Inspector Queen’s Own Case

“How do you know it was a right hand?”

“Because the thumb part of the print was on the left side.”

Someone laughed, a masculine sound halfway between a chuckle and a snort. Jessie found herself not caring at all.

“Either she was seeing things, or it’s been burned or cut to pieces and flushed down a toilet.”

“What do they have on the Island, septic tanks?”

“No, regular city sewage installations. Emptying into the Sound, like in Taugus.”

“Then we’ll never know.”

“Looks like it.”

They were just voices. But the next one had that precious quality of nearness. Strange how every time he made a sound, even an ordinary sound, she felt safer.

“It’s the big point, Abe,” Richard Queen was saying mildly. “If you don’t mind my horning in—”

“Don’t be a jackass, Dick.”

“It’s the difference between murder and accident. I wouldn’t give up on that pillowcase if I were you.”

“We aren’t even sure it exists!”

“Miss Sherwood is.”

“Hell, Dick, she could be—”

“I don’t think so, Abe.”

The voices drifted off and became a mumble. Jessie was tickled. He’s defending me, she thought gleefully. How kind of him. No one’s ever done that before. Or not for a long, long time. Then she thought: How silly can you get. He knows I’m telling the truth and he’s merely sticking to his point.

The joy went out of Jessie’s thoughts and she sat blankly, dozing.

The voices swept up suddenly, startling her. Chief Pearl sounded harassed.

“Well, what about the ladder, Dick!”

“It confirms the murder theory.”

“It does not. Mr. Humffrey put it there himself. Mr. Humffrey, would you mind telling Inspector Queen how the ladder came to be there?”

The millionaire’s exhausted voice said, “I heard a banging sound from the nursery about ten o’clock. A wind had come up from sea and pulled one of the shutters loose outside the driveway window. I was afraid the noise would wake the baby. I removed the screen, tried to secure the shutter from the nursery, and found I couldn’t reach it. Stallings and Cullum were out — they have Thursday evenings off — so I had no choice but to get the ladder out of the shed, climb up, and fix it myself. Then the baby did wake up, my wife became very nervous, and by the time we got him back to sleep I’d completely forgotten about the ladder. I can’t see that any of this has any relevance.”

“Mr. Humffrey’s right, Dick. The ladder doesn’t mean a thing.”

“It certainly doesn’t disprove murder, Abe. If this was murder, the killer simply came along and used the ladder he found standing here. And Miss Sherwood is so positive about that pillowslip—”

“Dick, for God’s sake, what do you want me to do?”

“Keep looking for the slip till you find it.”

“Mr. Humffrey, did you see a pillowslip with a handprint on it?”

“No.”

“Did you, Dr. Wicks?”

The doctor’s voice said shortly, “I’d have reported it if I had.”

“And about the only thing Mrs. Humffrey said that made sense was that she didn’t see it, either. And she was in the same room, Dick.”

“She was in the doorway,” the familiar voice said. “The footboard of the crib might have limited her range of vision. How about the servants, Abe?”

The big man made a disgusted sound. “The gardener and the chauffeur didn’t pull in till almost 1 a.m. The women know from nothing.”

“Jessie Sherwood against everybody.”

And that was her own voice. What a funny thing to have said. Jessie heard herself laugh, a shrill hoppy sort of laugh that wasn’t like her laugh at all.

Immediately the noises swooped away, leaving silence.

The next thing she knew she was lying on something softly embracing, and Dr. Wicks was forcing her to swallow the bitter contents of a spoon.

After that everything stopped.

Inspector Queen was wandering along the water’s edge when Chief Pearl came tramping down to the Humffrey beach. The sky over the sea was all pearl shell and salmon belly as the dawn turned to day.

“I’ve looked all over for you,” the Taugus policeman bellowed. “What the hell are you doing?”

The old man looked up. “Nothing much, Abe. Just checking to see if a boat mightn’t have beached here last night.”

Abe Pearl stared. “Why a boat?”

“Because he’d have been a fool to try his luck twice at getting past that gatehouse in a car.”

“You mean Frost?” the chief said in an odd tone.

“Who else? But there’s nothing. Tide’s almost all the way in. I should have thought of it when we got here.” He glanced at his friend. “All through at the house?”

“Yeah.”

They went up through the belt of trees side by side in silence, the big man and the small one, an invisible something between them. As they crossed the perfect lawns Chief Pearl spoke to several of his men, who were still searching the grounds.

“Keep looking till I call you off,” he ordered. “Tell the boys in the house ditto.”

They got into the black-and-white police car, and the big man turned on his ignition.

“Talk to that gateman, Peterson?” the old man asked.

“The state troopers talked to him. He didn’t see anything.” Abe Pearl grunted. “Dumb as they come, sure. But on the other hand, Dick, a man can’t see what isn’t there.”