Read Online The Golden Goose by Ellery Queen - Free Book Online Page A

reception of him now was not entirely cordial.
    â€œOh, it’s you again,” said Aunt Lallie. “Why are you here, and when did you come?”
    â€œYour niece Princess is my reason, Miss O’Shea,” said Coley with proper respect, “and my arrival time was about a half hour ago.”
    â€œA half hour?” Aunt Lallie’s tone suggested that she had slipped with no sweat into the head-of-the-family niche so unexpectedly vacated by Uncle Slater. “Where have you been, young man? What have you been doing to my niece?”
    â€œâ€˜With’ would be the more appropriate preposition,” said Prin quickly, before Coley could answer. “We’ve been in the hall closet making love.”
    â€œThe hall closet?” frowned Cousin Peet. “Isn’t that rather small for things like that?”
    â€œNot if you’re talented,” said Prin.
    â€œYou’re being facetious, of course,” said Aunt Lallie coldly, “and showing extremely poor taste, with your Uncle Slater lying upstairs dead and the house full of police. That was the police you admitted, Twig, wasn’t it?”
    â€œYou know damn well it was,” replied her nephew. “Two detectives named Grundy and Boatner. They’ve gone upstairs for a look at Uncle Slater. Incidentally, that’s where Prin and this Collins character have been, not any hall closet. Old Appleton caught them sneaking out of Uncle Slater’s room and told Lieutenant Grundy about it.”
    â€œPrin!” said Aunt Lallie. “Is that true?”
    â€œYes,” said Prin tiredly.
    â€œBut why? Aren’t we in enough trouble without you and this—this bartender making matters worse?”
    â€œDon’t blame your niece, Miss O’Shea,” said Coley. “It was my idea, and bartending is only a trivial avocation—”
    â€œYour idea!” frowned Aunt Lallie. “And what business was it of yours, pray, to barge in where you are not wanted?”
    â€œMy turn,” said Prin to Coley. “Why, Aunt Lallie, Coley didn’t barge in on anyone but Uncle Slater, who couldn’t have cared less. As for Coley’s not being wanted here, I want him, and I’ll remind you that this is my home as well as yours. Also, I think we’d better stop bickering and start remembering that Dr. Appleton has practically accused one of us of murdering Uncle Slater. And if he gets that lieutenant to agreeing with him—”
    â€œBut that’s so silly . Why would one of us wish to murder poor Slater?”
    â€œExactly, exactly,” said Brother Brady nervously. “Uncle Slater was the patron saint of freeloaders. None of us with a brain cell in his or her head would have knocked him off.”
    â€œBrady, you have a crude and disgusting manner of expressing yourself, do you know that?” said Aunt Lallie. “And anyway, what do you mean by that remark?”
    â€œIf I may interpret, Miss O’Shea,” said Coley, “your nephew is not sure that everyone here measures up to his specification.”
    â€œSpecification,” said Peet. “What does he mean by specification?”
    â€œHis specification that no one with a brain,” explained Twig, “would have dreamed of murdering Uncle Slater.”
    â€œIs that what you meant, Brady?” demanded Peet. “That I’m stupid?”
    â€œIt’s all right, Peet,” muttered Brady. “I don’t think I could stand it if you added intelligence to your other equipment. You’d be a bigger menace than the H-bomb.”
    â€œWhy, Brady,” said Peet, mollified. “What a nice thing to say.”
    â€œPeet darling, why don’t you change your position a little?” suggested Prin. “You’re disturbing Brady. And I’m not sure he’s the only one.”
    Peet, startled, lifted her right knee off her left and switched legs. This