“Only when he wants something. He tries to flatter Aunt Mattie and tease her money away from her. But, as far as I know, he never gets any.”
“What did he want yesterday?”
“He said he wanted a loan. He didn’t bother to talk quietly: I could hear every word he said from the kitchen.”
“And your aunt refused?”
“Yes. She told him to sell his car if he needed money. As if he could sell that old bus!” Elsie laughed. “You’d have to pay somebody to take that away,” she explained.
Mary Louise tapped her pencil again. She hated to get away from the all-important subject.
“But how do you think Harry could have stolen the money if your aunt Mattie was with him all the time?” she asked.
“Aunt Mattie wasn’t. He had a fine chance. Something had gone wrong with his car, and he had to fix it on the way over. So his hands were all dirty, and he went upstairs to wash them.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Jane significantly.
“Looks bad for Harry Grant,” commented Mary Louise, “because he had a motive. Daddy always looks for two things when he’s solving a crime: the motive, and the chance to get away with it. And it seems that this young man had both.”