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:
“Sure it has,” drawled Harper. “The cush.”
“You mean if Cudahy were convicted of Abigail Doorn’s murder he wouldn’t...” Sampson knit his brows.
“Exactly,” said Ellery. “The mammoth wouldn’t have to pay back what he owes. Perhaps that accounts for his anxiety to cast suspicion on Cudahy...”
And then Hulda Doorn entered the library leaning on Philip Morehouse’s arm.
With a glum and watchful young Morehouse hovering about her, Hulda Doorn soon revealed that behind the thick old walls of the rococo Doorn chambers a bitter feud had grown up. She revealed it only after the combined cross-questions of the Inspector and the District Attorney made excuses and subterfuge no longer possible.
Morehouse stood behind her, his crisp features dark with irritation.
Abigail Doorn and Sarah Fuller... two old women, snapping at each other behind closed doors, wrangling like fishwives over no one knew what. Hulda did not know. For weeks the two women, septuagenarian and spinster faded prematurely by an obsession, would live side by side without speaking to each other. For months they would confer only on essentials, and then in monosyllables. For years they had not had a kind word for each other. And yet weeks and months and years passed and Sarah Fuller remained in the service of Abigail Doorn.
“Was there ever any question of Mrs. Doorn discharging her?”
The girl shook her head mechanically. “Oh, mother would be angry and sometimes say she was through with Sarah, but we all knew it was just talk... I used to ask mother why she and Sarah didn’t get along. She... she used to look strange and say it was just my fancy, and that a woman in her position couldn’t very well be intimate with even a high grade of servant. But that... that wasn’t like mother either. I—”
“I told you about all this,” snapped Morehouse. “Why do you torture—”
They paid, no attention to him... Domestic quarrels, ventured Hulda finally. Surely it could have been nothing more serious. Otherwise why—
The Inspector suddenly dropped the matter.
Questioned as to her movements of the morning, Hulda corroborated Sarah Fuller’s recital in the Anteroom of the Hospital.
“You say,” pursued the Inspector, “that Miss Fuller left you in the Waiting Room and wandered off somewhere, and that Mr. Morehouse came to you there shortly after Miss Fuller left... Was Mr. Morehouse with you all the time from then until he left to witness the operation?”
Hulda pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Yes. Oh, except for about ten minutes or so, I think. I asked Philip if he would please find Dr. Janney and bring back some word to me about mother. Sarah had gone and not returned. Philip came back later saying he couldn’t find the doctor. Isn’t that so, Phil? I... I’m not very clear about... about...”
Morehouse said quickly, “Yes. Yes. Of course.”
“And at what time, Miss Doorn,” asked the Inspector delicately, “did Mr. Morehouse return to you?”
“Oh, I don’t remember. What time was it, Phil?”
Morehouse bit his lip. “I should say — it must have been 10:40, because I left you again almost immediately to go to the Amphitheater gallery, and the operation — the operation was begun in a very short while.”
“I see.” The Inspector rose. “I believe that’s all.”
Ellery said smoothly, “Is Miss Dunning in the house, Miss Doorn? I should like to speak with her.”
“She’s gone.” Hulda closed her eyes wearily; her soft lips looked parched, fevered. “She was so sweet, coming here with me. But she had to go back to the Hospital. She has charge of the Social Service Department there, you know.”
“By the way, Miss Doorn.” The District Attorney was smiling. “I’m sure you will want to give the police every possible assistance... It will be necessary to examine Mrs. Doorn’s private papers for a possible clew.”
The girl nodded; a spasm of horror twitched her white features. “Yes. Yes; I just — can’t believe...”
Morehouse said angrily, “There’s nothing in the house here that can help you. I have all her business papers and those things. Why don’t you leave...”
Morehouse bent over Hulda. She looked up at him.
They left the room together, quickly.
The old butler was summoned. He had a wooden face but extraordinarily bright little eyes.
“Your name is Bristol?” said the Inspector briskly.
“Yes, sir. Harry Bristol.”
“You realize that I expect you to tell the exact truth?”
The man blinked. “Oh, yes, sir!”
“Very well, then.” The Inspector tapped Bristol’s quiet livery with a punctuating forefinger. “Mrs. Doorn and Sarah Fuller quarreled frequently?”
“I... well, sir...”
“Didn’t they?”
“Well... Yes, sir.”
“What about?”
A helpless look crept into the man’s eyes. “I don’t know, sir. They were always arguing. We heard them sometimes. But we never knew the reason. Just — they were just unpleasant to each other.”
“And you’re sure no one belowstairs knew why?”
“No, sir. They were always careful, it seemed to me, not to quarrel before the help, sir. Always in Mrs. Doorn’s rooms, or in Miss Fuller’s.”
“How long have you been serving here?”
“Twelve years, sir.”
“That’s all.”
Bristol bowed and walked sedately out of the library.
They rose.
“How about this Fuller woman again, Inspector?” said Harper. “Seems to me she might be put on the grill.”
Ellery shook his head violently. “Let her alone. She won’t run away. Pete, I’m surprised at you. We’re not dealing with a thug or a normal citizen. She’s a mental case.”
They left the house.
Ellery inhaled deeply of the fresh cold January air. He was accompanied by Harper. The Inspector and Sampson preceded them at a crisper pace, striding toward the Fifth Avenue gate.
“What do you think Pete?”
The reporter grinned. “Hooey, the whole set-up,” he said. “Can’t see any real lead. Everybody had a chance to pull the trick and a lot of ’em had motive.”
“Anything else?”
“If I were the Inspector,” continued Harper, kicking a pebble out of the path, “I’d dig in a little and follow the Wall Street angle. Old Abby ruined many and many a budding Rockefeller. Maybe some one in the Hospital this morning had a revenge-financial motive...”
Ellery smiled. “Dad’s not exactly a novice at this game, Pete. He has that line out already... You might be interested in knowing that I’ve already made certain eliminations...”
“Eliminations!” Harper halted. “Say, look here, old man, give me a break, will you? What is it, this Fuller-Doorn business?”
Ellery shook his head. The smile vanished; his face clouded over. “There’s something strange there. Two old viragoes following Napoleon’s advice. ‘People should wash their linen in private.’ It’s unnatural, Pete.”
“You think there’s a deep underlying secret, huh?”
“I’m sure of it. It’s perfectly apparent that this Fuller woman shares it, and that somehow it’s shameful... By heaven, it worries me!”
The four men climbed into the police car. It sped away, leaving its former occupants, three detectives, on the sidewalk. They sauntered through the gate and up the walk.
At the same instant Philip Morehouse emerged from the front door, looked about with peculiar caution, and stopped dead as he caught sight of the approaching trio of plain-clothesmen.