Green's sudden departure, following the enforced and trying separation
from Mary Sturtevant, depressed Forrester and left him with a sense of
helpless loneliness. He ate dinner that night in a morose silence that
called forth several cutting remarks from Josephine. After dinner
Forrester sought the seclusion of his room in preference to the library.
He wanted to be isolated in order to work out his problem, for Green's
words, coupled with the afternoon visit to Lucy, had aroused a
determination to end the suspense quickly and finally. He had
information that was unknown to the police--information which Green
claimed to be vital--and he wanted to decide how to use it to the best
advantage.
Green's intimation that Mary Sturtevant might not be an actual criminal
gave a different twist to the situation. To conceive of her being a
bandit queen had seemed preposterous, yet what other construction could
be placed on her actions?
But Forrester also recalled Prentice's vague reference to a new angle in
the case--a phase that had hitherto not been thought of. "Something of
world-wide significance," were his words. What connection could there be
between these local, cold-blooded murders and the rest of the world?
Unexpectedly a great light seemed to come--swift, overwhelming, terrific
in its magnitude. Forrester caught his breath.
_Red interests!_
Why not? Was not the long arm of Bolshevism reaching out everywhere in
an effort to destroy nations and bring about a new order of things;
could not some master mind have devised, with grim humor, a plan to make
so-called Capitalism pay the cost of its own destruction? Forrester's
head swam with these thoughts. He saw now that the savage reprisals for
refusal to pay could not possibly be the work of ordinary men. Not even
the most desperate criminal would take the risk of so arousing public
wrath. On the other hand, would not the wholesale fear aroused among
wealthy men by this method be part of Red propaganda?
How many perplexing things seemed to assume a new and easily explained
meaning. "Friend of the POOR"--an appropriate title seen from the
viewpoint of Red schemers. Lucy, a woman close to the soil, her color a
bar to progress, despite her education, would be an easy convert.
Forrester was sure the mystery embraced her at some point, yet Green had
said she could not resist the temptation of displaying her prosperity.
But working fanatically for what she believed a great cause, would
explain it. It was possible that she was the one who collected the money
and passed it on.
And Mary Sturtevant's part became less blameworthy. Many women of her
class had dabbled in amateur Bolshevism. In her case she had, perhaps,
gone a little too far, and the Red tentacles were reaching out and
seeking to draw her closer. Probably she was making a brave struggle to
free herself and hoping at any moment to win.
But at what point could he begin his attack in the light of this new
development? There must be something more tangible than theories and
fanciful ideas to lay before the police. The responsibility must be laid
upon some one, with facts to back up the accusation. Forrester thought
of Humphrey and his triangulation theory. It seemed as whimsical as
tossing a coin, but Forrester decided to try.
Taking a pad and pencil he first placed a small circle for the oak tree.
His recent speculative conclusions led him to draw a small square for
Lucy's cottage in its approximate position near the tree. Obviously,
Mary Sturtevant was the next most prominent figure in the case, and with
a mental measurement of the probable location of the house she occupied,
he drew another square. The connecting of these three points with lines
astounded Forrester. He saw that he had an obtuse-angled triangle, _with
Lucy occupying the controlling point_.
However, there must be one or more additional triangles that would
overlap, for Humphrey, in explaining his theory, had said: "At some
point the lines will _cross_."
Forrester mused over this for a time. He could not decide on other
points which would be near enough to these to form an overlapping
triangle. He tried several ideas without result. His own home was too
far away. But how about other victims? Suddenly it came to him. The
first and last victims, so far as he knew, were Prentice and Melville,
and the homes of these were reasonably near. So Forrester placed a
square for each of these men's homes on his sketch. That still left a
third point for his triangle. He finally decided to use the tree again
for this point. The lines did not cross, at least in the way he imagined
Humphrey had in mind, but they did serve to increase the size of his
original triangle and bring it to a perfect form of the isosceles
triangle. It was significant, moreover, that the line from Prentice, the
_first_ victim, led directly through Lucy's cottage to the tree, and he
noted with a start that the line from the Melville home, where the girl
had been deeply involved, led through Mary Sturtevant's house.
This is the rough sketch as Forrester completed it:
The way to a solution unquestionably led through Lucy and Mary
Sturtevant, if there were anything at all to Humphrey's idea. Green
pointed at the girl. Forrester's inclinations led him to the negress,
and the odd working out of the triangle theory seemed to confirm him in
his impressions. Forrester decided to investigate Lucy at once. His
reference to the police had amused instead of angered her. She had
pithily expressed her disdain of them. Was it not possible that these
feelings arose from a sense of victory? In searching her house, the
police had failed to find something that she knew was there! Whatever it
was, Forrester intended to locate it, and use his information for what
it might be worth.
Forrester took an electric pocket lamp from the top of his chiffonier,
and a dark muffler from a drawer. These he placed in his pocket. Then he
selected a cap of an unobtrusive shade and went down to the laundry.
There he cut off a short length of clothesline, wound it around his body
and buttoned up his coat.
Unlocking the laundry door, which opened at the southern end of the
house, Forrester looked carefully around. He could hear William
whistling at his work in the garage, while above him his sister was
playing the piano in the music room. No other sound reached him and no
one was in sight. Forrester closed the laundry door softly and stole
across the lawn to the road.