Minute Mysteries [Detectograms]
‘Oh, I suppose somebody wired him that “Spider” McCoy met the plane when
we landed in Norfolk. He’s got nothing on me!’ exclaimed Delavin.
What do you think of Delavin’s actions? Suspicious? Why?
42
_Ten-Fifteen_
Professor Fordney glanced at his desk clock as he picked up the
receiver—ten-fifteen.
‘Hello!’ came the agitated voice at the other end. ‘This is Waters.
Could you come over right away? Something’s just happened that I’d like
to discuss with you. I’d appreciate it.’
‘Well,’ returned the Professor, again glancing dubiously at the clock,
‘if it’s important, I’ll be round. Good-bye.’
Twenty minutes later, he was met at the door by Waters’s secretary who
was almost incoherent in his excitement.
‘He’s dead, Professor. Dead—there in the library!’
Fordney hurried to the room and found Waters slumped over his desk with
his throat cut.
‘Well, tell me what happened,’ he said to the secretary, as he noted the
position of the body, the open window, and the cigar-ash on the rug
about six feet from Waters’s chair.
‘I came in about an hour ago, Professor, and went right upstairs to do
some work. Twenty-five minutes ago I came down and heard him talking to
you as I passed the library on my way to the pantry for a sandwich. I
was there about twenty minutes, I imagine, and, as I came back through
the hall, I happened to look in here, and there he was. I can’t imagine
who did it or how it happened,’ he concluded.
‘Have a cigar,’ offered Fordney.
‘Thanks, I will, Professor. It’ll kind of steady the nerves.’
‘And now,’ said Fordney, ‘suppose you tell me the real truth of this
affair.’
Why did he doubt Waters?
43
_Rapid Transit_
‘I was beatin’ along the Boston Post Road, about fifty miles an hour,
when I looks around and sees this bird standing on the tail-gate
fumbling with the lock on the doors. I stopped as fast as I could,
jumped out, and ran round to the back. This mug had hopped off with an
armful of furs and climbed into a car that was following. His partner
even took a shot at me,’ said Sullivan, whom Professor Fordney was
questioning.
‘He must have been a very good judge. He took only the best you
carried,’ commented Fordney.
‘Yeah. Guess he was. Fur-stealin’ is a big racket these days.’
‘Why didn’t you report it at the next town instead of waiting until you
got back to the office?’
‘Well, I thought the boss wouldn’t want it to get out that the furs of
his wealthy customers had been pinched. He’s awful particular about us
usin’ our heads.’
‘Where was your helper?’
‘Just after I started out, he said he was feelin’ sick, so I told him to
go on home.’
‘Fifty miles an hour is excessive speed for that truck, isn’t it?’ asked
Fordney, examining the all-steel doors of the massive, dust-proof
moving-van.
‘She’s big, but she’ll do even better than that!’
‘Always wear those gloves when you’re working?’
‘Always,’ laughed the driver. ‘Have to keep me hands dainty, you know.’
‘I thought so,’ retorted Fordney, continuing his close examination of
the doors.
‘Come on, Sullivan, take me for a ride in that truck. I know you’re
lying.’
How did the Professor know?
44
_The Professor is Disappointed_
‘What’ll I do, Professor,’ implored Vi Cargo, as Fordney examined the
ground beneath her bedroom window.
Seven A.M. A fine time to start looking for a thief! Why couldn’t women
be more careful of their jewelry!
‘I was restless all night,’ said Vi, as Fordney knelt beside a deep
impression of a man’s right shoe.
‘By Jove, I thought we’d found one of your stones,’ he said, pointing to
a leaf in the footprint. ‘Look at the sunlight glistening on those
raindrops!’
‘It was the shower that awakened me around six,’ chattered Vi. ‘It only
lasted about fifteen minutes. I dozed off again and awakened with a
start just as a man jumped to the ground, from my bedroom window.’
‘Was that just before you came for me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are are you alone, Vi?’
‘Yes. The servants are in the country.’
‘Then why did you have all your jewels in the house?’
‘I had worn them to Mrs. De Forest’s party.’
‘Do you know anyone who smokes this brand?’ asked Fordney, picking up
from the ground an unsmoked cigarette of English manufacture.
‘Yes. Mr. Nelson, who brought me home last night. However, I threw that
one there.’
‘The thief chiseled open this window directly under your bedroom.’
‘I wondered how he got in! The doors were all locked.’
‘Come, my dear! Don’t you think you’ve treated the old Professor rather
shabbily? You women! I know your jewels are heavily insured and I also
know of your bridge debts. Who helped you fake this robbery? Nelson?’
Where is the clue?
45
_A Dramatic Triumph_
A clock softly chimed eight-forty-five as Professor Fordney and
Halloway, dramatic critic of the _Times_, finished their after-dinner
coffee. They strolled leisurely to the corner and reached the Belmont
just in time for the curtain.
As the first act ended, Fordney remarked enthusiastically: ‘Halloway,
it’s magnificent! Boswell is certainly our finest dramatic actor. How he
held that audience, for forty-five minutes, from the moment the curtain
arose! That’s genius!’
The final curtain found him even more enthusiastic in his praise of
Boswell’s acting.
Learning next morning of the actor’s murder, he became personally
interested.
Sibyl Mortimer had been questioned by the police and quickly dismissed.
Her alibi appeared sound. She had an engagement with Boswell last
evening, but said he telephoned her shortly after nine breaking it, so
the police concerned themselves with his reason for doing so.
A taxi-driver, who drove Boswell and another man from the theater,
dropped them at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-Fifth Street at midnight. His
description of the man checked with that of Jenks, Boswell’s manager,
who was missing. It was learned that his reason for breaking the
engagement with Sibyl was to discuss a new contract with Jenks, about
which there had been considerable disagreement.
A charred piece of the contract was found in the actor’s fireplace, in
front of which he lay. Jenks’s cane and a vanity-case monogrammed ‘S.
M.’ were also found in the room.
Acquainted with the facts by Sergeant Reynolds, Fordney replied,
‘I’m afraid you’ve overlooked a valuable clue.’
What was it?
46
_Murder at the Lake_
‘Here’s all we’ve been able to learn, Professor. I wish you’d see what
you can make of it,’ said Sheriff Darrow.
‘Garden’s cottage fronts the lake at a point about halfway between the
head and foot of its mile length.
‘A strong east wind off the lake that morning caused him and his two
guests to abandon their proposed fishing trip. Garden remained behind
while Rice and Johnson set off hiking in opposite directions.
‘Rice said that fifteen minutes later, as he was retrieving his hat
which had blown into the lake, he heard a shot and hurried to the
cottage. There he found Johnson with blood on his hands bending over
Garden, who had been shot through the heart.
‘Johnson said he had gone only about two hundred yards when he heard the
shot and rushed back. He claims he got the blood on his hands when
ascertaining if Garden were alive. He also admits moving some furniture,
although cautioned against it by Rice.
‘Fortunately for Rice, we found his hat still wet, but discovered he had
changed his shirt before the arrival of the police. He had also gone
through Garden’s desk, but said he removed nothing.
‘Both men entered through the back door, though the front entrance was
more convenient.
‘We haven’t found a gun or any other weapon and we haven’t been able to
establish a motive yet,’ concluded Darrow. ‘What do you make of it?’
‘It’s a bit muddled, Sheriff,’ replied Fordney, ‘but I would question
________ further.’
Of whom was he definitely suspicious—and why?
47
_The Professor Studies a Coat_
‘They covered us with a gun, and when the cashier tried to give an
alarm, they shot him. Then they handcuffed me, grabbed five stacks of
bills, and beat it.’
‘Calm yourself,’ ordered Fordney, ‘and tell me who “they” are.’
‘Two fellows who robbed the bank just now,’ explained the excited
narrator, who had rushed into Fordney’s cottage at Lakeview. ‘I knew you
were vacationing in the village, so, as soon as they escaped in their
car, I ran over here.’
‘Didn’t you call a doctor for the cashier?’
‘Too late. He must have died instantly.’
‘How do you know the bandits escaped in a car?’
‘I saw them from the window.’
‘Were you and the cashier alone at the time of the shooting?’
‘Yes. I had just made a deposit. I guess they got my money, too.’
Fordney walked over and picked up the overcoat his visitor had removed
upon entering the living-room.
‘You seem to have had a little accident. How did you get this?’ he
asked, examining a long tear in the front of the coat.
‘Why—I guess I tore it on the door when I rushed out of the bank. I
broke a button, too, you’ll notice.’
‘Let’s see your hat!’ demanded Fordney, eyeing his visitor sharply.
‘Why—where is it? I—must have left it in the bank!’
‘Well—let’s go. The police will be interested in your story—and bring
that coat with you!’
Why did Fordney suspect this man of complicity in the hold-up?
48
_Too Late_
‘Perhaps you’d better tell me exactly what happened,’ said Professor
Fordney kindly to the agitated man.
‘Well,’ continued Palmer, ‘Frank has been despondent and talked of
suicide for some time. I thought exercise and the open air would do him
good, so I suggested a vacation at my place in the country.
‘We’d been there three days, and he seemed in much better spirits. Then,
Thursday morning, after we’d been fishing an hour or so, he said he
thought he’d try another stream about a mile away. I was having good
luck, so I told him to go ahead and I’d meet him at the cabin later.
‘About eleven o’clock, when I’d caught my limit, I started back. As I
neared the cabin, I seemed to have a premonition of trouble, and ran the
last few yards. When I opened the door, God! I’ll never forget it! I’d
got there not more than five minutes behind him, and yet there he
lay—dead! That hideous look on his face! It haunts me! Why couldn’t I
have been just a few minutes earlier?
‘A whiskey bottle on the table and the glass which smelled of cyanide
told me the story. He’d done it, after all! I’ll never forgive myself,’
Palmer concluded with a sob.
‘Had you any visitors while at camp?’ asked Fordney.
‘No, we hadn’t seen anyone for two days.’
‘Did your friend smoke?’
‘Not at all.’
‘Was the door open or closed when you arrived?’
‘Why, closed.’
‘And the windows?’
‘Closed, too, Professor.’
‘If you’re innocent, Palmer, why are you lying?’ demanded Fordney.
What was the lie?
49
_Sergeant Reynolds’s Theory_
‘Inspector Kelley picks out such nice messy jobs for me.’
Professor Fordney smiled as Reynolds made a wry face.
‘We found him lying against a boulder about ten feet from the bottom of
a fifty-foot embankment of solid rock. While there were no traces of the