Children in the Morning by Anne Emery

time?
    †
    I made up my mind to ask my first question when I saw Jenny the next day at Four-Four Time. Laurence wasn’t there, so I used that as an excuse, and said: “Where’s your brother? I just mean Laurence, not the other guy. What is his name? I forget.”
    She looked at me, trying to figure out who I meant, because she has a whole bunch of brothers.
    “I wasn’t talking about the guy who is missing,” I said.
    “Oh. Corbett. Yeah, nobody knows where he is.”
    “Where was he last seen?” There, I got it in.
    “The last time anybody saw him was at our house.”
    “Oh. When was that?”
    “I’m not supposed to say.”
    “Really? How come?”
    “Because it was the day Mummy died.”
    “No! How come you’re not supposed to tell?”
    Jenny looked around to make sure nobody was listening in. “He wasn’t allowed in the house. Daddy said so.”
    “Did he sneak in?”
    “Yeah. Daddy was away for a couple of days on a big case. The trial was in the newspapers. That’s when Corbett showed up at the house. Mummy felt sorry for him because he said he didn’t have a place to stay ever since he left us.”
    “So, what happened? Your mum let him in?”
    “She said he could sleep there, down in Connor and Derek’s room because they were away on their school trip. Corbett could sleep 30

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    there but he had to go out during the daytime because we would all be at school, and the little kids would be at Aunt Sheila’s. And Corbett couldn’t stay in the house by himself.”
    I tried to remember the other questions I should ask to solve the mystery of her missing brother. Was he sad? No, that probably wasn’t it.
    “Was he mad because he had to leave in the mornings?”
    “Probably. He was mean. But I don’t know. I didn’t talk to him. I just heard him on the back porch with Mum. Then he went to sleep down in the basement room. Derek and Connor’s. And he was gone when I got up the next day.”
    “That was the day your mum died?”
    “No, well, the day before that, I guess. Then I think he slept there again the night she died, because I remember hearing somebody moving stuff around in the boys’ room. Then it was quiet. The door was closed. But I just went to bed.”
    “Was he around when your mum fell down the stairs?”
    Jenny shrugged her shoulders up. “I don’t think so. He would have been asleep. I didn’t know about Mum dying until Daddy woke us up that morning. And Corbett wasn’t there.”
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    Chapter 3
    (Monty)
    If Beau Delaney was not home when Peggy died, but arrived late at night afterwards, there was a chance his homecoming was noticed by one or more of his neighbours. Given the circumstances, Beau was able to pinpoint his arrival time with some precision: twelve thirty-five in the morning. His call to the ambulance was logged at twelve forty-three, and the medical examiner arrived just before one thirty. In the M.E.’s estimation, Peggy had been dead for around three hours, which meant the time of death was ten thirty or thereabouts. I had not yet seen the witness statements taken by the police. But I wanted my own answers. I also thought there might be some value in Beau Delaney’s own lawyer asking his neighbours for help, or should I say, factual information, so I went on a fact-finding mission to his neighbourhood on Wednesday evening. There seemed little point in asking everyone on his street if they happened to notice his car going by, but his closest neighbours, those on either side and across the street, had a clear view of the Delaneys’ driveway and the front of their house. I began knocking on doors, starting with the one adjacent to the driveway. No, 32

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    Dr. Harrison and his wife had taken no notice one way or the other.
    They were very sorry to lose Peggy as a friend, and they had no doubt