“All in good time. First, I’m relieved to know that the thatched cottage isn’t really dangerous. You only wrote that to be rid of me.”
Lorinda gave her a long, steady look but said not a word.
“Or perhaps there is some mystery about the cottage,” Penny went on. “After all, your stepfather’s disappearance was very queer. But the police, no doubt, will get at the bottom of it when they come here.”
Lorinda scrambled to her feet. “The police!” she gasped. “We’ll not have them here prying around!”
“Whether or not you like it, I’m afraid you will have the police on your doorstep. A man of Mr. Rhett’s prominence can’t disappear without a few questions being asked.”
Lorinda lost much of her defiance. “But this is our own private affair,” she protested. “My stepfather will return—at least, I think he will.”
“And the missing bonds?”
“Missing bonds?”
“Didn’t Albert Potts, the bank secretary, inform your mother that $250,000 in negotiable securities also had disappeared?”
“Why, no! At least I knew nothing of it! Surely you don’t think my stepfather would stoop to the theft of bank securities?”