The Dutch Shoe Mystery
- Автор: Куин (Квин) Эллери
- Серия: Ellery Queen #3
- Год: 1931
- Язык: английский
- Год: Frederick A. Stokes
- Жанр: Классические детективы
Электронная книга - «The Dutch Shoe Mystery». Краткое содержание книги:
Doorn’s lips hung loose and wet. He looked frightened.
“Well, well!” exclaimed the Inspector. “What’s the point of all this? Let’s have it!”
“The poindt iss this...” Doorn’s jowls sagged as his body inclined toward them. “When the years passed and Abigail did nodt die, and consequently I could nodt repay — he said she must be killed!”
He stopped dramatically. The Inspector and Sampson looked at each other. Ellery had paused in the act of opening a little book; he stared at Doorn.
“Now that’s a story, isn’t it?” muttered Inspector Queen. “Who is this money-lender? Banker? Broker?”
Doorn blanched. He peered out of his piggish eyes at all corners of the room, uneasily. It was apparent that his trepidation was very real. When he spoke, it was in a heavy whisper.
“Michael Cudtahy...”
“Big Mike!” the Inspector and Sampson exclaimed together. The old man leaped to his feet and began to trot up and down the thick-piled rug. “Big Mike, by juniper! And in the Hospital, too...”
“Mr. Cudahy,” said Ellery in cool accents, “has the perfect alibi, dad. At the instant Abigail Doorn was having her throat constricted, he was being put to sleep by a doctor and two nurses.” He turned back to the book-shelves.
“Sure he’d have an alibi,” chuckled Harper suddenly. “That guy is an eel. Smooth... smooth!”
“Oh, it couldn’t have been Cudahy,” muttered the Inspector.
“But it could have been one of his three strong-arm boys,” put in the District Attorney animatedly.
The Inspector said nothing. He looked dissatisfied. “I don’t see it,” he mumbled. “This crime is too refined, too polished. Not direct enough for Little Willie, Snapper, or Joe Gecko.”
“Yes, but with Cudahy’s brain directing it...” argued Sampson.
“Now, now,” said Ellery from his corner. “Don’t be hasty, any of you gentlemen. Old Publius Syrus knew what he was talking about when he said: ‘We ought to weigh well what we can only once decide.’ You can’t afford to make a mistake in calling the turn, dad.”
The fat man seemed singularly pleased at the stir he had created. Although his eyes were carefully screwed up in scores of tiny crinkles, he was smirking. “At first Cudtahy said I should do it. Budt,” virtuously, “it wass an infamous suggestion. I threatened to go to the police. What? I said. My flesh and blood... He laughed and said he midght do it. I said, ‘You are nodt serious, Mike?’ He said, ‘That iss my business. Budt you are to keep your mouth shudt, you understand?’ What could I do? He — he would have killed me...”
“When did this conversation take place?” demanded Queen.
“Last September.”
“Has Cudahy ever discussed it since?”
“No.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Three weeks ago... There iss little else.” Doorn was perspiring unpleasantly; his little eyes, unsettled, roved from face to face. “When I saw this morning that my sister she wass dead, murdered — what else could I think budt that Cudtahy... You see? Now I will have to — I mean I will be able to pay my debt to him. That iss what he wants.”
Sampson shook his head worriedly. “Cudahy’s mouthpiece would riddle your story to bits, Mr. Doorn. Have you any witnesses to his threat? I thought not. No, I’m afraid we have nothing on which to hold Big Mike. Of course, we can keep our fingers on his three thugs, but not for long unless definite evidence against them is found.”
“They’ll try to spring ’em to-day,” said the Inspector grimly. “But those boys will stay in our hands. I’ll promise you that, Henry... Only, it doesn’t ring true. Snapper’s the only one of the three who is small enough to have impersonated Janney, and somehow...”
“I tell you this story,” interposed Doorn in an eager squeak, “because of my sister.” His brow darkened. “Vengeance! The murderer will pay the penalty!” He sat erect, like a fattened rooster.
Harper placed the tips of his tobacco-stained fingers together and tapped them against each other in silent applause; Ellery caught the movement and smiled.
Sampson said, “It seems to me, Mr. Doorn, that you have very little to fear from Cudahy or his mob.”
“You think so?”
“I’m positive. You’re worth much more to Cudahy alive than dead. If something happened to you, he wouldn’t stand a chance of collecting — not Cudahy, on I.O.U.’s. No, sir! His best bet is to let you alone, have the estate settled, and then bully you into paying him what you borrowed.”
“I suppose,” queried the Inspector sardonically, “you’re paying regular rates of interest?”
Doorn groaned. “Fifteen per cent...” There was silence as he swabbed the perspiration from his face. “You won’dt tell?” His jowls quivered ludicrously.
“Usury...” The Inspector mused. “We’ll treat your story confidentially, Mr. Doorn, I can promise you that. And you’ll have ample protection from Cudahy.”
“Thank you, thank you!”
“Now, suppose you give us an account of your own movements this morning?” ventured the Inspector casually.
“My movements?” Doorn stared with goggle-eyes. “Budt surely you don’t... Ha! So. It iss a matter of form, no? I heard by the telephone of my sister’s fall. The Hospital called. I wass still in bedt. Hulda and Sarah left before me. I arrived at the Hospital aboudt 10:00 o’clock. I wass trying to findt Dr. Janney. Budt I could nodt, and aboudt five minutes before the operation I came to the Waidting Room where wass Hulda and young Morehouse, the lawyer.”
“Just wandered about, eh?” The Inspector looked glum. He gnawed his mustache. Ellery, striding into the group, smiled down at Hendrik Doorn.
“Mrs. Doorn,” he said, “was a widow. How is it, then, that she was known as ‘Mrs. Doorn’? Isn’t the family name Doorn? Or did she marry a distant cousin of the same name?”
“Wery goodt,” piped the fat man. “You see, Mr. Queen, Abigail married Charles Van der Donk, budt when he died she took back her maiden name and added the ‘Mrs.’ for her dignity. She was very proud of the Doorn name.”
“I can substantiate that,” put in Harper lazily, “because I took a quick look at the back-files before I dashed down to the Hospital this morning.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it in the least.” Ellery polished his glasses with vigor. “I, was just curious. And how about your obligations to Michael Cudahy, Mr. Doorn? You mentioned cards, horses. How about the larger and more exciting game? The ladies, to be literal.”
“Hein?” Doorn’s face once more assumed a glistening aspect as the perspiration beaded it. “Why... ah—”
“Attention!” said Ellery sharply. “Answer my question, Mr. Doorn. Are there any women on your list to whom you still owe money? Note that I am the perfect gentleman and omit mentioning the reason.”
Doorn licked his blubbery lips. “No. I... I am all paid up.”
“Danken sie!”
The Inspector was regarding his son keenly. Ellery’s head jerked the merest bit. The Inspector rose and, with the utmost casualness, put his hand on Doorn’s huge soft arm.
“I think that will be enough for the present, Mr. Doorn. Thanks, and don’t worry about Cudahy.” Doorn struggled to his feet, wiping his face. “By the way, we should like to see Miss Hulda for a moment. On the way up, will you—”
“Yes. Yes. Goodt-by.”
Doorn waddled quickly out of the room.
They looked at each other. Inspector Queen located a telephone on a desk and called Police Headquarters. It was while he conversed with a deputy inspector that Ellery murmured, apropos of nothing, “Did it strike you that friend Doorn, the living Colossus of Rhodes, has upset the dictates of his own slimy nature by spilling his story?”