Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 125, No. 3 & 4. Whole No. 763 & 764, March/April 2005
- Автор: Dean David, Dempsey Timothy F.
- Год: 2005
- Язык: английский
- Год: Dell Magazines
- ISBN: ISSN 1054-8122
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 125, No. 3 & 4. Whole No. 763 & 764, March/April 2005». Краткое содержание книги:
“I guess he got his answer,” Samantha commented.
Jimmy moved on and as they munched their apples Ben remarked, “Maybe you should try to help the Chinese instead of the buffalo.”
“It’s hardly the same thing. The buffalo are being shot dead.”
When the conductor announced they were about a half-hour outside of Carson City, Samantha excused herself to use the toilet at the front end of the car. Ben noticed that Killcanon’s female companion was headed in the same direction, as was the man with the moustache across the aisle. All the passengers seemed to be on the move and Jimmy was having difficulty squeezing past them with his tray.
Ben stood up to stretch and Senator Killcanon came back to say a few words. “I trust Ralph delivered my apologies.”
“Certainly,” Ben told him. “Everything’s fine.”
He nodded and turned back toward his seat. Ralph Munsey was standing, too, perhaps calculating the wait for the toilet, and Killcanon had to squeeze past him. Some Indian braves had ridden up, waving peacefully to the passengers as they kept pace with the train, and Ben’s attention was diverted to them. He didn’t see what happened next.
It was a woman who screamed first, and for an instant he thought it was Samantha. Then he saw that it was Killcanon’s dark-haired companion, returning from the toilet. The senator had crumpled to the floor as the conductor and Jimmy tried to reach him. Munsey stood frozen by his seat, trying to determine what had happened. “He’s bleeding!” the woman shouted at him. “Do something!”
Hiram Killcanon died within minutes, without making an intelligible sound. His face seemed to register nothing more than surprise, and by the time they ripped away his bloody vest and shirt to reveal the fatal knife wound it was too late. “Who did this?” Wallman, the conductor, demanded. “One of you must have seen something!”
Ben found himself standing next to the dead man’s companion, who was still sobbing quietly. Though she wore no wedding ring, he asked, “Are you Mrs. Killcanon?”
“No. No, just a good friend. Maude Gregory. We like to shoot buffalo together.” Munsey came to her side then, trying to comfort her. Once again Ben was aware of the dark-haired man with the handlebar moustache, watching them intently.
“Did you see anything, ma’am?” the conductor asked her.
“No.” She tried to wipe away the tears. “I don’t know! The Indians distracted me. What happened to him? Was it that Chinaman who tried to come back here?”
“Did you see him at the door?”
“I don’t know. I might have.”
Wallman raised his voice, speaking to everyone in the car. “The Carson City police will want to question everyone here. Try to remember if you saw or heard anything unusual. We’ll try not to fall too far behind schedule.”
Twenty minutes later the sheriff of Carson City boarded the train with several deputies. Hiram Killcanon’s body was removed after a brief examination and the deputies began a search of the car and its occupants for the murder weapon. They turned up nothing but a penknife in Ralph Munsey’s pocket and hatpins in the ladies’ bonnets, all incapable of inflicting the fatal wound. It was Maude Gregory who mentioned again that she might have seen the Chinaman at the door between the cars. “Wu Khan,” the conductor said. “Wu Khan is his name. I’ve had trouble with him before.”
The sheriff quickly located the Chinese man in the forward car, and found a six-inch knife in his possession. The blade showed no trace of blood, but when the deputies failed to uncover any other knife, Wu Khan was taken into custody. They’d been in Carson City over two hours when Wallman announced that the train would continue on to Ogden. All passengers remaining in Carson City were now free to leave. Ben glanced around for the mystery man with the moustache and finally saw him coming out of the station telegraph office, returning to the train.
“You’ll be going,” Samantha Gaines said to Ben.
“It’s my stop. I have to get my horse.” He hesitated. “Look, I think we both know Wu Khan didn’t kill that man. When Maude Gregory and that fellow Munsey tell their story to the sheriff, about Killcanon slapping you, they may come after you.”
“I didn’t—” she started to protest.
“I know, but I’ve got a few days free. I can ride up to Ogden with you and then take the train back.” In truth, he had more than a few days free. The summer stretched before him without any certainty of a job. It would mean riding across the range from one ranch to another, looking for work.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t accuse me of anything like that.” But her certainty seemed to fade away as she spoke. Maude Gregory had boarded the train and taken the seat she’d occupied earlier. Ralph Munsey came on right behind her. “What are they doing here? Are they going on to Ogden without him?”
“It’s beginning to look that way.” Ben left his seat. “I’ll find out.”
Munsey was still settled across the aisle from the woman, as if reluctant to occupy the dead man’s seat. Ben had no such qualms. “It’s a terrible thing that happened to Senator Killcanon,” he said quietly.
She looked up, startled at his sudden appearance in the seat next to her. “What do you want?”
“Only to express my sympathies.”
At the front of the car the conductor called out, “All aboard the Central Pacific Eagle! Next stop Dutch Flat! All aboard!”
Munsey leaned across the aisle to tell the woman, “I believe that was supposed to be our dinner stop.”
“I couldn’t eat a thing, Ralph. Stop thinking of your stomach all the time. Hiram is dead, after all.”
“Sorry,” he said, and fell silent.
“Are you going on to Ogden?” Ben asked her.
Maude Gregory nodded. “The trip meant so much to him. He would have wanted us to go on. Besides, his wife will be making arrangements for his body. There’s nothing for me to do in Carson City.”
“Do you hunt, too?”
She nodded solemnly, as if he’d asked whether she was a churchgoer. “My buffalo gun is up front in the luggage car.”
“We couldn’t see what happened earlier. Who stabbed him?”
“They say it was that Chinaman. I don’t know. I was distracted by the Indians riding by.”
Ralph Munsey interrupted again from across the aisle. “Yeah, well, it might have been that woman who caused the trouble earlier. She was up this way when it happened.”
“I don’t think she was involved,” Ben said, rising to return to his seat.
“She a friend of yours?” Munsey asked.
“I never saw her before. She’s just a seatmate.”
It was after dark when they reached Dutch Flat, an old mining camp now almost deserted. A sheep train was passing in the opposite direction as they came to a stop and Ben could hear the bleating of the unhappy animals inside the cars. “There’s not much left in Dutch Flat,” Bill Wallman admitted, removing his conductor’s cap to scratch his head. “Places like this will be ghost towns in another few years. But the locals usually prepare some food to sell the passengers. We only stop for twenty minutes and I yell ‘All aboard’ just once. I don’t take roll call.”
Samantha Gaines went in search of food and Ben stayed on the train, munching another apple from Jimmy and chatting with the conductor. “Do you often have stabbings on this run?” he asked.
Wallman shook his head. “Hardly any. At these little mining towns we sometimes take on passengers wearing guns, but they usually behave themselves. Had a couple of Mexicans in a knife fight last year, but nobody got killed. This is the first politician we’ve lost.” He looked unhappy at the thought.
“Will they hold you responsible?”