“An’ he got Desire,” Asey laughed.
“Yes, he got Desire. I know that he had wired money for her passage and I thought that she was scheduled to turn up in a month or so. They’d come to some agreement about her arrival and stay here. Why she came so suddenly, however, I don’t know. Bert was too excited at her appearance at this particular time to be very logical about anything. I don’t know when I’ve seen him more upset.”
“Humpf.” Asey considered. “Well, I guess the time’s ’bout ripe to get her back again in here.”
Desire trailed in wearily.
“More arsenic?”
John looked puzzled and I explained about the powders.
“Nope. We ain’t found no more arsenic, Miss Allerton. How come you got here so soon when you hadn’t planned to come until later?”
She lighted a cigarette before answering.
“I changed my mind.”
“Fem’nine priv’lege. Why didn’t you let Stires know about it?”
“We’d agreed that I was to come before the first week of May. I understood that I could arrive on that date, or come earlier if I chose to do so.”
“You know that you’re in charge of all your money, now your uncle’s dead?”
She hesitated. “Am I?”
“I should think,” Asey remarked, “that you’d know better’n me about it. Didn’t you know?”
“I suppose I did. But it slipped my mind.”
“Did, did it? Well, it wouldn’t of slipped mine.” She yawned. “Probably not. I’m not accustomed to thinking about business matters.”
Asey screwed up his mouth. “How’d you get from the Grand Central to Times Square?”
“Shuttle,” she said without any hesitation. Then she stopped short and looked at Asey. He grinned. Walker was smiling. John’s eyebrows were arched.
It occurred to me that this, supposedly, was the girl’s first trip to America, that she had never been out of France, or on a New York subway, in all her life.
“I mean,” she recovered herself hurriedly, “I suppose that that’s the way. Of course I wouldn’t know.”
“I wonder why you’d s’pose that,” Asey mused. “I can see how you might know about where Grant’s Tomb is, an’ maybe you’ve heard tell about the Bat’ry or the Bow’ry, but it seems kind of queer that you should be so glib about the Shuttle. Don’t get me wrong. I ain’t accusin’ you of nothin’. I just think it’s kind of cur’ous, that’s all.”
“There’s nothing curious about it.” But I noticed that her voice was not so casual as it had been. “I have read guide-books about New York. And I have heard all about the city even though I have never been there.”
“Have, have you? What for did you read guidebooks about New York for? I should think that if you was plannin’ to come to Boston, you’d of learned a few facts about that first. Like how to get from Copley Square to Hawad Square. I s’pose you know how to do that, too?”
“Of course I don’t.”
“M’yes. Of course not.” Asey stroked his chin pensively. “I s’pose you learned that Brooklyn accent out of a guide-book, too?”
“What do you mean, Brooklyn accent? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think,” Asey said, “that you do. Now s’pose we quit beatin’ around the bush an’ get right down t’ brass tacks. You just tell us the whole story.”
“There’s nothing to tell!”
“What do you mean, Asey, about a Brooklyn accent?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Miss Allerton does. An’ Miss Fible does, too. She asked me when we went over to get that oil stove if I didn’t think the girl had an awful American way of speakin’ for some one that’s supposed to of lived in France all her life. The minute this girl opened her mouth I knew she hadn’t got to talk the way she does just stayin’ in Yurrup. ’Course, with all you Bostonians an’ all your civ’lized ways of talkin’ like you had a mouthful of hot oatmeal, it might not ’cur to you that any accent is any dif’rent from any other. What I mean is, you sort of took the way she talked as bein’ natural on account of what she was s’posed to of been brought up in France.”
“But how did you know?”
“How? I had a mate once that come from Brooklyn. He didn’t just talk all day. He talked in his sleep. He was the greatest talker I ever had t’ sit an’ listen to. You sort of got used to the way he spoke after a while, but you couldn’t ever forget it.”
“You’re being absurd,” Desire said angrily. “I’ve never been to Brooklyn. I don’t know anything about this Brooklyn accent. I tell you, I——”
“Yup. I know. I know. But you give yourself away, young lady, an’ I don’t think you’re goin’ to be able t’ crawl out of it. Now, are you Desire Allerton, or ain’t you?”
“Of course I am. You know it.”
“Mr. Kent.” Asey turned to John. “You knew this Allerton feller, an’ you knew the girl’s mother. Does this young woman favor either of ’em, would you say?”
“She hasn’t the Allerton nose,” John answered. “I noticed it at once when I first saw her. All the Allertons, moreover, were dark, very dark. The Hammonds were a tall family. Even the women were unusually tall. This girl is light, and she’s short, comparatively speaking. Of course, that does not prove anything.”
“I should say it didn’t,” Desire commented scornfully.
“I wonder,” John said slowly, “if you ever heard your mother or your father speak of their cousin Edward Rowan? He used to be called Neddy, as a rule.”
“Cousin Neddy? Of course I’ve heard of him.”
John turned to Asey. “You caught her up, Asey, and I rather think that I’ve tripped her again. There wasn’t any cousin Edward Rowan, called Neddy as a rule.”
The girl bit her underlip until I thought it would bleed.
“Come,” Asey urged her. “You’re not Desire Allerton, an’ you know it. An’ we know it. Who are you, an’ what you doin’ on this party?”
She did not answer. Asey repeated his question, and still she remained silent.
“Not goin’ to answer me?”
She shook her head, stubbed out her cigarette, got up from her chair and left the room.
“WhewI” Walker whistled softly. “Asey, I hand it to you for finding things out, but what’re you going to do about her now?”
Asey pulled a plug of chewing tobacco from the pocket of his gray flannel shirt and bit off a hunk before answering. He was, I reflected, getting down to business.
“What c’n I do?” he answered thickly. “Can’t do nothin’. ’F I had my way I’d turn her over an’ give her a good spankin’, but I can’t do no such thing. I’ll put her on file, I guess, till the phones get goin’. ’N’ then I’ll call up that drug-store in Plymouth an’ see what she really got there, an’ then I’ll call up Stires’s lawyers an’ get the address of Desire Allerton an’ call her an’ see what I can see.”
“Then you don’t think she’s really Desire Allerton?”
“ ’Course she ain’t. I don’t know who she is an’ what she was after, an’ right now I can’t find out. Anyway, we know she ain’t who she said she was, b’cause she wouldn’t of made them breaks about Cousin Thingummy an’ the Shuttle.”
“She must have been the one that did it,” John said earnestly. “If those powders are arsenic,—well, what more proof do you need?”
“Quite a lot,” Asey told him. “F’r one thing, Mr. Kent, you could understand why she might of killed Stires if he was her uncle; but why should she kill him if he wasn’t anything to her anyway, an’ if she’d never laid eyes on him till the other day? If she was Desire Allerton, why then there’d be some motive for her killin’ him. But if she ain’t, an’ it’s sort of clear she ain’t, I don’t see for why she’d do it. ’Course, she wasn’t settin’ far from him last night. She had a chance to put arsenic in the food, I s’pose.”
John shrugged. “I suppose you know best, Asey, but I’m cer
tain that she’s the one you’re after. Do you want anything more of me?”
“That’s all, I guess.”
John glanced interestedly at the doctor’s kit on his way to the door. “You seem to have a lot of paraphernalia, Doctor. This is rather rough on you, isn’t it? I hope you’ve no patients who need your attention.”
“Thank heaven, I haven’t. At least I didn’t have last night. As I told Miss Whitsby, old Mary Gross was the only person I should have seen and didn’t, but I’m not worried about her.”
“Say,” Asey asked after he’d gone, “did you tell your housekeeper where you was goin’ when I picked you up yest’day?”
“Mrs. Howes? Oh, yes. I told her. It wouldn’t have mattered much if I hadn’t. She’d have found out anyway. She was very upset because I wouldn’t wait to put on a clean shirt to come over here. I rather wish now that I had.”
“Asey,” I asked, “what are you going to do?”
“Well, Miss Prue, I wouldn’t be a one to say. There’s Blake, now. No matter if he didn’t have any incrim’natin’ arsenic lyin’ around, just the samey, he brushed by me an’ he could have dosed Stires’s food. Here’s this niece that ain’t a niece that’s got arsenic, an’ she had a chance to put arsenic in his food, too. I kind of don’t think Blake’s to blame, yet I wouldn’t say for sure. An’ as for the girl, well, we’re sort of at a dead end. She’s screwed up her tongue an’ she ain’t goin’ to talk. We can’t third degree her. She ain’t the sort. We just got to wait for that. I guess we’ll—what’s the matter, William?”
“Nothing, sir. My wife says she’ll get lunch, sir, if you don’t want to.”
Asey thought a moment. “That’s real kind of her, but maybe I’d better do the cookin’. No r’flection, you understand, William. I just think it might be better, an’ then if anything’s wrong, I’ll be to blame an’ not her.”
William nodded relievedly. “Thank you, sir. We hoped you’d feel that way.”
“Might as well start to work, then. Here, I’ll leash your cat, Miss Prue.”
And the three of us started into the dining-room.
“I think that the first thing we’ll do after lunch,” Asey said as he held open the door for me, “is to do a little sleuthin’ around for arsenic. I don’t reckon that we’ll find any, but on the other hand you never can tell.”
In the dining-room Denny James was walking around aimlessly.
“Anything the matter?” Asey asked.
“I’m waiting for William to bring me a glass of water. I’ve caught cold and Cary gave me a couple of cold pills.”
“Pills?” Walker asked. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Oh, you were busy and all that. Didn’t want to bother you when you had all this business on your mind.”
“Mind if we take a look at ’em?” Asey asked.
“Of course not. But why?”
“There’s been a little trouble about some powders,” I said, “and Asey wants to be on the safe side.”
Denny laughed. “I guess these are all right, but here—take ’em if you want ’em.”
The doctor took three little white pills and disappeared into the library. His face, when he finally came back, was a study.
“Nothing wrong, is there?” Denny asked.
The doctor swallowed. “Mr. James,—God Almighty, man, you’d better say a prayer of thanks! Those pills were arsenic!”
CHAPTER SIX
MR. HOBART’S PILLS
DENNY’S mouth moved but no words came out. “Arsenic?” he said feebly at last. “Arsenic?”
“Yes.”
“Listen here,” Asey said. “Did you ask Hobart for cold pills, or did he offer to give ’em to you?”
“Why—I—let me see. I said that my throat was beginning to tickle and that I wished that I’d something to take so that I’d not get a cold. He said he had some pills his doctor had given him and that he’d give me some if I wanted ’em. He went up-stairs and got them and—well, that’s all there is to it.”
Asey nodded slowly.
“What are you going to do about it?” Denny asked. “It’s incredible that Cary’d do anything like this— I’m sure it’s all a mistake. It must be.”
“Mistake ’r not, it’s lucky for you, Mr. James, that we popped into this room when we did.” He jerked his head toward William, who had just come in. He carried a glass of water on a small tray. “Took you a long time to get that water, William.”
“Yes, sir. There’s no more water, sir.”
“How come? Tank empty?”
“Yes, Mr. Mayo. I thought there was a reserve tank, but Tom and Kelley say that’s all used up too. I’m sorry I took so much time, Mr. James. This is White Rock. We’ve got plenty of that and ginger ale and all in the storeroom.”
“I see.” Asey grinned. “Ain’t goin’ to be able t’ wash your faces, I cal’late. Well, William, I’ll mosey along an’ get some lunch.”
“Asey Mayo! Do you think that we could eat! That we would eat? I shan’t dare touch a thing. Not until we get out of this place.”
“Be reasn’ble, Miss Prue. You can eat boiled eggs, I s’pose; only if they ain’t no water, you’ll have to eat ’em raw. I’ll guarantee that I’ll lock myself up in the kitchen while I cook, an’ I’ll use canned things that ain’t never been opened. They’s no use goin’ into this business of the pills right now. Fine thing about all this snowed-up business is that we don’t have to hurry. Folks is goin’ to be right where we can find them any time attall.”
“But aren’t you going to ask Hobart about the pills?”
“Sure. Only I want to get those folks fed first. I want to have a little time to think, too. Got a lot to think about. Doc, will you keep an eye on this Hobart? Keep an eye on all of ’em, for that matter. I think it kind of might be better if I let you eat one at a time in the kitchen, only I s’pose it won’t do no good to get folks more upset than they are right now.” Lunch was a very sketchy affair. June and Asey alone seemed to have any appetite. Rowena confined herself to a box of English biscuits which she had taken from the storeroom. She opened the countless layers of tin and tin-foil herself and kept an eagle eye on the box while she ate. She was, apparently, taking no chances.
After we were through, Asey asked Hobart and Denny to come into the library. Walker and I trailed along after them.
“Now,” Asey said after we were all seated as near the fireplace as we could manage, “now, Mr. Hobart, I’d like to ask you some questions about them pills you give Mr. James.”
“What’s the matter with them?” Hobart asked instantly.
“Have you got ’em with you?” Asey ignored his question.
Hobart drew a small bottle from his coat pocket.
“Here they are if you want them. My doctor gave them to me a few weeks ago. I’m susceptible to colds and they’re the most efficient things I’ve ever found.”
Denny winced at the word efficient. Asey took the bottle and handed it over to Walker, who set to work again with his kit.
“What’s he doing that for?” Hobart demanded. “Those pills are all right. I took one myself this morning.”
“Might have been all right then,” Asey informed him, “but the ones you give Mr. James was arsenic.”
“Nonsense!”
“No nonsense about it,” Denny said. “I was standing there, waiting to take ’em, and the doctor analyzed ’em and they were arsenic. And in a few minutes, I’d have taken them——”
“See here,” Hobart said coldly. “You ought to know better, Denny, than to say things like that. The pills I gave you were perfectly all right. That is, they were all right when I gave them to you. What you might have done to them afterward, of course——”
“See here yourself,” Denny replied hotly. “If you’re insinuating that I substituted what the doctor found——”
“Why not? Aren’t you insinuating that I tried to kill you? Mayo, those pills I gave him were all right. And if you’ve f
ound out otherwise, there’s only one explanation. He changed them—and he’s trying to throw suspicion on me. I didn’t offer him the pills anyway. He asked for them.”
“I did not!” Denny’s round face was very pink. “I did nothing of the kind. I said I was beginning to catch a cold and you practically forced ’em on me. You know you did.”
Hobart got up from his chair and banged his fist emphatically on the table. Ginger jumped at the noise.
“That’s a lie! You wanted to get those pills from me—then you changed ’em—and then you gave them to the doctor and told him I’d given them to you! You wanted to get me into trouble!”
“I didn’t do anything of the sort I I don’t say you had anything to do with the arsenic—the fact remains that if I’d taken your damn pills I’d have been dead as a door-knob by now and——”
“Round one,” Asey interrupted wearily, “is over. Will you two please quit actin’ like a couple of ten-year-olds an’ keep quiet? Mr. Hobart, if you’ve finished your wranglin’ bout, how was Mr. Stires when you left him last night?”
“Perfectly well.”
“Did he tell you where he’d been Tuesday an’ yest’- day?”
“No. I didn’t ask him. Didn’t he tell any one, any of you?”
“He did not. An’ you, if I r’call rightly, was the one that set up such a hullabaloo when Stires didn’t turn up when you thought he ought to. Seems funny you didn’t ask him what kept him.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“Hm. Yes. You got somethin’, Doc?”
“Yes. Look here, Asey, these pills are all right, except for one that was on top. That’s a different shape and size from the rest—it’s identical with the ones Mr. James had.”
“You’re crazy,” Hobart said angrily. “If a pill in that bottle was arsenic, you put it there. I tell you, this thing has gone far enough! If John Kent—if any of you—had had sufficient common sense to get the police when I wanted you to get them, none of this would have happened anyway.” He looked contemptuously at Asey. “You’ve got to get some one, I suppose. You’ve got it all figured out. I was the last one that saw Stires last night, so I’m the man you’re after. You haven’t any proof, so you get Denny to take those pills, then you plant another. I see! Well, have it your own way. The minute I can get out from this place, I’ll——”
Death Lights a Candle Page 6