Read From Afar for Free Online Page B

have events in Italy to do with you?” I blustered.
    â€œNothin’,” he admitted blandly. “But sometimes the police in different countries find things to help each other.... Well, I’ll keep you .no longer, Mr. Shaw. Probably see you later when I call on your wife.”
    He returned leisurely to his headquarters and I drove on again grimly, not caring where I went. So the postman had talked! I might have known it— The damned, driveling old fool! The police were on to the hunt now, and if they found those jewel pieces they’d probably arrest Beryl there and then. Somehow I had got to protect her. She was still my wife....
    Somehow I marshaled a plan out of the chaos. I drove on into the city, and had two keys made from my wax impression block. It took an hour, during which time I grabbed some lunch, then I set off back home. I arrived in the early afternoon, declutched the car into the garage to make no sound, then silently entered the house.
    My idea was to perhaps surprise Beryl in some guilty act. But instead it was me that got the surprise. Beryl was in the lounge, lying on the divan fast asleep. At least I thought she was. Her book on astronomy lay on the floor beside her dangling hand, and she lay breathing softly with her eyes closed. I wondered if the dosage of sleeping tablets was having still a latent effect.
    Softly I moved out into the hall again, and nearly collided with Mrs. Wilson.
    â€œMrs. Shaw been out at all today?” I asked her quickly.
    â€œNo, Mr. Shaw—not at all.”
    â€œAnybody called? Inspector Hilton—or the postman perhaps?”
    â€œWhy, no, Mr. Shaw.” Mrs. Wilson gave me a mystified look. “Is anything wrong, sir? This morning you returned hurriedly with a small box, and now you are back long before your usual time. Can I get you something—?”
    â€œI did come back then, with a box?” I gripped her arm.
    â€œSurely: I saw you from the hall here. You didn’t look very well, I might add.”
    â€œNo—I didn’t feel it. Did you see what happened to that box after I left it in the lounge?”
    â€œAs I recall, your wife went into the basement with it.” Mrs. Wilson nodded rather dubiously to the closed door under the staircase.
    I thought a moment, then said, “Okay, that’s all. And you have not seen me this afternoon—remember that! It’s in everybody’s interests that you say that. I’ve an idea some trouble is blowing up.”
    She nodded slowly and went off to the domestic regions. I returned to the lounge to make sure Beryl was still asleep. She was. Picking up her book I looked at the page she had been reading.
    It was all about Andromeda—the Great Nebula of Andromeda—a long and highly technical treatise concerning the possibility of life on those far distant worlds swirling in that hazy scum untold light years away.
    Interesting? In a sense...and again I thought of that statement that the bloodstone might have come from outer space. Just for a second I hovered on the verge of the revolting, incredible truth—then I couldn’t pursue it any further for Beryl stirred very slightly.
    I made myself scarce immediately, hurried to the cellar, unlocked the door with my duplicate key and closed it behind me. Inside of five minutes I had hidden myself into the deepest shadows of the first cellar where I could watch and not be watched. I was in the dark, my heart thumping. I no longer had illusions about Beryl. If she discovered me she’d probably kill me....
    After I had waited for about ten minutes the door opened at the top of the steps. Good! My hope that she might come down here was being realized.... A switch clicked. Dim light illumined the cellar steps. She closed the door behind her, descended the steps quickly, walked right past the place where I was concealed and into the contiguous cellar. Another light came on. I watched intently.
    Her face