Lorraine’s Confession
Everything was not all right, as Judy soon discovered. When she awoke
Peter was not there, and neither was her father. She had a younger
nurse—a student whom she did not know. “Are you feeling well enough to
have visitors today?” the nurse was asking. “Mr. and Mrs.
Farringdon-Pett are here to see you.”
“Arthur! Lorraine!” exclaimed Judy as they came in. “I’m happy—so
happy you came together.”
She did not ask if their differences were all mended. Lorraine said
simply, “We’ve been talking with Horace.”
“How is he?” asked Judy. “The sound of his typewriter has been like
music—”
“Not to me,” Lorraine interrupted.
Arthur gave her one of his frosty looks and answered Judy’s question.
“He looks about the same as usual. He was treated for shock and
submersion and sent home.”
Judy laughed. “I am in a fog. I don’t even know what day it is.”
“Time passes quickly in a hospital. It seems ages since we had luncheon
together. Did you know Arthur had asked Peter to arrange it?” Lorraine
asked. “Arthur didn’t trust me, either, I guess. He’s always arranging
things for me. But we don’t want to burden you with our troubles. We
brought you some flowers.”
“Oh, thank you!” exclaimed Judy. She took the roses Arthur gave her and
breathed in their fragrance. “I can breathe now,” she told him,
“without that awful pain in my chest. Dad says I’ll be as good as new
before long, and so will Horace. But how are you, Lorraine? You were so
frightened the last time I saw you.”
“I’m still frightened. Oh, Judy! Judy!” cried Lorraine. “How can I ever
explain things to Arthur?”
“What is there to explain?” he asked coldly. “Peter has given me all
the facts.”
“I don’t mean facts!” Lorraine cried. “You see, Judy, he doesn’t
understand. He doesn’t want to listen when I try to tell him. He says
he’s heard enough about that terrible gangster. He could have killed
you, Judy—”
“He didn’t, Lorraine. I’m very much alive.”
“He killed something else then. He killed Arthur’s love for me. That
beautiful ring was a symbol of his love, and I gave it to that awful
man. I thought I had to keep him quiet. I don’t expect either of you to
believe it, but when Falco telephoned me and made all those threats, I
thought he’d expose Arthur and the whole family would be disgraced if I
didn’t give him the ruby. Then he said it wasn’t enough, and I went
back and gave him more of my jewelry. He called himself Falco and said
he was fighting crime.”
“Who was I?” asked Arthur. “The criminal?”
“Well, no—not exactly, but he did make me think you were cheating
people, misrepresenting everything, building all those new houses in
Roulsville and even the Farringdon post office, out of defective
materials.”
“You believed all that—of me, Lorraine?”
She admitted it with a nod. Tears were streaming down her face. Judy
tried to comfort her. But she said the wrong thing. She mentioned the
ring, only to learn that the police had been unable to recover any of
the jewelry Lorraine had foolishly given to Falco.
“That ruby has caused a lot of grief,” Arthur said bitterly. He seemed
stunned by Lorraine’s confession. They kept looking at each other as if
they were strangers instead of the devoted couple Judy had believed
them to be. Finally Arthur said, “We’d better go now. We shouldn’t have
upset you with our problems, Judy. May I apologize for both of us?”
Lorraine was still crying when they left. The nurse hurried in with Dr.
Bolton. She said something to him about the visitors being bad for
patients and he agreed. Judy did feel weak. She was glad when visiting
hours were over and she could rest.
Lorraine was alone the next time she came to visit Judy. In the
meantime Judy’s mother, Peter’s grandparents, his sister Honey, and
many of Judy’s friends and neighbors had been in to see her. Horace had
visited her while he was still in the hospital, but now he was out on
the trail of more news.
“I miss hearing his typewriter,” Judy told her father, who was there
when Lorraine came in.
“Is it all right?” she asked, peeping through the half-open door. “The
nurse at the desk downstairs said I could come up for a little while.”
“Of course it’s all right. You two girls may have the room to
yourselves,” Dr. Bolton told them. “I’m on my way out. I’ll see you at
home, Judy girl.”
“Did he sign you out?” asked Lorraine when he was gone. “That’s
wonderful, Judy! I guess you won’t be needing these.”
The room was filled with flowers. Judy added the bouquet Lorraine gave
her to the collection. “I’ll take them all home. People have been so
good to me.”
“I haven’t,” Lorraine said. “I didn’t mean to upset you the other day,
but I’ve been so mixed up. You solved everything else. That man will go
to prison—”
“Not Dick? They aren’t going to send him back. Peter talked with his
parole officer. He understands how it was.”
“Arthur doesn’t,” Lorraine said with a deep sigh. “He thinks I should
have suspected those signatures were forged. I could have written to
the Brandts.”
“Peter did get in touch with them,” Judy told her. “They didn’t lease
their estate. They left Stanley to take care of it, and he allowed the
gang to move in. Falco must have bribed him or something. I think the
Brandts hired Roger Banning, too. He was supposed to repair the
fountain.”
“It wasn’t repaired when we were there,” Lorraine remembered.
“I know. Roger was forced to work for the gang, instead. They made him
bring his friend along. Dick didn’t know what they were up to at first,
but when he found out it was extortion he refused to have any part of
it. He told Horace all about it.”
Judy had seen the papers and read her brother’s story, but there were
still a few pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit.
“The police didn’t find the jewels they were looking for,” she
continued. “I told Peter they should have looked in the fountain.
Lorraine, there is a locked room down under it. The loot from their
robberies might be stored there. Peter knows about it now. He’ll get
back your ring.”
“I hope he will. Lois said there wasn’t anything you couldn’t solve,”
Lorraine remembered, “and I guess that goes for Peter, too. Everybody
else knew I was doing wrong before I did. I don’t expect Arthur to
forgive me, but if we had the ring back he might unbend a little and
stop being so cold and polite all the time.”
“He’s that way because he’s hurt,” Judy explained. “Most men are like
that. Girls cry, but men just hold it all in and hurt back, or else
they get angry and shout. I think Peter would get angry.”
“I wish Arthur would get angry! I deserve it after all the trouble I’ve
caused.”
“Lorraine,” Judy said, taking her hand, “did it ever occur to you that
you felt exactly the way Falco intended you to feel? Peter says that’s
the way confidence men work, and Falco was a confidence man as well as
a jewel thief and an extortioner. Roger Banning, the Cubberlings, and
Dick Hartwell were all victims of his vicious lies. He should be behind
bars for a long, long time.”
“I guess he will be, but that doesn’t solve my problem. I don’t think
there is a solution,” Lorraine declared. “Arthur knows I deceived him.
I told him I went to the movies with you the night I met Falco. I even
said I was calling from the movies when I was actually calling from the
Brandt place. He and Peter had arranged to trace the call. They knew it
wasn’t true. Now Arthur will never trust me.”
“Do you trust him? I mean completely?” asked Judy. “Before this
happened, weren’t there a few little doubts in your mind? Weren’t you
afraid to let him have friends for fear he’d like them better than you?
Be honest with yourself, Lorraine, and be honest with him, and I think
everything will work out in time.”
“I hope it will,” Lorraine replied, as she rose to leave.
“You might trust the rest of us a little bit, too, while you’re at it,”
Judy added. “Just keep on believing the stolen jewels will be found and
we’ll keep on trying to find them. Peter hasn’t given up yet, you know.
And pretty soon I’ll be well enough to help him.”
“It isn’t just the ring,” Lorraine said, “but it would help if I had
it. ’Bye, Judy, and thanks—for everything.”
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