Love for Sale

directions.”
    Miss Jurgen unlocked the garage door and they took off. Lily found the house easily. They pulled off the road a little short of it so they could look it over. As they were standing outside considering which other house to go to first, another car going the opposite direction stopped and pulled off the other side. An older woman stepped out of her car and approached them.
    “Could you help me? I seem to have taken a wrong turn. I’m Mrs. Taylor and I have some paperwork that was delivered to me instead of Chief Walker and I need to get it to him in Voorburg.”
    Lily said, “Mrs. Taylor, we’re friends of Chief Walker and doing a little job for him as it happens. I can give you directions. He’s mentioned you to me, in fact. I have a map.”
    She fished it out of Miss Jurgen’s car and they were studying it on the hood when Lily spotted a car coming from around the back of the house she’d been sent to look at.
    Lily pointed to it and said to the other two women, “If it turns this way, see if you can tell who’s driving it.”
    The car did indeed turn in their direction and slowed to squeeze between them. Mrs. Taylor said, “I can hardly believe it. That was Mildred Waywright. She worked at the Institute.”
    Miss Jurgen frowned. “No. It was Millicent Langston. She’s my employee who shares my house and has gone missing.“
    “I’m afraid you’re mistaken. I knew Miss Waywright fairly well. I’m certain it was she.“
    “I believe you are the one who is mistaken,“ Miss Jurgen said. “I know her extremely well and it was her car.”
    Lily was afraid they were going to seriously argue over this endlessly. She said, “Chief Walker must be told immediately. Mrs. Taylor, let us turn around and then follow us. We’ll take you to Chief Walker.”
    Miss Jurgen and Lily got in the car and headed back toward Voorburg, with the mystery woman speeding far ahead of them and Mrs. Taylor right behind them. “I’m sure she’s wrong,“ Miss Jurgen said as she drove. “That was clearly Millicent Langston.“
    “I suspect you’re both right,“ Lily said. “Do hurry.“
    “What do you mean?”
    Lily didn’t explain. “Maybe we should follow her to see where she’s going before we go to Howard’s office at the boardinghouse.”
    They debated this for half a mile, but the car they were following sped up over the next hill and disappeared. “She’s turned off somewhere,“ Lily said. “Let’s go directly to Chief Walker.”
    The three women stopped at the boardinghouse and ran inside. “Is Chief Walker here?“ she asked his landlady.
    “I think so. Go on up.”
    He was on the phone to Albany and was surprised to see the three women burst in together. He said to the accountant, “I’m going to have to call you back in a moment.”
    Hanging up, he asked, “What are all three of you doing here?”
    They all tried to speak at the same time. He held his hand up. “Stop. One at a time.”
    Mrs. Taylor went first. “The people in Albany found copies of Charles Pottinger’s letters and sent them to me by mistake. I was bringing them to you and became lost on the way. I asked directions from these two ladies.“ She gestured at Amelia Jurgen to speak in turn.
    “We saw someone driving away from the house you asked Miss Brewster to look at,“ Miss Jurgen said. “It was Millicent Langston.“
    “No, it wasn’t,“ Mrs. Taylor said almost angrily. “It was Mildred Waywright.”
    Lily stepped in and held her hand up to speak. “It was both, Howard. They’re the same woman.”
    He grasped immediately what she meant. “Where did she go?“
    “She was ahead of us,“ Lily said, “and must have dodged us on a side road over a hill.“ Chief Walker summoned Ralph Summer. “Ralph, get in your motorcycle immediately. I’m putting Miss Jurgen on the phone with directions to her house. Don’t do anything when you get there. Just park a house or two away until I arrive.”
    Miss Jurgen told Ralph how to find her house and gave the license number of Millicent’s car. While she was speaking, Walker was writing something on his notepad.
    When she hung up, he said to Miss Jurgen, “I need you to sign this. It says you’re willing to give me your house keys. And that you authorize me to enter any part of the house you own.”
    Miss Jurgen signed it and said, “The extra keys are in the first drawer on the left in the table by my front door.“
    “Ladies, go to the jail and wait for