Miss Emma's Way

Mrs. Emmaline O'Connor Weldon, known to her friends as Miss Emma desperately wanted two sons of her own.

She was married to a railroad engineer who was unable to give her children. All of her life was geared toward the two fantasy sons that never existed. She went so far as to prepare rooms for them in her home. Her husband humored her, knowing that she had made herself ill in her pursuit of her dreams, but it was not to be.

Her husband died a natural death leaving Miss Emma with enough income to last for the rest of her life. Shortly thereafter the stock market crash of 1929 occurred and she lost everything. Left nearly destitute, she had no choice but to seek employment. Trained only as a housewife, she had one option, and that was to find a job as a housekeeper for a wealthy family.

She found employment with an attorney who was the father of four young children, two boys and two girls. His wife was bedridden and near the point of death.

Told that the wife had cancer, the motherly Miss Emma moved in and took over the household. She quickly became suspicious of the wife's illness. The actions of the attorney-husband made her suspect that the lady was slowly being poisoned. She alerted a detective about her qualms.

The story winds through a maze of activity on the part of the characters. To complicate matters, the attorney's wife eventually died. Her death was followed a few months later by the mysterious death of the two girls. The only family left was the father and the two boys. Convinced that the attorney had murdered some of his family, Miss Emma's attempts to get the father indicted for murder failed. This one ends in a most unusual way.