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Stout, Rex - Black Orchids

Page 15

by Black Orchids (lit)


  There had been nothing ear-piercing about it, in fact I had barely heard it, and there were no encores, but a scream is a scream. I marched past Hoskins and through the door, which was standing open, to the hall, and kept going.

  "Last door on the right," Hoskins said behind me. I knew that, having been in Janet's room before. The door was shut. I turned the knob and went in, and saw no one, but another door, standing open, revealed a corner of a bathroom. As I started for it the maid's voice came out:

  "Who is it?"

  "Archie Goodwin. What-"

  The maid appeared in the doorway, looking flustered. "You can't come in! Miss Nichols isn't dressed!"

  "Okay." I halted out of delicacy. "But I heard a scream. Do you need any rescuing, Janet?"

  "Oh, no!" the undressed invisible Janet called, in a voice so weak I could just hear it. "No, I'm all right!" The voice was not only weak, it was shaky.

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "Nothing serious," the maid said. "A cut on her arm. She cut herself with a piece of glass."

  "She what?" I goggled. But without waiting for an answer, I stepped across and walked through the maid into the bathroom. Janet, undressed in the fullest sense of the word and wet all over, was seated on a stool. Ignoring protests and shaking off the maid, who was as red as a beet having her modesty shocked by proxy, I got a towel from a rack and handed it to Janet.

  "Here," I said, "this will protect civilization. How the dickens did you do that?"

  I lifted her left arm for a look. The cut, nearly an inch long, halfway between the wrist and the elbow, looked worse than it probably was on account of the mixture of blood and iodine. It certainly didn't seem to be worth fainting for, but Janet's face looked as if she might be going to faint. I took the iodine bottle out of her hand and put the cork in it.

  "I never scream," Janet said, holding the towel up to her chin. "Really, I never do. But it seemed so ... cutting myself with glass . . . so soon after Miss Huddleston . . ." She swallowed. "I didn't scream when I cut myself; I'm not quite that silly, really I'm not. I screamed when I saw the piece of glass in the bath brush. It seemed so-"

  "Here it is," the maid said.

  I took it. It was a piece of jagged glass, creamy yellow, not much bigger than my thumbnail.

  "It's like a piece of that bottle that was broke in Miss Huddleston's room that you was asking about," the maid said.

  "I'll keep it for a souvenir," I announced, and dropped it into the pocket where I had put the iodine bottle, and picked up the bath brush from the floor. It was soaking wet. "You mean you got in the tub and got soaped, and started to use the brush and cut yourself, and looked at the brush and saw the piece of glass wedged in the bristles, and screamed. Huh?"

  Janet nodded. "I know it was silly to scream-"

  "I was in the room," the maid said, "and I ran in and-"

  "Okay," I cut her off. "Get me some gauze and bandages."

  "There in the cabinet," Janet said.

  I did a neat job on her, using plenty of gauze because the cut was still trying to bleed. Where she needed the blood was in her face, which was still white and scared, though she tried to smile at me when she thanked me.

  I patted her on a nice round shoulder. "Don't mention it, girlie. I'll wait downstairs until you get dressed. I like you in that towel, but I think it would be sensible to go to a doctor and get a shot of antitoxin. I’ll drive you. When you-"

  "Anitoxin?" she gasped.

  "Sure." I patted her again. "Just a precaution. Nothing to worry about. I'll be waiting downstairs."

  Hoskins, hovering around in the hall, was relieved when I told him there was nothing for him to do except to get me a piece of paper to wrap the bath brush in. I waited till I was alone, down in the living room, to take the iodine bottle from my pocket, uncork it, and smell it. Whatever it was, it wasn't iodine. I put the cork back in good and tight, went to a lavatory across the hall and washed my hands, and then found a telephone and dialed Wolfe's number.

  He answered himself, from the plant rooms since it wasn't eleven o'clock yet, and I gave it to him, all of it. When I finished he said immediately and urgently:

  "Get her away from there!"

  "Yes, sir, that is my intention-"

  "Confound it, at once! Why phone me? If Mr. Cramer goes-"

  "Please," I said firmly. "She was naked. I have no white horse, and she hasn't got much hair, at least not that much. As soon as she's dressed we're off. I was going to suggest that you phone Doc Vollmer and tell him to have a dose of antitoxin ready. We'll be there in about half an hour. Or I can phone him from here-"

  "No. I will. Leave as soon as possible."

  "Righto."

  I went upstairs to the door of Janet's room and called to her that I'd be waiting by the side gate, and then went out and turned the car around and took it that far back down the drive. I was debating what course to follow if a police car put in an appearance, when here she came down the path, a little wobbly on her pins and far from pert but her buttons all buttoned. I helped her in and tore out of there with the gravel flying.

  She didn't seem to feel like talking. I explained to her about Doc Vollmer being an old friend of ours, with his home and office on the same block as Nero Wolfe's house, so I was taking her there, and I tried a few leading questions, such as whether she had any idea how the piece of glass got into the bristles of her bath brush, but she didn't seem to be having any ideas. What she needed was a strong man to hold her hand, but I was driving. She had simply had the daylights scared out of her.

  I had no explaining to do at Doc Vollmer's, since Wolfe had talked to him on the phone, and we weren't in there more than twenty minutes altogether. He cleaned the cut thoroughly, applied some of his own iodine, gave her the antitoxin in that arm, and then took me to an inside room and asked me for the iodine bottle I had. When I gave it to him he uncorked it, smelled it, frowned, poured a little of the contents into a glass vial, corked it again even tighter than I had, and handed it back to me.

  "She'll be all right," he said. "What a devilish trick! Tell Mr. Wolfe I'll phone him as soon as possible."

  I escorted Janet back out to the car. It was only a couple of hundred feet from there to Wolfe's door, and I discovered that I couldn't drive the last thirty of them because two cars were parked in front. Janet hadn't even asked why I was taking her to Wolfe's house. Apparently she was leaving it up to me. I gave her a reassuring grin as I opened the door with my key and waved her in.

  Not knowing who the callers might be, the owners of the cars in front, instead of taking her straight to the office I ushered her into the front room. But one of them was there, sprawled in a chair, and when Janet saw him she emitted an exclamation. It was Larry Huddleston. I greeted him, invited Janet to sit, and not wanting to use the connecting door to the office, went around by the hall. Wolfe wasn't in the office, but two more visitors were, and they were Dr. Brady and Daniel Huddleston, evidently, judging from their attitudes, not being chummy.

  Oho, I thought, we're having a party, and went to the kitchen, and there was Wolfe.

  He was standing by the long table, watching Fritz rub a spice mixture into slices of calf‘s liver, and watching with him, standing beside him, closer to him than I had ever seen any woman or girl of any age tolerated, with her hand slipped between his arm and his bulk, was Maryella.

  Wolfe gave me a fleeting glance. "Back, Archie? We're doing mock terrapin. Miss Timms had a suggestion." He leaned over to peer at the liver, straightened, and sighed clear to the bottom. He turned to me: "And Miss Nichols?"

  "In front. Doc Vollmer took a sample and will phone as soon as possible."

  "Good. On the coldest shelf, Fritz; the time is uncertain; and leave the door to Archie. Archie, we are busy and not available. All of us. Come, Miss Timms."

  She couldn't cling to him as they went through the door, because there wasn't room.

  Chapter 7

  Dr. Brady said sharply, "I've b
een waiting here over half an hour. How long will this take? I'm due at my office at one o'clock."

  I was at my desk and he was nearby, on one of the straight-backed chairs. Next to him was Maryella, in the wing chair that I like to read in, and on the other side of her was Larry. Then Daniel Huddleston; and ending the arc was Janet in the red leather chair, her shoulders sagging, looking as if she were only about half there. As far as that goes, none of them looked very comfortable, not even Maryella; she would glance at one of them and then look back at Wolfe, and set her teeth on her lip and clear her throat again.

  Wolfe's half-open eyes were directed at Brady. "I'm afraid you may be a little late at your office, doctor. I'm sorry-"

  "But what kind of a performance is this? You said on the telephone-"

  "Please," Wolfe interrupted sharply. "I said that to get you here." His glance went around. "The situation is no longer as I represented it on the phone, to any of you. I told you that it was definitely known that Miss Huddleston had been murdered. Now we're a little further along. I know who murdered her."

  They stared at him. Maryella's teeth went deeper into her lip. Janet gripped the arms of her chair and stopped breathing. Daniel leaned forward with his chin stuck out like a halfback waiting for a signal. Brady made a noise in his throat. The only one who uttered anything intelligible was Larry. He said harshly:

  "The hell you do."

  Wolfe nodded. "I do. That is one change in the situation. The other is that an attempt has been made to murder Miss Nichols. -Please! There is no cause for alarm. The attempt was frustrated-"

  "When?" Brady demanded. "What kind of an attempt?"

  "To murder Janet!" Maryella exclaimed incredulously.

  Wolfe frowned at them. "This will go more quickly and smoothly with no interruptions. I'll make it as brief as possible; I assure you I have no wish to prolong the unpleasantness. Especially since I find less than enjoyable the presence in this room of an extremely unattractive person. I shall call that person X. As you all know, X began with an effort to injure Miss Huddleston by sending anonymous letters-"

  "Nothing of the sort!" Larry blurted indignantly. "We don't know that one of us sent those letters! Neither do you!"

  "Put it this way, Mr. Huddleston." Wolfe wiggled a finger at him. "I make statements. You suspect belief. In the end there will be a verdict, and you will concur or not. X sent those letters. Then he-I am forced thus to exclude women, at least temporarily, by the pronominal inadequacy of our language-then he became dissatisfied with the results, or something happened, no matter which. In any case, X decided on something more concrete and conclusive. Murder. The technique was unquestionably suggested by the recent death of Miss Horrocks by tetanus. A small amount of material procured at the stable, immersed in water, furnished the required emulsion. It was strained and mixed with argyrol, the mixture was put in a bottle with an iodine label, and the bottle was substituted for the iodine bottle in the cabinet in Miss Huddleston's bathroom. But-"

  "Her bathroom?" Maryella was incredulous again.

  "Yes, Miss Timms. But X was not one to wait indefinitely for some accidental disjunction in Miss Huddleston's skin. He carried the preparations further, by smashing her bottle of bath salts and inserting a sliver of glass among the bristles of her bath brush. Beautifully simple. It would be supposed that the sliver lodged there when the bottle broke. If she saw it and removed it, no harm done, try again. If she didn't see it, she would cut herself, and there was the iodine bottle-"

  "Nuts!" Larry exploded. "You can't possibly-"

  "No?" Wolfe snapped. "Archie, if you please?"

  I took it from my pocket and handed it to him, and he displayed it to them between his thumb and forefinger. "Here it is. The identical piece of glass."

  They craned their necks. Brady stretched clear out of his chair, demanding, "How in the name of God-"

  "Sit down, Dr. Brady. How did I get it? We'll come to that. Those were the preparations. But chance intervened, to make better ones. That very afternoon, on the terrace, a tray of glasses was upset and the pieces flew everywhere. X conceived a brilliant improvisation on the spot. Helping to collect the pieces, he deposited one in Miss Huddleston's slipper, and, entering the house on an errand, as all of you did in connection with that minor catastrophe, he ran upstairs and removed the sliver of glass from the bath brush, and got the bogus bottle of iodine, took it downstairs, and placed it in the cupboard in the living room, removing the genuine one kept there. For an active person half a minute, at most a minute, did for that."

  Wolfe sighed. "As you know, it worked. Miss Huddleston stuck her foot in the slipper and cut her toe, her brother brought the iodine, Dr. Brady applied it, and she got tetanus and died." His eyes darted to Brady. "By the way, doctor, that suggests a question. Is it worthy of remark that you failed to notice the absence of the characteristic odor of iodine? I merely ask."

  Brady was looking grim. "As far as I am concerned," he said acidly, "it remains to be proven that the bottle did not contain iodine, and therefore-"

  "Nonsense. I told you on the phone. The piece of turf where the chimpanzee poured some of the contents has been analyzed. Argyrol, no iodine, and a surfeit of tetanus germs. The police have it. I tell you, I tell all of you, that however disagreeable you may find this inquiry as I pursue it, it would be vastly more disagreeable if the police were doing it. Your alternative-"

  The doorbell called me away, since Fritz had been told to leave it to me. I dashed out, not wanting to miss anything crucial, and naturally took the precaution, under the circumstances, of pulling the curtain aside for a peek through the glass. It was well that I did. I never saw the stoop more officially populated. Inspector Cramer, Lieutenant Rowcliff, and Sergeant Stebbins! I slipped the chain bolt in place, which would let the door come only five inches, turned the lock and the knob and pulled, and spoke through the crack:

  "They don't live here any more."

  "Listen, you goddamn squirt," Cramer said impolitely. "Open the door!"

  "Can't. The hinge is broke."

  "I say open up! We know they're here!"

  "You do in a pig's eye. The things you don't know. If you've got one, show it. No? No warrant? And all the judges out to lunch-"

  "By God, if you think-"

  "I don't. Mr. Wolfe thinks. All I have is brute force. Like this-"

  I banged the door to, made sure the lock had caught, went to the kitchen and stood on a chair and removed a screw, bolted the back door and told Fritz to leave it that way, and returned to the office. Wolfe stopped talking to look at me. I nodded, and told him as I crossed to my chair:

  "Three irate men. They'll probably return with legalities."

  "Who are they?"

  "Cramer, Rowcliff, Stebbins."

  "Ha." Wolfe looked gratified. "Disconnect the bell."

  "Done."

  "Bolt the back door."

  "Done."

  "Good." He addressed them: "An inspector, a lieutenant, and a sergeant of police have this building under siege. Since they are investigating murder, and since all of the persons involved have been collected here by me and they know it, my bolted doors will irritate them almost beyond endurance. I shall let them enter when I am ready, not before. If any of you wish to leave now, Mr. Goodwin will let you out to the street. Do you?"

  Nobody moved or spoke, or breathed.

  Wolfe nodded. "During your absence, Archie, Dr. Brady stated that outdoors on that terrace, with a breeze going, it is not likely that the absence of the iodine odor would have been noticed by him, or by anyone. Is that correct, doctor?"

  "Yes," Brady said curtly.

  "Very well. I agree with you." Wolfe surveyed the ijroup. "So X's improvisation was a success. Later, of :ourse, he replaced the genuine iodine in the cupboard and removed the bogus. From his standpoint, it was next to perfect. It might indeed have been perfect, invulnerable to any inquest, if the chimpanzee hadn't poured some of that mixture on the grass. I don't know why X d
idn't attend to that; there was plenty of time, whole days and nights; possible he hadn't seen the chimpanzee doing it, or maybe he didn't realize the danger. And we know he was foolhardy. He should certainly have disposed of the bogus iodine and the piece of glass he had removed from Miss Huddleston's bath brush when it was no longer needed, but he didn't. He-"

  "How do you know he didn't?" Larry demanded.

  "Because he kept them. He must have kept them, since he used them. Yesterday he put the bogus iodine in the cabinet in Miss Nichols' bathroom, and the piece of glass in tier bath brush."

  I was watching them all at once, or trying to, but he or she was too good for me. The one who wasn't surprised and startled put on so good an imitation of it that I was no better off than I was before. Wolfe was taking them in too, his narrowed eyes the only moving part of him, his arms folded, his chin on his necktie.

  "And," he rumbled, "it worked. This morning. Miss Nichols got in the tub, cut her arm, took the bottle from the cabinet, and applied the stuff-"

  "Good God!" Brady was out of his chair. "Then she must-"

  Wolfe pushed a palm at him. "Calm yourself, doctor. Antitoxin has been administered."

  "By whom?"

  "By a qualified person. Please be seated. Thank you. Miss Nichols does not need your professional services, but I would like to use your professional knowledge. First- Archie, have you got that brush?"

  It was on my desk, still wrapped in the paper Hoskins had got for me. I removed the paper and offered the brush to Wolfe, but instead of taking it he asked me:

  "You use a bath brush, don't you? Show us how you manipulate it. On your arm."

  Accustomed as I was to loony orders from him, I merely obeyed. I started at the wrist and made vigorous sweeps to the shoulder and back.

  "That will do, thank you.-No doubt all of you, if you use bath brushes, wield them in a similar manner. Not, that is, with a circular motion, or around the arm, but lengthwise, up and down. So the cut on Miss Nichols's arm, as Mr. Goodwin described it to me, runs lengthwise, about halfway between the wrist and the elbow. Is that correct, Miss Nichols?"

 

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