The Closing of a Door
(Friday, November 12; 9.30 a. m.)
As Heath spoke Sproot passed down the hall and opened the front door,
admitting Doctor Von Blon.
“Good morning, Sproot,” we heard him say in his habitually pleasant
voice. “Anything new?”
“No, sir, I think not.” The reply was expressionless. “The District
Attorney and the police are here.—Let me take your coat, sir.”
Von Blon glanced into the drawing-room, and, on seeing us, halted and
bowed. Then he caught sight of Doctor Doremus, whom he had met on the
night of the first tragedy.
“Ah, good morning, doctor,” he said, coming forward. “I’m afraid I
didn’t thank you for the assistance you gave me with the young lady
the other night. Permit me to make amends.”
“No thanks needed,” Doremus assured him. “How’s the patient getting
on?”
“The wound’s filling in nicely. No sepsis. I’m going up now to have a
look at her.” He turned inquiringly to the District Attorney. “No
objection, I suppose.”
“None whatever, doctor,” said Markham. Then he rose quickly. “We’ll
come along, if you don’t mind. There are a few questions I’d like to
ask Miss Ada, and it might be as well to do it while you’re present.”
Von Blon gave his consent without hesitation.
“Well, I’ll be on my way—work to do,” announced Doremus breezily. He
lingered long enough, however, to shake hands with all of us; and then
the front door closed on him.
“We’d better ascertain if Miss Ada has been told of her brother’s
death,” suggested Vance, as we went up the stairs. “If not, I think
that task logically devolves on you, doctor.”
The nurse, whom Sproot had no doubt apprised of Von Blon’s arrival,
met us in the upper hall and informed us that, as far as she knew, Ada
was still ignorant of Chester’s murder.
We found the girl sitting up in bed, a magazine lying across her
knees. Her face was still pale, but a youthful vitality shone from her
eyes, which attested to the fact that she was much stronger. She
seemed alarmed at our sudden appearance, but the sight of the doctor
tended to reassure her.
“How do you feel this morning, Ada?” he asked with professional
geniality. “You remember these gentlemen, don’t you?”
She gave us an apprehensive look; then smiled faintly and bowed.
“Yes, I remember them. . . . Have they—found out anything
about—Julia’s death?”
“I’m afraid not.” Von Blon sat down beside her and took her hand.
“Something else has happened that you will have to know, Ada.” His
voice was studiously sympathetic. “Last night Chester met with an
accident——”
“An accident—oh!” Her eyes opened wide, and a slight tremor passed
over her. “You mean. . . .” Her voice quavered and broke. “I know what
you mean! . . . Chester’s dead!”
Von Blon cleared his throat and looked away.
“Yes, Ada. You must be brave and not let it—ah—upset you too much. You
see——”
“He was shot!” The words burst from her lips, and a look of terror
overspread her face. “Just like Julia and me.” Her eyes stared
straight ahead, as if fascinated by some horror which she alone could
see.
Von Blon was silent, and Vance stepped to the bed.
“We’re not going to lie to you, Miss Greene,” he said softly. “You
have guessed the truth.”
“And what about Rex—and Sibella?”
“They’re all right,” Vance assured her. “But why did you think your
brother had met the same fate as Miss Julia and yourself?”
She turned her gaze slowly to him.
“I don’t know—I just felt it. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve
imagined horrible things happening in this house. And the other night
I felt that the time had come—oh, I don’t know how to explain it; but
it was like having something happen that you’d been expecting.”
Vance nodded understandingly.
“It’s an unhealthy old house; it puts all sorts of weird notions in
one’s head. But, of course,” he added lightly, “there’s nothing
supernatural about it. It’s only a coincidence that you should have
felt that way and that these disasters should actually have occurred.
The police, y’ know, think it was a burglar.”
The girl did not answer, and Markham leaned forward with a reassuring
smile.
“And we are going to have two men guarding the house all the time from
now on,” he said, “so that no one can get in who hasn’t a perfect
right to be here.”
“So you see, Ada,” put in Von Blon, “you have nothing to worry about
any more. All you have to do now is to get well.”
But her eyes did not leave Markham’s face.
“How do you know,” she asked, in a tense anxious voice, “that the—the
person came in from the outside?”
“We found his footprints both times on the front walk.”
“Footprints—are you sure?” She put the question eagerly.
“No doubt about them. They were perfectly plain, and they belonged to
the person who came here and tried to shoot you.—Here, Sergeant”—he
beckoned to Heath—“show the young lady that pattern.”
Heath took the Manila envelope from his pocket and extracted the
cardboard impression Snitkin had made. Ada took it in her hand and
studied it, and a little sigh of relief parted her lips.
“And you notice,” smiled Vance, “he didn’t have very dainty feet.”
The girl returned the pattern to the Sergeant. Her fear had left her,
and her eyes cleared of the vision that had been haunting them.
“And now, Miss Greene,” went on Vance, in a matter-of-fact voice, “we
want to ask a few questions. First of all: the nurse said you went to
sleep at nine o’clock last night. Is that correct?”
“I pretended to, because nurse was tired and mother was complaining a
lot. But I really didn’t go to sleep until hours later.”
“But you didn’t hear the shot in your brother’s room?”
“No. I must have been asleep by then.”
“Did you hear anything before that?”
“Not after the family had gone to bed and Sproot had locked up.”
“Were you awake very long after Sproot retired?”
The girl pondered a moment, frowning.
“Maybe an hour,” she ventured finally. “But I don’t know.”
“It couldn’t have been much over an hour,” Vance pointed out; “for the
shot was fired shortly after half past eleven.—And you heard
nothing—no sound of any kind in the hall?”
“Why, no.” The look of fright was creeping back into her face. “Why do
you ask?”
“Your brother Rex,” explained Vance, “said he heard a faint shuffling
sound and a door closing a little after eleven.”
Her eyelids drooped, and her free hand tightened over the edge of the
magazine she was holding.
“A door closing. . . .” She repeated the words in a voice scarcely
audible. “Oh! And Rex heard it?” Suddenly she opened her eyes and her
lips fell apart. A startled memory had taken possession of her—a
memory which quickened her breathing and filled her with alarm. “I
heard that door close, too! I remember it now. . . .”
“What door was it?” asked Vance, with subdued animation. “Could you
tell where the sound came from?”
The girl shook her head.
“No—it was so soft. I’d even forgotten it until now. But I heard
it! . . . Oh, what did it mean?”
“Nothing probably.” Vance assumed an air of inconsequentiality
calculated to alleviate her fears. “The wind doubtless.”
But when we left her, after a few more questions, I noticed that her
face still held an expression of deep anxiety.
Vance was unusually thoughtful as we returned to the drawing-room.
“I’d give a good deal to know what that child knows or suspects,” he
murmured.
“She’s been through a trying experience,” returned Markham. “She’s
frightened, and she sees new dangers in everything. But she couldn’t
suspect anything, or she’d be only too eager to tell us.”
“I wish I were sure of that.”
The next hour or so was occupied with interrogating the two maids and
the cook. Markham cross-examined them thoroughly not only concerning
the immediate events touching upon the two tragedies, but in regard to
the general conditions in the Greene household. Numerous family
episodes in the past were gone over; and when his inquiries were
finished he had obtained a fairly good idea of the domestic
atmosphere. But nothing that could be even remotely connected with the
murders came to light. There had always been, it transpired, an
abundance of hatred and ill-feeling and vicious irritability in the
Greene mansion. The story that was unfolded by the servants was not a
pleasant one; it was a record—scrappy and desultory, but none the less
appalling—of daily clashes, complainings, bitter words, sullen
silences, jealousies and threats.
Most of the details of this unnatural situation were supplied by
Hemming, the older maid. She was less ecstatic than during the first
interview, although she interspersed her remarks with Biblical
quotations and references to the dire fate which the Lord had seen fit
to visit upon her sinful employers. Nevertheless, she painted an
arresting, if overcolored and prejudiced, picture of the life that had
gone on about her during the past ten years. But when it came to
explaining the methods employed by the Almighty in visiting his
vengeance upon the unholy Greenes, she became indefinite and obscure.
At length Markham let her go after she had assured him that she
intended to remain at her post of duty—to be, as she expressed it, “a
witness for the Lord” when his work of righteous devastation was
complete.
Barton, the younger maid, on the other hand, announced, in no
uncertain terms, that she was through with the Greenes forever. The
girl was genuinely frightened, and, after Sibella and Sproot had been
consulted, she was paid her wages and told she could pack her things.
In less than half an hour she had turned in her key and departed with
her luggage. Such information as she left behind her was largely a
substantiation of Hemming’s outpourings. She, though, did not regard
the two murders as the acts of an outraged God. Hers was a more
practical and mundane view.
“There’s something awful funny going on here,” she had said,
forgetting for the moment the urge of her coquettish spirits. “The
Greenes are queer people. And the servants are queer, too—what with
Mr. Sproot reading books in foreign languages, and Hemming preaching
about fire and brimstone, and cook going around in a sort of trance
muttering to herself and never answering a civil question.—And such a
family!” She rolled her eyes. “Mrs. Greene hasn’t got any heart. She’s
a regular old witch, and she looks at you sometimes as though she’d
like to strangle you. If I was Miss Ada I’d have gone crazy long ago.
But then, Miss Ada’s no better than the rest. She acts nice and
gentle-like, but I’ve seen her stamping up and down in her room
looking like a very devil; and once she used language to me what was
that bad I put my fingers in my ears. And Miss Sibella’s a regular
icicle—except when she gets mad, and then she’d kill you if she dared,
and laugh about it. And there’s been something funny about her and Mr.
Chester. Ever since Miss Julia and Miss Ada were shot they’ve been
talking to each other in the sneakiest way when they thought no one
was looking. And this Doctor Von Blon what comes here so much: he’s a
deep one. He’s been in Miss Sibella’s room with the door shut lots of
times when she wasn’t any more sick than you are. And Mr. Rex, now.
He’s a queer man, too. I get the creeps every time he comes near me.”
She shuddered by way of demonstration. “Miss Julia wasn’t as queer as
the rest. She just hated everybody and was mean.”
Barton had rambled on loquaciously with all the thoughtless
exaggeration of a gossip who felt herself outraged; and Markham had
not interrupted her. He was trying to dredge up some nugget from the
mass of her verbal silt; but when at last he sifted it all down there
remained nothing but a few shining grains of scandal.
The cook was even less enlightening. Taciturn by nature, she became
almost inarticulate when approached on the subject of the crime. Her
stolid exterior seemed to cloak a sullen resentment at the fact that
she should be questioned at all. In fact, as Markham patiently pressed
his examination, the impression grew on me that her lack of
responsiveness was deliberately defensive, as if she had steeled
herself to reticency. Vance, too, sensed this attitude in her, for,
during a pause in the interview, he moved his chair about until he
faced her directly.
“Frau Mannheim,” he said, “the last time we were here you mentioned
the fact that Mr. Tobias Greene knew your husband, and that, because
of their acquaintance, you applied for a position here when your
husband died.”
“And why shouldn’t I?” she asked stubbornly. “I was poor, and I didn’t
have any other friends.”
“Ah, friends!” Vance caught up the word. “And since you were once on
friendly terms with Mr. Greene, you doubtless know certain things
about his past, which may have some bearing on the present situation;
for it is not at all impossible, d’ ye see, that the crimes committed
here during the past few days are connected with matters that took
place years ago. We don’t know this, of course, but we’d be very much
gratified if you would try to help us in this regard.”
As he was speaking the woman had drawn herself up. Her hands had
tightened as they lay folded in her lap, and the muscles about her
mouth had stiffened.
“I don’t know anything,” was her only answer.
“How,” asked Vance evenly, “do you account for the rather remarkable
fact that Mr. Greene gave orders that you were to remain here as long
as you cared to?”
“Mr. Greene was a very kind and generous man,” she asserted, in a
flat, combative voice. “Some there were that thought him hard, and
accused him of being unjust; but he was always good to me and mine.”
“How well did he know Mr. Mannheim?”
There was a pause, and the woman’s eyes looked blankly ahead.
“He helped my husband once, when he was in trouble.”
“How did he happen to do this?”
There was another pause, and then:
“They were in some deal together—in the old country.” She frowned and
appeared uneasy.
“When was this?”
“I don’t remember. It was before I was married.”
“And where did you first meet Mr. Greene?”
“At my home in New Orleans. He was there on business—with my husband.”
“And, I take it, he befriended you also.”
The woman maintained a stubborn silence.
“A moment ago,” pursued Vance, “you used the phrase ‘me and
mine.’—Have you any children, Mrs. Mannheim?”
For the first time during the interview her face radically changed
expression. An angry gleam shone in her eyes.
“No!” The denial was like an ejaculation.
Vance smoked lethargically for several moments.
“You lived in New Orleans until the time of your employment in this
house?” he finally asked.
“Yes.”
“And your husband died there?”
“Yes.”
“That was thirteen years ago, I understand.—How long before that had
it been since you had seen Mr. Greene?”
“About a year.”
“So that would be fourteen years ago.”
An apprehension, bordering on fear, showed through the woman’s morose
calmness.
“And you came all the way to New York to seek Mr. Greene’s help,”
mused Vance. “Why were you so confident that he would give you
employment after your husband’s death?”
“Mr. Greene was a very good man,” was all she would say.
“He had perhaps,” suggested Vance, “done some other favor for you
which made you think you could count on his generosity—eh, what?”
“That’s neither here nor there.” Her mouth closed tightly.
Vance changed the subject.
“What do you think about the crimes that have been committed in this
house?”
“I don’t think about them,” she mumbled; but the anxiety in her voice
belied the assertion.
“You surely must hold some opinion, Mrs. Mannheim, having been here so
long.” Vance’s intent gaze did not leave the woman. “Who, do you
think, would have had any reason for wanting to harm these people?”
Suddenly her self-control gave way.
“_Du lieber Herr Jesus!_ I don’t know—I don’t know!” It was like a cry
of anguish. “Miss Julia and Mr. Chester maybe—_gewiss_, one could
understand. They hated everybody; they were hard, unloving. But little
Ada—_der süsse Engel!_ Why should they want to harm her!” She set her
face grimly, and slowly her expression of stolidity returned.
“Why, indeed?” A note of sympathy was evident in Vance’s voice. After
a pause he rose and went to the window. “You may return to your room
now, Frau Mannheim,” he said, without turning. “We sha’n’t let
anything further happen to little Ada.”
The woman got up heavily and, with an uneasy glance in Vance’s
direction, left the room.
As soon as she was out of hearing Markham swung about.
“What’s the use of raking up all this ancient history?” he demanded
irritably. “We’re dealing with things that have taken place within the
past few days; and you waste valuable time trying to find out why
Tobias Greene hired a cook thirteen years ago.”
“There’s such a thing as cause and effect,” offered Vance mildly. “And
frequently there’s a dashed long interval between the two.”
“Granted. But what possible connection can this German cook have with
the present murders?”
“Perhaps none.” Vance strode back across the room, his eyes on the
floor. “But, Markham old dear, nothing appears to have any connection
with this débâcle. And, on the other hand, everything seems to have a
possible relationship. The whole house is steeped in vague meanings. A
hundred shadowy hands are pointing to the culprit, and the moment you
try to determine the direction the hands disappear. It’s a nightmare.
Nothing means anything; therefore, anything may have a meaning.”
“My dear Vance! You’re not yourself.” Markham’s tone was one of
annoyance and reproach. “Your remarks are worse than the obscure
ramblings of the sibyls. What if Tobias Greene did have dealings with
one Mannheim in the past? Old Tobias indulged in numerous shady
transactions, if the gossip of twenty-five or thirty years ago can be
credited.* He was forever scurrying to the ends of the earth on some
mysterious mission, and coming home with his pockets lined. And it’s
common knowledge that he spent considerable time in Germany. If you
try to dig up his past for possible explanations for the present
business, you’ll have your hands full.”
* I remember, back in the nineties, when I was a schoolboy,
hearing my father allude to certain picturesque tales of
Tobias Greene’s escapades.
“You misconstrue my vagaries,” returned Vance, pausing before the old
oil-painting of Tobias Greene over the fireplace. “I repudiate all
ambition to become the family historian of the Greenes. . . . Not a
bad head on Tobias,” he commented, adjusting his monocle and
inspecting the portrait. “An interestin’ character. Dynamic forehead,
with more than a suggestion of the scholar. A rugged, prying nose.
Yes, Tobias no doubt fared forth on many an adventurous quest. A cruel
mouth, though—rather sinister, in fact. I wish the whiskers permitted
one a view of the chin. It was round, with a deep cleft, I’d say—the
substance of which Chester’s chin was but the simulacrum.”
“Very edifying,” sneered Markham. “But phrenology leaves me cold this
morning.—Tell me, Vance: are you laboring under some melodramatic
notion that old Mannheim may have been resurrected and returned to
wreak vengeance on the Greene progeny for wrongs done him by Tobias in
the dim past? I can’t see any other reason for the questions you put
to Mrs. Mannheim. Don’t overlook the fact, however, that Mannheim’s
dead.”
“I didn’t attend the funeral.” Vance sank lazily again in his chair.
“Don’t be so unutterably futile,” snapped Markham. “What’s going
through your head?”
“An excellent figure of speech! It expresses my mental state
perfectly. Numberless things are ‘going through my head.’ But nothing
remains there. My brain’s a veritable sieve.”
Heath projected himself into the discussion.
“My opinion is, sir, that the Mannheim angle of this affair is a
washout. We’re dealing with the present, and the bird that did this
shooting is somewheres around here right now.”
“You’re probably right, Sergeant,” conceded Vance. “But—my word!—it
strikes me that every angle of the case—and, for that matter, every
cusp, arc, tangent, parabola, sine, radius, and hyperbole—is
hopelessly inundated.”