I INSTRUCT MR. MERRITT.
While these things had been happening in the country, my Sunday in town
had been almost equally eventful.
I had not been surprised on receiving Fred's telegram the evening before
to find that the name it contained was that of the young artist. Had he
not already told me that Greywood was supposed to have been the favoured
suitor? And, knowing May Derwent as I did, I had felt sure from the very
first that she must have entertained the liveliest feelings of trust and
liking--to say the least--for the man whom she permitted to visit her on
that Tuesday evening. That the cur had not known enough to respect the
privilege filled me with mingled feelings of rage and delight. Had he
not offended my divinity there would have been no chance for me, and yet
that he had dared to do so made me long to punish him.
But to do this I must first find him. His name did not appear either in
the Social Register or the Directory, but I thought that by visiting the
various studio buildings dotted over the city I should eventually find
the one in which he lived.
So I got up bright and early the following morning, determined to begin
my search at once. As I sat down to my breakfast with a hopeful heart
and an excellent appetite, I little thought what a bomb-shell was
contained in the papers lying so innocently beside my plate.
I had hardly read the terrible news before I was out of the house and
on my way to Merritt's. Luckily, I found the detective at home, calmly
eating his breakfast. He showed no signs of surprise at my early
appearance, and invited me to share his meal with simple courtesy. As
I had hurried off without stopping to eat anything, I thought that I
had better do so, although I grudged the time spent in such a trifling
pursuit, while so much hung in the balance and every minute might be
precious.
"Well, Mr. Merritt," I exclaimed, "what is this fairytale about
Greywood? I see from the papers that your people do not put much faith
in the identification."
"We do, and we don't," he answered, "but it is not proved yet, and,
while there is still some doubt about it, I thought it as well for the
gentlemen of the press to be kept guessing a little longer."
"But what do _you_ think? Surely, you do not believe the murdered man to
be Greywood?" I urged.
"Doctor, I'm afraid I do."
"You do?" I cried.
"Yes."
"But when I saw you, on Friday, you were equally sure of Miss Derwent's
innocence."
"Ah! that was Friday! Besides, I have not said that I believe the young
lady guilty; I merely say that I believe Maurice Greywood, and not Allan
Brown, to be the name of the victim."
"But, then, you must think that she killed him," I insisted.
"Not necessarily. Have you never thought of the possibility that Allan
Derwent (for we will assume that he was the man whom you saw in her
apartment) might be the murderer?"
"No," I confessed, "that had not occurred to me."
"But it ought to have, for of all the theories we have as yet
entertained, this one is by far the most probable. You see," he
continued, "you allow your judgment to be warped by your unwillingness
to associate the young lady, even indirectly, with a crime."
"Perhaps so," I acknowledged.
"Now, I must tell you that, however innocent Miss Derwent may eventually
prove to be, since my last talk with you I have become convinced that
the murder was committed in her parlour, and nowhere else." Mr. Merritt
spoke very earnestly, leaning across the table to watch the effect on me
of what he was saying.
"Ah," I exclaimed angrily, "then you deceived me----"
"Gently, gently, young man; I don't deceive anybody. I told you that I
wished the young lady well; so I do--that I believed in her innocence;
I still do so. I said that the information I had received from you
materially helped her case, which it most assuredly did. Had you
withheld certain facts it would have been my duty--my painful duty, I
acknowledge--to have arrested Miss Derwent last Saturday."
"But why?" I inquired.
"Because all the evidence pointed towards her, and because my belief in
her innocence rested on no more solid foundation than what is called
intuition, and intuition is a quicksand to build upon."
"But what was there to point to her except that a negro boy thought that
the dead man resembled Greywood?"
"Ah, you acknowledge that her visitor was Mr. Greywood?"
"Yes, I grant you that, but what of it? I am convinced he has not been
murdered."
"But why?" demanded the detective. "Now, listen to this. The body is
identified by two people as Greywood's. Greywood disappears at about
the same time that the crime was committed. We know that the corpse must
have been hidden somewhere in the Rosemere for twenty-four hours. Where
could it have been more easily secreted than in the Derwents' apartment,
into which no outsider or servant entered? And lastly, it would have
required two people to carry, even for a short distance, a body of its
size and weight; but as the young lady was not alone, but had with her
the man and woman whom you saw, this difficulty is also disposed of.
From all this, I conclude that the Derwents' flat was the scene of the
tragedy."
"But why should Greywood have been killed?" I asked. "What possible
motive could there have been?"
"Oh, it is easy enough to imagine motives, although I do not guarantee
having hit on the right one. But what do you think of this for a guess?
Miss Derwent, who knows that her brother may any day be in need of a
hiding-place, has given him the key to their back door. Coming to town,
she meets Greywood, dines with him, and invites him to spend the evening
with her (having some reason for supposing that her brother is safely
out of the way). During this visit they have a violent quarrel, and, in
the midst of it, young Derwent, who has come in through the kitchen,
suddenly appears. Let us also presume that he is intoxicated. He
discovers his sister alone with a man, who is unknown to him, and with
whom she is engaged in a bitter dispute. The instinct to protect her
rises within him. His eyes fall on a weapon, lying, let us suppose,
on the parlour table. He seizes it, and in his drunken rage, staggers
across the room and plunges it into Greywood's heart. What girl could be
placed in a more terrible position? She is naturally forced to shield
her brother. So she hits on a plan for diverting suspicion from him,
which would have been successful, if Fate had not intervened in the most
extraordinary way. You remember, that it came out that on Wednesday she
went in and out of the building very frequently. During one of these
many comings and goings, she manages to extract the key of the vacant
apartment, to have it copied, and to return it without its absence being
noticed. They then wait till the early hours of the morning before
venturing to move the body, which they carry to the place where it was
found. Unfortunately for them, they locked the dead man in, and in this
way rendered their detection much more easy. For it limited the number
of suspected persons to three--to the three people, in fact, who
could have had the key in their possession, even for a short time.
On returning to their own rooms, they discover that they have lost
something of great importance. The young man searches for it long and
vigorously. He does not find it----"
"How do you know he didn't find it?" I interrupted.
"Because _I_ found it," asserted the detective triumphantly.
"Indeed! And what was it?"
"The handle--or, to be more accurate, the head--of the fatal weapon."
"Really!" I exclaimed; "you found it? Where?"
"It had fallen in between the dead man's trousers and the folds of his
shirt."
"It must be pretty small, then."
"It is. Look at it," and he laid on the table a jewelled dagger-hilt
about an inch and a half long.
"That!" I exclaimed contemptuously; "why, that is nothing but a toy."
"Not a toy," replied Mr. Merritt, "but an ornament. A useful ornament;
for it is the head of one of those jewelled hat-pins that have been so
fashionable of late. A dagger with the hilt encrusted with precious
stones is quite a common design."
"Did you find the pin itself?" I asked.
"No, I did not," the detective answered regretfully.
"How do you account for the handle being where you found it?"
"I think that in all probability the pin was removed from the body
immediately after it had done its work, and in doing so the head was
wrenched off. During the excitement which followed no one noticed where
it fell, and its loss was not discovered till the victim had been
disposed of. Young Derwent evidently expected the place to be searched,
which accounts for the care with which he tried to remove all traces of
his presence, and his extreme anxiety to find this, which, he feared, if
discovered on the premises, might prove a sure clue. Now, that theory
hangs together pretty well, don't it?" wound up the detective.
Without answering him, I inquired: "And what do you mean to do now?"
"I'm afraid I shall have to arrest Miss Derwent, as we can find no trace
of her two companions. By the way, it is as you supposed;--the man you
saw leaving the building was no tradesman, so he is probably the person
we want. I have, therefore, given his description to the police, and
hope soon to have some news of him."
"So, Mr. Merritt, you would really arrest a girl on such flimsy
evidence, and for a crime you do not believe her to have committed?" I
inquired indignantly.
"As for the evidence, I think it is fairly complete," answered the
detective, "and I would not arrest Miss Derwent if I were not convinced
that she is implicated in this affair, and think that this is the surest
way of getting hold of the precious couple. I can't allow a criminal to
slip through my fingers for sentimental reasons, and every hour's delay
renders their escape more possible. The girl may be innocent,--I believe
she is; but that one of that trio is guilty I am perfectly sure."
"Are you, really?" I exclaimed. "Well, I am not, and, if you will listen
to me for a few minutes, I think I can easily prove to you that you are
wrong. For since Friday I, too, have thought of a new and interesting
point in connection with this case." The detective looked indulgently at
me.
"You seem to forget," I continued, "and of this fact I am quite certain,
that the victim met his death while wholly or partly unconscious."
Merritt gave a slight start, and his face fell.
"The autopsy must have been made by this time. Did not the doctor find
traces of alcohol or a drug?" I demanded.
"Yes," admitted the detective, "alcohol was found in large quantities."
"Now, Greywood had been dining quietly with a lady, and it is
inconceivable that he could have been drunk, or that, being in that
condition, she should not have noticed it, which she could not have
done--otherwise she would certainly not have allowed him to go up-stairs
with her."
"That is a good point," said the detective.
"Besides, the corpse bears every indication of prolonged dissipation.
Now, no one has hinted that Greywood drank."
"No, but he may have done so, for all that," said Mr. Merritt.
"He could not have done so to the extent of leaving such traces after
death without its being widely known," I asserted. "The dead man must
have been an habitual drunkard, remember, and that the young artist
certainly was not. No, if you persist in believing the murdered man
to be Greywood, you must also believe that Miss Derwent lured him to
her rooms, while he was so intoxicated as to be almost, if not quite
helpless, and there, either killed him herself or allowed her brother to
kill him. In the latter case, do you not think a lady's hat-pin rather a
feeble weapon for a young desperado to select? And that that description
can be applied to Allan Derwent, everything I have heard of him tends to
show.
"On the other hand, let us consider for a moment the probability of the
body being Allan Brown's. What do we find? When last seen he was already
noticeably intoxicated, and what is there more likely than that the
daughter of a saloon-keeper should have no scruples about offering him
the means of becoming still more so? And please notice another thing.
You told me yourself that Mrs. Atkins had spent the greater part of her
life among a very fast lot--so that it is perfectly natural to find a
man of the deceased's habits among her familiar associates. But what
is more unlikely than that a girl brought up as Miss Derwent has been
should go so much out of her way as to choose such a man for her friend?
And then, again, remember how the two women behaved when confronted with
the corpse.
"Miss Derwent walked calmly in and deliberately lifted her heavy veil,
which could easily have hidden from us whatever emotions she may have
felt. Lifts it, I say, before looking at the body. Does that look like
guilt? And what does Mrs. Atkins do? She shows the greatest horror and
agitation. Now, mind you, I do not infer from this that she killed the
man, but I do say that it proves that the man was no stranger to her.
And now I come to the hat-pin. You assume, because you find a certain
thing, and I saw a search carried on, that the man was looking for the
object you found. What reason have you for believing this, except that
it fits in very prettily with your theory of the crime? None. You cannot
trace the possession of such an ornament to Miss Derwent, can you?" The
detective shook his head. "Ah! I thought not. And even if you did, what
would it prove? You say yourself that the design is not an uncommon
one."
"No, but it certainly would be considered a very remarkable coincidence,
and one that would tell heavily against her," the detective replied.
"Yes, I suppose so; but we needn't cross that bridge till we come to it.
As yet, you know nothing as to the ownership of the pin. But I want to
call your attention to another point. If two people have identified the
body as the young artist, so have two others recognised it as that of
Allan Brown, and I assert that the two former are not as worthy of
credence as the two latter."
"How so," inquired Mr. Merritt.
"In the first place, Jim was much less positive as to the supposed
identity of the deceased than Joe was. You admit that; consequently, I
consider Joe's word in this case better than Jim's, and Mrs. Atkins is
certainly a more reliable witness than Mrs. Mulroy, an Irish charwoman,
with all her national love of a sensational story."
"That is all very fine," said Mr. Merritt, "but Mrs. Atkins emphatically
denied knowing the deceased."
"In words, yes; but don't you think this is one of the cases where
actions speak louder than words? By the way, I gather from your still
being willing to discuss the corpse's identity that you have not been
able to trace this mysterious Brown?"
"You are right. The only thing we have found out is, that the berth on
the Boston train which was bought in his name was never occupied."
"And yet, in the face of all this, you still think of arresting Miss
Derwent; of blighting a girl's life in such a wanton manner?"
"Doctor, you're right; I may have been hasty. Mrs. Greywood, the young
man's mother, arrives to-morrow, and her testimony will be decisive.
Should the body not be that of her son (and you have almost convinced me
that it is not), then Miss Derwent's affairs are of no further interest
to me, and who she may, or may not, entertain in her apartment it is not
my business to inquire."
After a little more desultory talk, I left him to his morning paper.
I was now more than ever determined to do a little work in his line
myself, and felt quite sure that talent of a superior order lay dormant
within me. Only the great difficulty was to know where to begin. I must
get nearer the scene of the tragedy, I concluded; I must cultivate
McGorry and be able to prowl around the Rosemere undisturbed. What a
triumph if I should discover the missing hat, for instance!
All this time I was sauntering idly up-town, and as I did so I fell in
with a stream of people coming from the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
Walking among them, I noticed a woman coming rapidly towards me, who
smiled at me encouragingly, even from quite a distance. Her face seemed
strangely familiar, although I was unable to place her. Where had I seen
those flashing black eyes before? Ah! I had it,--Mme. Argot. She was
alone, and as she came nearer I saw she not only recognised me, but that
she was intending to stop and speak to me. I was considerably surprised,
but slowed down also, and we were just opposite to each other when her
husband suddenly stepped to her side. A moment before I could have sworn
he was not in sight. It was quite uncanny. His wife started and glanced
fearfully at him, then tossing her head defiantly she swept past me with
a beaming bow. He took off his hat most respectfully, and his long
sallow face remained as expressionless as a mask. But I was sure that
his piercing black eyes looked at me with secret hostility. The whole
incident only occupied a minute, but it left a deep impression upon me,
and started me off on an entirely new train of thought. What had the
detective said? The guilty person must have been able to procure, for
some time, however short, the key to the vacant apartment. We only knew
of three people who were in a position to have done this. Miss Derwent,
the French butler--well, why not the French butler? Those eyes looked
capable of anything. I was sure that his wife was afraid of him, for I
was certain that she had meant to stop and speak to me, and had been
prevented from doing so by his sudden appearance. But what could she
have wished to say to me? And why that gleam of hatred in her husband's
eye? I felt myself so innocent towards them both. In fact, I had not
even thought of them since the eventful Thursday, and might easily have
passed her by unnoticed if she had not been so eager to attract my
attention. Well, it would be queer if I had tumbled on the solution of
the Rosemere mystery!
As I was now almost opposite my club, I decided to drop in there before
going in search of McGorry. There were hardly any people about, and when
I entered the reading-room I found that it contained but one other
person besides myself. The man was very intent upon his paper, but as I
approached he raised his head, and I at once recognised Mr. Stuart. The
very person, of all others, I most wanted to see. Fate was certainly in
a kindly mood to-day, and I determined it should not be my fault if I
did not make the most of the opportunity thus unexpectedly afforded
me. So when I caught his eye I bowed, and walked boldly up to him. He
answered my salutation politely, but coldly, and appeared anxious to
return to his reading; but I was too full of my purpose to be put off by
anything. I said: "Mr. Stuart, you have quite forgotten me, which is not
at all surprising, as I only met you once before, and that time was not
introduced to you."
He smiled distantly, and looked inquiringly at me through his single
eye-glass.
"It was last Thursday at the Rosemere," I explained.
He appeared startled. I think the idea of my being a detective suggested
itself to him, so I continued, reassuringly:
"My name is Fortescue, and I am a doctor. My office is _vis-à-vis_ to
your building, so, probably on account of my proximity, I was called in
to see the victim, and have naturally become much interested in this
very mysterious affair."
"Indeed!" he remarked.
This was not encouraging, but I persisted.
"A very remarkable case, isn't it?" I said, trying to appear at ease.
"A most unpleasant business," he replied curtly.
My obstinacy was now aroused, so I drew a chair up and sat down.
"Mr. Stuart, I hope you won't think me very impertinent if I ask you
whether you have any reason to be dissatisfied with your two servants?"
He now looked thoroughly alarmed.
"No; why do you ask?"
"You probably know that the identity of the dead man has never been
established?" I continued.
"On the contrary," interrupted Mr. Stuart, "I am just reading an account
of how it has been ascertained that the body is that of a man called
Greywood."
"Oh," I replied airily, "that is only a bit of yellow journalism. If you
read to the end, you will find that they admit that the police place no
credence in their story. I have just been talking to Mr. Merritt about
it----"
"Merritt, the detective, you mean?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Well, he must be an interesting man. I should like to see him."
"Why, you have seen him," I said; "he was the short, clean-shaven man
who stood beside me, and afterwards followed you out."
"Really!" he exclaimed; "I wish I had known that; I have always taken
a great interest in the man. He has cleared up some pretty mysterious
crimes."
"I am sure he would be only too delighted to meet you. He's quite a nice
fellow, too, and terribly keen about this murder," I added, bringing the
conversation back to the point I wanted discussed.
"Yes?" said Mr. Stuart. "Of course, I am interested in it, too; but I
confess that to have a thing like that occur in a building where one
lives is really most unpleasant. I have been pestered to death by
reporters."
"Well, I assure you I am not one," I said, with a laugh; "but, all the
same, I should like to ask you a few questions."
"What are they?" he cautiously inquired.
"Do your butler and his wife get along well together?"
"Why do you want to know?" he asked, in his turn. I told him what had
just happened. He smiled.
"Oh, that doesn't mean anything. Celestin is insanely jealous of his
wife, whom he regards as the most fascinating of her sex, and has a
habit of watching her, I believe, so as to guard against a possible
lover."
"Do they quarrel much?"
"Not lately, I am glad to say. About a year ago it got so bad that I
was forced to tell them that if I heard them doing so again, I should
dismiss them both."
"Dear me, was it as bad as that?"
"Why, yes. One evening, when I came home, I heard shrieks coming from
the kitchen, and, on investigating, found Celestin busily engaged in
chastising his wife!"
"Really?"
"Yes, and the funniest thing is, that she did not seem to mind it much,
although she must have been black and blue from the beating he gave
her. It was some trouble about a cousin, I believe; but, as they
are both excellent servants, I thought it best not to inquire too
particularly into the business."
"And have they been on amicable terms since then?"
"Oh, yes. And, curiously enough, their behaviour to each other is
positively lover-like. Even in the old days, she would flirt and he
would beat her, and then they would bill and coo for a month. At least,
so I judged from the little I saw of them."
I was now anxious to be off, but he seemed to have overcome his aversion
or distrust, and detained me for some time longer, discussing the
tragedy.
When I reached the Rosemere, I found McGorry sitting in his private
office, and remarkably glad to see me. I offered him a cigar, and we
sat down to a comfortable smoke. At first, we talked of nothing but the
murder, but at last I managed to bring the conversation around to gossip
about the different people in the building. This was no easy matter,
for the fellow considered it either impolitic or disloyal to discuss
his tenants, but, luckily, when I broached the subject of the Argots,
he unbosomed himself. He assured me that they were most objectionable
people, and he couldn't see why Mr. Stuart wanted to employ Dagos, as
he called them. He told me that the woman was always having men hanging
around, and that her husband was very violent and jealous.
"But they have stopped quarrelling, I hear."
"Stopped, is it?" he exclaimed with fine scorn. "I suppose Mr. Stuart
told you that. Little he knows about it. They darsn't make a noise when
he's about. But Argot's been terrible to her lately. Why, they made such
a row that I had to go in there the other day and tell him if he didn't
shut up I'd complain to Mr. Stuart. He glared at me, but they've been
quieter since then. I guess she's a bad lot, and deserves what she gets,
or else she wouldn't stand it."
"I say, McGorry, you have seen nothing of a straw hat, have you?"
"Lord! Hasn't Mr. Merritt been bothering me to death about that hat? No,
I haven't found one."
That was all I could get out of him. Not much, but still something.
Returning to my office, I sat for a long time pondering over all I had
seen and heard that morning, and the longer I thought the more likely
did it seem that the corpse was that of some lover of Madame Argot's
whom her husband had killed in an attack of jealous frenzy. I had never
for a moment considered the possibility of the body being Greywood's,
and Merritt thought the objections to its being that of the vanished
Brown equally insurmountable. I was, therefore, forced to believe in
the presence on that fatal Tuesday of yet another man. That he had not
entered by the front door was certain; very well, then, he must have
come in by the back one. Of course, that there should have been three
people answering to the same description in the building at the time
when the murder occurred seemed an incredible conglomeration of
circumstances, but had not the detective himself suggested such a
possibility? The most serious objections to the supposition that Argot
had murdered the man were: first, the smallness of the wound, and,
secondly, the distance of the place where the body was found from
Stuart's apartment. The first difficulty I disposed of easily. Merritt
had failed to convince me that a hat-pin had caused the fellow's death,
and I thought it much more likely that the ornament found on the corpse
was a simple bauble which had nothing to do with the tragedy. Now, a
small stiletto--or, hold, I had it--a skewer! A skewer was a much more
likely weapon than a hat-pin, anyhow, besides being just the sort of a
thing a butler would find ready to his hand.
The next objection was more difficult to meet, yet it did not seem
impossible that, having killed the man, Argot should, with his wife's
connivance, have secreted him in one of the closets which his master
never opened, and then (having procured a duplicate key) have carried
the body, in the wee small hours of the morning, up the three flights of
stairs, and laid it in the empty apartment.
Thoroughly satisfied with this theory, I went off to lunch.