Deputy Hollister went outside to keep an eye on any comings and goings. Lieutenant King and Patrick and I were alone in the parlor. King didn’t want me present. But I didn’t go out on his suggestion that he wanted a word alone with Pat. Feeling guilty for smoking in the prim parlor, I lit a cigarette and stayed where I was. King took out a briar pipe and tamped tobacco into the bowl and lit it. He gave me a couple of meaningful glances which I pretended not to see. Patrick kept prowling around the room, looking at this and that.
King said, stretching out his long legs and sitting back on his spine, “This place gives me the willies. My wife’s nuts about antiques, but I reckon this deal would be enough for her even.”
“I think the room is beautiful,” I said.
The lieutenant eyed me.
“Not me,” he stated. “Too much lace and stuff. Too many little vases and boxes. Can’t see it, myself. Feel in this room as if I ought to ask that old dame permission to breathe. Only place in the house big enough to get everybody into at one time, though.” He gave me another look and asked, “Your wife sit in on your cases, Abbott?”
“Sometimes,” Patrick said. He examined an Ormolu clock.
King shrugged his uniformed shoulders.
“Mine don’t. I tell her that enforcing the law is my business. She stays home and looks after the kids and her church work and stuff. I like it that way.”
“Darned good idea,” Patrick said, looking at the signature on the bottom of a Dresden figure.
“If that’s a hint I don’t intend to take it,” I said stiffly. “Of course you can order me out, but I hope you don’t. I’m not exactly comfortable with these people myself.”
I’d struck a sympathetic note.
“My God, who could be?” King asked. “Some bunch.” He drew on his pipe. Patrick was examining the Sèvres vases on the white marble mantel. “The way I see it,” King said, in a confidential tone, “the Doc is stuck on Jane Mallory.”
“I don’t agree,” I said.
“You might be right, King,” Patrick said, as if I hadn’t spoken. “As you know, I’m here because the Doc is an old friend. He’s worried about Jane. Thinks she wouldn’t do murder.”
“What do you think, Abbott?”
“I don’t know what I think yet. I believe that anybody will do murder if goaded enough. There’s plenty of goading going on here, if this evening is any sample. Evening?” He checked the time. It was still evening, an hour before midnight. “Too bad you’re short-handed, Lieutenant. This is a large order for you and one deputy sheriff.”
“All I hope to do is hold the fort till the sheriff gets back. I’m not sticking my neck out too far, either. If I can swing it to get a confession or have evidence enough to make an arrest, okay, but I’m due for a promotion and if I mess this thing up I’m sunk.” He inhaled, profoundly. “So you agree that the Doc is stuck on Jane Mallory? Okay, how do we know that Godwin didn’t know about the money Mallory was leaving him? Easiest thing in the world for a doctor to do away with a patient. Maybe he figures to marry Jane as soon as the smoke blows over. Good deal.”
Patrick seemed impressed.
“Seth certainly had the means and the opportunity. And even if he was not in love with Jane Mallory, there’s that twenty-five grand. Would put him out of the red.”
I was angry because of Pat’s disloyalty.
“Seth would never do such a thing,” I said.
King eyed me with more than impatience. Patrick said, “As I said, you never know what a person will do if tempted enough. Seth Godwin admires Jane Mallory very much. I do know that. She nursed her husband when she lived here for a year. Seth was the doctor, of course, and between nurse and doctor there isn’t much they don’t know about a patient. He may have told Seth about the bequest. Patients almost always confide in their doctor.”
“Sure. Have you ever noticed how many doctors do murder? Read the police reports. More murderers among doctors than any other special class, I guess, except maybe mobsters and hoods. And pretty often doctors use poison for murder. Why not? They have access to anything, any drugs or poisons. No questions even asked. Bears thinking, Abbott.”
I said, hotly, “I object to this talk. Seth is wonderful. Seth is one of the people my husband has known longest and for whom he has the highest regard.”
Patrick said, “Wouldn’t be the first time I got fooled, Jeanie. You know that.”
“Everybody makes mistakes,” King said, nobly.
I was furious. It was a tossup which was the smugger.
“Look, Lieutenant King, Dr. Godwin was in the Marines with my husband. Same outfit. He was endlessly brave, risked his life over and over again for his men.”
The uniformed shoulders rose and fell.
“People behave a lot different at home than they did in the war, ma’am. A lot of men are heroes in war and heels back home. Many a good man has been tempted by money. Twenty-five grand. And two million dollars? Jeeps.” His eyes shone. “That Jane Mallory is a nice dish, Abbott. I could almost go for her, even without the two million dollars.”
“What man couldn’t?” my husband said.
“She’s too brainy, but she’s a dream. I like the way she stands up to that old Mallory dame. Whew! Do you actually believe she’d go to jail rather than spend a little time in this house?”
“Why not try her out, King?”
King thought it over.
“Huh-uh. I could take her in for questioning all right. The local jail’s okay even though it’s not the Waldorf-Astoria exactly. But suppose it was the wrong move? She’s got brains. That’s her real trouble, Abbott.”
“Shouldn’t wonder,” Patrick agreed.
“That other one now. Denise Fluffy-ruffles. She’s a pain in the neck, the way she traipses in and out of this place. But she’s honestly more my type. I don’t like a woman who thinks too much.”
“You’d have no trouble with Denise Clarke on that score,” I said.
King squirmed. “A woman oughtn’t think she knows more than a man, ma’am.”
“Well, look out for brainless females, Lieutenant. They can be sure enough deadly.” I wanted to add an impudent “suh” but thought I’d better not. I supposed that Pat only wanted to find out what King really thought about these people, so I had better not irritate him too much.
King said, “Miss Clarke would have no reason to murder Mallory.”
I said—I couldn’t help it, “Well, she wanted to marry him. He didn’t want her. That’s reason enough.”
“You mean, he gave her the gate? A girl like her?” King looked incredulous. He said then, “What about those pennants and pins and things he left her in that will? Were they valuable?”
I said, “They were Dick Mallory’s way of telling his mother for the last time how he rated Denise’s intellect.”
King frowned.
“What, ma’am?”
Patrick took it.
“You heard them say that Mallory had a wicked sense of humor, Lieutenant. I’d call it malice, and how! That whole will was his way of striking back at his mother. He left money to the people she’s been able to dictate to by keeping them poor and dependent on her. He left Denise those knickknacks because it made her seem silly. That would hurt Sarah Mallory who loves Denise. He left Bart Wayne five thousand to pay off the mortgage on the old Wayne property, not because he liked Wayne but because, his mother was crazy for Bart Wayne’s house and now she’ll never be able to get it. Without the mortgage on his back Bart Wayne will have no trouble hanging on to it.”
That was the story, of course. Simplicity itself.
King said, “Well, maybe. By the way, I kind of thought the Clarke babe is sweet on this Bart Wayne. If she’s got dough, too, as you say, what’s stopping him? Jeeps, but she’s a pretty thing!”
“She sure is,” Patrick said. He was now draping the mantel, a stance he’s fond of.
“Nuts,” I said. “Men are silly. The Denise Clarke kind can have any man they want. In her case, several. Which is exactly what is wrong with the American I.Q.”
King let it pass and said, “I still say she’d have no motive. The two with motive are Jane Mallory and Doc Godwin. I was damn sure Jane had murdered her husband, and she alone, till that blasted will was read. Now, I don’t know.”
“Neither do I,” Patrick said.
“Then why did you take her on as a client?” I asked.
“Because she asked me, dear,” Patrick said, innocuously.
King said, “But I thought you were here because the Doc asked you to come here? I mean, I didn’t get it quite until the will was read and learned that Doc Godwin comes into a nice fat hunk of dough.” He eyed Pat suspiciously. “Just where do you stand, Abbott? What do you expect to get out of this deal?”
“Nothing.”
“That don’t make sense.”
“It certainly doesn’t,” I said.
“Well, at least you can walk out when you want to,” King said. “I’m stuck with it. If I fall flat on my face I’m out on my ear, come next election. People like these Mallorys are powerful in this state. In any state.” He shrugged mournfully. “Well, this isn’t getting anywhere. I’ve got some doubts about that old guy, too, the little coot who collects spiders. What do you make of him, Abbott?”
“I think Uncle Victor is a very lively suspect. Also the daughter, Amelia, had motive enough, and Mrs. Rollo, the house-keeper-cook, knew about the will. She may have known about the three hundred a month for life.”
“She’s got a face like flint, that Rollo woman,” King said. “We can’t prove that she knew what was in the will, maybe, but we might try putting the heat on that tall babe, Amelia. That might make the Rollo woman sing. What’s wrong with that Amelia?”
“You’ll have to ask the doctor,” Patrick said. “By the way, she went to Uncle Victor’s cabin tonight and took something away and hid it, and …”
King glared.
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“First chance I’ve had.”
“When did this happen?”
I said, “When you sent me upstairs to tell Amelia to come down, she wasn’t there. There’s a big screened back porch …”
“I’m familiar with the house, ma’am. First thing I did was to go over the premises from a to z. Will search the grounds tomorrow hoping to find out what Jane Mallory destroyed, but can’t do much of that before daylight. Go on. What happened?”
“Amelia wasn’t in her room. I went out on the porch and saw her come out of the cabin carrying something. The lights were on in the cabin …”
“Police orders,” King said. “Go on.”
“She went behind the cabin and I went just beyond the lilac hedge and I might have learned something if I hadn’t got pushed. I fell down, then somebody pulled me up and clapped a hand over my mouth. It was Mrs. Rollo.”
“What the hell, ma’am?”
“She hovers over Amelia, as you said. Amelia had gone out and she saw me following her and came after me. She declares I stumbled and fell, but I was pushed.”
“You mean, she didn’t want you to find out what Amelia was up to?”
“I guess so. What else?”
“Did you ever find out anything more?”
Patrick said, “We went to the cabin before the reading of the will. Uncle Victor kept cyanide in the bottom drawer of a steel file in his bedroom. I searched behind the cabin and found a glass jar, a largish one, half-filled with solidified cyanide. It’s locked in the trunk of our car. By the way, did Mallory die of potassium or sodium cyanide?”
“Haven’t heard,” King said. “The analysts take their time. Anything else?”
Patrick produced the bit of powder-blue wool which he had found on one of the lilac bushes.
“This may interest you, Lieutenant.”
He laid it on the table in front of King and stood back against the mantel. There was a swish of skirts and the flat voice of Miss Mildred James, the nurse, preceded her.
“Listen,” she said. “I want to talk to you, Officer. I know a lot more than I’ve told. I mean there’s such a thing as ethics, but …”
“I said we’d have a private talk later, Miss James.”
“I know. But, listen, I’m the only one who saw her destroying something, and that’s not all. That capsule I put out for my patient this afternoon was the last—well, a good nurse doesn’t inform on her …”
Seth Godwin tapped on the open door. Miss James gave him a nervous glance. She licked her lips and her colorless eyes slid back to Lieutenant King.
King said, “Go to the kitchen, Miss. I’ll join you there in a few minutes.”
“All right.” She stood where she was, uncertain.
“You want to see me, Doc?” King asked Seth Godwin.
Miss James moved back and then hovered in the doorway. Seth said, “I came to tell you that I’m likely to be called away. Baby case.”
“Yeah?”
Miss James still hovered. King said, “Join you in no time flat, Miss. Please go. Thank you.”
Miss James made signs toward the doctor’s back, wagging a finger, waggling her head, and Lieutenant King’s eyes narrowed, sharpened. He nodded back at the nurse and then said, politely, “I’ll be out in a jiffy, Miss James. Go now, please. Thank you. By the way, say nothing about this to anybody else, please.”
“I won’t,” she said. She went out.
“What is it, Doc?” King said to Seth. His jaw was set. I felt uneasy. I glanced at Patrick, who was looking at some objet d’art in a glass-topped cabinet.
Seth said, “I came to tell you that I may be called away at any minute, Lieutenant.”
“How come?” King asked, brusquely.
Seth didn’t like King’s tone. He took a long step and stood not far from the rose-carved table. King evidently sensed trouble. He stood up.
“Baby case,” Seth said.
“Oh yeah?”
Patrick had returned to the mantel. He surveyed the scene with an eyebrow up.
“What’s the idea?” Seth rasped. “I happen to be a doctor. We do take baby cases. Or maybe you wouldn’t know that.”
King straightened up. His lips thinned with his sneer.
“Very handy, eh, Doc?”
“Handy?” Seth’s red hair seemed to flame. “What the hell do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. Twenty-five grand. Pretty nice. And if you add it to two million dollars … and that nifty Jane dish—”
“You lowdown son of a bitch!”
Seth rose and flew. His right fist caught King in the left jaw. King staggered backward. His chair over-turned. Seth shoved the table aside and went after him. King caught himself by grasping a brocade curtain. The curtain pole crashed with a jingling of big brass rings as Seth struck again. King fell.
I had popped up. I ran to Patrick, who calmly put one arm around me and stayed where he was.
King was trying to get at his police special. As he grasped it Seth latched onto his wrist, twisting it until the gun fell on the rose-strewn Victorian carpet. Seth kicked it away, but this action lost him his grip on King, who jerked around and landed a haymaker in the doctor’s eye which sent him backwards halfway across the room. He landed against a curio cabinet. Glass broke. King was on him now, hitting expertly, hitting him hard wherever he could.
“He’ll kill Seth,” I gasped. “Do something, Pat.”
Patrick squeezed my shoulder.
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Wait.”
Just then Seth grabbed one of the lieutenant’s ankles, tripped him up, swarmed over him, and got him face down on the floor, grasped his neck and began bouncing his head against the carpet.
“Police!” Sarah Mallory boomed from the door. “Get the police! Oh, my things! My beautiful things!” She shouted at Patrick. “Do something!”
Patrick ignored her. This was the first time that Sarah Mallory had directly acknowledged our existence. So Patrick pretended to be elsewhere. I gave her a frightened look. She was terrified, helpless. The two men were breathing hard, rolling over and over, and another cabinet, a whatnot, loomed in their path.
“Barton!” Sarah screamed.
Bart appeared at once. He told Sarah Mallory to go to her room, and she went, unable to watch such wanton destruction. He came on into the parlor just as the doctor got the policeman under complete control and though very battered was sitting firmly on the prostrate uniform.
“Good work, Seth,” Patrick said.
“I’ll get you too,” King hissed from the floor. “You are all under arrest.” The statement was muffled since King’s mouth was pressed against the carpet.
Bart Wayne said, “My God, Seth! You’ve assaulted an officer of the law.”
“I’ve licked the tar out of an s.o.b.,” Seth said. One of his eyes was already closing. In a little while it would be black and blue. His lips were bleeding. His red hair was tousled and one sleeve had parted company with the back of his jacket. The room was in disorder and I shivered to think of the treasures which might have been shattered. I looked up at Patrick. He was grinning.
“Can see that that combat training in the Marines still comes in handy, Seth. Nice going.”
“You’re under arrest, Abbott,” King mumbled. “You could have helped me. It was your duty.”
“Hate to spoil a pretty fight, Lieutenant.”
“I’m on duty. Godwin will go to jail for this. Get that deputy, Wayne.”
Bart Wayne said, “Look, you two had better get together and shake hands and call it quits. Everybody is nervous and upset so this thing just happened, I guess. But you’ve got to fix things up. You’re both needed.”
Jane Mallory came in. She surveyed the scene with level eyes. They rested on Seth with surprise and a glint of humor. Her lips twitched. I thought she was going to laugh out loud.
“You’d all better get up and put this room in order,” she said then. “Mrs. Mallory is frantic.”
“Good idea,” Patrick said.
“You’re under arrest,” King grunted. Seth still held him down.
“Let’s put the place in shape first, as Jane suggested,” Patrick said.
A scream came from the kitchen end of the house.
“Doctor!” It was Mrs. Rollo screaming. “Doctor! come quick! Come. Oh come here quick!”
Without a moment’s wait Seth was on his feet. He shot out of the room. We all ran after him, except King, who needed a little time to right himself, comb his hair, and collect his gun. His high-boned face was fierce with outraged determination when he joined us in the kitchen. The nurse lay dead. On the table above her stood the remains of a dish of burnt almond sponge.