The Colonel looked at the chess board and shook his head.
“No,” he said. “There is nothing for us to investigate. Her death was an unfortunate accident.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” I said. “Somebody killed her, and the police aren’t going to do anything.”
“We could request a copy of the coroner’s report, I suppose.”
“How long will that take?” I said.
“Provided there’s even an autopsy, a month, maybe three, and it will only confirm what we already know. A kind, sweet young woman, and we will all miss her. She made a tragic mistake.”
He moved his bishop. “Check,” he said.
“Three months?” I said. “We can’t wait three months. By that time all the evidence will be gone.”
“Willy, you must accept the facts: Her door was securely locked from the inside, as was her window. There is only one window and one door in her room. The hotel has no air conditioning system. The rooms are heated by hot water radiators, so there are no heating ducts. The walls and ceilings are plastered and lathed. The floor in Nancy’s room is, I believe, covered with one uninterrupted sheet of linoleum. Are you sure you want to make that move?”
I took back the move and made another. “What about the statue?” I said.
“You told me yourself that you caught only a glimpse into the room,” he said. “You didn’t not see the statue. Most likely it is still on her bureau. The preponderance of evidence clearly indicates accidental death, or perhaps suicide. In any event, her room is locked. Check.”
“How do you know her room is locked?”
“I merely assumed it was.”
“You always say ‘don’t assume.’ You tried getting into her room, didn’t you? Check.”
“You also attempted access, did you not?”
“How do you figure we could get in?”
“We’re not going in, Willy. Of course, no fortress is impregnable. That is, you can break into or out of anything, as you know from your own experience. Nothing is impossible. During the Trojan War …”
“I know all about it,” I said. “Nothing is impossible; you said so. Somebody could have gotten in and out of her room and left it locked.”
“Uhm. There might be some means or method—that’s checkmate, by the way. I’m quite sure that she was not murdered. Let the police handle this.”
“The police aren’t going to do anything! Do you remember how just before we knew she had died, I was standing in the hall outside her door, and you stuck your head out from your room and said you had something to show me? You looked up and down the hallway. What did you see?”
“I saw you standing outside Nancy’s door,” he said.
“Was anybody else in the hallway?”
“No, Willy; you were the only one in the hallway.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am positive of it.”
“I was holding something. What was I holding?”
“Oh yes, now I remember. You were holding Mr. Winkley. But there was nobody else in the hallway.”
“Isn’t Mr. Winkley somebody? But you were sure there was nobody else.”
“Oh posh. I could hardly be expected to consider Mr. Winkley as ‘somebody,’ though I suppose he is. Have you been able to determine how he got out into the hallway? Why wasn’t he in Nancy’s room?”
“I’m thinking he got out the same way the killer did. He saw the whole thing and he knows.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“That’s the one thing I can’t tell the police, because if I did, then Elsie would find out about Mr. Winkley and he’d have to go back to living in the street. Besides, the police don’t care about that. They didn’t even pay any attention when I told them about the statue, except to try and blame me. They’re not going to talk to a cat.”
“The police are not against us, Willy. They will investigate upon determination of sufficient reason. However, since Mr. Winkley cannot testify as to his observations, I see no reason to involve him without his consent in an action that would likely result in his eviction from the premises. There must be some explanation for his presence in the hallway.”
“There is,” I said. “We just have to find it.”
“You said you saw the deadbolt and chain lock?”
“They were locked, but ripped off the door frame when the police broke the door in.”
“How about the window?”
“It was closed when I ran up the fire escape and saw her through the window. I tried to open it. I looked and saw it was latched from the inside. That was just before you got there.”
“In that case,” he said, “there is no way by which we may attain access to her room.”
“That’s right,” I said. “There’s no way. I thought you might be able to think of a way, but I see now that you can’t.”
“Not so fast, Willy. Let me think. Hmm.” The Colonel was thinking, and he rubbed his chin.
“A diversionary maneuver,” he said.