“Yes. I do want to keep it. Very much. But how can I—after this?”
“I think it would be much better to keep it and make a success of it than—than go back to the twenty-four-hour-a-day stepdaughter job. Don’t you?”
Petra nodded. She had a voice but she did not trust it.
“Easier, even?”
Again she nodded.
“Well, you’re a great help to Miss Frazier. She says so.”
“She won’t now.” She sounded all right. You couldn’t hear a tear.
“Oh, yes, I think she will. She was angry with herself just now, more than with you, I imagine. Just as I was—with myself, I mean. Am still, as a matter of fact. Miss Frazier realized that she should have warned you about the privacy of the files and I knew that it was very nearly criminal of me to leave the files unlocked while I was out. So we’ve all had a miserable time of it. Did you look at anything besides McCloud’s history, by the way?”
“No.”
“All right. If you’ll only wait a little this afternoon till I’m free, Petra, I’d like the pleasure of driving you out to Meadowbrook. I want you to finish about Teresa. Of course, you know that.”