I said, “All right. It’s just a theory so far.”
“Never mind that part of it. I know it’s a theory. It has to be, but I want it.”
I said, “Here it comes. Mrs. Lintig and her husband split up twenty-one years ago. Mrs. Lintig leaves Oakview. Oakview becomes afflicted with economic atrophy. The town dries up until the money in the bank vaults dies of inaction and loneliness.”
“What’s all that got to do with it?” Bertha asked.
I said, “Simply this. The Lintigs associated with the younger set. After the town dried up, the younger set moved away looking for more action, more opportunities. The last place on earth where Mrs. Lintig would find any of her own crowd would be in Oakview.”
“All right,” she said, “I don’t follow you all the way, but go ahead.”
I said, “For twenty-one years no one in Oakview cares anything about Mrs. Lintig. Then all of a sudden a man shows up and starts asking questions. Two or three weeks later, Evaline Harris shows up and starts collecting photographs. Now, why did she want those photographs? Apparently she snooped out every single photograph in existence that had Mrs. Lintig in it, and bought those photographs.”
Bertha Cool’s eyes showed interest.
“Then,” I. said, “she comes back to the city and gets murdered.”
“For the photographs?” Bertha asked. “Surely net for those, lover. They aren’t that important.”