When Frodo arrived at Gamwich two days later, he went immediately to the Mousehole Inn, expecting to find Sam there. No, Mr. Bloomer informed him, Mr. Gamgee and Mrs. Tredgold had gone to the old lady's house. Mr. Baggins would no doubt find them there.
Frodo left his pony stabled at the inn and walked up the lane toward the Scuttle house. He had been there before and knew the way well, although the path brought back certain memories of his last investigation in Gamwich. Here at the crossroad, he'd once been assaulted by a hobbit he'd suspected of murder. If he followed the same lane farther out of town, he would eventually reach a farm with an apple orchard, where the actual murderers still lived.
The black bunting still hung over the front door of Edda Scuttle's home, but a new sign in fresh black ink on paper had been pinned to the garden gate over the painted panel that bore the late owner's name: 'Mail for Lula Tredgold to be left here,' which told Frodo that Sam's aunt expected to be in residence for more than a few days.
When Lula herself answered the door a minute later and welcomed Frodo in, he asked her, "Do you mean to stay in Gamwich?"
"For awhile, at least," she answered as she led her guest in the direction of the parlor. "I mean to stay here `til I've gone through Aunt Edda's things, settle what needs settling, and see how I like it."
They arrived at the parlor. Though the windows were open, the room still held a pervasive scent of stale lavender; Frodo could almost see Mrs. Scuttle still sitting in her accustomed chair before the hearth, peering up at him with her sharp eyes, just as she'd done when she had previously received him in this room. Sam was seated at a small table beneath the window, going through some papers in a strongbox. As Frodo came in, he looked up, smiled broadly, and rose to give him a hug.
"I came as quickly as I could," Frodo told Sam once he'd regained his breath after being squeezed so hard. "Has anything happened that I ought to know about?"
"Nothing much since I wrote you," Sam reported. "I sent Dondo Pundry around to see if any old woman went missing last week, and some more people came to look at the body to see if they knew who she was, but nobody's put a name to her yet. If they know, they aren't saying. I've mostly been helping Aunt Lula go through old Mrs. Scuttle's things while I was waiting for you to come, Frodo, or else visiting Uncle Andy over in Tighfield so he doesn't think I forgot about him."
"Are you staying here now?" Frodo asked.
Sam shook his head. He'd kept his room at the inn in anticipation of Frodo's arrival. Besides, there was only one bedroom in Scuttle smial fit for sleeping in, and his aunt had taken that.
"I moved into Aunt Edda's room the day before yesterday," Lula added. "There's so much to be done and at my age, it gets to be tiring walkin' back and forth from the inn."
"It must seem strange to you, Mrs. Tredgold, being here in this house again after so many years away," said Frodo.
"Oh, I never lived here before, Mr. Baggins," Lula corrected this small misunderstanding. "This wasn't the house Bell and I came to after our parents died, you know. That belonged to our uncle. It's nearer to the heart o' town, and smaller 'n this. Mr. Scuttle must've been better off. Auntie left me that other smial too. She's been renting it out for all these years, and I expect I'll let the folk who live there keep it as long as they like. I used to know them from the old days, when they was first married. They have grandchildren now. I spoke a word to them at the funeral--and they were that surprised to see me back in Gamwich! A lot of the old folk hereabouts remember me from when we were all young lasses and lads, and say they never expected to set eyes on me again, let alone take up Auntie's house for my own."
"Who else did your aunt leave her things to?" asked Frodo.
"Sam, for one." Lula gestured to her nephew. "A nice bit of money, to be set aside for his children so they might be brought up to be ladies and gents."
"That's what she meant by me being promising," Sam said. "She also left a bit to Ham, though his 'n' Maisie's little uns won't grow up to be gentlefolk if they ever have any. And she left something to you, Frodo."
"To me?"
"I've been keeping it for you." Sam left the room to fetch Frodo's bequest.
"Is there anyone else?" Frodo asked Lula after Sam had gone. The question was not simple conversational curiosity. A wealthy old woman had died, and another, unknown woman had been placed in her family vault; while it might be coincidence, there might also be a connection. Had Mrs. Scuttle left something to the dead woman, an inheritance that someone else was eager to obtain?
"There was Mr. Leekey, who looked after her affairs," answered Lula. "It turns out he was some sort of nephew to Mr. Scuttle."
"You'll be meeting him soon as I send a note to tell 'm you're here," Sam said as he returned, bearing a small, flat wooden box in his hands; he gave this to Frodo.
Frodo opened the box to find that it contained a set of six buttons made of bright blue gemstones set in silverwork. "They're beautiful," he said, surprised and touched by this generous gesture by an old woman who had always seemed most uncharitable to those around her. "I really didn't expect anything from her at all. It was kind of her to remember me. But why?"
"They used to belong to her husband," Sam explained. "She said she was leaving them to you because you'd been a valuable friend to me and the color matched your eyes."
Frodo blushed. "She didn't put that in her will, did she?"
"She did," Lula said with a laugh. "You must've made more of an impression on Auntie'n you knew, Mr. Baggins."
"And they are the same color," Sam added. "You oughta have Mr. Threadnibble put `em on a waistcoat for you."
"Yes, I think I shall." Frodo shut the box. "She was a remarkable and peculiar old lady--I hope you won't mind me saying so." Lula and Sam had no objection to this characterization. "Were there any other odd bequests? Was someone mentioned who wasn't there to receive their legacy?"
"You mean, like this woman nobody says they know?" asked Sam, catching on to the point behind Frodo's interest in the details of Mrs. Scuttle's will. "Mr. Leekey's still got the will. I'll ask him to bring it along when he comes, and you can look it over. Then you can go have a look the body for yourself."
Mr. Leekey joined them just after tea-time, bringing the will, as Sam had requested. He seemed to consider himself at Lula's service now, for he bowed to her before Sam introduced him to Frodo. "If there's anything I can do to help you with Mrs. Scuttle's papers, Mrs. Tredgold, you've only to say. I know her business affairs better'n anyone."
"That's kind of you," Lula replied. "I might have a question for you in a bit, about some of the land Auntie's left to me, but I expect Mr. Baggins here wants to ask you some questions first."
Lula returned to the parlor to continue sorting through her aunt's things while the three other hobbits went into another room--what Frodo thought must be the late Mr. Scuttle's study. The room looked as if were infrequently used by his widow in the years since his death; it had been dusted some time in last week or two, but the books on the shelves and the ornaments around the room had an air of not being disturbed in a very long time. Only the strongboxes and the account book on the lowest shelf looked as if they'd been handled recently.
"Yes, that's right," Leekey confirmed when Frodo asked him. "Mrs. Scuttle managed her husband's affairs--both husbands, I ought to say--after their passing, but in later years it got to be too much for her. When I first come to town about five years ago, she kindly engaged me to see to her property, collect the rents, and keep her books."
"Then you're not from Gamwich?" Frodo asked him.
"No, sir. I was born and brought up in Cullodown Hills." This was a village approximately twenty miles to the south.
"Where Mr. Scuttle came from," Frodo guessed. "I understand you're some sort of relation of his."
"That's right, sir." Mr. Leekey nodded, but didn't elaborate on the precise degree of relationship. "Since I heard he was a hobbit of some standing, I came here to make his acquaintance and see if he needed somebody with a good head for sums to help him look after things. Well, it turns out that he was gone, but his widow was willing to take me on. I manage for some of the local farm-folk as well. A hobbit who knows his sums can always find work." Though he seemed a little nervous while conversing with the famous detective, he gave Frodo a courteous bow. "It's an honor to meet you at last, Mr. Baggins. I remember when you were here before, investigating that awful business when the lad who helped tend Mrs. Scuttle's garden was hanged, though I didn't have the chance to meet you then. But you may be sure she told me all about it! I hope I can be of some help to you this time around."
Frodo first asked about the will. After the funeral, Mr. Leekey and the principle mourners had returned to Mrs. Scuttle's home and he had read the important parts of her will aloud to them. There were some minor surprises, but no great ones. Mrs. Tregold had expected to be the chief beneficiary of her aunt's property in spite of their long estrangement. Mrs. Scuttle, Mr. Leekey added, had been very generous to him as well as to the servants still in her employ at the time of her death. A few small remembrances had been left to friends or acquaintances, similar to the gift she'd given Frodo, but there were no other relatives she'd left anything to. As far as Leekey was aware, she had no blood relatives of her own.
Frodo then turned to the subject of the vault. When could the body have been placed there?
"Tell Mr. Baggins what you told me," Sam prompted.
"Well, I unlocked the door one day not long before Mrs. Scuttle died," Leekey answered. "It was about a week before, when she was sure she hadn't long to live and wanted to see that things'd be arranged properly before she went to her rest. I hired a couple of work-lads to go inside to sweep up and clear away the cobwebs, and I made sure myself that there was a shelf ready for Mrs. Scuttle to be laid upon when the time came."
"And you saw no body at that time?" asked Frodo.
"No! It wasn't there when I opened the door and had my look in, and the lads would've said if they'd found it while they was sweeping up."
"How long was the door open?"
"`Til the next day. I didn't stay with the lads, Mr. Baggins, but left them to their work. I came back here to tell Mrs. Scuttle that things was being arranged just as she wanted, and she had me write letters to Mrs. Tredgold and Mr. Gamgee here, telling them to come. When I went back the next morning I didn't look about the vault, only peeked in at the door to see that the floor was swept, then locked it up again `til the morning of the funeral. I didn't expect to find anything amiss. You don't think if a vault's left unlocked, somebody's going to go in and play some mischief, let alone leave a dead body behind! But it must've been put in there that night."
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