Vance's comment expressed exactly the sentiment I had felt when Markham informed us of Mrs. Greene's death. The news had of course shaken me, but I had no pity for the victim. She had been vicious and unnatural; she had thrived on hatred, and had made life a hell for everyone about her. It was better that her existence was over.
Both Heath and Drumm were waiting for us in the drawing-room. Excitement and depression were mingled in the Sergeant's countenance, and the desperation of despair shone in his china-blue eyes. Drumm revealed only a look of professional disappointment: his chief concern apparently was that he had been deprived of an opportunity to display his medical skill.
Heath, after shaking hands absently, briefly explained the situation.
"O'Brien found the old dame dead at nine this morning, and told Sproot to wigwag to Doc Drumm. Then she phoned the Bureau, and I notified you and Doc Doremus. I got here fifteen or twenty minutes ago, and locked up the room."
"Did you inform Von Blon?" Markham asked.
"I phoned him to call off the examination he'd arranged for ten o'clock. Said I'd communicate with him later, and hung up before he had time to ask any questions."
Markham indicated his approval and turned toward Drumm.
"Give us your story, doctor."
Drumm drew himself up, cleared his throat, and assumed an attitude calculated to be impressive. "I was downstairs in the Narcoss dining-room eating breakfast when Hennesey came in and told me the curtains had gone down in the reception-room here. So I snatched my outfit and came over on the run. The butler took me to the old lady's room, where the nurse was waiting. But right away I saw I was too late to be of any good. She was dead--contorted, blue and cold--and rigor mortis had set in. Died of a big dose of strychnine. Probably didn't suffer much--exhaustion and coma came inside of half an hour, I'd say. Too old, you understand, to throw it off. Old people succumb to strychnine pretty swiftly..."
"What about her ability to cry out and give the alarm?"
"You can't tell. The spasm may have rendered her mute. Anyway, no one heard her. Probably passed into unconsciousness after the first seizure. My experience with such cases has taught me--"
"What time would you say the strychnine was taken?"
"Well, now, you can't tell exactly." Drumm became oracular. "The convulsions may have been prolonged before death supervened, or death may have supervened very shortly after the poison was swallowed."
At what hour, then, would you fix the time of death?"
"There again you can't say definitely. Confusion between rigor mortis and the phenomenon of cadaveric spasm is a pitfall into which many doctors fall. There are however, distinct points of dissimilarity--"
"No doubt." Markham was growing impatient with Drumm's sophomoric pedantries. "But leaving all explanation to one side, what time do you think Mrs. Greene died?"
Drumm pondered the point.
"Roughly, let us say, at two this morning."
"And the strychnine might have been taken as early as eleven or twelve?"
"It's possible."
"Anyhow, we'll know about it when Doc Doremus gets here," asserted Heath with brutal frankness. He was in vicious mood that morning.
"Did you find any glass or cup by which the drug might have been administered, doctor?" Markham hastened to ask, by way of covering up Heath's remark.
"There was a glass near the bed with what appeared to be sulphate crystals adhering to the sides of it."
"But wouldn't a fatal dose of strychnine make an ordin'ry drink noticeably bitter?" Vance had suddenly become alert.
"Undoubtedly. But there was a bottle of citrocarbonate--a well-known antacid--on the night-table; and if the drug had been taken with this, the taste would not have been detected. Citrocarbonate is slightly saline and highly effervescing."
"Could Mrs. Greene have taken the citrocarbonate alone?"
"It's not likely. It has to be carefully mixed with water, and the operation would be highly awkward for anyone in bed."
"Now, that's most interestin'." Vance listlessly lighted a cigarette. "We may presume, therefore, that the person who gave Mrs. Greene the citrocarbonate also administered the strychnine." He turned to Markham. "I think Miss O'Brien might be able to help us."
Heath went at once and summoned the nurse.
But her evidence was unilluminating. She had left Mrs. Greene reading about eleven o'clock, had gone to her own room to make her toilet for the night, and had returned to Ada's room half an hour later, where she had slept all night, according to Heath's instructions. She had risen at eight, dressed, and gone to the kitchen to fetch Mrs. Greene's tea. As far as she knew, Mrs. Greene had drunk nothing before retiring--certainly she had taken no citrocarbonate up to eleven o'clock. Furthermore, Mrs. Greene never attempted to take it alone.
"You think, then," asked Vance, "that it was given to her by someone else?"
"You can bank on it," the nurse assured him bluntly. "If she'd wanted it, she'd have raised the house before mixing it herself."
"It's quite obvious," Vance observed to Markham, "that someone entered her room after eleven o'clock and prepared the citrocarbonate."
Markham got up and walked anxiously about the room.
"Our immediate problem boils down to finding out who had the opportunity to do it," he said. "You, Miss O'Brien, may return to her room..." Then he went to the bell-cord and rang for Sproot.
During a brief interrogation of the butler the following facts were brought out:
The house had been locked up, and Sproot had retired, at about half-past ten.
Sibella had gone to her room immediately after dinner and had remained there.
Hemming and the cook had lingered in the kitchen until shortly after eleven, at which time Sproot had heard them ascend to their rooms.
The first intimation Sproot had of Mrs. Greene's death was when the nurse sent him to draw the reception-room shades at nine that morning.
Markham dismissed him and sent for the cook. She was, it appeared, unaware of Mrs. Greene's death and of Ada's poisoning as well; and what evidence she had to give was of no importance. She had, she said, been in the kitchen or in her own room practically all of the preceding day.
Hemming was interviewed next. From the nature of the questions put to her she became suspicious almost at once. Her piercing eyes narrowed, and she gave us a look of shrewd triumph.
"You can't hoodwink me," she burst out. "The Lord's been busy with his besom again. And a good thing, too! 'The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked shall he destroy.'"
"Will,'" corrected Vance. "And seeing that you have been so tenderly preserved, perhaps we had better inform you that both Miss Ada and Mrs. Greene have been poisoned."
He was watching the woman closely, but it took no scrutiny to see her cheeks go pale and her jaw sag. The Lord had evidently been too precipitously devastating even for this devout disciple; and her faith was insufficient to counteract her fear.
"I'm going to leave this house," she declared faintly. "I've seen enough to bear witness for the Lord."
"An excellent idea," nodded Vance. "And the sooner you go the more time you'll have to give apocryphal testimony."
Hemming rose, a bit dazed, and started for the archway. Then she quickly turned back and glared at Markham maliciously.
"But let me tell you something before I pass from the den of iniquity. That Miss Sibella is the worst of the lot, and the Lord is going to strike her down next--mark my words! There's no use to try and save her. She's--doomed!"
Vance lifted his eyebrows languidly.
"I say, Hemming, what unrighteousness has Miss Sibella been up to now?"
"The usual thing." The woman spoke with relish. "She's nothing but a hussy, if you ask me. Her carryings-on with this Doctor Von Blon have been scandalous. They're together, as thick as thieves, at all hours." She nodded her head significantly. "He came here again last night and went to her room. There's no telling what time he lef
t."
"Fancy that, now. And how do you happen to know about it?"
"Didn't I let him in?"
"Oh, you did? What time was this?--And where was Sproot?"
"Mr. Sproot was eating his dinner, and I'd gone to the front door to take a look at the weather when the doctor walks up. 'Howdy-do, Hemming?' he says with his oily smile. And he brushes past me, nervouslike, and goes straight to Miss Sibella's room."
"Perhaps Miss Sibella was indisposed, and sent for him," suggested Vance indifferently.
"Huh!" Hemming tossed her head contemptuously, and strode from the room.
Vance rose at once and rang again for Sproot.
"Did you know Doctor Von Blon was here last night?" he asked when the butler appeared.
The man shook his head.
"No, sir. I was quite unaware of the fact."
"That's all, Sproot.--And now please tell Miss Sibella we'd like to see her."
"Yes, sir."
It was fifteen minutes before Sibella put in an appearance.
"I'm beastly lazy these days," she explained, settling herself in a large chair. "What's the party for this morning?"
Vance offered her a cigarette with an air half quizzical and half deferential.
"Before we explain our presence," he said, "please be good enough to tell us what time Doctor Von Blon left here last night?"
"At a quarter of eleven," she answered, a hostile challenge coming into her eyes.
"Thank you. And now I may tell you that both your mother and Ada have been poisoned."
"Mother and Ada poisoned?" She echoed the words vaguely, as if they were only half intelligible to her; and for several moments she sat motionless, staring stonily out of flintlike eyes. Slowly her gaze became fixed on Markham.
"I think I'll take your advice," she said. "I have a girl chum in Atlantic City... This place is really becoming too--too creepy." She forced a faint smile. "I'm off for the seashore this afternoon." For the first time the girl's nerve seemed to have deserted her.
"Your decision is very wise," observed Vance. "Go, by all means; and arrange to stay until we have settled this affair."
She looked at him in a spirit of indulgent irony.
"I'm afraid I can't stay so long," she said; then added: "I suppose mother and Ada are both dead."
"Only your mother," Vance told her. "Ada recovered."
"She would!" Every curve of her features expressed a fine arrogant contempt. "Common clay has great resistance, I've heard. You know, I'm the only one standing between her and the Greene millions now."
"Your sister had a very close call," Markham reprimanded her. "If we had not had a doctor on guard, you might now be the sole remaining heir to those millions."
"And that would look frightfully suspicious, wouldn't it?" Her question was disconcertingly frank. "But you may rest assured that if I had planned this affair, little Ada would not have recovered."
Before Markham could answer she switched herself out of the chair.
"Now, I'm going to pack. Enough is enough."
When she had left the room, Heath looked with doubtful inquisitiveness at Markham.
"What about it, sir? Are you going to let her leave the city? She's the only one of the Greenes who hasn't been touched."
We knew what he meant; and this spoken suggestion of the thought that had been passing through all our minds left us silent for a moment.
"We can't take the chance of forcing her to stay here," Markham returned finally. "If anything should happen..."
"I get you, sir." Heath was on his feet. "But I'm going to see that she's tailed--believe me! I'll get two good men up here who'll stick to her from the time she goes out that front door till we know where we stand." He went into the hall, and we heard him giving orders to Snitkin over the telephone.
Five minutes later Doctor Doremus arrived. He was no longer jaunty, and his greeting was almost sombre. Accompanied by Drumm and Heath he went at once to Mrs. Greene's room, while Markham and Vance and I waited downstairs. When he returned at the end of fifteen minutes he was markedly subdued, and I noticed he did not put on his hat at its usual rakish angle.
"What's the report?" Markham asked him.
"Same as Drumm's. The old girl passed out, I'd say, between one and two."
"And the strychnine was taken when?"
"Midnight, or thereabouts. But that's only a guess. Anyway, she got it along with the citrocarbonate. I tasted it on the glass."* (*It will be remembered that in the famous Molineux poisoning case the cyanide of mercury was administered by way of a similar drug--to wit: Bromo- Seltzer.)
"By the by, doctor," said Vance, "when you do the autopsy can you let us have a report on the state of atrophy of the leg muscles?"
"Sure thing." Doremus was somewhat surprised by the request.
When he had gone, Markham addressed himself to Drumm.
"We'd like to talk to Ada now. How is she this morning?"
"Oh, fine!" Drumm spoke with pride. "I saw her right after I'd looked at the old lady. She's weak and a bit dried up with all the atropine I gave her, but otherwise practically normal."
"And she has not been told of her mother's death?"
"Not a word."
"She will have to know," interposed Vance; "and there's no point in keeping the fact from her any longer. It's just as well that the shock should come when we're all present."
Ada was sitting by the window when we came in, her elbows on the sill, chin in hands, gazing out into the snow-covered yard. She was startled by our entry, and the pupils of her eyes dilated, as if with sudden fright. It was plain that the experiences she had been through had created in her a state of nervous fear.
After a brief exchange of amenities, during which both Vance and Markham strove to allay her nervousness, Markham broached the subject of the bouillon.
"We'd give a great deal," he said, "not to have to recall so painful an episode, but much depends on what you can tell us regarding yesterday morning.--You were in the drawing-room, weren't you, when the nurse called down to you?"
The girl's lips and tongue were dry, and she spoke with some difficulty.
"Yes. Mother had asked me to bring her a copy of a magazine, and I had just gone downstairs to look for it when the nurse called."
"You saw the nurse when you came upstairs?"
"Yes; she was just going toward the servants' stairway."
"There was no one in your room when you entered?" She shook her head. "Who could have been there?"
"That's what we're trying to find out, Miss Greene," replied Markham gravely. "Someone certainly put the drug in your bouillon."
She shuddered, but made no reply.
"Did anyone come in while you were there?" Markham continued.
"Not a soul."
Heath impatiently projected himself into the interrogation.
"And say; did you drink your soup right away?"
"No--not right away. I felt a little chilly, and I went across the hall to Julia's room to get an old Spanish shawl to put round me."
Heath made a disgusted face, and sighed noisily.
"Every time we get going on this case," he complained, "something comes along and sinks us.--If Miss Ada left the soup in here, Mr. Markham, while she went to get a shawl, then almost anybody coulda sneaked in and poisoned the stuff."
"I'm so sorry," Ada apologized, almost as though she had taken Heath's words as a criticism of her actions.
"It's not your fault, Ada," Vance assured her. "The Sergeant is unduly depressed. But tell me this: when you went into the hall did you see Miss Sibella's dog anywhere around?"
She shook her head wonderingly.
"Why, no. What has Sibella's dog to do with it?"
"He probably saved your life." And Vance explained to her how Sproot had happened to find her.
She gave a half-breathless murmur of amazement and incredulity, and fell into abstracted reverie.
"When you returned from your sister's room, did
you drink your bouillon at once?" Vance asked her next.
With difficulty she brought her mind back to the question.
"Yes."
"And didn't you notice a peculiar taste?"
Not particularly. Mother always likes a lot of salt in her bouillon."
"And then what happened?"
"Nothing happened. Only, I began to feel funny. The back of my neck tightened up, and I got very warm and drowsy. My skin tingled all over, and my arms and legs seemed to get numb. I was terribly sleepy, and I lay back on the bed. That's all I remember."
"Another washout," grumbled Heath.
There was a short silence, and Vance drew his chair nearer.
"Now, Ada," he said, "you must brace yourself for more bad news... Your mother died during the night."
The girl sat motionless for a moment, and then turned to him eyes of a despairing clearness.
"Died?" she repeated. "How did she die?"
"She was poisoned--she took an overdose of strychnine."
"You mean... she committed suicide?"
This query startled us all. It expressed a possibility that had not occurred to us. After a momentary hesitation, however, Vance slowly shook his head.
"No, I hardly think so. I'm afraid the person who poisoned you also poisoned your mother."
Vance's reply seemed to stun her. Her face grew pale, and her eyes were set in a glassy stare of terror. Then presently she sighed deeply, as if from a kind of mental depletion.
"Oh, what's going to happen next? ...I'm--afraid!"
"Nothing more is going to happen," said Vance with emphasis. "Nothing more can happen. You are going to be guarded every minute. And Sibella is going this afternoon to Atlantic City for a long visit."
"I wish I could go away," she breathed pathetically.
"There will be no need of that," put in Markham. "You'll be safer in New York. We are going to keep the nurse here to look after you, and also put a man in the house day and night until everything is straightened out. Hemming is leaving to-day, but Sproot and the cook will take care of you." He rose and patted her shoulder comfortingly. "There's no possible way any one can harm you now."
Philo Vance 12 Novels Complete Bundle Page 74