Missing men
her. I said I had heard that they were friends. She replied that it was
a fact but she didn’t know who could have told me. Anyway, she told me
about the disappearance which was much as it was reported in the
newspapers. He didn’t answer his cue, and wasn’t to be found. He hasn’t
been seen since. Was he a drinker, I asked. She was indignant. Not more
than the average man! Had he any love affairs? She hesitated, then she
believed not. I was shooting more or less in the dark, of course,
although not entirely so. When she had told me all that I already knew
and all that she cared to volunteer, which wasn’t much, I asked her
point blank if she knew Peter Vanderdonck.”
He paused and chuckled.
“She nearly fainted. I thought she was going to faint. Then she said,
no, she did not. I asked her what had frightened her. She said she was
not frightened but that her part tired her. I asked whether it were not
a fact that Merritt and Vanderdonck were friends or acquaintances. I
phrased it that way on purpose to put her mind at ease. She replied that
she believed they were. She thought she had heard Mr. Merritt mention
Mr. Vanderdonck but she couldn’t be sure. Anyway, she had not deceived
me; she did not know Mr. Vanderdonck! I let it go at that. But I asked
her if she did not think it strange that Mr. Merritt and Mr. Vanderdonck
should disappear at the same time. She did not know that Mr. Vanderdonck
had disappeared, she said, but if it were so, why certainly it was
strange. You see, she was getting her wits back more rapidly than at
first and the longer I talked the better she became. Finally I told her
that I knew where Merritt was, and that threw her into a funk again.
‘Where?’ she asked. I looked her in the eye and said, ‘He’s in Mr.
Vanderdonck’s safe!’
“At this point she sat down. She’d been standing, up to then, hoping I’d
go. ‘Just who are you?’ she demanded. And I said, ‘Actually, Miss Kane,
I’m just a private investigator hired by a Miss Minor to find her
father, who is missing. But accidentally I blundered onto this other
case, through helping a friend in the police department. I’m still
helping him.’ I told her I was sorry to have had to disturb her, thanked
her for her information, and got out before she had time to catch her
breath. I hope I didn’t upset her so that she could not play her part in
the evening.”
“Did you, Jimmie?”
“No, I didn’t,” he chuckled. “She was there, for I saw her come out
after the show. She appeared quite calm and perfectly at ease, and I
fancy she was, too. I have no doubt that she did some important
telephoning as soon as I’d left her in the afternoon.”
“And where have you been until this hour?”
“Out scouting in the neighborhood of Miss Kane’s home, which is in
Elmhurst and a jolly long way from here.”
“Looking for Vanderdonck? You think she has been concealing him?”
“Well, yes, I do. I think she is still concealing him. Anyway, I didn’t
find him. Of course, he may not be there.”
“You think that this Vanderdonck murdered Merritt, don’t you, Lavender?”
“My dear fellow, no. There’s no murder in this case, not yet, anyway.
It’s plain comedy from beginning to end. I played with you a bit about
it and I played with Morley, but I’ll quit now since you won’t see for
yourself. Morley, in point of fact, has seen, for he took my tip and
opened the safe.”
“And he didn’t find the body of Charles Merritt?”
“Not even a hair. Well, yes, perhaps a hair. What I told you, Gilly, was
that the safe contained all that was left of Charles Merritt, and it was
strictly true. In other words, it contained his clothing and part of his
makeup. You see, old man, Merritt and Peter Vanderdonck were the same
individual. Vanderdonck decided to quit being Merritt, so he quit and
packed Merritt, so to speak, in the safe. Then he vanished himself. Of
course it was guesswork until Morley opened the safe, but it was safe
guessing, if I may be permitted a bad pun. Everything pointed to the
accuracy of my deductions—the unused office, the greasy wash bowl to
which the water clung as it receded, the dirty towel smelling of grease
paint, the notice in the paper of Miss Kane’s success, and so on.
Merritt made certain changes at the theatre after his performances but
the final cleaning up he reserved for Vanderdonck’s rooms, where he was
safer from recognition in the event of an uncontemplated meeting.”
I digested all this in silence. At length I said, “And Miss Kane is
concealing Vanderdonck from pursuit? Why?”
“She probably loves him,” opined Lavender, “and for reasons of his own
he doesn’t want to appear as yet. I called Morley and told him all this,
after he’d told me that he’d opened the safe, and now I suppose the
police will drop the case. There’s no real crime in it after all, and
they are not hired to catch Giles’ delinquent tenants.”
“Meanwhile,” I said ironically, “we continue to search for another
missing man, who is as far away, or as near, as ever. Probably he’ll
turn out to be the missing Mrs. Jameson about whom we read in the paper
this morning.”
Lavender laughed at my bitterness.
“No, Gilly, nothing like that. But I’m afraid that by morning we, too,
will be out of a job. I expect that by morning Miss Minor will have
heard from her father and will call off the hunt. I have been so sure of
it all day that I haven’t bothered much with that case. Somewhere along
the line of our investigations, he will have received word of our search
and he will instantly communicate with his daughter, whom, you must
remember, he does not know to be in town.”
—— IV ——
As usual, Lavender was right. His prescience was astounding. We were not
finished with breakfast in the morning when the telephone bell rang, and
at the other end of the connection was Miss Minor. Lavender listened to
her message.
“I see,” he replied. “Yes, I quite expected it, Miss Minor. In fact, I
have waiting for your call. Naturally there is no further occasion for
my services. Was it a phone call, may I ask, or a wire.”
He listened again.
“I understand. Very well, Miss Minor. And if ever again I can be of
service to you, remember that I shall be glad to serve. Good-by!”
The last words fell like clods upon my heart. Lavender was smiling oddly
as he turned away.
“Finis coronat opus,” said he. “That means, Gilly, ‘the end crowns the
work.’ We are politely, courteously, but definitely and conclusively
‘fired,’ as it were. Miss Minor has heard from her father—a wire early
this morning, saying merely that he was well and would be home soon.”
“How did you know she would hear from him?” I asked morosely.
“I knew that she was bound to. You see, he found out that I was on his
trail and was afraid that I would make his disappearance look like
something it was never intended to be. When he went away he had no idea
of the publicity that would follow his action, and he had no thought
that his daughter would return and start a hunt for him. He managed it
all rather badly, as a matter of fact.”
“Do you suppose he returned to the club and they told him there that we
were looking for him?”
“No, I don’t believe he’s been near the club. I think Miss Kane told
him.”
“Miss Kane!” I shouted. “What has Miss Kane to do with this case?”
“A great deal,” said Lavender, “since she was undoubtedly at the bottom
of Minor’s disappearance, as she was at the bottom of the
Vanderdonck-Merritt disappearance. You remember I told you that I had
contrived to bring Minor’s name into my conversation with her yesterday?
I did it purposely, so she would tell him. I thought it would inform him
of his daughter’s return and that this action would follow.”
“Good Lord,” I groaned. “What is the secret of it all, Lavender? Why did
he go away? Why did Merritt masquerade as Vanderdonck, or Vanderdonck as
Merritt? And what has Miss Kane to do with all of them?”
“I’ll tell you how it works out, Gilly, as nearly as I can. And I must
tell you about my investigations of last night. They have a bearing on
your questions.
“I went to Elmhurst, as I explained. In fact, I went twice—once after
leaving Miss Kane in the afternoon, and once after the evening
performance. On the latter occasion I followed Miss Kane. In the
afternoon I merely made inquiries in the neighborhood. Miss Kane has
lived there for about three months, I was informed by the rental agency,
with an invalid brother and a maid. At first I naturally thought that
the invalid brother was the man I wanted, but the three months knocked
that idea in the head for Minor has been living at home and has been at
his club until a week ago, while the invalid brother lives with Miss
Kane and doesn’t go out any place.”
“Then he’s Vanderdonck!” I said.
“Well,” demurred Lavender, “I suppose it’s conceivable, but I don’t
agree, Gilly. Really, the same objection applies to Vanderdonck. No, in
my theory of this amusing case, he can’t be Vanderdonck, either. I may
as well tell you at once that I believe not only that Vanderdonck was
Merritt, but that Minor was both of them!”
I sat up very straight in my chair and stared at him for a moment in
silence.
“I’m not crazy,” he replied to my glance. “I don’t think I am, Gilly.
I’m admitting that the invalid brother may be Vanderdonck, and that
Minor may be some place else. I’m even admitting that the invalid
brother may be just himself, an honest-to-goodness invalid brother of
Miss Kane. But I don’t think so. Everything points to the truth of my
idea that Merritt, Vanderdonck, and Minor are one and the same
individual, playing a game. And Minor isn’t anxious that his daughter
shall discover what that game is, as least not until it is played out.
That’s why he wired Miss Shirley and why we were called off. We were
getting too ‘warm,’ as the boys say. Of course Miss Minor had no idea
that in releasing us she was playing her father’s game.”
He shook his head. “What puzzles me, however, is that invalid brother.
If he isn’t Minor, and isn’t Vanderdonck, to accept your idea for a
moment, who is he, unless he is just himself?”
“I think he’s Mrs. Jameson,” I said with a grin.
Lavender laughed. “No,” he replied. “She, at least, has nothing to do
with this case. She just happens to have disappeared on the same day.
“Well, to continue. Having learned nothing in particular yesterday
afternoon, I followed Miss Kane home last night. I wanted to see whom,
if anybody, she would meet at her home. She met nobody. There were
lights in the place for some time, chiefly upstairs, but after she had
closed the door I didn’t have even a second glimpse of Miss Kane. Not a
shadow on the blind. Finally darkness fell over the house, and I came
home. I’m very much afraid indeed that the invalid brother is not a
myth, that he actually exists—if for no other reason than to complicate
this case.”
“And you have no idea why Minor is doing all this?”
“Oh, yes, a sort of an idea, Gilly, but it isn’t complete. I don’t
understand why Miss Shirley has not known all about it from the
beginning. There’s nothing heinous in it that I can see.”
“And now I suppose we shall never know,” I suggested.
“I think we will,” said Lavender. “I think that Minor himself will look
us up to see how much we know, and to tell us the rest, so that we will
keep our mouths shut.”
However, it came about rather differently, for we had talked barely an
hour when again our telephone bell rang and again it was Miss Shirley
Minor who called. Lavender’s expression was one of comical relief as he
listened to what she had to say.
“Quite right, quite right!” he said. And a minute later, “Yes, I think I
can. Can you join us? Then please do. Come at once!”
There was a gleam in his eye when he had hung up the receiver.