Murder by the clock — Story, Setting & Ideas

ot supposed to know anything about it.”

“Of course. This menace, Mrs. Endicott, this danger that you are fearing, where do you think it lies?”

She became consciously vague. “The streets—indoors—out——”

“And you’re basing it entirely upon this note?”

“Primarily. It’s something concrete, at any rate. I think that he ought to have protection, and yet, if I did do anything about it, he’d put it down as spying.”

“Well, if this note is a threat there is rarely only one, you know. I wonder whether we might find any others. I haven’t the remotest justification for looking, but I’m willing to do so if you wish me to.”

Mrs. Endicott grew curiously detached. “His papers are in the upper right-hand drawer,” she said.

Lieutenant Valcour opened the drawer. Its contents were in a state of considerable confusion. It was not the sort of confusion which is the result of a cumulative addition of separate notes, letters, and sheets of paper, but a kind that exists when a normally orderly collection of papers has been milled around in suddenly.

“There’s quite a mass of stuff here,” he said. “It might be simpler to eliminate other possible places before tackling it. I must repeat again that I’ll be exceeding any legal rights by doing so, but if you earnestly believe your husband is in danger I’d like to go through the pockets of his clothing.”

“It’s a much more usual place to find important things than you would imagine.”

“His clothes are in that cupboard.”

Mrs. Endicott indicated a door. Lieutenant Valcour went over and opened it. An electric light was automatically turned on in the ceiling. The large hulk of a man crumpled into one corner of the cupboard gave him a severe shock. The man was dead. He closed the door and faced Mrs. Endicott. He nodded toward the desk, on which a telephone was standing.

“I’m going to use that telephone for a few minutes,” he said. “There’s a message I want to put through. Also, please ring for your maid.”

Mrs. Endicott’s eyes widened a little. “There’s something in the cupboard,” she said.

“Ring for your maid, please.”

She went past him and toward the cupboard door. He shrugged. The value of her reaction would offset the brutality of not stopping her. She opened the door and looked in. Her grip tightened on the knob.

“Then he didn’t go out at seven,” she said.

“No, Mrs. Endicott. He didn’t go out at all.”

9:24 p. m.—Hall Marks of Murder

Lieutenant Valcour felt that the utter stillness of the room would overwhelm him. He—Mrs. Endicott—everything seemed to be taking its cue from death. He reached past Mrs. Endicott and touched the body’s cheek. It was quite cold.

“Where is your room, Mrs. Endicott?”

He carefully pried her fingers from the knob of the cupboard door and then closed it.

“But you can’t leave him in that cupboard.”

Her voice held the toneless qualities of arrested emotion, as if the functioning of her nerve centres had stopped.

“We must leave him in there, Mrs. Endicott, until someone from the medical examiner’s office has seen him. If you’ll tell me the name of your family physician before you lie down——”

“Lie down—I? Lie down?”

“Yes, and rest. I’ll call the doctor up on the possible chance that we’re mistaken, only I’m quite certain, Mrs. Endicott, that we aren’t.”

She stumbled verbally in her rush. “Worth—Dr. Sanford Worth—Calumet 876—it’s 876 something—I know it perfectly well. I—it’s in my book—come with me.”

She seemed mechanically vitalized, and her movements were those of a nervous, jerky toy. She flung open a door adjacent to the cupboard. It led into a bathroom, the fittings of which were of coral-coloured porcelain. A door in the opposite wall led into her bedroom. She went immediately to a leather reference book beside a telephone near her bed.

“It’s Calumet 8769,” she said.

Her finger slipped in the dialling. Lieutenant Valcour gently took the instrument from her hands and put through the call.

“The office of Dr. Worth?” he said, when a woman’s voice answered him. “This is the home of Mr. Herbert Endicott. I am Lieutenant Valcour of the police department. Mr. Endicott is dead. I would appreciate it if Dr. Worth would come here at once and consult with the medical examiner, and also attend to Mrs. Endicott. Thank you.” He replaced the receiver.

“I haven’t the slightest intention of collapsing, Lieutenant.”

“We will need Dr. Worth anyway, Mrs. Endicott.”