At that moment the front door bell rang, and Burke ushered Doctor Siefert into the den.
"I just got your message, Mr. Vance, and came right over." He looked about the room questioningly and then brought his eyes back to Vance.
"I thought you might care to be present," Vance said, "in case we can reach some conclusion about the situation here. I know you are personally interested. Otherwise I wouldn't have telephoned you."
"I'm glad you did," said Siefert blandly, and walked across to a chair before the desk.
Vance lighted a cigarette with slow deliberation, his eyes moving aimlessly about the room. There was a tension over the assembled group. But as future events indicated, no one could have known what was in Vance's mind or his reason for bringing them all together.
The taut silence was broken by Vance's voice. He spoke casually, but with a curious emphasis.
"I have asked you all to come here this afternoon in the hope that we could clear up the very tragic situation that exists. Yesterday Woode Swift was murdered in the vault upstairs. A few hours later I found Miss Beeton locked in the same vault, half suffocated. Last night, as you all know by now, Mrs. Garden died from what we have every reason to believe was an overdose of barbital prescribed by Doctor Siefert. There can be no question that these three occurrences are closely related-- that the same hand participated in them all. The pattern and the logic of the situation point indisputably to that assumption. There was, no doubt, a diabolical reason for each act of the murderer--and the reason was fundamentally the same in each instance. Unfortunately, the stage setting for this multiple crime was so confused that it facilitated every step of the murderer's plan, and at the same time tended to disperse suspicion among many people who were entirely innocent."
Vance paused for a moment.
"Luckily, I was present when the first murder was committed, and I have since been able to segregate the various facts connected with the crime. In that process of segregation I may have seemed unreasonable and, perhaps, harsh to several persons present. And during the process of my brief investigation, it has been necess'ry for me to withhold any expression of my personal opinions for fear of providing the perpetrator with an untimely warning. This, of course, would have proved fatal, for so cleverly was the whole plot conceived, so fortuitous were many of the circumstances connected with it, that we would never have succeeded in bringing the crime home to the true culprit. Consequently, an interplay of suspicion between the innocent members and guests of this household was essential. If I have offended any one or seemed unjust, I trust that, in view of the abnormal and terrible circumstances, I may be forgiven--"
He was interrupted by the startling sound of a shot ominously like that of the day before. Everyone in the room stood up quickly, aghast at the sudden detonation. Every one except Vance. And before any one could speak, his calm authoritative voice was saying:
"There is no need for alarm. Please sit down. I expressly arranged that shot for all of you to hear--it will have an important bearing on the case..."
Burke appeared suddenly at the door.
"Was that all right, Mr. Vance?"
"Quite all right," Vance told him. "The same revolver and blanks?"
"Sure. Just like you told me. And from where you said. Wasn't it like you wanted it?"
"Yes, precisely," nodded Vance. "Thanks, Burke." The detective grinned broadly and moved away down the hall.
"That shot, I believe," resumed Vance, sweeping his eyes lazily over those present, "was similar to the one we heard yesterday afternoon-- the one that summoned us to Swift's dead body. It may interest you to know that the shot just fired by Detective Burke was fired from the same revolver, with the same cartridges, that the murderer used yesterday--and from about the same spot."
"But this shot sounded as if it were fired down here somewhere," cut in Siefert.
"Exactly," said Vance with satisfaction. "It was fired from one of the windows on this floor."
"But I understood that the shot yesterday came from upstairs." Siefert looked perplexed.
"That was the general, but erroneous, assumption," explained Vance. "Actually it did not. Yesterday, because of the open roof door and the stairway, and the closed door of the room from which the shot was fired, and mainly because we were psychologically keyed to the idea of a shot from the roof, it gave us all the impression of coming from the garden. We were misled by our manifest, but unformulated, fears."
"By George, you're right, Vance!" It was Floyd Garden who spoke almost excitedly. "I remember wondering at the time of the shot where it could have come from, but naturally my mind went immediately to Woody, and I assumed it came from the garden."
Zalia Graem turned quickly to Vance.
"The shot yesterday didn't sound to me as if it came from the garden. When I came out of the den I wondered why you were all hurrying upstairs."
Vance returned her gaze squarely.
"No, it must have sounded much closer to you," he said. "But why didn't you mention that important fact yesterday when I talked with you about the crime?"
"I--don't know," the girl stammered. "When I saw Woody dead up there, I naturally thought I'd been mistaken."
"But you couldn't have been mistaken," returned Vance, half under his breath. His eyes drifted off into space again. "And after the revolver had been fired yesterday from a downstairs window, it was surreptitiously placed in the pocket of Miss Beeton's top-coat in the hall closet. Had it been fired from upstairs it could have been hidden to far better advantage somewhere on the roof or in the study. Sergeant Heath, having searched both upstairs and down, later found it in the hall closet." He turned again to the girl. "By the by, Miss Graem, didn't you go to that closet after answering your telephone call here in the den?"
The girl gasped.
"How--how did you know?"
"You were seen there," explained Vance. "You must remember that the hall closet is visible from one end of the drawing-room."
"Oh!" Zalia Graem swung around angrily to Hammle. "So it was you who told him!"
"It was my duty," returned Hammle, drawing himself up righteously.
The girl turned back to Vance with flashing eyes.
"I'll tell you why I went to the hall closet. I went to get a handkerchief I had left in my handbag. Does that make me a murderer?"
"No. Oh, no." Vance shook his head and sighed. "Thank you for the explanation...And will you be so good as to tell me exactly what you did last night when you answered Mrs. Garden's summons?"
Professor Garden who had been sitting with bowed head, apparently paying no attention to any one, suddenly looked up and let his hollow eyes rest on the girl with a slight show of animation.
Zalia Graem glared defiantly at Vance.
"I asked Mrs. Garden what I could do for her, and she requested me to fill the water glass on the little table beside her bed. I went into the bathroom and filled it; then I arranged her pillows and asked her if there was anything else she wanted. She thanked me and shook her head; and I returned to the drawing-room."
Professor Garden's eyes clouded again, and he sank back in his chair, once more oblivious to his surroundings.
"Thank you," murmured Vance, nodding to Miss Graem and turning to the nurse. "Miss Beeton," he asked, "when you returned last night, was the bedroom window which opens on the balcony bolted?"
The nurse seemed surprised at the question. But when she answered, it was in a calm, professional tone.
"I didn't notice. But I know it was bolted when I went out--Mrs. Garden always insisted on it. I'm sorry I didn't look at the window when I returned. Does it really matter?"
"No, not particularly." Vance then addressed Kroon. "I understand you took Miss Weatherby out on the balcony last night. What were you doing there during the ten minutes you remained outside?"
Kroon bristled. "If you must know, we were fighting about Miss Fruemon--"
"We were not!" Miss Weatherby's shrill voice put in. "I was merely ask
ing Cecil--"
"That's quite all right." Vance interrupted the woman sharply and waved his hand deprecatingly. "Questions or recriminations--it really doesn't matter, don't y' know." He turned leisurely to Floyd Garden. "I say, Garden, when you left the drawing-room yesterday afternoon, to follow Swift on your errand of mercy, as it were, after he had given you his bet on Equanimity, where did you go with him?"
"I led him into the dining-room." The man was at once troubled and aggressive. "I argued with him for a while, and then he came out and went down the hall to the stairs. I watched him for a couple of minutes, wondering what else I might do about it, for, to tell you the truth, I didn't want him to listen in on the race upstairs. I was pretty damned sure Equanimity wouldn't win, and he didn't know I hadn't placed his bet. I was rather worried about what he might do. For a minute I thought of following him upstairs, but changed my mind. I decided there was nothing more to be done about it except to hope for the best. So I returned to the drawing-room."
Vance lowered his eyes to the desk and was silent for several moments, smoking meditatively.
"I'm frightfully sorry, and all that," he murmured at length, without looking up; "but the fact is, we don't seem to be getting any forrader. There are plausible explanations for everything and everybody. For instance, during the commission of the first crime, Doctor Garden was supposedly at the library or in a taxicab. Floyd Garden, according to his own statement, and with the partial corroboration of Mr. Hammle here, was in the dining-room and the lower hallway. Mr. Hammle himself, as well as Miss Weatherby, was in the drawing-room. Mr. Kroon explains that he was smoking somewhere on the public stairway, and left two cigarette butts there as evidence. Miss Graem, so far as we can ascertain, was in the den here, telephoning. Therefore, assuming-- merely as a hypothesis--that any one here could be guilty of the murder of Swift, of the apparent attempt to murder Miss Beeton, and of the possible murder of Mrs. Garden, there is nothing tangible to substantiate an individual accusation. The performance was too clever, too well conceived, and the innocent persons seem unconsciously and involuntarily to have formed a conspiracy to aid and abet the murderer."
Vance looked up and went on.
"Moreover, nearly every one has acted in a manner which conceivably would make him appear guilty. There have been an amazing number of accusations. Mr. Kroon was the first victim of one of these unsubstantiated accusations. Miss Graem has been pointed out to me as the culprit by several persons. Mrs. Garden last night directly accused her son. In fact, there has been a general tendency to involve various people in the criminal activities here. From the human and psychological point of view the issue has been both deliberately and unconsciously clouded, until the confusion was such that no clear-cut outline remained. And this created an atmosphere which perfectly suited the murderer's machinations, for it made detection extremely difficult and positive proof almost impossible...And yet," Vance added, "some one in this room is guilty."
He rose dejectedly. I could not understand his manner: it was so unlike the man as I had always known him. All of his assurance seemed gone, and I felt that he was reluctantly admitting defeat. He turned and looked out of the window into the gathering dusk. Then he swung round quickly, and his eyes swept angrily about the room, resting for a brief moment on each one present.
"Furthermore," he said with a staccato stress on his words, "I know who the guilty person is!"
There was an uneasy stir in the room and a short tense silence which was broken by Doctor Siefert's cultured voice.
"If that is the case, Mr. Vance--and I do not doubt the sincerity of your statement--I think it your duty to name that person."
Vance regarded the doctor thoughtfully for several moments before answering. Then he said in a low voice: "I think you are right, sir." Again he paused and, lighting a fresh cigarette, moved restlessly up and down in front of the window. "First, however," he said, stopping suddenly, "there's something upstairs I wish to look at again--to make sure...You will all please remain here for a few minutes." And he moved swiftly toward the door. At the threshold he hesitated and turned to the nurse. "Please come with me, Miss Beeton. I think you can help me."
The nurse rose and followed Vance into the hall. A moment later we could hear them mounting the stairs.
A restlessness swept over those who remained below. Professor Garden got slowly to his feet and went to the window, where he stood looking out. Kroon threw a half-smoked cigarette away and, taking out his case offered it to Miss Weatherby. As they lighted their cigarettes they murmured something to each other which I could not distinguish.
Floyd Garden shifted uncomfortably in his chair and resumed his nervous habit of packing his pipe. Siefert moved around the room, pretending to inspect the etchings, and Markham's eyes followed his every move. Hammle cleared his throat loudly several times, lighted a cigarette, and busied himself with various papers which he took from his pocket folder. Only Zalia Graem remained unruffled. She leaned her head against the back of the davenport and, closing her eyes, smoked languidly. I could have sworn there was the trace of a smile at the corners of her mouth...
Fully five minutes passed, and then the tense silence of the room was split by a woman's frenzied and terrifying cry for help, from somewhere upstairs. As we reached the hallway the nurse came stumbling down the stairs, holding with both hands to the, bronze railing. Her face was ghastly pale, and there was a wild, frightened look in her eyes.
"Mr. Markham! Mr. Markham!" she called hysterically. "Oh, my God! The most terrible thing has happened!"
She had just reached the foot of the stairs when Markham came up to her. She stood clutching the railing for support.
"It's Mr. Vance!" she panted excitedly. "He's--gone!"
A chill of horror passed over me, and every one in the hall seemed stunned. I noticed--as something entirely apart from my immediate perceptions--Heath and Snitkin and Peter Quackenbush, the official police photographer, step into the hall through the main entrance. Quackenbush had his camera and tripod with him; and the three men stood calmly just inside the door, detached from the amazed group around the foot of the stairs. I vaguely wondered why they were accepting the situation with such smug indifference...
In broken phrases, interspersed with gasping sobs, the nurse was explaining to Markham.
"He went over.--Oh, God, it was horrible! He said he wanted to ask me something, and led me out into the garden. He began questioning me about Doctor Siefert, and Professor Garden, and Miss Graem. And while he talked he moved over to the parapet--you remember where he stood last night. He got up there again, and looked down. I was frightened-- the way I was yesterday. And then--and then--while I was talking to him--he bent over, and I could see--oh, God!--he had lost his balance." She stared at Markham wild-eyed. "I reached toward him...and suddenly he wasn't there any more...He had gone over!..."
Her eyes lifted suddenly over our heads and peered past us transfixed. A sudden change came over her. Her face seemed contorted into a hideous mask. Following her horrified gaze, we instinctively turned and glanced up the hallway toward the drawing-room...
There, near the archway, looking calmly toward us, was Vance.
I have had many harrowing experiences, but the sight of Vance at that moment, after the horror I had been through, affected me more deeply than any shock I can recall. A numbness overcame me, and I could feel cold perspiration breaking out all over my body. The sound of Vance's voice merely tended to upset me further.
"I told you last night, Miss Beeton," he was saying, his eyes resting sternly on the nurse, "that no gambler ever quits with his first winning bet, and that in the end he always loses." He came forward a few steps. "You won your first gamble, at long odds, when you murdered Swift. And your poisoning of Mrs. Garden with the barbital also proved a winning bet. But when you attempted to add me to your list of victims, because you suspected I knew too much--you lost. That race was fixed--you hadn't a chance."
Markham was glaring a
t Vance in angry amazement.
"What is the meaning of all this?" he fairly shouted, despite his obvious effort to suppress his excitement.
"It merely means, Markham," explained Vance, "that I gave Miss Beeton an opportunity to push me over the parapet to what ordinarily would have been certain death. And she took that opportunity. This afternoon I arranged for Heath and Snitkin to witness the episode; and I also arranged to have it permanently recorded."
"Recorded? Good God! What do you mean?" Markham seemed half dazed.
"Just that," returned Vance calmly. "An official photograph taken with a special lens adapted to the semi-light--for the Sergeant's archives." He looked past Markham to Quackenbush. "You got the picture, I hope," he said.
"I sure did," the man returned with a satisfied grin. "At just the right angle too. A pippin."
The nurse, who had been staring at Vance as if petrified, suddenly relaxed her hold on the stair railing, and her hands went to her face in a gesture of hopelessness and despair. Then her hands dropped to her sides to reveal a face of haggard defeat.
"Yes!" she cried at Vance; "I tried to kill you. Why shouldn't I? You were about to take everything--everything--away from me."
She turned quickly and ran up the stairs. Almost simultaneously Vance dashed forward.
"Quick, quick!" he called out. "Stop her before she gets to the garden."
But before any of us realized the significance of his words, Vance was himself on the stairs. Heath and Snitkin were just behind him, and the rest of us, stupefied, followed. As I came out on the roof, I could see Miss Beeton running toward the far end of the garden, with Vance immediately behind her. Twilight had nearly passed, and a deep dusk had settled over the city. As the girl leaped up on the parapet at the same point where Vance had stood the night before, she was like a spectral silhouette against the faintly glowing sky. And then she disappeared down into the deep shadowy abyss, just before Vance could reach her...
CHAPTER XVIII
THE SCRATCH SHEET
Philo Vance 12 Novels Complete Bundle Page 217
