The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope

by C. W. Grafton

  “There are a lot of ways to make a will that won’t stand up. I would have to know what’s in your mind before I could pick the best one. For example, under Kentucky law, if the will isn’t all in your own handwriting, you must have two witnesses and they must sign in your presence and in the presence of each other. We could have only one witness. Would that do?”

  She shook her head. “The requirement of two witnesses is common knowledge, isn’t it?”

  “I would think so.”

  “Then it wouldn’t do. The will must look good. I want to show it.”

  “It wants to be good enough to stand examination and not good enough to work?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “If it is to be examined by someone who knows his business, I can’t think offhand how it could be done. You could have someone forge your name but then if you are going to acknowledge that it is your will, it would be the equivalent of someone signing for you at your direction and it could be made to stand up. We can’t get anywhere sparring in the dark. There may be a very easy solution if you would only trust me completely. It is silly to pay a lawyer and hold out on him.”

  She made a motion to Miss Knight who seemed to understand her perfectly and took the pillow out from behind her back. Mrs. Harper leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes. Gradually her face relaxed and she lay there motionless except for her breathing which was scarcely perceptible. A corpse could not have looked more fit for burial. Finally she opened her eyes and sat up and drew another of the deep breaths which seemed to precede the making of all her decisions.

  “Mr. Henry,” she said slowly, “I want to make a will and I want everyone to know it is made and what’s in it. But when I die, I don’t want my estate to go the way the will says. I want it to go another way. That’s what I want done and that will have to be enough information. You must not inquire as to my reasons.”

  I said: “If that’s all, you should have put it that way in the first place. The solution is perfectly simple. There is nothing to it. We’ll simply make two wills. The last will is the only one that’s worth the paper it’s written on except for the chance that it might be lost or destroyed or never discovered. The only chance you will have to take is that the second one shows up at the proper time.”

  “There are ways of arranging that, aren’t there?”

  “Precautions could be taken. You could make it reasonably certain.”

  “Then I will want you to draw both of them right away. Today. I’m an old woman and I want to get this off my mind. Could you go some place and fix them up and come back this afternoon?”

  “I could but it isn’t the best way. If they are both signed on the same day, there would be too much chance of doubt as to which was the first and which was the second. I think one should be executed today and the other should be executed tomorrow, with different witnesses or with witnesses whom you can trust enough to explain that there are two of them so that several years from now, a clever lawyer won’t be able to confuse the witnesses as to the exact day. That will leave a gap from one day to the next, and during that period the first will be effective as your last will and testament. Is there anything wrong with that?”

  She turned it over in her mind and her eyes narrowed in thought. “And if I died in that period?”

  “Then the wrong will would stand up.”

  “I don’t like it, but I’d rather do it that way than take any chances. Very well. The matter is in your hands.”

  I said: “Go on, you’ve just started.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s in my hands, but what is it? You told me everything except what’s supposed to be in the wills.”

  “But you will undertake to prepare them?”

  “With the same reservation I made before. If what you tell me now is useful in representing Tim McClure, I’ll use it as I think best. I’ll promise not to broadcast it, if that’s what you mean.”

  “You will understand that this whole situation is not of my choosing. Having gone this far, I have no choice but to rely upon your integrity. I think we understand each other perfectly. The wills are to be very simple. In the first one I want everything to go to Janet.”

  “And in the second?”

  “In the second will the estate is to be divided equally between Janet and Tim McClure.”

  I did not know that it was going to be something I could remember without taking notes and I had out a pencil and an envelope on which I could write. At that moment I thought I heard a little sound on the other side of the door behind me. I wrote on the envelope. “Don’t ask any questions. Go right on talking whatever happens. Don’t ask any questions.”

  I handed it to her with a finger on my lips and a warning frown. I said: “You will want to be thinking about whom you will have as witnesses. You shouldn’t use Janet either time or you may jeopardize her chances to take under the terms of the will. I would like it a lot better if you would take me completely into your confidence and explain why. Perhaps it would have a bearing on how the instruments are worded.”

  Mrs. Harper read what was on the envelope and opened her mouth but then thought better of it although she was both puzzled and excited. She showed the envelope to Miss Knight who exchanged a glance with her and then looked at me. I made an impatient gesture and Mrs. Harper took the cue and said: “Miss Knight could be a witness to both of them. I think Miles would be all right for the other. Let me think the other thing over a minute. I do not want to say any more but neither do I want to make a mistake by saying too little.”

  She and Miss Knight were both watching me intently with bright eyes. While Mrs. Harper was talking I bent over, unlaced my shoes and slipped them off. The French windows were open and I walked across the room keeping to the rug and picked my feet up and put them down quickly but carefully. I said: “That sounds all right about the witnesses. You know them better than I do.”

  Miss Knight spoke up with a contribution of some sort and Mrs. Harper took up the conversation with her. Just before I got to the French windows a board in the floor gave a loud creak under me and I didn’t waste any more time. I went out on the terrace at a run, dashed around to the windows of the study and looked in. The door from the study to the hall was just closing. The French windows were shut and when I tried them they were fastened on the inside. I ran back through Mrs. Harper’s room and out into the hall. There was no one in sight. I could hear voices in the dining room and could tell that Ruth had appeared and was being questioned. I found a guard outside of the front door smoking a cigarette. “Anyone been in or out in the last few seconds?”

  He dropped his cigarette surreptitiously behind him, turned his head in an effort to hide the smoke, and said: “Not a soul, Buddy, not a soul.”

  “I thought you were supposed to be inside.”

  “I was, only—well I thought I heard someone driving up and if it was a reporter I got strict instructions to head him off, no pictures or nothing and no wandering around. We’ve been doing a good job keeping the newspapers out and I didn’t want to make a bust.”

  I said: “You came out to smoke a cigarette. Hell, don’t look at me that way. You can smoke a pipe as far as I’m concerned. How long have you been here? It’s important.”

  He grinned sheepishly and pointed to the cigarette butt under his heel. It was about half gone. I went to the front door again and Hillman Jolley was coming down the steps from the floor above. I waited for him and said: “Did you see anybody come upstairs just now?”

  He looked blank. “No, did someone go up?”

  “I’m asking you.”

  “I didn’t see anyone at all.”

  He was staring at my stocking feet but I didn’t bother with any explanations. I ran back into the hall, opened the door that led to the basement steps and looked down. I couldn’t see anything. I went back to the foot of
the stairs and took a look at the situation. Anyone leaving the study could have gone to the basement or walked upstairs or into the dining room or into Mrs. Harper’s room or out of the front door or through the big arch into the tremendous living room in front. The living room opened at the far end into a sun porch which in turn had a door leading into the yard on the other side of the house in front of the kitchen shrubbery. There was not a sign of anyone in sight. No one had gone into Mrs. Harper’s room and even if the policeman at the front door were lying, there hadn’t been time for anyone to get out of sight that way. Hillman Jolley reported that no one had gone upstairs. I was too late to do any good on the basement or the living room, so that left only the dining room.

  I went over and walked in. Ruth McClure looked up and was relieved to see me. Mead was standing near the door. The sheriff and chief were across the table from Ruth and there were two patrolmen over by the window and a man taking shorthand.

  “Pardon the interruption. Has anyone been in or out of here in the last couple of minutes?”

  Mead spoke up quickly. “I’ve been standing here for quite a while.”

  The sheriff and chief looked at each other and shook their heads. I went back to Mrs. Harper’s room and put on my shoes.

  45

  I promised Mrs. Harper I would be back sometime during the day and was about to leave when there was a knock on the door of her room. I looked at Mrs. Harper and raised my eyebrows and she nodded, so I opened the door. Janet was standing there with Hillman Jolley, and instead of going out I stepped back and held the door for them. I thought I could guess what was about to happen and I did not want to miss any of it.

  When they came in, I closed the door behind them. Janet looked at me and was clearly of the opinion that it would have been much better if I had closed it from the outside and stayed there. Mrs. Harper looked at them expectantly, and I think she knew as well as I did. Janet went over and knelt in front of her mother. Mrs. Harper’s hands were clasped in her lap and Janet took them in her own. She said:

  “Mother, I know this is a curious time to talk about a matter of this sort, but I hope you will understand and give us your blessing. Hillman and I have been in love with each other for a long time, and we were planning to tell you and Father about it the next time Hillman came to Harpersville. Now that this horrible thing has happened Hillman thinks more than ever that his place ought to be made known so that he can be free to help us and stay with us without providing food for the gossips. Maybe we needn’t make any public announcement for a while, and of course there won’t be any celebration, but we’re not going to try to hide it, and it had just as well become known. We want to be married as soon as it is decent under the circumstances.”

  Jolley went over and stood by her, and when she looked up at him there was a glow in her face, and it looked to me like the real thing. My mind was racing around like a squirrel in a cage, and I couldn’t help thinking about someone who had been in the adjoining room a few minutes ago, and how that person could have been Mr. Hillman Jolley. If that is who it was, then it was certain that he knew Janet was in line for either half or all of the tremendous Harper fortune. He would have had time to slip out of the study and upstairs and then tum right around and walk down again as innocent as you please. There would also have been time since I left him for a trip upstairs and an impassioned plea to Janet, especially since she obviously did not need much persuasion anyway. I moved Jolley two or three places up in my list of suspects, although I had seen him come in on the train after the murders of both Harper and Miss Katie, and I couldn’t quite see just how he could have done it. I was also stumped when I thought of the extremes he might have gone to without even taking the trouble to find out the contents of the will of William Jasper Harper. If he was counting on feathering his nest by marrying Janet, I found it hard to imagine that he would murder her father just on the theory that her mother would eventually die and probably leave Janet most of the property. More than ever I wanted to have some information on whether a later will existed, and I also made a mental note to check up and find out whether Jolley had actually been in Overton as he had told me. The whole thing did not fit together and make a great deal of sense, but neither did the rest of the business and I wasn’t missing any bets.

  All of this was tumbling around in my head, but I wasn’t missing any of what was going on. Mrs. Harper didn’t seem to be surprised, and she was neither enthusiastic nor disappointed. She said:

  “Well, Janet, since you put it that way I’ll have to approve. Not that it makes a great deal of difference one way or the other. You have plenty of intelligence, and I am afraid I haven’t been as close to you or contributed as much to your life in recent years as a mother should. You are perfectly capable of making your own plans and decisions, and I am sure I am not the one to interfere with them, even if I felt the inclination.” She looked up at Jolley and managed a fairly warm sort of smile. “You must be good to her, Hillman,” she said, patting his hand. “She’s really a dear child and I am sure you will find her loyal and loving. Perhaps it is just as well for us to have a man to help us in the family. After all, I am not able to do much, you know, and I may not have long to live.”

  It was quite a domestic scene, and I didn’t see much point in hanging around. I had heard the important piece of news and there were other fish to fry. I went out quietly and went across the hall into the dining room.

  46

  The questioning of Ruth McClure was about finished, and I was permitted, ungraciously, to interrupt long enough to find out that I could escort her home in five or ten minutes. I motioned to Mead and he followed me out. I led the way into the big living room and we sat in a couple of overstuffed chairs in sight of the arch leading into the front hall. I watched Mead closely and said, “Janet and Jolley have just announced they are going to be married.”

  Somewhat to my surprise he said, “Yes, I know. It has been coming for some time. Jolley is really a pretty decent sort, I suppose. He and Janet called me out of the dining room and asked me what I thought about making the announcement, and I couldn’t see any harm as long as it was made known quietly and naturally without the fuss and feathers.” He gave me a one-sided sort of smile which was decidedly forced and said ruefully, “I can’t say it overjoys me. I’ve been pretty lonesome in that big house of mine since Edith died, and there’s no use denying I have had some ideas about Janet myself. I have been down here a lot of times in the last three years, and I’ve entertained Janet and W. J. quite a lot. She’s a great girl.”

  My mouth may have been hanging open. The fact that Jolley was anxious to announce the engagement even before my conversation with Mrs. Harper was totally inconsistent with the theory I had been building up for the last five or ten minutes. Furthermore, the conversation Mead had just told me about must have been after I told Janet and Hillman Jolley about the contents of her father’s will, since Jolley came in at the same time I did that morning, and I was with Mead in the dining room until the time when I went upstairs with the news. The chronology was all wrong. There was no escaping these facts: That Jolley found out Janet would get nothing under her father’s will and yet he urged the announcement of his engagement to Janet even before my conference with Mrs. Harper. I was bound to be all wrong unless a more recent will of William Jasper Harper should turn up. I am a tenacious sort of cuss and I made a mental note not to forget my theory until this last point could be settled one way or the other. I decided again I would check on his presence in Overton. If a later will did not appear, and if Jolley actually was in Overton the day before, then it looked as if I would have to re-arrange the pieces of my picture puzzle, since I could not see that he would have any understandable motive for killing Harper and couldn’t have been in Harpersville on top of that. And there was that disturbing Katie Byrnes business which was even more difficult to understand.

  I was silent so long that Mead thought the conversation
was at an end. He started to get up.

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “I never did get around to asking you for that list of the people who were at your house the night someone turned me over in the ditch. People don’t hide in bushes and shoot at passing cars just for target practice. Someone wanted to get either you or me. The more I think of it the more it’s obvious it was me. How could anyone know your car would be on the road to Harpersville that night unless it was someone at your house who heard your phone conversation with me? And if that is what happened, the same person would automatically know that the trip was my trip and not yours. I am not at all crazy about having people at large who try to bump me off.”

  He sat down and looked out of the window and I took an envelope and pencil out of my pocket again.

  “Let’s see,” he said slowly, “that was only three nights ago, and the party wasn’t a big one. There won’t be any difficulty at all making out a complete list. I was there, of course. Smallwood and his wife. I asked Opdyke and Helen, but they had a previous engagement. Dr. Woodford Collins and his wife. William Jasper Harper and Janet. Hillman Jolley was in Harpersville and when I found it out I included him. How many does that make?” I counted up and said, “There were eight.”

  “Well, that’s all of them, then. There were just eight. They were to come at six-thirty—rather earlier than would be customary, but Mr. Harper always showed up at the plant at a frightful hour in the morning, and he wouldn’t accept an invitation unless he could get home early. We had some cocktails and as I remember the dinner was served about seven. After dinner we had a liqueur in the living room and sat around and chatted. You must have called around nine-thirty. The party was just getting ready to break up at the time. Harper had already said he wanted to get on back, and since Janet had come up with him she was upstairs powdering her nose.”