The Ghost Phone

by Johnston McCulley

  “I understand. Now, Mr. Garder, have you in your charge a will made by Mrs. Lennek?”

  “Yes. I urged her to make one soon after her husband’s death, and she did so.”

  “Do you care, for the sake of simplifying matters, to tell me the provisions of the will?”

  “I can see no reason for not doing so. And I imagine that the beneficiary knows its provisions already.”

  “What are they?”

  “All property is left to Mrs. Lennek’s sister, Mrs. Howard Crend.”

  “So Mrs. Crend is to benefit by the death?”

  “To a large extent,” said Garder. “Mrs. Lennek’s estate is worth more than a million dollars, possibly a million and a half if care is used.”

  Some of those in the room gasped. Mrs. Crend’s face went white for an instant and then red. Her husband seemed to be stunned.

  Detective Sam Frake looked at the ceiling again and then back at the attorney.

  “You’re sure it was Mrs. Lennek who called you over the telephone at half past three?” he asked.

  “Why, yes! I know her voice, and she said that she was Mrs. Lennek. Otherwise, I’d not have left my library and come over here in such a hurry.”

  “What did you think when she said that it was a matter of life and death?”

  “I thought that something had come up that worried her, and that she was exaggerating greatly, of course.”

  “You know nothing that might throw light on this case?”

  “Not a thing,” said Mr. Garder. “I know of no reason why she should take her own life, and no reason why any one should kill her.”

  “That will do, Mr. Garder, thank you,” Detective Frake said. “You may return to your chair. If you wish to return home, you may do that. You are not under suspicion, of course.”

  “Unless you object, I’d like to remain,” Garder said. “I was her attorney, and, if there are any developments — “

  “I understand. You may remain, of course.”

  Sam Frake consulted the ceiling of the room again. Then he beckoned Mrs. Howard Crend to take the chair beneath the light She was nervous beneath the detective’s scrutiny, but then the dead woman had been her sister, of course, and she was shaken by the tragic death.

  “When did you see your sister alive last?” Frake asked.

  “Day before yesterday. We were to a matinée together,” Mrs. Crend replied.

  “She seemed to be all right then?”

  “She was in good health and spirits, if that is what you mean. In too good spirits, in fact.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Frake asked.

  “She was like a silly schoolgirl. She was in love with a man. I tried to tell her that she would be foolish to marry again at all, especially to the man with whom she was infatuated.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “She refused to listen to me,” Laura Crend replied.

  “She telephoned you to-day?”

  “At half past three, as I told you.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “She said that she had just called up to tell me good-by,” Mrs. Crend replied. “I tried to ask her what she meant, and she rang off. I was afraid she meant an elopement, and my husband and I hurried over here at once.”

  “What then?”

  “The front door of her suite was standing open about half a foot,” Mrs. Crend went on. “We rang, and nobody came. We thought it was peculiar, and so we went inside. And — and there we found her — “

  “What did you do?” Frake asked.

  “We were horror-stricken, of course. I — I scarcely can remember.”

  “Did you rush right out of the room again and meet Mr. Garder, or did you remain in the boudoir?”

  “We came right out. We met Mr. Garder at the turning in the hall, as he said.”

  Detective Sam Frake cleared his throat and sat forward suddenly, alert for the first time since he had begun his questioning.

  “Mrs. Crend,” he said, “are you sure that you did not remain in that apartment at least ten minutes before leaving it and meeting Mr. Garder?”

  “I — I scarcely think so,” she replied, bit confused.

  “The clerk, Mrs. Crend, has assured me that you and your husband went up to Mrs. Lennek’s apartment at least ten minutes before Mr. Garder arrived. He told Mr. Garder that you were up there.”

  “It — it didn’t seem that long,” Mrs. Crend said.

  “You found your sister dead?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you take any steps to make sure that she was dead?” Frake asked.

  “No. One glance was enough. The expression on her face, her open and glazed eyes — “

  “So you did not touch her?”

  “No, sir. I — I was too shocked.”

  “You cannot tell me, then, whether she had just passed away, or whether she had been dead for some time?”

  “No.”

  “Did you touch anything in the boudoir?”

  “Nothing. My husband led me out of the room into the living room immediately.”

  “How long has it been since you were in the boudoir, before this last visit?”

  “Possibly a week,” Mrs. Crend replied.

  “Sure of that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mrs. Crend,” said Detective Frake, “I have ascertained that the furniture polisher connected with this apartment house was working in Mrs. Lennek’s rooms yesterday — Saturday. I learned that from the maid, from the superintendent, and from the polisher himself. He polished that desk in the corner of the boudoir, for instance. You say that you have not been in there for a week or so. Then how does it happen, Mrs. Crend, that your finger prints are on the polished surface of the desk?”

  “What are you saying?” she cried.

  “Merely pointing out an — er — an error in your answers,” Detective Sam Frake said. “I had the finger-print expert take prints of all of you a short time ago. They have been compared with prints found in the boudoir. For Instance, the glass tumbler shows prints made by Mrs. Lennek, her maid, and Mr. Garder. The maid says she handled the glass, and Mr. Garder told us that he picked it up.”

  “But — “

  “And your finger prints, Mrs. Crend, are on the polished surface of that desk. Fortunately it took prints very well indeed. Those prints, Mrs. Crend, were made by you since the polisher handled that piece of furniture Saturday afternoon — within twenty-four hours. Yet you say you did not touch the desk today, and that you had not been in the boudoir for possibly a week before.”

  “What are you trying to do?” Howard Crend cried suddenly, springing to his feet. “Are you accusing my wife of killing her sister?”

  “Sit down!” Frake commanded. “I am merely showing you that I want the truth, the whole truth, and that you can easily be caught in a lie.”

  “There must be some mistake —” Mrs. Crend began.

  “There is no mistake about those finger prints,” Detective Frake told her. “You were in your sister’s apartment ten or fifteen minutes, Mrs. Crend, before you came out again and ran into Mr. Garder. To speak brutally, you had ample time to kill your sister. You might have been running away when you stumbled into Mr. Garder. Nobody touched the body until the coroner’s man came, so we do not know whether the crime had been done within a few minutes.”

  “You —” Crend began again.

  “Silence,” Detective Frake commanded. “Now, Mrs. Crend, you are in a bad position. Telling a lie to me hasn’t got you much, has it? Mrs. Lennek died from poison. But the doctor and I have reason to believe that she did not drink it — that she was forced to swallow it. There are marks on her throat, her chin — finger marks. They show that she was roughly handled. You could have slain her, Mrs. Crend — “

 
“My sister? Why should I do such a thing?” the woman cried.

  “Motive? One of the greatest. By your sister’s death you come into a million or a million and a half, according to what Mr. Garder has told me.”

  “You think that I — “

  “A million or more, simply by removing one human being,” Frake said, interrupting her. “And there is another angle, of course. You were afraid, you admit, that your sister might marry a certain man. In that case you would cease to be her heiress, of course. By removing her before the marriage could take place — “

  “Beast! Beast!” Mrs. Crend cried.

  Her husband hurried to her and tried to quiet her. Crend’s race was deathly pale.

  “No, Mrs. Crend, perhaps you’d better tell me the truth,” Frake said. “Lies get you into trouble, you see, and place you under suspicion. You do not have to speak, of course, unless you wish. Anything you say may be used against you — “

  “I’ll talk!” Laura Crend cried. “I did touch that desk! But I never killed my sister. You’re a monster to suggest such a thing!”

  “Suppose you try to be calm and speak the truth,” Frake told her.

  “When we found her dead, it flashed into my mind that she had quarreled with the man with whom she was infatuated, or that she was despondent because we did not want her to marry again. Then I — I was afraid of scandal. I was afraid she had written something, left it behind, something that would put my husband and me in a bad light. I rushed to the desk and looked there, but found nothing. And then we left the boudoir. And that is all. I swear it!”

  “Crend, is that true?” Detective Frake asked.

  “Yes. My wife merely glanced at the desk, turned over some sheets of paper and envelopes that were on it. Then I got her away.”

  “Very well. Why didn’t you tell me that at first, Mrs. Crend?”

  “I thought it would look bad.”

  “It is better to tell the truth, you see. We have ways of knowing when a person does not. That is our business. Mrs. Lennek’s maid has told us that, as far as she knew, her mistress did not expect any callers this afternoon, and when she left the boudoir it was not disarranged in any way. But when I arrived, I found that the desk had been ransacked, and also a chest of drawers in a corner.”

  “I didn’t ransack it!” Mrs. Crend cried. “I only looked at the papers and envelopes on the desk, to see whether she had left a letter.”

  “And you did not find one?”

  “No, sir.”

  “If you had, wouldn’t you conceal the fact now?”

  “No,” replied Mrs. Crend. “Wouldn’t I show the letter to prove the suicide, and put an end to this silly belief that my sister did not kill herself?”

  “My dear madam, it is not a silly belief,” Detective Sam Frake assured her. “I am afraid that it is a fact. That will be all for the present, Mrs. Crend.”

  Mrs. Crend got up, and her husband assisted her back to the couch where they had been sitting before. Detective Frake consulted the ceiling again.

  “She did not expect a caller evidently,” he said. “Or possibly she expected one, but did not care to have it generally known. For there was a caller — Mr. Madison Purden. Mrs. Crend, is Madison Purden the man with whom you believed your sister infatuated?”

  “He is!” Laura Crend cried. “He’s a schemer, a scoundrel! If he has persecuted my sister, hounded her to the grave — “

  “He scarcely would do that if, by marrying her, he could get a million or so,” Detective Frake said.

  He glanced across the room at Madison Purden, who sat there, white of face. Purden’s eyes were blazing, his hands were clenched. He paid no attention to the scrutiny of the detective, for he was glaring at Howard Crend and his outspoken wife.

  There was silence for a moment, and then Mrs. Crend began weeping, softly at first, and then hysterically. Her husband tried in vain to quiet her.

  “Control yourself, Mrs. Crend,” Detective Frake said. “If your sister met a violent death, you want her murderer caught and punished, don’t you?”

  “Make Madison Purden talk!” she cried suddenly. “He called on her this afternoon, did he? Then make him talk!”

  “Yes, he called on her about half past three, about the time she is supposed to have telephoned,” Detective Frake admitted. “And we’ll listen to Mr. Purden talk, of course. Kindly take this chair beneath the light, Mr. Purden.”

  CHAPTER VI.

  PURDEN’S STORY.

  MADISON PURDEN was a man of about forty, tall, broad-shouldered, and rather handsome. Men generally despised him. Some women loathed him, and others seemed drawn toward him.

  Now he got up and walked across the room and sat down in the chair before Detective Sam Frake. He looked the detective straight in the eyes. Purden’s face was white because of his anger, but he was fighting to get control of himself. It was as though he understood that he found himself on dangerous ground, that he would have to be careful in every word and action.

  Purden was dressed fastidiously, almost foppishly. He ignored all the others in the room and gave all his attention to Detective Frake. He cleared his throat.

  “I am sure, sir,” Purden said, “that you will not take into consideration the statements made against me within the past few minutes. You will readily understand why Mrs. Crend shows animosity toward me. She does not like me, and she was afraid that I was going to marry her sister. I shall be charitable and not say that it was thought of losing a fortune — “

  Detective Sam Frake held up a hand demanding silence, to stop Madison Purden, and also to prevent a tirade from Mrs. Crend, which he felt sure was coming.

  “How long had you known Mrs. Lennek, Purden?” Frake asked.

  “I knew her slightly before she was married to Mr. Lennek,” he replied. “I met her again shortly after her husband’s death and renewed my acquaintance.”

  “You have been — er — very friendly with her?”

  “Our friendship has increased gradually for almost a year,” Purden answered.

  “When did you last see her alive?”

  “She took tea with me yesterday at a tearoom downtown, after she had called upon Mr. Garder at his office.”

  “You escorted her home?”

  “No, sir. She had some shopping to do, she said. I left her at a department store and went to my club.”

  “That was the last time you saw her alive?”

  “It was — yes, sir,” Purden replied.

  “Did she communicate with you by telephone or otherwise?” Frake asked.

  “No, sir.”

  “And you called this afternoon?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Explain that, please.”

  “Mrs. Lennek had told me to run in this afternoon, if I wished. So I called.”

  “At what time, Mr. Purden?”

  “About three-thirty, certainly not later than three-thirty-five.”

  “Please tell me what happened.”

  “I entered and walked up the front stairs, as I generally do.”

  “Without having the clerk announce you?” Frake asked.

  “Yes. I never had him announce me when I called in the afternoon and on invitation. Mrs. Lennek’s maid generally answered the door.”

  “I see. Proceed, please.”

  “I came to the turn in the hall,” Purden continued, “and saw Peter Podd, the janitor. He was just in front of Mrs. Lennek’s door. He bobbed his head at me and hurried down the hall.”

  “Didn’t say anything to you?”

  “No, sir. I went on to the door. I was surprised to find that it was standing open a few inches. I rang and waited, but nobody came to the door.”

  “Did you think that strange?”

  “Naturally. I rang again, with the same result. I did not hear a sound ins
ide the apartment at first. And then I imagined that I heard a groan. I stepped inside and called Mrs. Lennek, and still there was no reply.”

  “What did you do then, Mr. Purden?”

  “I walked to the middle of the living room and called a second time. I heard no answer. I was not sure, you understand, whether I had heard a groan or not, but it worried me. I glanced into the little hallway and saw that the door of the boudoir was open.”

  For the first time since he had started his recital, Purden looked down at the floor, hesitated, acted a bit embarrassed. Detective Frake watched him closely.

  “Well, what else?” he asked, after a time.

  “I stepped into the little hallway, called her name again, and then went to the boudoir door,” Purden aid. “And I — I saw her stretched across the divan.”

  “She was dead?” Frake asked.

  “Yes. I gasped in horror and darted inside. I knew at once that she was dead. There seemed to be a look of agony in her face. Her eyes were fixed, glazed.”

  “Did you touch the body?”

  “No, sir. I was horrified.”

  “You don’t know whether the body was warm?”

  “No. I — I couldn’t even touch her hand. I was so shocked that I scarcely realized what I was doing. I couldn’t force myself to go near her. I can’t explain the feeling that came over me. I had expected to ask her to be my wife — and to come upon her dead body like that — I turned around and hurried from the room. I left the building as quickly as I could and walked and walked, unable to control myself.”

  “Why didn’t you give the alarm?” Frake asked. “Why didn’t you report finding her dead?”

  “I cannot explain my actions. That’s all that I can say.”

  “The natural thing would have been to raise an outcry, or at least to notify the office, wouldn’t it?”

  “I suppose so,” said Purden. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I walked around and finally went to the club. There the officer found me and brought me here.”

  “You mean that the shock bewildered you so that you did not do the things that would have been natural?”

  “I — I suppose that was the way of it,” said Purden.

  “After the first shock, you just wanted to get away?”