yourself up with these false hopes, that never can be realized.”
“Look here, Herbert, what do you think happened to my child? Who do you think killed Fred?”
“Since you ask me, Minna, I must say, in all honesty, that I can’t see any possible theory or any imaginable explanation except that Betty shot her father, and then shot herself.”
“Where is she, then?”
“Hidden in some secret cupboard in this house, that she knew of, but that we haven’t yet found.”
“I can see, Herbert,” Minna spoke slowly, “how you can believe that, because, as you say, you can’t think of any other case. But I know,—I know Betty never shot her father. I know that,—and I shall yet prove it.”
“But, Minna, there must have been more enmity between Fred and Betty than you know of, to make him leave the Varian pearls to Eleanor.”