True to their resolve, Max and Norman drove off in their car immediately after supper, with Freckles and Jane along with them. The rest of the inhabitants of Shady Nook settled down to a quiet evening of waiting. Waiting and hoping for news.
About eight o’clock Mr. and Mrs. Frazier came over from the hotel to offer their sympathy to the Gays.
“I don’t want to alarm you, Gay,” said Frazier, “but I think you haven’t given enough thought to the river. Mary Louise was playing tennis on our court early in the afternoon, and the most natural thing in the world would be for her to take a swim afterwards. You know yourself that even the best of swimmers have cramps.”
Mrs. Gay clutched her husband’s arm tightly in an effort to control herself. What a horrible suggestion!
“Terrible as it is, drowning is better than lots of things that might happen,” remarked Mrs. Frazier.
Mrs. Gay glared at the woman with hatred in her eyes. How could she sit there and talk like that? She rose abruptly.
“You’ll have to excuse us now, Mrs. Frazier,” she said unsteadily. “My husband and I have things to do.”
The hotelkeeper and his wife got up from their chairs just as the detectives’ car stopped at the bungalow. Everybody waited tensely.
“No news of your daughter, Mrs. Gay,” announced one of the detectives, immediately. “But we are on Adams’ trail. He’s been spotted, speeding across the country in a stolen car. This afternoon they found the car, abandoned near a woods. Undoubtedly he’s guilty.”
Frazier’s white face became even more pasty-looking. Nobody noticed it, except Mr. Gay, who made it his business to watch people’s reactions.