Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 62, No. 2, October 3, 1931
- Автор: Энгланд Джордж Аллан, Philips Judson P.
- Год: 1931
- Язык: английский
- Год: The Red Star News Company
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 62, No. 2, October 3, 1931». Краткое содержание книги:
“Yeah, I see. Now, I want you to be frank with me. I want to know several things. First, how Paul Nicolay was going to change his will, second, who the witnesses were whom he was going to take to the farm with him, and third why he paid Enid Clark’s way through the Emerson School.”
Carson frowned, looking at the detective through narrowed eyes. After a moment the lawyer looked away, tapping on the desk top with polished nails.
“Mr. Grant, I see there is no use trying to keep this thing quiet any longer,” he said presently with a sigh. “I hoped that no one would have to know. It cannot help — now.”
“I guess I’d better be the judge of that,” said Tom gravely.
Carson nodded. “Yes. If I do not tell you, you’ll get it from somewhere else. Enid Clark was Paul Nicolay’s daughter.”
Tom was on his feet, aghast. The man’s daughter! Now he understood the seemingly incongruous relationship.
“You mean—”
“Yes,” said Carson. “She was his child and the child of a girl he had married years ago. The girl was beneath him in station, in everything. She died and left Enid. No one here in the East knew anything about the thing, for the little wife remained in the West where Paul had met her. She was the one woman he ever loved and it was her own wish that she stay West and not leave the ranch where she was fitted to be. I have heard from Paul that she was even more charming than Enid and far more beautiful. However, Paul took the child and cared for her. That’s all. If Mabel Malliett had known of it, she would not have married him, and Paul needed her millions. Mabel thought she was the one and only.”
“Then Nicolay was about to change that will and leave Enid his fortune,” said Tom slowly.
“I don’t know,” said Carson harshly. “He had already settled enough upon her to care for her. She had had it since her graduation. And in his will he leaves her one hundred thousand dollars. I did not tell you that. I feared it would cause plenty of talk as it was.”
“He loved her more than he loved Dorcas,” said Tom.
“Who wouldn’t?” Carson shrugged. “You haven’t seen Dorcas? A spoiled, domineering beauty. Like the Mallietts. A rum lot, the Mallietts.”
“You were in Nicolay’s confidence, Mr. Carson?” asked Tom.
“Yes. I think I knew him better than any one else did.”
As he spoke, Carson rose and walked restlessly about the office.
“I fancy you know that that silly girl Louise was found hiding in the attic,” he blurted after a moment.
“Rather,” grinned Tom. “Did you know of her affair with Cleet?”
“I certainly did not!” denied Carson, frowning. “This is an outrageous thing, Mr. Grant. The Mallietts and the Nicolays are two of our finest families. If they had obeyed me and sent Edgar Malliett away for mental treatment long ago, instead of babying him in that house under Ann’s eyes, this entire thing might not have happened.”
“Do you mean that you think Malliett capable of killing those two people?” asked Tom, watching the lawyer closely.
“Who knows what he is capable of? you’ve seen him, haven’t you?” flared Carson. “Is he normal? I don’t think so. Paul didn’t think so. Look at him, a member of such a family consorting with such filthy young crooks as Brasson and Morse! It is an unhealthy house. It drove Malliett into crime and Louise Lee into a love affair with a married man. It has taught Dorcas to sell herself to a mockery of a man with a title! Ann is the only one there now with a keen, healthy mind, and she is a devil.”
“Did you know Nicolay had engaged some one from a detective agency to live in his house and watch Malliett?” pursued Tom. He felt that there was more here than Carson was giving him.
“No. He told me several times he was going to. Perhaps he had a more desperate reason than just to keep an eye on his brother-in-law. He may have feared this thing which has happened.”
“Do you think he did?”
“I don’t know. He never said. I’ve been frank with you, Mr. Grant. I know no more now than I have told you. And I have one thing to suggest. In your investigation don’t overlook this cheap jazz boy whom Enid Cleet loved. This Devore fellow. He came in to see me several weeks ago and I booted him out of the office.”
“Devore! the chap at the Walnut Club?”
“Yes,” Carson nodded darkly. “He is after cash. He came in here and tried to pump me about Paul Nicolay’s interest in Mrs. Cleet. He did his best to find out what it meant and whether or not the girl would be remembered in Nicolay’s will. I don’t know what he was onto, but he was suspicious.”
“I’ll pass this on to Farrell,” said Tom. “He knows Devore. And now something else, Mr. Carson. Did you ever see Enid Cleet wear a diamond-studded wrist watch?”
“No, but Paul gave her one,” said the lawyer quickly. “Last Christmas. I helped him choose it. She was supposed to have bought it for herself.”
“Did she know that she was Nicolay’s daughter?”
“Certainly. She was quite devoted to Paul. I know that she even wished to move away from the city, but Paul would not hear of it.”
“When Mrs. Cleet drove with Nicolay a short time before she was killed, she wore that watch,” mused Tom as he rose. “And we did not see it when we found the bodies. Now, I wonder who would take away that watch and leave the diamond rings on her hands?”
Carson walked to the door with the detective, his brows drawn together in deep thought, his head bent.
“I will tell you what I should do if I had the case,” he said at last. “I should look for a man who was insanely jealous of Nicolay, who knew that he had given Enid the watch, but not that he was her father!”
Chapter XXXIII
Miss Ann Speaks
As Tom Grant opened the door of Superintendent Merrill’s private office a short time after his interview with Seymor Carson, he collided with a nervous young man who was just backing out.
“I hope I haven’t done any one any harm, sir,” this person was saying unhappily.
Merrill’s cheerful voice followed him as he muttered an apology to Tom and vanished: “No, indeed. You’ve done us an immense service!”
When Tom entered the office where Merrill and Billy Farrell sat alone, the detective greeted him delightedly.
“Hello, Grant! I’m glad to see you. The young man you just passed is a salesman in the Dixie Sporting Goods Store on State Street. We traced the gun which was found in the Nicolay brook to this store, and Mr. Martin, who just went out of here, sold it. Neat work, eh? And neater still, he identified Edgar Malliett as the man who bought it! Of course he would remember Malliett. That bird doesn’t look like any one else out of captivity. But that’s good, eh?”
“It’s great!” agreed Tom. “But where does it get you? Nobody was shot.”
“No, they were not,” agreed Farrell. “But they might have been, see? And Ann knew it. And she hid the gun bought by her crook brother. He planned to do away with this girl and Nicolay, and Ann knew it. She looks like the head of the ladies’ guild or the missionary sewing society, but she has a lot more than that in her aristocratic bean.”
“But you don’t think Cleet and Malliett both killed the two?” asked Tom mildly. “They wouldn’t agree on anything.”
“Maybe not, but Cleet bribed that chauffeur all right, and he won’t say where he was last night. We’re holding him for further questioning.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what I think about Malliett,” offered Tom. “I think he bought that gun when he decided to be a crook and organize these robberies. That’s more like it. I don’t think that Malliett is a killer.”