Sam rode south that same afternoon with Frodo's instructions on what questions to ask. He was away all the next day. In the meantime, Frodo spent the day with Lula, taking her nephew's place by helping her go through Mrs. Scuttle's effects. He was there when the Applegroves paid their condolence call; if he'd had any lingering doubts about their harmlessness, their friendly demeanor over tea reassured him. He also accompanied Lula to the Peasleys to talk about continuing their lease on the cottage her uncle had once owned. Mr. Leekey came by to offer his services. He noticed that Mr. Gamgee had left town, but Frodo didn't tell him where he'd gone.
Sam returned late the following afternoon. "It was just as you thought, Frodo," he announced once they met at the inn. "According to the postmistress, Mrs. Leekey had a letter from her son about a month ago. The neighbors say he wrote her that he expected to be coming in for a lot o' money soon and he'd be sending her enough to keep her comfortable for the rest of her life. He always sent her part of what he earned, but the way Mrs. Leekey talked about it, they reckoned this money was special. She wrote back to him saying that she was coming up to Gamwich to see him. She didn't tell nobody why she was going, but they thought she had something particular to say to him that couldn't be put in a letter. Well, she went off about two weeks ago and the neighbors think she's been here in Gamwich with her son since."
"But she's not staying with him," said Frodo. "No one else was at his home when I called, and he speaks of her as if she were still in Cullodown Hills. No one at her old home has any reason to think she's missing. Even if they heard the description of the dead woman we've been sending around through the shirriffs, they wouldn't think it was her. She does fit the description, Sam?"
Sam nodded. "Near eighty, fair-headed but turning grey. Them who remember say she had a blue dress like the one our dead woman's wearing. You were wrong about her working on a farm, though. Her son sent her money, but she worked at whatever took her fancy, sewing 'n' such, to bring in some more. She and her husband kept a shop, so the folk that remember that far back said, then she went back into service after he died. She was housekeeper for Mr. Scuttle and his first missus when her son was a little lad. She'd been a maidservant in their house before she got married."
This was precisely what Leekey himself had said. "When did her husband die?" asked Frodo.
"At least five-and-thirty years past, they say. This feller Leekey must've been about seven."
"Did you ask--was there any gossip about Mrs. Leekey's relationship with Mr. Scuttle before or after her marriage?"
"None that I heard, but that would've been a long time ago. The younger folk hardly remember the Scuttles at all."
"Yes, that's so. Any rumors would've been long forgotten by now. And yet... Shall we call on Mr. Leekey, Sam, and ask if he knows what's become of his mother?"
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