The Second Richard Deming Mystery MEGAPACK™: 23 Classic Mystery Stories

Chapter 1

The first time Tom Wright and my wife Nora tried to kill me, they stretched a wire across the stairway two steps from the top.

The only thing that saved me was an untied shoelace. Noticing it was untied just as I started down the stairs, I stopped with one foot on the second step, turned around and raised my other foot to the top landing so that I could bend forward and retie it.

The calf of my left leg touched the wire as I leaned forward.

Forgetting the untied lace, I turned to examine the wire. It was piano wire, almost invisible to the eye, and it was stretched tautly across the stairway about a foot above the steps.

My first reaction was simply astonishment. I was about to yell downstairs to Nora and Tom to come look at my discovery when Nora called from the front room, “George, honey! The Nelsons will he waiting for us!”

It wasn’t till then that it occurred to me the wire must have been strung for my benefit, and no one but my wife or Tom Wright could have strung it.

I closed my mouth and looked at the wire again. Then I looked down the steep stretch of stairs and imagined myself hurtling headfirst the entire length to the marble-floored foyer. Our house had eleven-foot ceilings, and there were twenty steps in the flight. I might not have been killed, but I certainly couldn’t have escaped serious injury.

Dispassionately I wondered whether it would have been Wright or Nora who would have finished me off if the fall had failed to kill me.

Nora called again, “Did you hear me, George?” and it seemed to me that a faint note of hysteria underlay the impatience in her voice.

Retreating to the bathroom door, I called in a calm voice, “Just knotting my tie, dear. About two minutes.”

Again I knelt to retie the lace which had saved my life. Then I quietly returned to the stairs and loosened one end of the wire where it was wound tightly about a baluster. When I released it, it coiled up like a loose spring against the opposite railing.

Whistling, I descended to the foyer.

Nora was only slightly pale when I entered the front room, and her facial muscles were entirely under control. In a cynical sort of way I couldn’t help admiring her recovery, for when she heard me whistling on the stairs, the shock of nothing happening must have flabbergasted her.

Tom Wright was not as good an actor, however. His expression was one of stupefaction.

Smiling pleasantly, I said, “Sorry I took so long, but the Nelsons are never on time anyway.”

Tom recovered then and managed a smile in return. “I’m in no rush. Nora’s the impatient one.”

For a moment I examined the two of them as they stood side-by-side in front of the fireplace. I knew my wife was a beautiful woman, of course, and I knew Tom Wright was an exceptionally handsome man. But until that moment I’d never considered them as a pair. It came to me with something of a shock that together they made an exceedingly handsome couple.

Under my steady gaze they both began to look slightly uneasy. Casually I said, “I’ll get the car out.” I turned to get my topcoat and hat from the front hall and went out the front door.

I took my time getting the car out, wanting to give them opportunity to recover their poise, to discover that the wire was still on the stairs and decide that one end had somehow come loose by accident.

When I finally honked from the driveway alongside the house, Tom and Nora came out at once. Apparently they had had a swift conference and decided I suspected nothing of their murder attempt, for I could detect an air of relief in both their manners.

En route to pick up the Nelsons I mulled over what action I should take. It never even occurred to me simply to confront my wife and our closest family friend with the charge that they had attempted to kill me. Nora has sometimes accused me of being unemotional, but it wasn’t just that which made me delay doing anything at all until I had a chance to think things out thoroughly. Inside I was as disturbed as any man would be who unexpectedly discovers he has been betrayed by his wife and one of his best friends. But I hadn’t built my considerable reputation as a corporation lawyer by moving before I was fully prepared. Years of negotiating business contracts and trying civil suits had conditioned me to studying problems from all angles before making even an initial move.

The only difference between this problem and the ones I was used to encountering was that this one was more important.