The Swimming Pool

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  I think O’Brien had not meant to let things go so far, although he certainly knew them.

  “Now about the gun,” he said. “You know it was returned after his death, don’t you?”

  “I gave it to Mrs. Maynard with my own hands,” she said.

  “Have you ever seen it since?”

  “No. It’s never been around. I know every inch of this house. It’s never been in it.”

  Chapter 34

  NOBODY SPOKE FOR A minute or two. Then O’Brien drew a matchbox out of his pocket. He opened it and looked at it.

  “For twenty years,” he said quietly, “I have been on the trail of Inspector Flaherty’s murderer. I’ve carried the slug which killed him in this box, and yesterday when the chief of police here in town sent to Ballistics in New York the gun Mrs. Chandler brought back with her, I was present when they tried it out.

  “It was the same gun. Think about that for a minute. It had killed your father, but by his own hand. It had wounded me, although that’s not important. It had murdered Johnny Shannon. I dug a slug from it out of the cottage wall. It comes close to convicting Judith Chandler of murder. And it killed Inspector Flaherty twenty years ago. That’s quite a record.

  “I want you all to think about Flaherty for a moment. He was a good cop. He had to take the risks of his job, as we all do. But he was no man’s fool. He did not believe Johnny Shannon was guilty. He told me your sister Judith was lying, and—I’m sorry—your mother, too. Then one day he told me he had located Dawson and meant to get the truth out of him.

  “But he made one mistake. He told both Judith and your mother, and that night he was murdered.”

  He shoved the matchbox back into his pocket and going over to the hearth looked up at Mother’s portrait.

  “A mother will do many things for a dearly loved daughter,” he said slowly. “Or to save her own place in the world her social position, or the good name of her family. But I do not believe murder is one of them. And quite definitely she did not shoot me, or Johnny Shannon. Nor did it seem likely Johnny had shot me, not with that gun.

  “You see, the whole case turned on the gun. It still does. And I haven’t been working alone. When Shannon came east I went to the commissioner and told him the story, that he had come east and Mrs. Chandler might need protection. He knew who she was. Who didn’t? And he didn’t want her killed. So I got an extended leave and took the cottage by the main road. The papers said she was here at The Birches, and from the start I felt sure Shannon was about the place at night. I even knew he was in the cottage the first day I saw it. He’d taken a drink of water and his prints were on the glass.

  “I never caught him, however, and then a woman whose name was Selina Benjamin was drowned in your pool. I knew from the railroad ticket in her bag where she had come from, and when the Hunnewell woman who lived next door identified her, I was positive she was the Kate Henry whose testimony had largely convicted Johnny. She had seen him in Mollie Preston’s room and heard them quarreling, and she’d identified him in the lineup before she disappeared.

  “It looked as though he had killed her. He had a motive, right enough. But the golf club was not his sort of weapon. I don’t imagine he had ever used one in his life. I know now that Mrs. Chandler took it to the pool and left it there. At least so she told me today. There is no proof, of course. Nor was there any proof of her story about a holdup.” He smiled. “I’ve heard even more imaginative stories many times, and the local men are positive she invented it. But today it had become a matter of fast work or she would go to jail. As I told Lois—”

  We had never heard Ed Brown’s taxi drive up, which shows the state we were in. But we heard his voice.

  “Now mind you,” he said, “twenty minutes and no more. It’s my bedtime.”

  “Oh, shut up, sourpuss,” a woman said. “I’m not paying you until I get back to the station. Take it or lump it.”

  She came briskly up the porch steps, and O’Brien went out into the hall.

  “Come in,” he said. “I’m glad you got here.”

  “So am I! I thought the old bastard out there was going to dump me in the ditch.”

  It was Clarice, Judith’s personal maid and now shed of her fine manners. She gave a sharp look around the room as O’Brien brought her in.

  “And maybe I ain’t scared,” she said. “You didn’t say this place was spooky. What’s the idea of a man stopping that rattletrap and shining a flashlight in my face? The driver nearly jumped out of his skin.”

  I thought O’Brien looked annoyed. He did not bother to introduce her. He put her in a chair near the door and stood by her.

  “You telephoned as I told you?” he asked.

  She merely nodded. She was surveying all of us, especially Helga. She grinned at her.

  “In kind of high-class company, aren’t you?” she said. “What goes, anyhow?”

  Helga looked disgusted.

  “It’s none of your business,” she said. “Keep your mouth shut until you’re spoken to.”

  O’Brien ignored them both. He looked down at Clarice. “Did you bring the list I asked for?” he inquired.

  “All I could remember,” she said.

  She fished in her handbag, bringing out the usual lipstick and compact, a fine embroidered handkerchief which probably belonged to Judith, and finally a sheet of paper. O’Brien glanced at it and shoved it in his pocket.

  “Did you see the gun?”

  “I saw a gun. At the police station here in town. It looked the same. I can’t be sure.”

  “When did it disappear?”

  “It wasn’t there when I went back with Miss Maynard to pack Mrs. Chandler’s clothes. That’s all I know.”

  Phil glared at her.

  “Are you saying my sister took this gun, and had it with her when she left for Reno? I don’t believe you.”

  O’Brien, however, did not let her answer. He motioned to Helga, who got up, and hauled some change out of his pocket.

  “Pay off Ed Brown, will you?” he said. “And take Clarice here back to your sitting-room. I’ll see she gets back safely. Give her a cup of tea or something. She’s had a trying evening.”

  If anyone ever looked less like giving Clarice a cup of tea than Helga at that moment, I can’t imagine who. But Clarice took a hand.

  “You might make it something stronger,” she said. “I’ve still got the shakes.”

  As a result she left carrying a tall glass of whisky and soda, and looking definitely more cheerful.

  Phil stirred.

  “Why all the mumbo jumbo?” he demanded. “If you have a case against Judith, let’s have it.”

  O’Brien was still standing. One of his pockets sagged, and I knew he had a gun in it, but no one else apparently noticed. It frightened me, that gun. It seemed so unnecessary somehow. No one was going to attack him, although Phil looked rebellious enough for anything.

  “I’m sorry,” O’Brien said. “I didn’t locate Clarice until tonight. I’d like to go back to the night Johnny Shannon was killed and Mrs. Chandler was hurt. You see, it was carefully arranged as a holdup. A masked man with a gun, the driver shot, and the jewel case taken. But even the best plans slip. This one did, for the simple fact that the engine of the car was still running, and some movement of the dying man pressed on the accelerator.

  “I’ll go a little further. Johnny Shannon expected to meet a man there, the one he told your sister was to take a deposition from her to clear his name. But he had not expected a mask. Something was wrong and he knew it. He may have put the car in gear then.

  “However it happened, the masked man shot him and thought he had shot your sister. There is a bullet hole near where she sat. But she had only fainted, as it happened. He took the jewel case and was backing out of the car when it started.

  “Mrs. Chandler says he threw the gun at her. I think she is wrong. It was jerked out of his hand. It may have struck her. I don’t know. What we do know is that she did not go all
the way with the car. She fell out as it turned over, and after she came to she had the gun in her hand. She’s vague about all this. It’s still possible she grabbed at it as he pointed it at her.

  “She wasn’t out very long. She was in shock and in pain, but she started back to The Birches. Remember, she thought the masked man was still around, so she carried the gun with her. For the same reason she did not use the drive. She took to the shrubbery. Her memory has improved now. I talked to her today, and she says she remembers that. She also remembers that near the pool she stumbled and fell, and the gun went off.”

  He glanced at me.

  “That cleared up something which bothered me for some time, a shot both Lois and I heard that night. It was a couple of hours after the so-called holdup. The killer should have been gone a long time, establishing an alibi, or at least getting the hell out of there. At any time someone might see the car and investigate, and he needed—Keep down, Phil,” he said quickly. “Don’t move. Don’t try anything.”

  He jerked the gun out of his pocket and I was suddenly faint. Phil, who had been out so late the night of the murder! Phil, who had little or no love for Judith. And Phil, who might have had Father’s gun for years.

  O’Brien, however, was not looking at him. He was watching one of the open windows. It was near the old conservatory, and in the sudden silence we all heard what O’Brien’s quick ears had caught before we did, the crushing of glass under a careful foot. It was followed almost immediately by a hand pushing back the curtains there, a gloved hand holding a gun.The two shots were almost simultaneous. O’Brien’s, however, was first. It knocked the gun into the room. The hand disappeared, and young Bill outside was yelling at the top of his lungs.

  “Quick! I’ve got him.”

  Almost immediately men were shouting all over the place outside, and O’Brien, wearing his grim policeman’s face, was dropping his own gun back into his pocket and swearing under his breath.

  Anne was staring incredulously at the window, and Phil was grinning crookedly at O’Brien.

  “By God,” he said. “I thought you meant to shoot me!”

  O’Brien did not answer. Fowler came in, looking flushed and apologetic.

  “He took the back road,” he said. “Came on foot down the hill by the stable. That’s how we missed him. Narrow squeak, wasn’t it? That nephew of theirs is some boy!”

  “Too narrow,” O’Brien said. “Did I kill him?”

  “Got him in me arm. That’s all. The boys are taking care of him all right. That his gun?” He went over and carefully picked it up. “Bought it yesterday in Bridgeport,” he said. “We had the other one.”

  Anne was still looking dazed.

  “Who was it?” she said, her lips white. “The man at the window. Who was it, Lois?”

  “Ask Lieutenant O’Brien,” I said shortly. “He hasn’t bothered to tell me.”

  O’Brien smiled, for the first time that evening.

  “It was—and is—a gentleman named Ridgely Chandler,” he said, and put his arms around my shaking body.

  Chapter 35

  I SUPPOSE I SHOULD have known. As I said earlier, I had all the clues. Except for Dawson, dead for months, who outside of Mother or Judith had a motive for killing Inspector Flaherty? And who was desperately determined not to have Shannon’s case reopened, as Selina Benjamin had agreed to do?

  Ridge, I thought, had been a superb actor, or perhaps it is hard for women to think of small dapper men as killers. He would not be looking like a killer even now, sitting with dignity in the station house while a police surgeon dressed his wound.

  “There is, of course, some absurd mistake, Doctor. If you will look in my wallet you will see my name on a number of things.”

  His name! His proud family name, for which three people had died.

  How far he meant to go that night I do not know, but, as O’Brien said later while we sat around the fire and the men had drinks and Anne and I cigarettes, he had felt all along there was a smart scheming mind behind a good bit of what happened.

  “He killed Flaherty years ago,” he said. “As you’ve said more than once, Lois, he was a Chandler, and the Chandlers don’t marry young women who have had to acknowledge being on more than friendly terms with a lad like Shannon. His old she-dragon of a mother was living at that time, too. So when Flaherty got on the trail of Dawson he knew what it meant.

  “Don’t make any mistake about him. He knew Judith was lying, but he had lost his head entirely over her. In a way he was hardly responsible for what he did. I’d like to say this, too. I don’t think your mother gave him your father’s gun to shoot anyone. Most likely she simply didn’t want it in the house.

  “It’s a queer thing that he kept it for twenty years. Clarice knew it was there. She did his mending, and she often saw it. Then the day she and Lois packed Judith’s clothes she looked for it and it was gone. She didn’t think much about it. He wasn’t living in the apartment, although some of his clothes were still there. But she noticed it. When I located her she told me.

  “He must have gone through hell when Johnny Shannon was released. I imagine Johnny called him up or saw him. He was determined to be cleared and he wanted his case reopened. Chandler had felt safe for a long time, but he knew I’d never given up the search for whoever killed Flaherty. And Johnny knew a lot. When he left the pen he located Selina Benjamin, who had testified against him before the grand jury, and scared her and Dawson so they left town.

  “He even came out here and saw Helga, but he found her hard to deal with. She was willing to help him, but not if it hurt Judith. Also she had no real facts, as you all know now.

  “So a lot of people were scared, if scared isn’t too mild a word: the Benjamins, both the Chandlers, and even Helga. But the worst of the lot was our friend Ridgely. He wasn’t in love with his wife by that time, but in an odd way he was proud of her, her looks, even her publicity. It was a long time since any Chandler had figured in anything but churches and hospitals.

  “Then he had a respite of sorts. Johnny got discouraged and left town. Judith was getting a divorce and preparing to live abroad. It wasn’t until she came back here and he learned I had taken the cottage that he began really to worry. I was bad news and he knew it.

  “The story had to be stopped at all costs. I think Johnny told him where the Benjamins were. The husband was dead by that time, and Selina had come back to clear his estate. Don’t forget, Selina was a real danger for him. She had lied and largely convicted Johnny, but only so Dawson could get your mother’s bribe of fifty thousand dollars. You can’t hide that amount of money, especially if you get it in cash, as Chandler did.

  “I believe Chandler went to see Selina, and she realized she had a knee lock on him if Johnny’s case was reopened. Her bank says she deposited five hundred dollars, again in cash, about that time, and it wasn’t from Judith Chandler. She was in Reno.

  “But Selina had changed. She took his money, but her conscience was bothering her. She had seen Johnny, with his hair snow-white at forty. It gave her some idea of what the years had done to him. And when he came back from Reno she began to worry.

  “She notified Chandler of his return, and it’s evident he knew who was haunting the grounds here, the unknown who was trying so desperately to see Judith. Very probably he came here himself in the hope of killing Johnny. I knew he was on the grounds the night he shot me. That was later, of course. After Selina’s body was found in the pool.

  “But about Selina and her death. I know she called Chandler over long-distance at his office in New York—I have the record of the call—to say she was going to see Judith that night at the pool. You can hear how it would go.

  “‘Why?’ he would say. ‘What good will it do you?’

  “‘It might do Johnny Shannon a lot of good. He’s back. He came to see me yesterday’

  “‘Don’t be a fool. If the case is reopened, you’ll have to go to the pen for perjury.’

  “‘Let
’s say I have a conscience, or have got religion. They might go easy on me.’

  “It was something like that. His secretary heard his part of it and remembered it.

  “Judith’s story fits it exactly. The woman was late and she herself was afraid. She forgot the golf club and left it there, so when Selina waited on the bench it was beside her. Probably Chandler meant to shoot her, but a shot is noisy and I was nearby in the cottage. The club was better. He knocked her out with it and dragged her into the pool.

  “He was, you see, getting rid of his troubles one by one. Selina was the first, after Flaherty. I came close to being the second, and Johnny himself was to be the third. Don’t forget Judith, either, if the case was reopened. She was frightened, but she wasn’t the shivering obedient girl she had been before. She was a woman now. Perhaps she knew Chandler had bought and paid for her, and hated him for it. Or she might have developed the same conscience as Selina Benjamin.

  “Then one day Johnny himself went to see him. The secretary knows it. She let him into Chandler’s office and he was there a long time. When he came out he looked pleased.

  “‘Something nice happen to you?’ she said.

  “‘About the best there is,’ he told her. ‘Wish me luck tonight, will you?’

  “‘Of course. Is it a girl?’

  “‘No girl is as important as this is.’

  “That’s when the scheme was hatched,” O’Brien said. “He was to get Judith and then pick up Chandler on the road. Chandler was to have a paper ready for her to sign, admitting her presence in Shannon’s room the night of the Preston girl’s murder, and confirming his alibi. Just what pressure they meant to use I don’t know. Or what Shannon meant. Chandler had other plans.

  “I know it sounds cracked, but Shannon wasn’t entirely normal. It was obsession at its worst. And remember, from Chandler’s point of view, how nearly it came off! Only the unexpected happened. Judith wasn’t killed, and she carried off his gun. I have to guess a bit here. She says she came to with it in her hand. He may have followed her down the hill and thinking the fall or his shot at her had killed her, put it in her hand himself. Or she may have caught at it when he pointed it at her. I think this last is more likely. I doubt if he stayed around there very long. He had his car hidden nearby, and he beat it back to the city.