“We’re looking for decorating ideas,” Lois confided. “Donna’s family’s bought one of those Victorian houses on Grove Street, and it has to be furnished with period pieces.”
“Oh, we have things, but not the right things,” Donna put in. “We’ve moved around too much. My father’s business keeps him on the move, but he says this time we’re in Farringdon to stay.”
“You lived here before, didn’t you?” Judy questioned. “Where Mr. Sammis’ antique shop is now?”
She knew the answer. But Donna wouldn’t admit that she had ever lived in the poorer section of North Farringdon or that Mr. Sammis had bought what used to be the Truitt house.
“We lived in Ulysses before we moved here,” she insisted. “Of course, I know the shop you mean. I stopped there to look at some of his antiques.”
“He has some nice things,” Judy admitted, “but his shop is so crowded it’s hard to find them. Some of his furniture has been broken and then mended, and some of it is warped. I don’t think any of it would be right for one of those Grove Street houses.”
“He has other stuff, Judy,” Lois told her. “That shop you visited isn’t his only place of business.”
“Do you know where his other shops are?” Judy questioned.
Lois shook her head. Donna claimed not to know either, but, from the way she pulled Lois away, Judy felt she was avoiding further questions. When Judy was in the car again she mentioned it to Peter.
“Donna Truitt won’t avoid the questions Hank Lawson asks her on their date tonight,” declared Peter. “He’s going to question Sammis, too. It’s better if he doesn’t suspect you have any interest in anything he has to sell, or in any of his other shops. We’ll find them without arousing his suspicions.”