It’s damn funny, just the same, that they should be the exact size of these galoshes.”
“If,” submitted Markham, “the footprints were not Chester’s, then we’re driven to the assumption that the murderer made them.”
Vance slowly took out his cigarette case.
“Yes,” he agreed, “I think we may safely assume that.”
CHAPTER IX
THE THREE BULLETS
(Friday, November 12th; 9 A.M.)
At this moment Doctor Doremus, the Medical Examiner, a brisk, nervous man with a jaunty air, was ushered in by one of the detectives I had seen in the drawing-room. He blinked at the company, threw his hat and coat on a chair, and shook hands with everyone.
“What are your friends trying to do, Sergeant?” he asked, eyeing the inert body in the chair. “Wipe out the whole family?” Without waiting for an answer to his grim pleasantry he went to the windows and threw up the shades with a clatter. “You gentlemen all through viewing the remains? If so, I’ll get to work.”
“Go to it,” said Heath. Chester Greene’s body was lifted to the bed and straightened out. “And how about the bullet, doc? Any chance of getting it before the autopsy?”
“How’m I going to get it without a probe and forceps? I ask you!” Doctor Doremus drew back the matted dressing-gown and inspected the wound. “But I’ll see what I can do.” Then he straightened up and cocked his eye facetiously at the sergeant. “Well, I’m waiting for your usual query about the time of death.”
“We know it.”
“Hah! Wish you always did. This fixing the exact time by looking over a body is all poppycock anyway. The best we fellows can do is to approximate it. Rigor mortis works differently in different people. Don’t ever take me too seriously, Sergeant, when I set an exact hour for you. However, let’s see…”
He ran his hands over the body on the bed, unflexed the fingers, moved the head, and put his eye close to the coagulated blood about the wound. Then he teetered on his toes, and squinted at the ceiling.
“How about ten hours? Say, between eleven-thirty, and midnight. How’s that?”
Heath laughed good-naturedly.
“You hit it, doc—right on the head.”
“Well, well! Always was a good guesser.” Doctor Doremus seemed wholly indifferent.
Vance had followed Markham into the hall.
“An honest fellow, that archiater of yours. And to think he’s a public servant of our beneficent government!”
“There are many honest men in public office,” Markham reproved him.
“I know,” sighed Vance. “Our democracy is still young. Give it time.”
Heath joined us, and at the same moment the nurse appeared at Mrs. Greene’s door. A querulous dictatorial voice issued from the depths of the room behind her.
“… And you tell whoever’s in charge that I want to see him—right away, do you understand! It’s an outrage, all this commotion and excitement, with me lying here in pain trying to get a little rest. Nobody shows me any consideration.”
Heath made a grimace and looked toward the stairs; but Vance took Markham’s arm.
“Come, let’s cheer up the old lady.”
As we entered the room, Mrs. Greene, propped up as usual in bed with a prismatic assortment of pillows, drew her shawl primly about her.
“Oh, it’s you, is it?” she greeted us, her expression moderating. “I thought it was those abominable policemen making free of my house again… What’s the meaning of all this disturbance, Mr. Markham? Nurse tells me that Chester has been shot. Dear, dear! If people must do such things, why do they have to come to my house and annoy a poor helpless old woman like me? There are plenty of other places they could do their shooting in.” She appeared deeply resentful at the fact that the murderer should have been so inconsiderate as to choose the Greene mansion for his depredations. “But I’ve come to expect this sort of thing. Nobody thinks of my feelings. And if my own children see fit to do everything they can to annoy me, why should I expect total strangers to show me any consideration?”
“When one is bent on murder, Mrs. Greene,” rejoined Markham, stung by her callousness, “one doesn’t stop to think of the mere inconvenience his crime may cause others.”
“I suppose not,” she murmured self-pityingly. “But it’s all the fault of my children. If they were what children ought to be, people wouldn’t be breaking in here trying to murder them.”
“And unfortunately succeeding,” added Markham coldly.
“Well, that can’t be helped.” She suddenly became bitter. “It’s their punishment for the way they’ve treated their poor old mother, lying here for ten long years, hopelessly paralysed. And do you think they try to make it easy for me? No! Here I must stay, day after day, suffering agonies with my spine; and they never give me a thought.” A sly look came into her fierce old eyes. “But they think about me sometimes. Oh, yes! They think how nice it would be if I were out of the way. Then they’d get all my money…”
“I understand, madam,” Markham put in abruptly, “that you were asleep last night at the time your son met his death.”
“Was I? Well, maybe I was. It’s a wonder, though, that some one didn’t leave my door open just so I’d be disturbed.”
“And you know no one who would have any reason to kill your son?”
“How should I know? Nobody tells me anything. I’m a poor neglected, lonely old cripple…”
“Well, we won’t bother you any further, Mrs. Greene.” Markham’s tone held something both of sympathy and consternation.
As we descended the stairs the nurse reopened the door we had just closed after us, and left it ajar, no doubt in response to an order from her patient.
“Not at all a nice old lady,” chuckled Vance, as we entered the drawing- room. “For a moment, Markham, I thought you were going to box her ears.”
“I admit I felt like it. And yet I couldn’t help pitying her. However, such utter self-concentration as hers saves one a lot of mental anguish. She seems to regard this whole damnable business as a plot to upset her.”
Sproot appeared obsequiously at the door.
“May I bring you gentlemen some coffee?” No emotion of any kind showed on his graven wrinkled face. The events of the past few days seemed not to have affected him in any degree.
“No, we don’t want coffee, Sproot,” Markham told him brusquely. “But please be good enough to ask Miss Sibella if she will come here.”
“Very good, sir.”
The old man shuffled away, and a few minutes later Sibella strolled in, smoking a cigarette, one hand in the pocket of her vivid-green sweater- jacket. Despite her air of nonchalance her face was pale, its whiteness contrasting strongly with the deep crimson rouge on her lips. Her eyes, too, were slightly haggard; and when she spoke her voice sounded forced, as if she were playing a role against which her spirit was at odds. She greeted us blithely enough, however.
“Good morning, one and all. Beastly auspices for a social call.” She sat down on the arm of a chair and swung one leg restlessly. “Someone certainly has a grudge against us Greenes. Poor old Chet! He didn’t even die with his boots on. Felt bedroom slippers! What an end for an outdoor enthusiast! Well, I suppose I’m invited here to tell my story. Where do I begin?”
She rose, and throwing her half-burned cigarette into the grate, seated herself in a straight-backed chair facing Markham, folding her sinewy, tapering hands on the table before her.
Markham studied her for several moments.
“You were awake last night, reading in bed, I understand, when the shot was fired in your brother’s room.”
“Zola’s Nana, to be explicit. Mother told me I shouldn’t read it; so I got it at once. It was frightfully disappointing, though.”
“And just what did you do after you heard the report?” continued Markham, striving to control his annoyance at the girl’s flippancy.
“I put my book down, got up, donned a kimono, an
d listened for several minutes at the door. Not hearing anything further, I peeked out. The hall was dark, and the silence felt a bit spooky. I knew I ought to go to Chet’s room and inquire, in a sisterly fashion, about the explosion; but, to tell you the truth, Mr. Markham, I was rather cowardly. So I went—oh, well, let the truth prevail: I ran up the servants’ stairs and routed out our Admirable Crichton; and together we investigated. Chet’s door was unlocked, and the fearless Sproot opened it. There sat Chet, looking as if he’d seen a ghost; and somehow I knew he was dead. Sproot went in and touched him, while I waited; and then we went down to the dining-room. Sproot did some phoning, and afterward made me some atrocious coffee. A half-hour or so later this gentleman”—she indicated her head toward Heath—“arrived, looking distressingly glum, and very sensibly refused a cup of Sproot’s coffee.”
“And you heard no sound of any kind before the shot?”
“Not a thing. Everybody had gone to bed early. The last sound I heard in this house was mother’s gentle and affectionate voice telling the nurse she was as neglectful as the rest of us, and to bring her morning tea at nine sharp, and not to slam the door the way she always did.
“Then peace and quiet reigned until half-past eleven, when I heard the shot in Chet’s room.”
“How long was this interregnum of quietude?” asked Vance.
“Well, mother generally ends her daily criticism of the family around ten-thirty; so I’d say the quietude lasted about an hour.”
“And during that time you do not recall hearing a slight shuffling sound in the hall? Or a door closing softly?”
The girl shook her head indifferently, and took another cigarette from a small amber case she carried in her sweater-pocket.
“Sorry, but I didn’t. That doesn’t mean, though, that people couldn’t have been shuffling and shutting doors all over the place. My room’s at the rear, and the noises on the river and in 52nd Street drown out almost anything that’s going on in the front of the house.”
Vance had gone to her and held a match to her cigarette. “I say, you don’t seem in the least worried.”
“Oh, why worry?” She made a gesture of resignation. “If anything is to happen to me, it’ll happen, whatever I do. But I don’t anticipate an immediate demise. No one has the slightest reason for killing me—unless, of course, it’s some of my former bridge partners. But they’re all harmless persons who wouldn’t be apt to take extreme measures.”
“Still”—Vance kept his tone inconsequential—“no one apparently had any reason for harming your two sisters or your brother.”
“On that point I couldn’t be altogether lucid. We Greenes don’t confide in one another. There’s a beastly spirit of distrust in this ancestral domain. We all lie to each other on general principles. And as for secrets! Each member of the family is a kind of Masonic Order in himself. Surely there’s some reason for all these shootings. I simply can’t imagine anyone indulging himself in this fashion for the mere purpose of pistol practice.”
She smoked a moment pensively, and went on:
“Yes, there must be a motive back of it all—though for the life of me I can’t suggest one. Of course Julia was a vinegary, unpleasant person, but she went out very little, and worked off her various complexes on the family. And yet, she may have been leading a double life for all I know. When these sour old maids break loose from their inhibitions I understand they do the most utterly utter things. But I just can’t bring my mind to picture Julia with a bevy of jealous Romeos.” She made a comical grimace at the thought. “Ada, on the other hand, is what we used to call in algebra an unknown quantity. No one but dad knew where she came from, and he would never tell. To be sure, she doesn’t get much time to run around— mother keeps her too busy. But she’s young and good-looking in a common sort of way”—there was a tinge of venom in this remark—“and you can’t tell what connections she may have formed outside the sacred portals of the Greene mansion. As for Chet, no one seemed to love him passionately. I never heard anybody say a good word for him but the golf pro at the club, and that was only because Chet tipped him like a parvenu. He had a genius for antagonizing people. Several motives for the shooting might be found in his past.”
“I note that you’ve changed your ideas considerably in regard to the culpability of Miss Ada.” Vance spoke incuriously.
Sibella looked a little shamefaced.
“I did get a bit excited, didn’t I?” Then a defiance came into her voice. “But just the same, she doesn’t belong here. And she’s a sneaky little cat. She’d dearly love to see us all nicely murdered. The only person that seems to like her is cook; but then, Gertrude’s a sentimental German who likes everybody. She feeds half the stray cats and dogs in the neighbourhood. Our rear yard is a regular pound in summer.”
Vance was silent for a while. Suddenly he looked up.
“I gather from your remarks, Miss Greene, that you now regard the shootings as the acts of someone from the outside.”
“Does anyone think anything else?” she asked, with startled anxiety. “I understand there were footprints in the snow both times we were visited. Surely they would indicate an outsider.”
“Quite true,” Vance assured her, a bit over-emphatically, obviously striving to allay whatever fears his queries may have aroused in her. “Those footprints undeniably indicate that the intruder entered each time by the front door.”
“And you are not to have any uneasiness about the future, Miss Greene,” added Markham. “I shall give orders today to have a strict guard placed over the house, front and rear, until there is no longer the slightest danger of a recurrence of what has taken place here.”
Heath nodded his unqualified approbation.
“I’ll arrange for that, sir. There’ll be two men guarding this place day and night from now on.”
“How positively thrilling!” exclaimed Sibella; but I noticed a strange reservation of apprehension in her eyes.
“We won’t detain you any longer, Miss Greene,” said Markham, rising. “But I’d greatly appreciate it if you would remain in your room until our inquiries here are over. You may, of course, visit your mother.”
“Thanks awf’ly, but I think I’ll indulge in a little lost beauty sleep.” And she left us with a friendly wave of the hand.
“Who do you want to see next, Mr. Markham?” Heath was on his feet, vigorously relighting his cigar.
But before Markham could answer Vance lifted his hand for silence, and leaned forward in a listening attitude.
“Oh, Sproot!” he called. “Step in here a moment.” The old butler appeared at once, calm and subservient, and waited with a vacuously expectant expression.
“Really, y’ know,” said Vance, “there’s not the slightest need for you to hover solicitously amid the draperies of the hallway while we’re busy in here. Most considerate and loyal of you; but if we want you for anything we’ll ring.”
“As you desire, sir.”
Sproot started to go, but Vance halted him.
“Now that you’re here you might answer one or two questions.”
“Very good, sir.”
“First, I want you to think back very carefully, and tell me if you observed anything unusual when you locked up the house last night.”
“Nothing, sir,” the man answered promptly. “If I had, I would have mentioned it to the police this morning.”
“And did you hear any noise or movement of any kind after you had gone to your room? A door closing, for instance?”
“No, sir. Everything was very quiet.”
“And what time did you actually go to sleep?
“I couldn’t say exactly, sir. Perhaps about twenty minutes past eleven, if I may venture to make a guess.”
“And were you greatly surprised when Miss Sibella woke you up and told you a shot had been fired in Mr. Chester’s room?”
“Well, sir,” Sproot admitted, “I was somewhat astonished, though I endeavoured to conceal my emotions.”
“And doubtless succeeded admirably,” said Vance dryly. “But what I meant was this: did you not anticipate something of the kind happening again in this house, after the other shootings?”
He watched the old butler sharply, but the man’s lineaments were as arid as a desert and as indecipherable as an expanse of sea.
“If you will pardon me, sir, for saying so, I don’t know precisely what you mean,” came the colourless answer. “Had I anticipated that Mr. Chester was to be done in, so to speak, I most certainly would have warned him. It would have been my duty, sir.”
“Don’t evade my question, Sproot.” Vance spoke sternly. “I asked you if you had any idea that a second tragedy might follow the first.”
“Tragedies very seldom come singly, sir, if I may be permitted to say so. One never knows what will happen next. I try not to anticipate the workings of fate, but I strive to hold myself in readiness—”
“Oh, go away, Sproot—go quite away,” said Vance. “When I crave vague rhetoric I’ll read Thomas Aquinas.”
“Yes, sir.” The man bowed with wooden courtesy, and left us.
His footsteps had scarcely died away when Doctor Doremus strode in jauntily.
“There’s your bullet, Sergeant.” He tossed a tiny cylinder of discoloured lead on the drawing-room table. “Nothing but dumb luck. It entered the fifth intercostal space and travelled diagonally across the heart, coming out in the post-axillary fold at the anterior border of the trapezius muscle, where I could feel it under the skin`; and I picked it out with my pen-knife.”
“All that fancy language don’t worry me,” grinned Heath, “so long’s I got the bullet.”
He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand, his eyes narrowed, his mouth drawn into a straight line. Then, reaching into his waistcoat pocket, he took out two other bullets, and laid them beside the first. Slowly he nodded, and extended the sinister exhibits to Markham.
The Philo Vance Megapack Page 63