The Origin of Evil Read Online Free

plan to shop at the supermarket on North Highland. A pot of fresh coffee on the range and a deep dish of whipped avocado and bacon bits surrounded by crackers told him that Mrs. Williams had overheard all, so he took them upstairs.
    Laurel said, surprised, ‘How nice of you,’ as if niceness these days were a quality that called for surprise. She refused the crackers just as nicely, but then she changed her mind and ate ten of them without pausing, and she drank three cups of coffee. ‘I remembered I hadn’t eaten anything today.’
    â€˜That’s what I thought.’
    She was frowning now, which he regarded as an improvement over the stone face she had been wearing. ‘I’ve tried to talk to Roger Priam half a dozen times since then, but he won’t even admit he and Dad discussed anything unusual. I told him in words of one syllable where I thought his obligations lay — certainly his debt to their lifelong friendship and partnership — and I explained my belief that Daddy was murdered by somebody who knew how bad his heart was and deliberately shocked him into a heart attack. And I asked for the letter. He said innocently, “What letter?” and I realized I’d never get a thing out of him. Roger’s either over his scare or he’s being his usual Napoleonic self. There’s a big secret behind all this and he means to keep it.’
    â€˜Do you think,’ asked Ellery, ‘that he’s confided in Mrs. Priam?’
    â€˜Roger doesn’t confide in anybody,’ replied Laurel grimly. ‘And if he did, the last person in the world he’d tell anything to would be Delia.’
    â€˜Oh, the Priams don’t get along?’
    â€˜I didn’t say they don’t get along.’
    â€˜They do get along?’
    â€˜Let’s change the subject, shall we?’
    â€˜Why, Laurel?’
    â€˜Because Roger’s relationship with Delia has nothing to do with any of this.’ Laurel sounded earnest. But she was hiding something just the same. ‘I’m interested in only one thing — finding out who wrote that note to my father.’
    â€˜Still,’ said Ellery, ‘what was your father’s relationship with Delia Priam?’
    â€˜Oh!’ Laurel laughed. ‘Of course you couldn’t know. No, they weren’t having an affair. Not possibly. Besides, I told you Daddy said I was the only woman in his life.’
    â€˜Then they were hostile to each other?’
    â€˜Why do you keep on the subject of Delia?’ she asked, a snap in her voice.
    â€˜Why do you keep off it?’
    â€˜Dad got along with Delia fine. He got along with everybody.’
    â€˜Not everybody, Laurel,’ said Ellery.
    She looked at him sharply.
    â€˜That is, if your theory that someone deliberately scared him to death is sound. You can’t blame the police, Laurel, for being fright-shy. Fright is a dangerous weapon that doesn’t show up under the microscope. It takes no fingerprints and it’s the most unsatisfactory kind of legal evidence. Now the letter … if you had the letter, that would be different. But you don’t have it.’
    â€˜You’re laughing at me.’ Laurel prepared to rise.
    â€˜Not at all. The smooth stories are usually as slick as their surface. I like a good rough story. You can scrape away at the uneven places, and the dust tells you things. Now I know there’s something about Delia and Roger Priam. What is it?’
    â€˜Why must you know?’
    â€˜Because you’re so reluctant to tell me.’
    â€˜I’m not. I just don’t want to waste any time, and to talk about Delia and Roger is wasting time. Their relationship has nothing to do with my father.’
    Their eyes locked.
    Finally, with a smile, Ellery wavered.
    â€˜No, I don’t have the letter. And that’s what the police said. Without the letter, or some evidence to go on, they