The Egyptian Cross Mystery
- Автор: Куин (Квин) Эллери
- Серия: Ellery Queen #5
- Год: 1932
- Язык: английский
- Год: Frederick A. Stokes Company
- Жанр: Классические детективы
Электронная книга - «The Egyptian Cross Mystery». Краткое содержание книги:
“An intolerable conclusion,” retorted Ellery. “From the standpoint of experiment, an expert gamester is interested only in opening and closing moves. It’s as true in checkers as it is in chess, or any other game in which wits are pitted and the outcome depends solely on the skill of the individual player. Why should Brad, playing purely for practice against himself, bother with a game in which one side has the overwhelming advantage of three full kings and a piece? He would never allow an experimental game to reach such a stage. Experts can tell you by a single glance at the board, even when the advantage is considerably less — a single piece, or even an equality of pieces but a strategic advantage of position — what the outcome will be if both sides play without error. For Brad to have seriously played that unequal game with himself would be tantamount to Alekhine playing an experimental chess game with himself in which one side has the advantage of a queen, two bishops, and a knight.
“So we come to this: Whereas Brad was playing an experimental game when Stallings saw him, he nevertheless played a genuinely competitive game later in the evening. For while an expert wouldn’t experiment with such a one-sided division of strength, that one-sided division becomes comprehensible when you take the alternative: that he played with some one.”
Outside it had begun to pour — sheets of gray water pounded against the windows.
Professor Yardley’s teeth showed white above his black beard in a grudging grin. “Granted. Granted. I see that. But you still haven’t eliminated the plausible theory that while Brad played checkers with his legitimate visitor that night, leaving the game as we found it, he was murder by Krosac later, after the visitor had gone, perhaps.”
“Ingenious,” chuckled Ellery. “You die hard. And compel me to fire a double barrel — logic and common sense.
“Look at it this way. Can we fix the time of the murder in relation to the time period of the game?
“I maintain in all logic that we can. For what did we find? On Black’s first row one of the two red checkers was still in play. But in checkers when you have reached your opponent’s first row you are entitled to have your piece crowned, or kinged; which as you know means placing a second checker on top of the first. How, then, does it happen that Red in this game has a man on the king row which is nevertheless uncrowned?”
“I begin to see,” muttered Yardley.
“Simply because the game stopped at that point, for it could not have been continued unless the red king were crowned,” Ellery went on rapidly. “Is there confirmation that the game stopped at this point? There is! The first question to settle is: Was Brad playing Black in this game, or Red? We have all sorts of testimony to the fact that Brad was an expert checker player. He had once, in fact, entertained the National Checker Champion and held that worthy even. Is it conceivable, then, that Brad should be the Red in this game where Red was obviously the inferior player — so inferior that his opponent had an advantage of three kings and a piece? No, it isn’t conceivable, and we can assert at once that Brad was playing Black... Incidentally, to get the record straight, let me interpolate an amendment. Now we know that Black’s advantage over Red was not three kings and a piece, but two kings and two pieces, since one of the red pieces is supposed to be a king.
“Still, however, a tremendous advantage.
“But if Brad was playing Black, then he must have been sitting during the game in the chair near the secretary rather than on the other side of the table, away from the secretary. This is so, because all the captured red checkers were on the side near the secretary, and Black captures Red, of course.
“So far, so good. Brad was playing Black, and he sat in the chair near the secretary; his visitor and checker opponent, therefore, sat opposite, facing the secretary while Brad had his back to it.”
“But where does that—?”
Ellery closed his eyes. “If you have aspirations to genius, Professor, take Disraeli’s advice and cultivate patience. I’m getting in my licks, honored Professor. Many’s the time I’ve sat burning at my desk in your classroom, trying in vain to anticipate your leisurely point about the Ten Thousand, or Philip, or Jesus...
“Where was I? Yes! There was one missing red checker, and we found it outside near the scene of Brad’s crucifixion. On the palm of his hand there was a circular red stain. He had been holding the checker when he was killed, then. Why had he picked up the red checker and held it? Theoretically many explanations are possible. But there is only one explanation which has a known fact to support it.”
“What’s that?” demanded the Professor.
“The fact that a red checker was on Black’s king row, and that it was uncrowned. In Brad’s hand — in the hand of Black, observe — was the only missing red checker. I don’t see,” said Ellery crisply, “how you can escape the conclusion that Red, Black’s opponent, managed to get one of his pieces on Black’s king row; that Black, or Brad, picked up one of the captured red pieces to place it on top of the red piece just arrived on his king row; that before he could so place the red piece he had picked up, something occurred which effectually terminated the game. In other words, the fact that Brad had picked up a red piece for the specific purpose of crowning his opponent’s man, but never completed the action, shows us by direct inference, not only when the game stopped, but why.”
Yardley remained silent and intent.
“The inference? Simply that Brad never completed his action because he could not.” Ellery paused, and sighed. “He was attacked at that moment and, to put it mildly, rendered incapable of crowning Red’s king.”
“And the bloodstain,” muttered the Professor.
“Exactly,” said Ellery. “And there is the confirmation — the position of the bloodstain on the rug. The bloodstain lay two feet behind the chair in which Black — or Brad — was sitting. We have long ago proved that the murder took place in the study; and that bloodstain is the only one in the study. If Brad had been struck on the head from the front, as he sat at the table, about to crown the red piece, he would have fallen backwards, between his chair and the secretary. And that is precisely where we found the bloodstain... Dr. Rumsen maintained that Brad must have been struck on the head originally, since no other mark of violence showed on his corpse; then it was a free-flowing wound which stained the rug where he fell, before his murderer could lift the body and remove it to the summerhouse. All the details dovetail. But the salient fact stands out: Brad was attacked as he sat playing checkers with his assailant. In other words, Brad’s murderer was also his checker opponent... Ah, you have objections.”
“Certainly I have,” retorted Yardley. He relit his pipe, and puffed energetically. “What is there in your argument which invalidates the following? That Brad’s checker opponent was either innocent or an accomplice of Krosac’s; that while this innocent checker opponent played with Brad, or while the accomplice played with Brad to distract his attention, Krosac sneaked into the study and struck Brad from behind, as I said the day we discovered the bloodstain.”
“What? A muchness, Professor.” Ellery’s eyes twinkled. “We showed long ago that Krosac would not have an accomplice. Summarily these are crimes of vengeance, and there is nothing in the crimes to tempt an accomplice from a monetary standpoint.
“The possibility that there were two people all the time, one of them Krosac, the other an innocent visitor who played checkers with Brad?... Please consider what this would mean. It would mean that Krosac deliberately attacked Brad in the presence of an innocent witness! Preposterous; surely he would have waited for the witness to leave. But suppose he did attack in the presence of a witness. Wouldn’t he then make every effort to silence this witness? A man like Krosac, with so much blood on his conscience, would scarcely balk at the necessity of taking another life. Yet the witness apparently left unharmed... No, Professor, no witness, I’m afraid.”