“About Dimitri?” asked Arden eagerly.
“No. It’s all Melissa. You had better hear this woman’s story. She doesn’t want to arrest the poor child, so you can talk freely to her. And she isn’t a policewoman. She is from a private detective agency, though.”
“It’s almost as bad,” said Terry. “Why is a detective agency interested in Melissa?”
“You had better hear the whole story,” suggested Mrs. Landry. “Come, and I will introduce you.”
The three girls trailed after her out to the porch. The woman was as Ida had described her. She looked determined and efficient but not unkind, nor like one who would, as Arden remarked later, “hound a poor girl to death.”
“This is my daughter,” said Mrs. Landry, presenting Terry, “and her two college chums who are spending the summer with her. Miss Blake and Miss Westover.”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Emma Tash, and I’m from the Torrance Private Detective Agency in New York. I was sent down here by my chief to find out something about a girl named Melissa Clayton. As we always do in these cases, we make some inquiries of friends and neighbors before going directly to the parties themselves.
“I stopped in the village, and I found out that you people are friendly with this girl. Do you mind telling me something about her?”
“With the understanding,” put in Mrs. Landry, “that there is no harm intended to Melissa.”
“Oh, now,” Emma Tash was quick to say, “I told you that at the start.”