Death Points a Finger

by Will Levinrew

  Chapter IX

  As they approached the camp, Jimmy was amused to see theoccupation with which Matthews was employed. He was still teachingyoung Thomas Van Orden how to dive. From a distance Jimmy saw withapproval that Tommy had progressed rather well in the art. Theyoungster made a fairly creditable dive. Matthews was lifting himaboard the cruiser, when the youngster saw the approaching boat.

  "Hey, Pop!" he yelled, his shrill treble ringing across the water."Lookit me dive." He jumped, landing in a flat "belly whopper"causing a splash grossly disproportionate to his small form.Matthews, with a grin dove after him and the lesson for the timebeing was over. Tommy was sent into the house, where he wasfollowed by his adoring mother.

  Matthews jerked his thumb toward the porch and said to ProfessorBrierly:

  "You've got company, sir. He had to see you, so he's waiting. Youcan hear him from here."

  The "him," they could hear was Detective Brasher, slumped in adeep wicker chair, head thrown back, sound asleep, his snorescausing a discordant note on the peaceful scene.

  At the touch of Jimmy's hand on his shoulder, he awakened. Hesmiled sheepishly as his eyes fell on the group standing about himand dragged himself out of his chair.

  "'Scuse me, Professor; I been busy with this and ain't had muchsleep. I found something that'll interest you. Mr. Matthews saidyou'd be along pretty soon, so I waited. Here, Professor--" Heleaned over and, from behind the chair he had occupied on theirarrival, he took a coiled rope. He dropped it with a soft plop atProfessor Brierly's feet.

  "What do you think of this, Professor?"

  Professor Brierly almost pounced on the loose coils at his feet.He carefully unwound it. There was nearly a hundred yards of washline. Tied securely to the end of this there was an equal lengthof twine. Tied to the end of the latter, there was a long lengthof fish line, at the end of which there was a fairly heavy sinker.There was no gut or hook, just the sinker.

  Professor Brierly looked approvingly at the unkempt, red-eyeddetective.

  "Good work, Mr. Brasher! Splendid! Where did you find it?"

  "I'm not as clever as you think, Professor, or I would 'a' hadthis yesterday. I looked around after you left Miller's Folly. Ifound tracks of a motorcycle on the ground a short distance away.We're pretty careful about smuggling any booze around here, youknow, Professor, so I asked around, thinking maybe a trooper onour side or mebbe one of the Mounties on this side would have seenor heard a motorcycle.

  "A trooper on our side of the line heard a motorcycle about twoo'clock yesterday morning. I figgered that if it had bumped offMiller, I wouldn't want to be carting around with me, any longerthan I had to, several hundred yards of rope and twine, like yousaid he had to have. Not with troopers snoopin' around and askingquestions mebbe that might be hard to answer.

  "I asks myself what would I do with it? I snooped around and abouta quarter mile from the Folly there is a gully with weeds growin'over it so you can't see it unless you know it's there or you fallinto it. The motorcycle tracks lead right up to this gully. Mebbethe bird who bumps off Miller rides into it at night. Abouttwenty, thirty yards from the place he rides into it, I findthis." He nodded toward the rope which Professor Brierly wascarefully examining as he was uncoiling it.

  Professor Brierly looked up, a trace of anxiety in his deep eyes.

  "Was there water in the gully, Brasher?"

  "A little, not to amount to anything."

  The anxiety in Professor Brierly's eyes deepened. "Running water,Brasher?"

  "Oh, no, not that. Just a little water in the bottom from somerain mebbe, or, mebbe it was seepage."

  Professor Brierly's features cleared. There was no hesitation inhis manner. He turned briskly to Matthews.

  "Did the microscope and slides come, John?" When Matthews answeredin the affirmative, he continued:

  "A large vessel, John, and some clear cold water."

  He turned to the detective.

  "Lie down on the hammock there, Brasher, while I am making sometests. I'll wake you when--"

  "Do you mind, Professor, if I watch you--if I watch you make yourtests?"

  "Certainly not, but you will not find it very interesting."

  Matthews brought out to the porch an infant's bathtub of enameledmetal ware. He poured water in it from the well and asked the oldman:

  "Won't there be complications, Professor? This water is notdistilled and--"

  "You will make a microscopic examination of the water, John, andmake a careful record, while I wash the rope and twine."

  While Matthews went indoors to do his mentor's bidding, the oldscientist uncoiled the three sections of rope, twine and fishline. He swirled first one of them violently in the clear water ofthe bathtub. Then, he siphoned off the water. The water was thensubjected to a careful filtering process. The solids resultingfrom this were subjected to the microscope.

  This was done in turn with each section of the coil of rope andtwine that Brasher brought. Toward the end of his examination,Professor Brierly had Matthews' help. Jimmy wondered at thesmoothness and celerity with which the two men worked. They musthave done this many times in the past. There seemed perfectunderstanding. Without a word being uttered, each man's hands didtheir appointed task as though one brain dominated them. There wasno fumbling, false motions or getting in one another's way.

  Each man's movements were carefully checked. The results of theexamination of each microscopic slide were carefully noted. Theyworked with machine-like precision. Jimmy could understand now whyMatthews was rapidly attaining a reputation as a scientist secondonly to his beloved chief. Gone now was the habitual good humoredgrin with which Matthews treated most things and people. Neitherman dominated; both worked as one; there was perfect coordination.

  During the tests, Martha came out to call them to lunch; ProfessorBrierly shook his head impatiently. At the second call he snappedirascibly at the old housekeeper. Turning to the others, he said:

  "Go on in and have lunch, all of you; this must be finished." Hisaudience did not budge; their absorption in his task was matchedonly by his own. Martha shrugged her ample shoulders inresignation and with a snort of disgust left Professor Brierly andhis adopted son to their task.

  At last it was finished. Professor Brierly spoke to Brasher:

  "Bits of brick and mortar on the fish line, twine and rope showthat this was in all probability the means used by Miller'smurderer. This is probably from the chimney. There is also someroof paint, from the edge of the roof of Miller's Folly."

  He looked at the notes he and Matthews had made. He continued:"Mr. Brasher, the rope prior to its use around the chimney ofMiller's Folly was for a considerable time at a farm or farmyard,where you will find the following:

  "A boxwood hedge, of the species _B. sempervirens_, the common box.

  "One or more pear trees.

  "You will find these shrubs," handing him a list.

  "On that farm there are two horses, a bay and sorrel.

  "There is a black and white cow.

  "There are some leghorn chickens.

  "There is a collie dog."

  McCall, Jimmy and Brasher were startled. They stared at the oldman in disbelief. McCall said:

  "Oh, I say, Professor, see here--" He stopped. He saw Matthews grinand wink at Jimmy. Professor Brierly was oblivious to theinterruption. He continued:

  "The fish line contains all the characteristics of the rope, butwas not at that place for so long a time." He looked once more athis slip of paper.

  "I forgot to mention that a stream of water runs through oradjacent to the place where these ropes were kept."

  He looked once more at his notes and shook his head.

  "The twine," he said slowly, "was also at that place for aconsiderable length of time. In addition, it appears to have beenfor some time in a hat factory, where felt hats are made; in apart of a hat factory where a good deal of the fur from the felthats is in constant motion. I am not familiar with hat factories,but it must be in
a branch of the factory, where the hat is workedafter it has been dyed."

  He caught the detective's look of astonishment.

  "Really, Mr. Brasher, there is nothing remarkable about this. Yourfeat of finding the rope was far more meritorious, both thereasoning and the actual finding of the rope. What John and I didjust now was absurdly simple.

  "All you need do now, Mr. Brasher, is find a man, probably aleft-handed man, who lives on a place such as I described, who owns amotorcycle who cannot account for the time in which we know Mr.Miller was killed; who either worked in or had access to a hatfactory; a man who has a pair of climbing irons and you have themurderer."

  "Oh, yeah, is that all?"

  Professor Brierly bristled.

  "What is there difficult about that? That should be simple. Surelythere are not a great many farms or farmyards that comply with allthe conditions I enumerated. Surely that should be merely detail,just the work the police ought to be able to do. Ex-PoliceCommissioner McGuire thinks that too."

  He waved his hands with a gesture of finality and Brasher knewthat he was dismissed. With a look of awe and reverence hedeparted, shaking his head wonderingly.

  Professor Brierly was also shaking his head. There was a puzzledfrown on his fine features. He said:

  "I shall have to recast my opinion about the man or men who areresponsible for these two murders. I said he or they are cleverbut not subtle. I was wrong, there is a subtlety about it, adevilish ingenuity about it." He shook his head once more, thepuzzled frown becoming deeper. "There are things about these twomurders that do not fit and it seems hard to make them fit. Iwonder--" He shook his head violently as if to clear it of anunpleasant or hazy thought.

  Hale began, slowly, not knowing how to broach the subject:

  "Was there something, Professor, that you were holding back inJustice Higginbotham's camp, something you knew, that you did notcare to tell."

  Professor Brierly looked at him quizzically.

  "You _are_ an acute young man, Hale--or, was I so obvious?"

  He sat for a long time thoughtfully tearing to bits the smallsheets on which he had made his notes of the examination of theropes and twine. He continued slowly:

  "What the microscope showed me this morning increased my doubtsabout the matter. The trail left by the murderer in Miller's Follyseemed clear enough. Finding the rope, however, instead ofclarifying the case makes it more puzzling. What we found on therope and twine does not at all accord with the rope itself and itsimplication.

  "I find an analogous situation in New York. Everything seemedclear enough. Someone entered Schurman's apartment. That personwas either rather skilled in human anatomy or he was told how tohit Schurman. The victim was struck in such a way that it couldeasily have been mistaken for simple asphyxia or the kind ofasphyxia that you would find in a body that has been hung by theneck. Everything seemed simple enough until I found the apple."

  "The apple?" queried McCall.

  "Yes, the apple of which the murderer almost took a bite. It was agreen apple. The murderer was about to take a bite, but he changedhis mind. It was too hard, or too bitter, or too sour." He changedthe subject abruptly. "And what will the District Attorney of NewYork County do about August Schurman's murder? That, at least, isin your jurisdiction, Mr. McCall."

  "Yes, that is in my jurisdiction. I have wired orders and myoffice is doing all it can right now to cooperate with the police.We should hear something shortly."

  Professor Brierly turned to the reporter.

  "Obviously, Mr. Hale, the ends of justice will not be well servedif you should publish in your paper what we discovered today bymeans of the microscope. The police may be seriously hampered inits work if too much or any publicity is given this matter."

  "But Professor--"

  The old man snapped at him. "But nothing. If you were not here youwould know nothing about it. Certainly, if the police discoveredwhat I discovered they would be very careful to withhold it fromreporters. Surely you have enough in this story to satisfy evenyour insatiable appetite for news."

  Jimmy gulped. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Here he had a juicybit of news that would delight Hite and he could not publish it.What a swell new lead for the story. Acting contrary to the oldman's wishes in the matter was, of course, out of the question.