Afternoon Tea Mysteries, Volume Two: A Collection of Cozy Mysteries (Four thrilling novels in one volume!)

by Marion Bryce

  It was a sort of deadlock. Without a witness to the fact, I could not prove that he had gone by the office windows, though I was sure he had.

  But help came from an unexpected quarter.

  Elsa had been very quiet during the foregoing conversation, but now she spoke up suddenly, and said: “He did go round by the office, Mr. Burroughs, and I saw him.”

  I half expected to see Louis turn on the girl in a rage, but the effect of her speech on him was quite the reverse. He almost collapsed; he trembled and turned white, and though he tried to speak, he made no sound. Surely this man was too cowardly for a criminal; but I must learn the secret of his knowledge.

  “Tell me about it, Elsa,” I said, quietly.

  “I was looking out at my window, sir, at the back of the house; and I saw Louis come around the house, and he came around by the office side.”

  “You’re positive of this, Elsa? you would swear to it? Remember, you are making an important assertion.”

  “I am telling the truth, sir. I saw him plainly as he came around and entered at the back door.”

  “You hear, Louis?” I said sternly. “I believe Elsa’s statement rather than yours, for she tells a straight story, while you are rattled and agitated, and have all the appearance of concealing something.”

  Louis looked helpless. He didn’t dare deny Elsa’s story, but he would not confirm it. At last he said, with a glance of hatred at the girl, “Elsa, she tell that story to make the trouble for me.”

  There was something in this. Elsa, I knew, was jealous, and her pride had been hurt because Louis had taken the rose she gave him, and then had gone to call on another girl. But I had no reason to doubt Elsa’s statement, and I had every reason to doubt Louis’s. I tried to imagine what Louis’s experience had really been, and it suddenly occurred to me, that though innocent himself of real wrong, he had seen something in the office, or through the office windows that he wished to keep secret. I did not for a moment believe that the man had killed his master, so I concluded he was endeavoring to shield someone else.

  “Louis,” I said, suddenly, “I’ll tell you what you did. You went around by the office, you saw a light there late at night, and you naturally looked in. You saw Mr. Crawford there, and he was perhaps already killed. You stepped inside and discovered this, and then you came away, and said nothing about it, lest you yourself be suspected of the crime. Incidentally you dropped two petals from the rose Elsa had given you.”

  Louis’s answer to this accusation was a perfect storm of denials, expressed in voluble French and broken English, but all to the effect that it was not true, and that if he had seen his master dead, he would have raised an alarm.

  I saw that I had not yet struck the right idea, so I tried again. “Then, Louis, you must have passed the office before Mr. Crawford was killed, which is really more probable. Then as you passed the window, you saw something or someone in the office, and you’re not willing to tell about it. Is this it?”

  This again brought forth only incoherent denial, and I could see that the man was becoming so rattled, it was difficult for him to speak clearly, had he desired to do so.

  “Elsa,” I said, suddenly, “you took that rose from Louis’s room. What did you do with it?”

  “I kept,—I mean, I don’t know what I did with it,” stammered the girl, blushing rosy red, and looking shyly at Louis.

  I felt sorry to disclose the poor girl’s little romance, for it was easy enough to see that she was in love with the fickle Frenchman, who evidently did not reciprocate her interest. He looked at her disdainfully, and she presented a pathetic picture of embarrassment.

  But the situation was too serious for me to consider Elsa’s sentiments, and I said, rather sternly: “You do know where it is. You preserved that rose as a souvenir. Go at once and fetch it.”

  It was a chance shot, for I was not at all certain that she had kept the withered flower, but dominated by my superior will she went away at once. She returned in a moment with the flower.

  Although withered, it was still in fairly good condition; quite enough so for me to see at a glance that no petals had been detached from it. The green calyx leaves clung around the bud in such a manner as to prove positively that the unfolding flower had lost no petal. This settled the twelfth rose. Wherever those tell-tale petals had come from, they were not from Louis’s rose. I gave the flower back to Elsa, and I said, “take your flower, my girl, and go away now. I don’t want to question you any more for the present.”

  A little bewildered at her sudden dismissal, Elsa went away, and I turned my attention to the Frenchman.

  “Louis,” I began, “this must be settled here and now between us. Either you must tell me what I want to know, or you must be taken before the district attorney, and be made to tell him. I have proved to my own satisfaction that the rose petals in the office were not from the flower you wore. Therefore I conclude that you did not go into the office that night, but as you passed the window you did see someone in there with Mr. Crawford. The hour was later than Mr. Porter’s visit, for he had already gone home, and Lambert had locked the front door and gone to bed. You came in later, and what you saw, or whom you saw through the office window so surprised you, or interested you, that you paused to look in, and there you dropped your transfer.”

  Though Louis didn’t speak, I could see at once that I was on the right track at last. The man was shielding somebody. He was unwilling to tell what he had seen, lest it inculpate someone. Could it be Gregory Hall? If Hall had come out on a late train, and Louis had seen him there, he might, perhaps under Hall’s coercion, be keeping the fact secret. Again, if a strange woman with the gold bag had been in the office, that also would have attracted Louis’s attention. Again, and here my heart almost stopped beating, could he have seen Florence Lloyd in there? But a second thought put me at ease again. Surely to have seen Florence in there would have been so usual and natural a sight that it could not have caused him anxiety. And yet, again, for him to have seen Florence in her uncle’s office, would have proved to him that the story she told at the inquest was false. I must get out of him the knowledge he possessed, if I had to resort to a sort of third degree. But I might manage it by adroit questioning.

  “I quite understand, Louis, that you are shielding some person. But let me tell you that it is useless. It is much wiser for you to tell me all you know, and then I can go to work intelligently to find the man who murdered Mr. Crawford. You want me to find him, do you not?”

  Louis seemed to have found his voice again. “Yes, sir, of course he must be found. Of course I want him found,—the miscreant, the villain! but, Mr. Burroughs, sir, what I have see in the office makes nothing to your search. I simply see Mr. Crawford alive and well. And I pass by. That fool girl Elsa, she tell you that I pass by, so I may say so. But I see nothing in the office to alarm me, and if I drop my transfer there, it is but because I think of him as no consequence, and I let him go.”

  “Louis,” and I looked him straight in the eye, “all that sounds straightforward and true. But, if you saw nothing in the office to surprise or alarm you, why did you at first deny having passed by the office at all?”

  The man had no answer for this. He was not ingenious in inventing falsehood, and he stood looking helpless and despairing. I perceived I should have to go on with my questioning.

  “Was it a man or a woman you saw in there with Mr. Crawford?”

  “I see nobody, sir, nobody but my master.”

  That wouldn’t do, then. As long as I asked him direct questions he could answer falsely. I must trip him up in some roundabout way.

  “Yes,” I said pleasantly, “I understand that. And what was Mr. Crawford doing?”

  “He sat at his desk;” and Louis spoke slowly, and picked his words with care.

  “Was he writing?”

  “No; that is, yes, sir, he was writing.”

  I now knew he was not writing, for the truth had slipped out before the man co
uld frame up his lie. I believed I was going to learn something at last, if I could make the man tell. Surely the testimony of one who saw Joseph Crawford late that night was of value, and though that testimony was difficult to obtain, it was well worth the effort.

  “And was Mr. Hall at his desk also?”

  Louis stared at me. “Mr. Hall, he was in New York that night.” This was said so simply and unpremeditatedly, that I was absolutely certain it was not Hall whom Louis had seen there.

  “Oh, yes, of course, so he was,” I said lightly; “and Mr. Crawford was writing, was he?”

  “Yes, sir,” spoken with the dogged scowl which I was beginning to learn always accompanied Louis’s untruthful statements.

  And now I decided to put my worst fear to the test and have it over with. It must be done, and I felt sure I could do it, but oh, how I dreaded it!

  “Did Mr. Crawford look up or see you?”

  “No, sir.”

  “And didn’t Miss Florence see you, either?”

  “No, sir.”

  It was out. The mere fact that Louis answered that question so calmly and unconsciously proved he was telling the truth. But what a truth! for it told me at the same time that Florence Lloyd was in the office with her uncle, that Louis had seen her, but that she had not seen him. I had learned the truth from my reading of the man’s expression and demeanor, and though it made my heart sink, I didn’t for a moment doubt that it was the truth.

  Of course Louis realized the next instant what he had done, and again he began his stammering denials. “Of course, Miss Lloyd do not see me for she is not there. How can she see me, then? I tell you my master was alone!”

  Had I been the least uncertain, this would have convinced me that I was right. For Louis’s voice rose almost to a shriek, so angry was he with himself for having made the slip.

  “Give it up, Louis,” I said; “you have let out the truth, now be quiet. You couldn’t help it, man, you were bound to trip yourself up sooner or later. You put up a good fight for Miss Florence, and now that I understand why you told your falsehoods, I can’t help admiring your chivalry. You saw Miss Lloyd there that evening, you heard her next day at the inquest deny having been in the office in the evening. So, in a way, it was very commendable on your part to avoid contradicting her testimonies, with your own. But you are not clever enough, Louis, to carry out that deceit to the end. And now that you have admitted that you saw Miss Lloyd there, you can best help her cause, and best help me to help her cause, by telling me all about it. For rest assured, Louis, that I am quite as anxious to prove Miss Lloyd’s innocence as you can possibly be, and the only way to accomplish that end, is to learn as much of the truth as I possibly can. Now, tell me what she was doing.”

  “Only talking to her uncle, sir.” Louis had the air of a defeated man. He had tried to shield Miss Lloyd’s name and had failed. Now he spoke sullenly, and as if his whole cause were lost.

  “And Mr. Crawford was talking to her?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “He was not writing, then?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Did they seem to be having an amicable conversation?”

  Louis hesitated, and his hesitation was sufficient answer.

  “Never mind,” I said, “you need not tell me more. In fact, I would prefer to get the rest of the story from Miss Lloyd, herself.”

  Louis looked startled. “Don’t tell Miss Lloyd I told you this,” he begged; “I have try very hard not to tell you.”

  “I know you tried hard, Louis, not to tell me, and it was not your fault that I wrung the truth from you. I will not tell Miss Lloyd that you told me, unless it should become necessary, and I do not think it will. Go away now, Louis, and do not discuss this matter with anybody at all. And, also, do not think for a moment that you have been disloyal in telling me that you saw Miss Lloyd. As I say, you couldn’t help it. I should simply have kept at you until I made you tell, so you need not blame yourself in the matter at all.”

  Louis went away, and though I could see that he believed what I said, he had a dejected air, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the man who had so inadvertently given me the knowledge that must be used against the beautiful girl who had herself given untrue testimony.

  XIII. MISS LLOYD’S CONFIDENCE

  After Louis left me, I felt as if a dead weight had fallen on my heart. Florence Lloyd had gone down to her uncle’s office late that night, and yet at the inquest she had testified that she had not done so. And even to me, when talking quietly and alone, she had repeated her false assertion. This much I knew, but why she had done if, I did not know. Not until I was forced to do so, would I believe that even her falsehood in the matter meant that she herself was guilty. There must be some other reason for her mendacity.

  Well, I would find out this reason, and if it were not a creditable one to her, I would still endeavor to do all I could for her. I longed to see her, and try if perhaps kind and gentle urging might not elicit the truth. But she had left me with such an air of haughty disdain, I hesitated to send for her again just now. And as it was nearly dinner time, I resolved to go back to my hotel.

  On the way, I came to the conclusion that it would do no harm to have a talk with Parmalee.

  I had not much confidence in his detective ability, but he knew the people better than I did, and might be able to give me information of some sort.

  After I reached the Sedgwick Arms I telephoned Parmalee to come over and dine with me, and he readily consented.

  During dinner I told him all that I had learned from Elsa and Louis. Of course I had no right to keep this knowledge to myself, and, too, I wanted Parmalee’s opinion on the situation as it stood at present.

  “It doesn’t really surprise me,” he said, “for I thought all along, Miss Lloyd was not telling the truth. I’m not yet ready to say that I think she killed her uncle, although I must say it seems extremely probable. But if she didn’t commit the deed, she knows perfectly well who did.”

  “Meaning Hall?”

  “No, I don’t mean Hall. In fact I don’t mean any one in particular. I think Miss Lloyd was the instigator of the crime, and practically carried out its commission, but she may have had an assisting agent for the actual deed.”

  “Oh, how you talk! It quite gives me the shivers even to think of a beautiful young woman being capable of such thoughts or deeds.”

  “But, you see, Burroughs, that’s because you are prejudiced in favor of Miss Lloyd. Women are capable of crime as well as men, and sometimes they’re even more clever in the perpetration of it. And you must admit if ever a woman were capable of crime, Miss Lloyd is of that type.”

  “I have to agree to that, Parmalee,” I admitted; “she certainly shows great strength of character.”

  “She shows more than that; she has indomitable will, unflinching courage, and lots of pluck. If, for any reason, she made up her mind to kill a man, she’d find a way to do it.”

  This talk made me cringe all over, but I couldn’t deny it, for so far as I knew Florence Lloyd, Parmalee’s words were quite true.

  “All right,” I said, “I’ll grant her capability, but that doesn’t prove a thing. I don’t believe that girl is guilty, and I hope to prove her innocence.”

  “But look at the evidence, man! She denied her presence in the room, yet we now know she was there. She denied the ownership of the gold bag, yet probably she was also untruthful in that matter. She is a woman of a complex nature, and though I admire her in many ways, I shouldn’t care to have much to do with her.”

  “Let us leave out the personal note, Parmalee,” I said, for I was angry at his attitude toward Florence.

  “All right. Don’t you think for a moment that I don’t see where you stand with regard to the haughty beauty, but that’s neither here nor there.”

  “Indeed it isn’t,” I returned; “and whatever may be my personal feeling toward Miss Lloyd, I can assure you it in no way influences my work on this case.”<
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  “I believe you, old man; and so I’m sure you will agree with me that we must follow up the inquiry as to Miss Lloyd’s presence in the office that night. She must be made to talk, and perhaps it would be best to tell Goodrich all about it, and let him push the matter.”

  “Oh, no,” I cried involuntarily. “Don’t set him on the track of the poor girl. That is, Parmalee, let me talk to her again, first. Now that I know she was down there that night, I think I can question her in a little different manner, and persuade her to own the truth. And, Parmalee, perhaps she was down there because Hall was there.”

  “Hall! He was in New York.”

  “So he says, but why should he speak the truth any more than Miss Lloyd?”

  “You, mean they may both be implicated?”

  “Yes; or he may have used her as a tool.”

  “Not Florence Lloyd. She’s nobody’s tool.”

  “Any woman might be a tool at the command of the man she loves. But,” I went on, with an air of conviction which was not entirely genuine, “Miss Lloyd doesn’t love Mr. Hall.”

  “I don’t know about that,” returned Parmalee; “you can’t tell about a woman like Florence Lloyd. If she doesn’t love him, she’s at least putting up a bluff of doing so.”

  “I believe it is a bluff, though I’m sure I don’t know why she should do that.”

  “On the other hand, why shouldn’t she? For some reason she’s dead set on marrying him, ready to give up her fortune to do so, if necessary. He must have some sort of a pretty strong hold on her.”

  “I admit all that, and yet I can’t believe she loves him. He’s such a commonplace man.”

  “Commonplace doesn’t quite describe him. And yet Gregory Hall, with all the money in the world, could never make himself distinguished or worth while in any way.”

  “No; and what would Miss Florence Lloyd see in a man like that, to make her so determined to marry him?”

  “I don’t think she is determined, except that Hall has some sort of hold over her,—a promise or something,—that she can’t escape.”