Rena shuddered.
“I heard Bella on the stairs,” Maclain continued, “and thought she was spying on me. I know differently now. She was watching Cheli, who got her that same afternoon. Cheli had a zipper house coat on—and deliberately picked a sanguinary method of killing the girl. Cheli stripped the house coat off and left it in the hall, killed Bella, ran down to her room, where she took a shower, and a few minutes later was downstairs with her house coat back on. Remembering that house coat was a final point which made me certain I had to get Cheli.”
“God above!” breathed the Colonel. “I’d have taken an oath that murder was committed by a man.”
“She did everything possible to make you think just that, Colonel Gray, although I don’t believe she intended to behead the girl. The executioner’s ax she used was heavier than she knew—and sharp as a scalpel, too.”
The Colonel stood up and said, “Before I go, I’d like to know how you located Barbara Tredwill so suddenly.”
“By asking myself why anyone would drag away an untrimmed Christmas tree, unless it was to obliterate footsteps in the snow. Babs escaped, Colonel Gray. She recognized where she was as soon as she got outside of Bunny’s garage. She dashed down the hill, across the road, and up the other hill toward her home; but she was weak from her ordeal, and Rutgers caught her. He took her back to the garage, hurried over to the Tredwill house, and effaced his and Babs’s footsteps with the Christmas tree.
“Those footprints must have been desperately incriminating for one reason: because they led to a hiding place which was very near. The nearest place was certainly not Bunny’s house—so it must have been in the quarters of Bunny’s chauffeur. He came to talk with Cheli late last night after Babs escaped. Cheli had admitted him through the theater stage door. He was leaving when he encountered Dreist and me. I’d already placed him as one of the band.”
“How?”
“By the odor of violets, Colonel—left from Cheli’s trip to New York with scented tracings in Bunny’s car.”
“And how the devil did an odor of violets mean anything to you?” asked Colonel Gray.
“My head is filled with bits of extraneous information accumulated through the years,” said Duncan Maclain. “It’s vital to me because I have no eyes—because I cannot see. I’m always interested in the foibles of a potential enemy. Somewhere in Europe is a little man with a black mustache and plastered-down hair. I’ve learned all I can about him against the time when civilization may find it necessary to put him out of the way. Where I heard it, or where I got it, I can’t tell you, Colonel, but the odor of violets is that madman’s favorite perfume!”
THE END
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Did any aspects of the plot date the story? If so, which?
• Would the story be different if it were set in the present day? If so, how?
• Did the social context of the time play a role in the narrative? If so, how?
• If you were one of the main characters, would you have acted differently at any point in the story?
• Did you identify with any of the characters? If so, which?
• What skills or qualities make Duncan Maclain such an effective sleuth?
• In his foreword, Baynard Kendrick talks about wanting to create a realistic character with Maclain. Do you think he succeeded?
• Discuss other disabled detectives you have encountered in mystery fiction. How does Duncan Maclain compare?
• Did this book remind you of any present day authors? If so, which?
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published in 2021 by Penzler Publishers
58 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007
penzlerpublishers.com
Distributed by W. W. Norton
Copyright © 1940, 1941 by Baynard Kendrick, renewed.
Introduction copyright © 2021 by Otto Penzler.
All rights reserved.
Cover image: Andy Ross
Cover design: Mauricio Diaz
Paperback ISBN 978-1-61316-204-0
Hardcover ISBN 978-1-61316-203-3
eBook ISBN 978-1-61316-205-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021901082
Odor of Violets Page 22
