After lunch, Aunt Lula, being unused to having a maidservant, helped Glory to clear the table and wash up the dishes. Sam offered to give a hand as well, but his aunt shooed him out of the kitchen. "You go and talk to your gent-friend, Sam-lad. I'm sure he's got lots more to say about who'd want to murder me, only I wouldn't let him while we were eating."
Sam went out through the front door--the direction Frodo had gone in--and found his friend in the front garden. Frodo was seated on a wooden bench, a smoking pipe dangling from his fingers, eyes on some distant point over the downs. Sam was sure that his thoughts must be miles away, but Frodo turned to glance up at him and smiled.
"Thinking about what to do next?" asked Sam.
"As a matter of fact, I am. I didn't mean to distress your aunt, my dear, but if I'm right, she may yet be in some danger. The murderer of that other woman will have surely realized his mistake by now, and might try again."
Their eyes met for a moment and Sam nodded grimly, understanding that protecting his aunt would be his primary duty today. "But who'd do such a thing?" he wondered as he sat down beside Frodo. "I can't see anybody wanting Aunt Lula dead, unless they thought they'd get something by doing it." After a moment, he ventured, "You aren't thinking it's Ham, are you? We're the only ones in her will, her nephews 'n' nieces, and Ham's the only one of us that lives near enough to Gamwich."
"I have considered him for just that reason," Frodo admitted, "but I must have more than that before I seriously begin to suspect him, and you need to worry for his sake. Did Ham know that your aunt would leave him one sixth of all she owns? Could he guess that her aunt was going to leave her a sizeable inheritance, and make his own inheritance an enticing prospect?"
"I suppose Maisie might've picked up some news about Mrs. Scuttle's dying when she visited her family in town and brought it home to 'm," Sam answered grudgingly. "But even if she somehow got to hear that that Mr. Leekey wrote to Aunt Lula, they couldn't guess Mrs. Scuttle was going to leave so much to her. None of us expected to get a penny from Mrs. Scuttle. And if Aunt Lula didn't know, why should Ham? Nor'd he know if Aunt Lula was going to leave him anything, no matter how much or how little she had to leave. He hardly knows her, not like me and May and Marigold do. So he'd no reason to kill her over the hopes of getting a lot of money, Frodo, even if he was the sort who'd do a thing like that to his auntie--which he isn't! He's a decent hobbit and never bears no one a grudge. Now, if anybody bears Aunt Lula a grudge, it's Uncle Andy."
Frodo was drawing in on his pipe at this moment, but his eyes went wide. Sam realized with dismay that, in his efforts to defend his brother, he had inadvertently implicated his uncle.
"I didn't mean that exactly," Sam hastened to explain. "Well, you know how he wanted to marry her all those years ago when my mum and the Gaffer ran off together and he thought that one brother might do the same as the other. He still grumbles whenever I say anything about Aunt Lula, but he wouldn't go as far as murder! Besides, he never comes into town anymore and doesn't listen to gossip. He wouldn't know Aunt Lula was coming back to Gamwich, nor anything about that tomb being left open. Neither would Ham."
"I know, Sam," said Frodo, and Sam realized that he'd already gone through this same line of thought and come to the same conclusions. "You've no thoughts on our other prospects?"
"Nobody Aunt Lula mentioned sounded like somebody that'd mean her harm, all her old girl-friends, but it seems like they're mostly my relatives too. Aunt Una--she's the mother of those cousins of mine you met when we were last here--and Mrs. Bloomer's kin now that she's Ham's mother-in-law. Whyn't you go and pick on that Mrs. Applegrove? I only met her the one time and she's nobody I'm related to."
Frodo laughed. "Actually, I have been thinking of calling on the Applegroves this afternoon."
"You don't really think it's her?"
"No, not Mrs. Applegrove, but that family does keep turning up in this investigation no matter which way I look."
"It's not a very big town," said Sam. "You can't help seeing the same folk turn up again and again. You're not thinking of them just because of those two we met last night, and Miss Pendira's brother and sister?"
"Well, that is a part of it," Frodo admitted. "But there's more too. It's the orchard's proximity to the vault. It's the fact that Sandro Applegrove is the magistrate who would see to the disposition of Mrs. Scuttle's will if her niece never appeared to claim her inheritance, and that he was once sweet on your mother, her other niece, when they were young hobbits."
"So what's it all mean?"
"I don't know, Sam. It may mean nothing. As you say, Gamwich is a small town and the Applegroves are a rather prominent family in it. But I can't help wondering. Do all these odd fragments fit together to explain that woman's death? They almost seem as if they do, but certain important pieces are still missing. The Applegroves can't hope to receive any part of Mrs. Scuttle's property or money, no matter how it's divided. They weren't mentioned in her will and they aren't any kind of relation. Would Mr. Applegrove agree to take part in the murder of your aunt Lula to oversee Mrs. Scuttle's will? Surely he wouldn't do it just to defraud Bell Goodchild's children because she married someone else more than fifty years ago? That seems excessive."
"Maybe they're in it with someone else?" Sam suggested.
Frodo puffed on his pipe while he considered this idea. "The only other person who might hope to gain by your aunt's disappearance is Mr. Leekey. Perhaps he offered to pay the Applegroves generously for their help if Mr. Applegrove divided Mrs. Scuttle's property in his favor. How much would he have to pay for them to condone murder? Unless Mr. Applegrove is an utter fool, he'd have to realize that it was murder if Leekey made such an offer before Mrs. Tredgold failed to appear, or even before Mrs. Scuttle was dead. Or perhaps there's a closer connection between them that we aren't yet aware of? Leekey isn't related to the Applegroves so far as we know, but they do have a younger daughter, Petula. Maybe he hopes to marry her once he's a hobbit with some wealth." He stood up abruptly and handed his pipe to Sam. "I think I'll go and visit the Applegroves now, Sam. I've too many unanswered questions about them, and I can't go further until I know what they might have to gain in this."
Sam didn't offer to accompany him. He would stay here, near his aunt, until he was certain that she was safe.
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