Norma wondered, a bit suspiciously, if she wept for a long time because she enjoyed the young man's embrace or because her nerves were scaring hell out of her. She knew, right away, that she liked the young man, and she was sure that he liked her.
In time, he gave her a cigarette and they talked a bit. She had little to tell him, really, but he had much to say to her.
He told her that his name was Adam Wright and he was an investigator for several insurance companies. He knew Lennie and Lennie knew him. Lennie had pulled the same trick in many big homes.
"He's real cute about it," Adam explained.
"He reads the society pages and when he knows that a rich family like the Todds are in Europe or safely off somewhere, he drops a note to the local police, pretending to be the rich man, saying that his nephew and some friends will occupy the estate while the family is away. The note Lennie wrote to the local Chief of Police even asked that all courtesies and co-operative attitudes would be most sincerely appreciated. So, the police had no inkling as to what was going on."
Norma sat up straight and she turned to face the nice-looking young man, her cigarette smoldering in her fingers.
"How did you find out what was going on?"
Adam Wright sighed and then he smiled at her.
"Lennie doesn't know much about paintings," he said. "But when he sells a Corot to a local dealer for a fraction of its actual value, the dealer knows he is dealing with a crook. And, of course, he knew the painting and to whom it belonged. So, he called the police. They got in touch with me."
That puzzled Norma and she wondered why they hadn't all been arrested right away. Adam Wright explained the reasons for that, too.
"If the police moved right in and arrested Lennie and everybody in the house, we might never recover a lot of the pieces. For instance, we have no way of knowing what he has already disposed of, or to whom. But, from now on, as fast as he sells something we will recover it."
"Oh," Norma said.
Adam Wright started his car and he moved away from the curb. He began driving aimlessly and he began talking to her, too.
"Would you be willing to help me?" he asked.
She stared at him, not understanding.
"It would help me if you made a list of the things that Lennie tries to sell from now on. Also, until we know that we have recovered everything he sold so far, we won't want to move in on them. You see, we had to get a complete inventory from the Todds and I am pretty sure that we will be able to wind the whole thing up in just a few days. Lennie keeps going back to the same people and they are willing to work with us. They don't want any trouble."
"Lennie and the others took a load of things out to be sold this morning," Norma said.
He nodded. "I know. I have a couple of assistants and they know right where Lennie is and just what he is doing. But, you did not tell me if you will help us?"
Norma squirmed shyly as she looked at him with a rather warm gaze. She very definitely liked Adam Wright and she was afraid that it would show and he would find out about it.
"I will do anything that you ask of me," she said.
He smiled at her and then he began telling her what he had in his mind.
"If you could make a list of everything that Lennie takes out to sell," he said. "That would help. Also, I want to know what Lennie is up to every minute. Once he is outside I have people who can keep an eye on him, but you could sort of keep an eye on him inside the estate. I would want to know when Lennie intends to leave.
Everything."
"You mean you want me to spy on them and then tell you. A rat. I don't like doing things like that."
He made a U turn and began driving back toward where he had picked her up and she could see that his face was set in grim lines. He glanced at her and there was frost in his gaze.
"If you don't feel that you want to work with me," he said, "I will arrest you as one of them and send you to jail. We can do it that way."
He frightened her with that kind of talk. She remembered that she had a very lovely little sister who would need her and she twisted toward him and began talking to him, trying to make him understand how it was with her and Lily.
He listened to her and while he didn't yawn, she had the feeling that he was close to it.
"Your sister is your problem," he said, coldly. "You work with me, co-operate with me and I will see to it that you and your sister are not involved. But you would have to be very sincere and very earnest about trying to help me. Now, what is it going to be?"
She sat for a moment, gazing out at the traffic, trying to think but she knew that there was really very little choice for her.
"All right," she said. "I will do whatever you ask of me. And I will ask Lily to help, too."
He shook his head, slowly. He was parking some distance from the library and he turned to face her as soon as he shut the engine off. He was still shaking his head at her.
"No," he said. "We can't trust a thirteen-year-old girl. What she doesn't know about, she can't spill."
"How do you know how old Lily is?"
He grinned and she was sure then that she liked him. She liked him very much right then.
"I know all about both of you," he said. "I began investigating you and Lily as soon as I learned that the guest house had been rented and then vacated. I'm afraid that I know all about both of you. Once I had your names, it was easy.
"Oh," Norma said, deflated. She realized that if he knew so much about them he would know that she was only a couple of years older than Lily and he certainly wouldn't have any romantic interest in her. That made her awfully unhappy for the moment.
"How will I contact you?" Norma asked, finally. "The phones are disconnected. Lennie said he doesn't want them on."
"I know. Can you get out of the house at night?"
"Maybe," Norma said, gloomily, "but I could never get out of the grounds. That place is like a fortress."
"I know, but I have a key to the gate at the far end of the estate. There is an old carriage house there and it is used to store the power mowers and tools. If you could meet me there, say, at two in the morning, when everyone else is sound asleep, then we could talk and you could tell me what I need to know."
"Every night?"
He nodded. "Every night. I have to know when Lennie is getting ready to move. I know that he has the girl, Carol, and the twins with him, but I don't think that he intends taking them along when he goes. He has always deserted his help in the past. This time, he thinks he has made a big haul. He won't want company when he goes."
A wave of sadness dimmed Norma's disposition as she sat and thought of the future.
"I hate to see Carol and the boys get into trouble," she said. "I like Carol and the twins are very nice, too."
He shrugged. "They all know that they are stealing. I am only concerned about you. You are a very beautiful young girl. I would hate to have to put in prison. You could go away for five years. What are you now? Nineteen, twenty? You'd be twenty-five at least before you got out."
She was so pleased to learn that he didn't really know her actual age, that she reacted with a touch of humor.
"I'd be an old lady," she said, gravely.
"All right. You go on and meet whoever is going to pick you up. You sneak out of the house tonight at two and meet me at the old carriage house. Maybe you'd better go for a walk this afternoon so you will be able to find the place in the dark."
"All right," she said. She hesitated, then added, "I'll be scared to death in that place at two in the morning. I'll be terrified."
"I'11 comfort you," he said. "Now, you see if you can make me some lists of just what has been taken from the house so far."
"I think I know. With your lists I can be sure. Now good-bye, and take care. I'll see you tonight."
She gave him her shy smile and then she got out and walked back in the morning sunshine and the beauty of the day began to affect her and she was suddenly happy. She turned to look back and she saw that Adam Wright was already driving away. He turned at the block behind her and he waved at her as he went on his way. She waved back and then, as she moved toward the library and her date with Carol, she suddenly felt awfully alone, awfully unnerved.
She liked Adam Wright and she wished that he could spend the day with her. She thought about meeting him at two in the morning in an old deserted carriage house on the estate and that unnerved her even more.
Carol pulled up in front of her as she sat on one of the benches intended for bus passengers. She got into the car and when Carol smiled at her and asked if she had found the books she needed, she nodded and spread them out on the seat. Carol glanced at them and then she concentrated upon her driving.
They were using Lennie's car, an expensive sedan, and she looked at Carol's beautiful face and soft, brown hair and she wished that she could spare Carol from a future in jail. But, there was nothing that she could do. Nothing.
She felt that she would like to talk with Carol, really try to get to know her, but there was a sort of built-in barrier in Carol. There would be so many things that she would not say to such a lovely young girl, things like frivolous comments or small talk. She sat beside the brunette and kept still all during the long drive back to the Todd house.
Carol suggested that they have an early lunch and then they could get busy and go on with their work. Norma agreed to that and when they began their labors in the library, Norma asked Carol how they kept track of the things that had already been sold. Didn't they have to have lists for the inheritance tax people and the income tax people?
She was deliberately snooping and already working for Adam Wright, she supposed. He had asked her to see if she could find out what pieces had been disposed of and she was doing it. Carol had already made some lists for Lennie and she showed them to Norma.
Norma glanced at the lists casually, then she set them aside on one corner of the desk. Later on, when Carol was making coffee for them she copied the lists and concealed them in her bra. Lennie and the others had already done very well when it came to looting the mansion of its treasures.
For a while, she was conscious of a strong feeling of regret. She liked Carol and she sort of liked Lennie and the twins, too, and she hated to do anything that would help them into jail, but there was nothing else that she could do. Adam Wright had made it quite plain that she co-operate fully and be helpful or she would go to jail as one of the robbers, too. She worried, too, about Lily. She would never make it in the world outside if Norma was not around to help her. Lily wasn't very strong and she had no idea of what a horrid place the world could be. She just didn't know.
She and Carol quit in time to begin fixing supper and when Lily and the others got back to the big house, they were starving, they said. She sat and looked at Lily while their dinner was thawing in the oven and she could see the bright, mischievous gleam in Lily's big blue eyes. She watched her little sister and saw that she seemed to be very interested in the two boys. They seemed to be quite fond of Lily, too.
Norma relaxed and she was glad that Lily could have nice friends. Lennie was a crook, but the twins were just sweet young boys who were easily led into a life of crime and thievery and she was sure that the authorities would be very lenient when it came time to deal with them.
She helped Carol clean up in the kitchen and then Lennie went into the library with them and Norma showed him the work that had been accomplished during the day. She and Carol had found and evaluated many rare books and they could be taken off to market the next day if that was what Lennie wanted to do with them.
Norma did not mention the copies of the list that she had made, or that she had pretty well inventoried the things that had already been sold. Lennie was quite pleased with what she had accomplished and she was glad when he and the others decided to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep. Carol served them some wine as a nightcap but Norma refused it. She didn't want any dreams intruding in upon her nocturnal activities.
When she got ready for bed, she took a shower and then got under the covers. She set her alarm for fifteen minutes before two and she was filled with a bursting sense of excitement. She knew that she was looking forward to meeting Adam Wright with a rising tide of interest that was quite unusual in her. She decided that she liked the handsome young investigator and then, that settled, she fell asleep.
The alarm snapped her awake and she turned it off quickly, worried that she might awaken the others. The house was very quiet as she got dressed in a black sweater and a dark skirt. She was sure that she would not need a bra with the sweater, she wasn't that big-busted and she would be meeting Adam in the dark anyway. She slipped on a pair of panties and a pair of sneakers and she went downstairs and out into the night without making a sound.
She knew the way to the carriage house. She had made certain of that when she and Carol took their usual walk during the afternoon. She was able to stride confidently along in the dark toward the big old house at the far end of the estate.
There was a moon and she was filled with the warmth of the night and a bubbling excitement that she simply could not stifle. She realized that she was panting, breathing heavily. She would not let him know that he affected her in any way. She stopped walking and she turned around to look at the rear of the house for a moment.
Lily's lights were still on and that surprised her. She wondered if Lily was afraid to sleep in the dark, or was she up there reading a lurid novel?
She turned around again and then she was just fine. She went on toward the big building and she became aware of her pounding heart and her shaking legs. She snorted softly, disgusted with herself. She was behaving like an idiotic schoolgirl and she was not a school girl. Not any more.
The moon slid out from behind a big cloud and the land around her was suddenly tinted with silver and the darkness of the night was gone. She stopped for a moment and gazed around her at the incredible beauty of the grounds in bright moonlight. It was a sight that was breathtaking and she enjoyed it fully. Then, resolutely, she turned her attention back to more immediate things and she walked on, eager for her meeting with Adam. There were so many things that she wanted to tell him, so much that she could show him. She had the lists of everything stolen in her skirt pocket and she could tell him just what Lennie planned next because he had said that she and Carol could begin to inventory and catalogue the silverware and some of the more precious items of decoration. There were many pairs of gold and silver candlesticks and all sorts of other items fashioned from precious metals and Lennie was going to dispose of everything in sight as quickly as he could.
Adam Wright would certainly want to know all about that.
She reached the old building that had been a carriage house and she wondered if she was expected to go inside. She didn't want to go inside. Big old buildings frightened her and she could not remember what Adam had told her. She could only recall that he had said that he would meet her at two at the carriage house.
He showed up like a wraith in the night. She was standing along in front of the big building one moment and the next he was standing beside her. She hadn't heard him approach and she had been looking around for him. In the brightness of the moonlight she could see the big grin on his face and she knew that he had been deliberately sneaky.
"Hello," he said, quietly. "Let's go inside. We can't talk out here very well."
She didn't answer him. He opened the door and they entered the carriage house. There was enough light for her to see the smile on his face and she knew a moment of great joy, simply because he was with her, because he was her friend, because she liked him and was happy with him. She didn't bother to analyze things but she did realize that she was glad that she had met him. She didn't really feel that she had to go beyond that conclusion right away.
"I made copies of the lists," she said. "I brought it all with me."
She took the papers out of her skirt pocket and she handed it to him. He took it and put it into his pocket. She waited for him to say something but he didn't. He was staring at her and the way he was using his eyes was making her nervous, unsure of herself.
"Aren't you going to look at the lists?" she asked.
"I'll check them over in the morning," he said. "I can't see too well right now."
She stood close to him and she was shivering and that surprised her. She was suddenly, overwhelmingly conscious of his nearness, his maleness. Too, she was suddenly, inexplicably, weak. She wanted to say things to him, to explain to him that she was taking a big chance helping him. She wanted to tell him that she liked him, that she would help him any way just so that she could see him again. She wanted to say so many things and her mouth was dry, her tongue swollen and useless and she couldn't say a word. She just stood in front of him, trembling, shivering and when he reached for her, she swayed toward him with a feeling of gratitude. She needed something to hold on to.
He put his arms around her and then he was holding her to him tightly and she was standing with her arms around him, too, and her cheek was against his and it was all very wonderful, very strange and she could hardly breathe and she was ashamed of her weaknesses, her swift surrender to sexual excitement.
"You are so beautiful," he said, softly. "You are the prettiest girl I have ever known. So pretty."
He moved his head and then his lips found hers and he kissed her and she kissed him, too, and then she could feel the quickening sensations in her loins, the delicious trickling sensations deep within her sexual cavity. She was shaking violently and he knew it.
His hands were busy with her breasts and somehow his fingers were fondling her bare breasts beneath the sweater and his mouth was kissing her and she could hear the crazy words that he was saying to her and she wished that he would stop talking. He didn't have to explain anything to her.
"I'm so sorry," he was saying. "I'm not like this. Really, I'm not like this. I just can't help myself. You are so beautiful and I am so crazy about you. I just can't help myself."
He lifted her sweater and then his mouth was kissing her breasts and sucking them and she was moaning and squirming in his grasp and she was wishing that he would not put his hand down below because she knew that she was sopping wet down there and he would think her messy and inelegant. She shivered then as his fingers found the place of greatest torment and she gasped and suffered in excruciating pleasure as his finger slid far up inside of her and she reacted with a speed that was indecent. The whole thing was ridiculous. She was the ice
maiden, she was frost and inhibitions and uselessness and the whole thing was a waste of time…
He was holding her close and she was making soft, mewling sounds in her throat and then she was suddenly lost, driven into a state of ecstasy and euphoria by his skillful fingers and she knew that she was shrieking crazy words into his ear and he was moving his finger in and out of her sexual sheath like it was a piston.
"Ooooooooooh ," she heard herself saying, "Faster faster… oooooohhhh, I'm coming… I'm-comingggggggggggg, coming. oh, I am aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh."
She was out of her mind with sensual bliss for a long time and when she came in his hand she was sure that he would hate her and think her a real pig. That worried her, but she realized finally, that he was holding her tightly and he was kissing her passionately and he was saying crazy things, too.
"I love you, Norma, darling, he was saying. "I love you so much. I've waited for you for so long. Just let me love you, darling."
That was crazy, she knew. He hadn't known her very long. How could he fall in love so quickly? He was crazy and she was crazy and his hands were fondling her plump, tingling breasts and she was again overwhelmed by surges of sexual agitation and she was too weak to stand. He seemed to know that and he picked her up in his arms as though she were a child and then he was settling her down on an old mattress that was lying upon the floor. She suspected, fleetingly, that other lovers had used the carriage house and she was not at all dismayed when Adam's fingers dislodged her panties and began cavorting in the feverish crevice between her legs. He was on top of her, kissing her and then she realized, dimly, that her skirt was up around her waist and her panties were missing and her legs were shifting and working like she was swimming.
She felt him penetrating her and she slid her tongue deep into his mouth and then her hips were writhing and threshing around. Her legs wrapped themselves around his waist as her suffering body tried to cling to him. He was sliding his cock into her with fierce thrustings and she was receiving him with equally fierce thrustings and she could hear her own gasps of pleasure each time he forced his organ deeper and ever deeper into her loins.
His mouth was glued to hers and she was sliding her tongue in and out of his mouth and he was kissing her, holding her in a way that allowed his fingers to play with her breasts and her nipples and she could feel arising tide of glorious frenzy rippling through her loins and she knew that she was moving closer and closer to the most exciting orgasm she had ever known. She could feel her loins becoming more and more aroused and inflamed with each thrust of his hips and it was a splendid feeling, so sort of delicious anguish that she could not withstand and she was panting and screeching and yelping like any animal and then it was happening for her and it was wonderful, the absolute in sensation and she knew that her glands were bursting and spilling and "she could feel the cold wetness of their juices sliding down her valley and then she was fluttering, coming noisily and voluptuously, and it was the most delicious sensation she had ever known…
He held her for a long time after the fireworks were over and when he finally slipped his organ out of her she felt a sense of loss, a time for sweet sadness and then she was conscious of the wetness between her legs and when he handed her his handkerchief, she took it. She tried to clean herself up as best she would and she was almost afraid to give him back his used handkerchief. He took it from her. He buried it in his coat pocket and then he seemed to be very sad. He turned to her and he found her mouth and he kissed her and she realized then that she was weeping. She had no idea why she would weep, but the tears were streaming from her eyes. He lit two cigarettes and he gave one of them to her. She took it and she puffed on it and sucked the smoke deep into her lungs. There were so many things that she wanted to say to him now. She found that she couldn't say anything to anybody.
"I was not fooling," he said. "I do love you, Norma. Don't ask me how any of this happened. I couldn't help myself. I wouldn't hurt you for anything in the world. I wouldn't, please, believe me."
She didn't answer him. He took her into his arms and his lips kissed her mouth and he tasted her tears and he put his hand on the back of her head and held her face against the pocket of his shoulder. She wept, silently, uncomprehendingly, and when she finally subsided, he kissed her again and then he moved away from her.
He was filled with apologies and she wished that he wouldn't. Her experiences with him were so wonderful, so beautiful, she didn't want to hear anything like apologies.
"Do you really love me?" she said, finally.
The note of childishness in her question made him laugh.
He squeezed her and then he kissed her mouth and he lingered at it for a long time. When he spoke to her, his words were a mere whisper against her lips.
"Yes, my darling," he said. "I do love you. I love you so much. And, I never want to lose you. Not ever."
She pushed him away and then she sat straight up.
"Then you won't put me in jail no matter what, will you?"
He laughed at her again. "No, my dear," he said. "I won't ever put you in jail, no matter what."
"I'm glad," she said.
He held her and then he began kissing her again and she was able to enjoy his kisses and enjoy being in his arms.
"I'm not like what you think," she said. "I mean, I never did that with anybody else. I didn't. No matter what you think."
He kissed her again and the warmth in his kiss made her shiver. She was kissing him, too, sliding her tongue into his mouth and teasing his lips with her own passionate responses.
"I know you haven't done that with anyone else," he said. "I can tell."
"How can you tell?" she demanded. "There wasn't any blood."
"Tight as you were," he said, "it had to be the first time."
"You don't think that I am awful, do you?" she asked.
"I love you," he said, simply. "Nothing else much matters. Now, you'd better get back to your room in the big house and I'll get out of here."
"I wish you could take me with you," she said. "I wish that awful bad. I don't want to go back to the house."
He talked calmly and sensibly with her and when he left her, eventually, she was quite willing to go back to her bed and get some sleep. She walked in the night, looking up at the lights in Lily's room and she decided that she would have to say something to Lily about leaving her lights on all night. She smiled in the darkness as she realized that she was not paying the electric bill and it was none of her business what Lily did with her lights.
She crept into the quiet house and when she slid between the sheets of her bed she resolved that she was going to stay awake and think about Adam Wright and the things that she had done with him. She wanted to remember again and again the way he told her that he loved her.
She was sure that she enjoyed hearing those words most of all.
She wondered, too, if she was a bad girl now. The dreams that she could barely remember now were something new with her, and the things that she did with Adam were brand new.
She wondered what he would do or say if he knew that she was not yet sixteen. Would he keep right on loving her, or would he drop her like a hot potato? She was still thinking about these things when she fell sound asleep.
It seemed to her that she had barely blinked her eyes and it was morning and brilliant sunshine was in the room with her. She sat up and lit a cigarette and then she smelled the rich fragrances of bacon and coffee and she jumped out of bed and put on a robe. She went out into the hallway and she met Lily on her way downstairs, too.
Norma smiled at her baby sister and noticed that Lily looked a bit tired and slightly peaked but Norma didn't say anything to her about leaving her lights on all night. She remembered, at the last moment, that Lily might ask how she found out about the lights and she would be in trouble right away.
The others were already at the table and when Norma looked at Lennie she felt a sense of embarrassment. It disturbed her to have to accept the knowledge that Lennie was a thief. She had been very fond of Lennie, Carol and the twins. She hated to think of them in prison. She liked each and every one of them.
She helped Lennie and the boys load the truck with books and the other things that she and Carol had evaluated and she felt a bit forlorn and deserted when Lily climbed into the truck to go with Lennie and the twins. It disturbed her very much because Lily was really determined to go along with the boys and Lennie.
She actually seemed to be very happy about it.