The Grub-And-Stakers Move a Mountain by Charlotte MacLeod, Alisa Craig Page B

Everybody knows who’s the public-spirited citizen who kicks in the eggnog for the Old Folks’ Christmas Party and the keg of beer for the Policemen’s Picnic and all those other benevolent gestures.”
    “Which he takes off his income tax as charitable deductions,”
    mocked a voice Dittany couldn’t identify.
    Her fear had turned to rage. The public-spirited citizen was Sam Wallaby, proprietor of Lobelia Falls’s one and only liquor store. Sam had even donated the sauterne and Seven-Up for the mock champagne punch at the Grub-and-Stakers’ Spring Flower Festival year before last and she herself, as then Corresponding Secretary, had been delegated to write him a nice little thank-you note. She’d even spent two dollars of her own money for a box of pretty flowered stationery to write it on. To think she’d been an unwitting tool of his perfidy!
    “See, Charlie,” McNaster went on in a coaxing tone, “you don’t have a thing to worry about. This deal will go smooth as a kitten’s wrist. Before anybody knows what’s happening, I’ll have me a swell big house right smackdab on top of that Enchanted Mountain. And you guys can live around the edges.”
    “Catch me living in any house you’d build,” chortled the unidentified voice.
    Charlie was not convinced. “I don’t care, Andy. I’m not going to risk having my name linked with the kind of mud you’re bound to stir up. And I particularly don’t like the business of old Architrave’s getting shot with a black arrow up there this morning.
    If that’s the way you’re going to play it-“
    “Hey, wait a minute!” yelped McNaster. “You don’t think I had anything to do with that?”
    “Andy, as a lawyer I know better than to make any direct accusation.
    I’m simply saying it happened at a strangely opportune time. Architrave might have been stupid, but I don’t recall ever having heard he was dishonest, beyond reasonable limits. You might have got him to rush those leaching tests through, but I doubt if you could have persuaded him to falsify the results.”
    “Charlie, you’re crazy. It was a hunter from the States. Everybody knows that.”
    “I don’t know it, do I?”
    “Look, I was right here in my office all day. Anyway, I’m not the world’s best shot, as any of these boys here can tell you.
    Hell, I don’t mind being kidded about it, but if you think I-“
    “I’m only going by the evidence, Andy. I have no doubt that you have an alibi tighter than a drum. But you do have a fairly large staff, Andy. And among them may be some good shots and some talented liars. Mind you, I’m not making any accusations.
    I’m just stating what might be termed an academic hypothesis.
    And you needn’t start yelling because you wouldn’t dare fire me and we both know it.”
    “The hell I wouldn’t! If you think-“
    “That’s just it, Andy. I do think. And it will pay you to think.
    Regardless of how Architrave was killed, the fact remains that his death is going to focus attention on this Hunneker Land Grant. People are already asking questions about why he had that new chap up there doing perk tests. Who was that woman from the Conservation Committee?”
    McNaster said an extremely bad word. “I wish I knew. What the hell, this town doesn’t even have a Conservation Committee.
    Some old bag with a bee in her bonnet about the pretty pussy willows, maybe. For all I know, she was the one who plugged him.”
    “Well, you’d better find out what she was up to and how much she knows or guesses if you know what’s good for you.
    Look, Andy, I’m backing out of this mess as far as I can get. If you want to take the risk of going ahead with your plan, I can put you in touch with a very capable colleague of mine who happens to be on loan, as you might say, from one of the eastern provinces, on account of a little problem he ran into there. He won’t mind handling your legal matter because he’s planning to immigrate to Tasmania in the near