"We don't know enough of the motive to say. He may have taken it with some deliberate purpose in view.--But what evidence have you of his guilt? All the suspicions in the world would not permit you to take any step against him. Even if we knew indubitably who the murderer was, we'd be helpless. . . . I tell you, Markham, we're facing a shrewd brain--one that figures out every move, and calculates all the possibilities. Our only hope is to create our own evidence by finding a weakness in the murderer's combination."
"The first thing in the morning," declared Markham grimly, "I'm going to put Heath to work on Pardee's alibi that night. There'll be twenty men checking it up by noon, questioning every spectator at that chess game, and making a door-to-door canvass between the Manhattan Chess Club and the Drukker house. If we can find some one who actually saw Pardee in the vicinity of the Drukkers' around midnight, then we'll have a very suspicious piece of circumstantial evidence against him."
"Yes," agreed Vance; "that would give us a definite starting-point. Pardee would have considerable difficulty in explaining why he was six blocks away from the club during his set-to with Rubinstein at the exact hour that a black bishop was being left at Mrs. Drukker's door. . . . Yes, yes. By all means have Heath and his minions tackle the problem. It may lead us forward."
But the Sergeant was never called upon to check the alibi. Before nine o'clock on the following morning Markham called at Vance's house to inform him that Pardee had committed suicide.
CHAPTER XXII
THE HOUSE OF CARDS
(Sunday, April 17; 9 a.m.)
The astounding news of Pardee's death had a curiously disturbing effect on Vance. He stared at Markham unbelievingly. Then he rang hastily for Currie and ordered his clothes and a cup of coffee. There was an eager impatience in his movements as he dressed.
"My word, Markham!" he exclaimed. "This is most extr'ordin'ry. . . . How did you hear of it?"
"Professor Dillard phoned me at my apartment less than half an hour ago. Pardee killed himself in the archery-room of the Dillard home some time last night. Pyne discovered the body this morning and informed the professor. I relayed the news to Sergeant Heath, and then came here. In the circumstances I thought we ought to be on hand." Markham paused to light his cigar. "It looks as if the Bishop case was over. . . . Not an entirely satisfactory ending, but perhaps the best for every one concerned."
Vance made no immediate comment. He sipped his coffee abstractedly, and at length got up and took his hat and stick.
"Suicide. . . ," he murmured, as we went down the stairs. "Yes, that would be wholly consistent. But, as you say, unsatisfact'ry--dashed unsatisfact'ry. . . ."
We rode to the Dillard house, and were admitted by Pyne. Professor Dillard had no more than joined us in the drawing-room when the door-bell rang, and Heath, pugnacious and dynamic, bustled in.
"This'll clean things up, sir," he exulted to Markham, after the usual ritualistic handshake. "Those quiet birds . . . you never can tell. Yet, who'd've thought. . . ?"
"Oh, I say, Sergeant," Vance drawled; "let's not think. Much too wearin'. An open mind--arid like a desert--is indicated."
Professor Dillard led the way to the archery-room. The shades at all the windows were drawn, and the electric lights were still burning. I noticed, too, that the windows were closed.
"I left everything exactly as it was," explained the professor.
Markham walked to the large wicker centre-table. Pardee's body was slumped in a chair facing the range door. His head and shoulders had fallen forward over the table; and his right arm hung at his side, the fingers still clutching an automatic pistol. There was an ugly wound in his right temple; and on the table beneath his head was a pool of coagulated blood.
Our eyes rested but a moment on the body, for a startling and incongruous thing diverted our attention. The magazines on the table had been pushed aside, leaving an open space in front of the body; and in this cleared area rose a tall and beautifully constructed house of playing cards. Four arrows marked the boundaries of the yard, and matches had been laid side by side to represent the garden walks. It was a reproduction that would have delighted a child's heart; and I recalled what Vance had said the night before about serious minds seeking recreation in children's games. There was something unutterably horrible in the juxtaposition of this juvenile card structure and violent death.
Vance stood looking down at the scene with sad, troubled eyes.
"Hic jacet John Pardee," he murmured, with a sort of reverence. "And this is the house that Jack built . . . a house of cards. . . ."
He stepped forward as if to inspect it more closely; but as his body struck the edge of the table there was a slight jar, and the flimsy edifice of cards toppled over.
Markham drew himself up and turned to Heath.
"Have you notified the Medical Examiner?"
"Sure." The Sergeant seemed to find it difficult to take his eyes from the table. "And Burke's coming along, in case we need him." He went to the windows and threw up the shades, letting in the bright daylight. Then he returned to Pardee's body and stood regarding it appraisingly. Suddenly he knelt down and leaned over.
"That looks to me like the .38 that was in the tool-chest," he remarked.
"Undoubtedly," nodded Vance, taking out his cigarette-case.
Heath rose and, going to the chest, inspected the contents of its drawer. "I guess that's it, all right. We'll get Miss Dillard to identify it after the doc has been here."
At this moment Arnesson, clothed in a brilliant red-and-yellow dressing-gown, burst excitedly into the room.
"By all the witches!" he exclaimed. "Pyne just told me the news." He came to the table and stared at Pardee's body. "Suicide, eh? . . . But why didn't he choose his own home for the performance? Damned inconsiderate of him to muss up some one else's house this way. Just like a chess player." He lifted his eyes to Markham. "Hope this won't involve us in more unpleasantness. We've had enough notoriety. Distracts the mind. When'll you be able to take the beggar's remains away? Don't want Belle to see him."
"The body will be removed as soon as the Medical Examiner has seen it," Markham told him in a tone of frosty rebuke. "And there will be no necessity to bring Miss Dillard here."
"Good." Arnesson still stood staring at the dead man. Slowly a look of cynical wistfulness came over his face. "Poor devil! Life was too much for him. Hypersensitive--no psychic stamina. Took things too seriously. Brooded over his fate ever since his gambit went up in smoke. Couldn't find any other diversion. The black bishop haunted him; probably tipped his mind from its axis. By Gad! Wouldn't be surprised if the idea drove him to self-destruction. Might have imagined he was a chess bishop--trying to get back at the world in the guise of his nemesis."
"Clever idea," returned Vance. "By the by, there was a house of cards on the table when we first saw the body."
"Ha! I wondered what the cards were doing there. Thought he might have sought solace in solitaire during his last moments. . . . A card house, eh? Sounds foolish. Do you know the answer?"
"Not all of it. 'The house that Jack built' might explain something."
"I see." Arnesson looked owlish. "Playing children's games to the end--even on himself. Queer notion." He yawned cavernously. "Guess I'll get some clothes on." And he went up-stairs.
Professor Dillard had stood watching Arnesson with a look at once distressed and paternal. Now he turned to Markham with a gesture of annoyance.
"Sigurd's always protecting himself against his emotions. He's ashamed of his feelings. Don't take his careless attitude too seriously."
Before Markham could make a reply Pyne ushered Detective Burke into the room; and Vance took the opportunity of questioning the butler about his discovery of Pardee.
"How did it happen you entered the archery-room this morning?" he asked.
"It was a bit close in the pantry, sir," the man returned, "and I opened the door at the foot of the stairs to get a little more air. Then I noticed that the shad
es were down--"
"It's not custom'ry to draw the shades at night, then?"
"No, sir--not in this room."
"How about the windows?"
"I always leave them slightly open from the top at night."
"Were they left open last night?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very good.--And after you opened the door this morning?"
"I started to put out the lights, thinking Miss Dillard had forgotten to turn the switch last night; but just then I saw the poor gentleman there at the table, and went straight up and informed Professor Dillard."
"Does Beedle know about the tragedy?"
"I told her of it right after you gentlemen arrived."
"What time did you and Beedle retire last night?"
"At ten o'clock, sir."
When Pyne had left us Markham addressed Professor Dillard.
"It might be well for you to give us what details you can while we're waiting for Doctor Doremus.--Shall we go up-stairs?"
Burke remained in the archery-room, and the rest of us went to the library.
"I'm afraid there's little I can tell you," the professor began, settling himself and taking out his pipe. There was a noticeable reserve in his manner--a kind of detached reluctance. "Pardee came here last night after dinner, ostensibly to chat with Arnesson, but actually, I imagine, to see Belle. Belle, however, excused herself early and went to bed--the child had a bad headache--and Pardee remained until about half past eleven. Then he went out; and that was the last I saw of him until Pyne brought me the terrible news this morning. . . ."
"But if," put in Vance, "Mr. Pardee came to see your niece, how do you account for his staying so late after she had retired?"
"I don't account for it." The old man exhibited perplexity. "He gave the impression, though, that there was something on his mind and that he desired a sense of human contact. The fact is, I had to hint rather broadly about being tired before he finally got up to go."
"Where was Mr. Arnesson during the evening?"
"Sigurd remained here talking with us for an hour or so after Belle had retired, and then went to bed. He'd been busy with Drukker's affairs all afternoon, and was played out."
"What time would that have been?"
"About half past ten."
"And you say," continued Vance, "that Mr. Pardee impressed you as being under a mental strain?"
"Not a strain exactly." The professor drew on his pipe, frowning. "He appeared depressed, almost melancholy.
"Did it strike you that he was in fear of something?"
"No; not in the least. He was more like a man who had suffered a great sorrow and couldn't shake the effects of it."
"When he went out did you go with him into the hall--that is, did you note which direction he took?"
"No. We always treated Pardee very informally here. He said good-night and left the room. I took it for granted he went to the front door and let himself out."
"Did you go to your own room at once?"
"In about ten minutes. I stayed up only long enough to arrange some papers I'd been working on."
Vance lapsed into silence--he was obviously puzzled over some phase of the episode; and Markham took up the interrogation.
"I suppose," he said, "that it is useless to ask if you heard any sound last night that might have been a shot."
"Everything in the house was quiet," Professor Dillard replied. "And anyway no sound of a shot would carry from the archery-room to this floor. There are two flights of stairs, the entire length of the lower hall and a passageway, and three heavy doors between. Moreover, the walls of this old house are very thick and solid."
"And no one," supplemented Vance, "could have heard the shot from the street, for the archery-room windows were carefully closed."
The professor nodded and gave him a searching look.
"That is true. I see you, too, noticed that peculiar circumstance. I don't quite understand why Pardee should have shut the windows."
"The idiosyncrasies of suicides have never been satisfactorily explained," returned Vance casually. Then, after a short pause, he asked: "What were you and Mr. Pardee talking about during the hour preceding his departure?"
"We talked very little. I was more or less engaged with a new paper of Millikan's in the Physics Review on alkali doublets, and I tried to interest him in it; but his mind, as I've said, was noticeably preoccupied, and he amused himself at the chess-board for the best part of the hour."
"Ah! Did he, now? That's most interestin'."
Vance glanced at the board. A number of pieces were still standing on the squares; and he rose quickly and crossed the room to the little table. After a moment he came back and reseated himself.
"Most curious," he murmured, and very deliberately lighted a cigarette. "He was evidently pondering over the end of his game with Rubinstein just before he went down-stairs last night. The pieces are set up exactly as they were at the time he resigned the contest--with the inevitable black-bishop-mate only five moves off."
Professor Dillard's gaze moved to the chess table wonderingly.
"The black bishop," he repeated in a low tone. "Could that have been what was preying on his mind last night? It seems unbelievable that so trivial a thing could affect him so disastrously."
"Don't forget, sir," Vance reminded him, "that the black bishop was the symbol of his failure. It represented the wreckage of his hopes. Less potent factors have driven men to take their own lives."
A few minutes later Burke informed us that the Medical Examiner had arrived. Taking leave of the professor we descended again to the archery-room, where Doctor Doremus was busy with his examination of Pardee's body.
He looked up as we entered and waved one hand perfunctorily. His usual jovial manner was gone.
"When's this business going to stop?" he grumbled. "I don't like the atmosphere round here. Murders--death from shock--suicides. Enough to give any one the creeps. I'm going to get a nice uneventful job in a slaughter house."
"We believe," said Markham, "that this is the end."
Doremus blinked. "So! That's it, is it?--the Bishop suicides after running the town ragged. Sounds reasonable. Hope you're right." He again bent over the body, and, unflexing the fingers, tossed the revolver to the table.
"For your armory, Sergeant."
Heath dropped the weapon in his pocket.
"How long's he been dead, doc?"
"Oh, since midnight, or thereabouts. Maybe earlier, maybe later.--Any other fool questions?"
Heath grinned. "Is there any doubt about it being suicide?"
Doremus glared passionately at the Sergeant.
"What does it look like? A black-hand bombing?" Then he became professional. "The weapon was in his hand. Powder marks on the temple. Hole the right size for the gun, and in the right place. Position of the body natural. Can't see anything suspicious.--Why? Got any doubts?"
It was Markham who answered.
"To the contrary, doctor. Everything from our angle of the case points to suicide."
"It's suicide all right, then. I'll check up a little further, though.--Here, Sergeant, give me a hand."
When Heath had helped to lift Pardee's body to the divan for a more detailed examination, we went to the drawing-room where we were joined shortly by Arnesson.
"What's the verdict?" he asked, dropping into the nearest chair. "I suppose there's no question that the chap committed the act himself."
"Why should you raise the point, Mr. Arnesson?" Vance parried.
"No reason. An idle comment. Lots of queer things going on hereabouts."
"Oh, obviously." Vance blew a wreath of smoke upward. "No; the Medical Examiner seems to think there's no doubt in the matter. Did Pardee, by the by, impress you as bent on self-destruction last night?"
Arnesson considered. "Hard to say," he concluded. "He was never a gay soul. But suicide? . . . I don't know. However, you say there's no question about it; so there you are."
"
Quite, quite. And how does this new situation fit into your formula?"
"Dissipates the whole equation, of course. No more need for speculation." Despite his words, he appeared uncertain. "What I can't understand," he added, "is why he should choose the archery-room. Lot of space in his own house for a felo-de-se."
"There was a convenient gun in the archery-room," suggested Vance. "And that reminds me: Sergeant Heath would like to have Miss Dillard identify the weapon, as a matter of form."
"That's easy. Where is it?"
Heath handed it to him, and he started from the room.
"Also"--Vance halted him--"you might ask Miss Dillard if she kept playing cards in the archery-room."
Arnesson returned in a few minutes and informed us that the gun was the one which had been in the tool-chest drawer, and that not only were playing cards kept in the table drawer of the archery-room but that Pardee knew of their presence there.
Doctor Doremus appeared soon afterwards and iterated his conclusion that Pardee had shot himself.
"That'll be my report," he said. "Can't see any way out of it. To be sure, lots of suicides are fakes--but that's your province. Nothing in the least suspicious here."
Markham nodded with undisguised satisfaction.
"We've no reason to question your findings, doctor. In fact, suicide fits perfectly with what we already know. It brings this whole Bishop orgy to a logical conclusion." He got up like a man from whose shoulders a great burden had been lifted. "Sergeant, I'll leave you to arrange for the removal of the body for the autopsy; but you'd better drop in at the Stuyvesant Club later. Thank Heaven today is Sunday! It gives us time to turn round."
That night at the club Vance and Markham and I sat alone in the lounge-room. Heath had come and gone, and a careful statement had been drawn up for the press announcing Pardee's suicide and intimating that the Bishop case was thereby closed. Vance had said little all day. He had refused to offer any suggestion as to the wording of the official statement, and had appeared reluctant even to discuss the new phase of the case. But now he gave voice to the doubts that had evidently been occupying his mind.
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