“Susie has always been very, very devoted to Aunt Amelia. There’s some sort of strange bond between them.”
“And your Aunt Amelia’s married life wasn’t particularly happy?”
“I’m sure I couldn’t tell you, Donald. I didn’t see too much of her. She irritated me and — well, that’s the way it is. I do know that Aunt Amelia always wanted to be free. She was looking for romance.”
I got up and moved over to look out of the window, lit a cigarette, paced the floor for a few minutes, then went back and sat down.
“Why do you think my aunt was being blackmailed?”
“Because I think Tom Durham was a blackmailer.”
Claire Bushnell said, “Well, I don’t know as there’s any way that we can find out anything about it. Of course... Well, come to think of it, there was something rather peculiar about my uncle’s death; that is, it was sudden, and Aunt Amelia didn’t seem to have any of the symptoms that he had. I remember she said she had been a little ill, but, to tell you the truth, I didn’t think too much about it.”
I said, “Minerva Carlton was being blackmailed. That is, someone was putting a bite on her. I think it was Tom Durham. I think she also found out that Tom was trying to blackmail your aunt. I think she wanted to find out all she could about Tom, and, because Tom was trying to bleed your aunt white, it gave Minerva a good opening to get a private detective agency to work on the job through you.”
“What makes you think Minerva was being blackmailed?”
I said, “Everything points to it. I…”