Calamity Town

Pat turned away, hiding her face.

Ellery replaced the messages in their envelopes and returned the envelopes to their hiding place exactly as he had found them. He set the hatbox back on the shelf of the closet, closed the vanity drawer in which Pat had been rummaging, straightened Nora’s hand mirror. Another look around, and he led Pat from the room, switching off the ceiling light by the door.

“Find the door open?” he asked Pat.

“Closed,” she replied in a strangled voice.

He closed it.

“Wait. Where’s that fat tan book?the one the envelopes fell out of this evening?”

“In Jim’s study.” Pat seemed to have difficulty pronouncing her brother-in-law’s name.

They found the book on one of the newly installed shelves in the bedroom Nora had converted into a study for her husband. Ellery had switched on the mica-shaded desk lamp, and it threw long shadows on the walls.

Pat clung to his arm, throwing glances over her shoulder.

“Pretty fresh condition,” said Ellery in a mutter, plucking the book from the shelf. ”Cloth hasn’t even begun to fade, and the edges of the pages are clean.”

“What is it?” whispered Pat.

“Edgcomb’s Toxicology.’’’’

“Toxicology!” Pat stared at it in horror.

Ellery sharply scrutinized the binding. Then he let the book fall open in his hands.

It broke obediently to a dog-eared page?the only dog-eared page he could find. The book’s spine showed a deep crack which ran parallel with the place in the book where it had broken open to reveal the dog-eared page.

The three envelopes, then, had been lying between these two pages, thought Ellery. He began to read?to himself.

“What,” said Pat feverishly, “what would Jim Haight be doing with a book on toxicology?”

Ellery looked at her. ”These two facing pages deal with various arse-nious compounds?formulae, morbific effects, detection in organs and tissues, antidotes, fatal dosages, treatment of diseases arising from arse-nious poisoning?”

“Poisoning!”

Ellery laid the book down within the brightest focus of the lamp. His finger pointed to the words in bold type: Arsenious Oxid (AS2O3).

His finger moved down to a paragraph which described arsenious oxid as “white, tasteless, poisonous,” and gave the fatal dosage.

This paragraph had been underlined in light red crayon.

In a quite clear voice that emerged from between wry, unwilling lips, Pat said: “Jim is planning to murder Nora.”

PART TWO

Chapter 9

Burnt Offering

“Jim is planning to murder Nora.”

Ellery set the book upon the shelf. With his back to Pat, he said: “Nonsense.”

“You saw the letters yourself! You read them!”

Mr. Queen sighed. They went downstairs in the dark, his arm about her waist.

Outside, there was the old moon and a stencil of cold stars. Pat shivered against him, and his clasp tightened. They drifted across the silver lawn and came to rest beneath the tallest elm.

“Look at the sky,” said Ellery, “and tell me that again.”

“Don’t feed me philosophy! Or poetry. This is the good old U.S.A. in the Year of Our Madness nineteen-forty. Jim is insane. He must be!” She began to cry.

“The human mind?” began Mr. Queen, and he stopped. He had been about to say that the human mind was a curious and wonderful instrument. But it occurred to him in time that this was a two-way phrase, a Delphic hedge. The fact was . . . it looked bad. Very bad.

“Nora’s in danger,” sobbed Pat. ”Ellery, what am I going to do?”

“Time may spade up some bones of truth, Patty.”

“But I can’t take this alone! Nora?you saw how Nora took it. Ellery, she was scared green. And then . . . just as if nothing had happened. She’s decided already, don’t you see? She’s decided not to believe it. If you waved those letters under her nose, Nora wouldn’t admit anything now! Her mind opened for just a second; now it’s shut down tight, and she’d lie to God.”

“Yes,” said Ellery, and his arms comforted her.

“He was so much in love with her! You saw it all happen. You saw the look on his face that night when they came downstairs to say they were going to be married. Jim was happy. When they got back from their honeymoon, he seemed even happier.” Pat whispered: “Maybe he has gone mad. Maybe that’s been the whole thing all along. A dangerous maniac!”

Ellery said nothing.

“How can I tell Mother? Or my father? It would kill them, and it wouldn’t do any good. And yet?I’ve got to!”

A car throbbed up the Hill in the darkness.

“You’re letting your emotions get in the way of your thinking, Pat,” said Ellery. ”A situation like this calls for observation and caution. And a disciplined tongue.”

“I don’t understand . . . ”

“One false accusation, and you might wreck the lives not only of Jim and Nora, but of your father and mother, too.”

“Yes . . . And Nora waited so long?”

“I said there’s time. There is. We’ll watch, and we’ll see, and meanwhile it will be a secret between us . . . Did I say ‘we’?” Ellery sounded rueful. ”It seems I’ve declared myself in.”

Pat gasped. ”You wouldn’t back out now? I took it for granted. I mean, I’ve counted on you from that first awful moment. Ellery, you’ve got to help Nora! You’re trained to this sort of thing. Please don’t go away!” Pat shook him.

“I just said ‘we,’ didn’t I?” said Ellery, almost irritably. There was something wrong. A sound had gone wrong somewhere. A sound that had stopped. A car? Had that been a car before? It hadn’t passed . . . ”Cry it out now; but when it’s over, it’s over. Do you understand?” And now he shook her.

“Yes,” wept Pat. ”I’m a snuffling fool. I’m sorry.”

“You’re not a fool, but you must be a heroine. No word, no look, no attitude. As far as the rest of Wrightsville is concerned, those letters don’t exist. Jim is your brother-in-law, and you like him, and you’re happy about him and Nora.” She nodded against his shoulder. ”We mustn’t tell your father or mother or Frank Lloyd or?”

Pat raised her head. ”Or whom?”

“No,” said Ellery with a frown. ”I can’t make that decision for you, too.”

“You mean Cart,” said Pat steadily.

“I mean the Prosecutor of Wright County.”

Pat was silent. Ellery was silent. The moon was lower now, its bosom ruffled with slate flounces of cloud.

“I couldn’t tell Carter,” murmured Pat. ”It never even occurred to me. I can’t tell you why. Maybe it’s because he’s connected with the police. Maybe it’s because he’s not in the family?”

“I’m not in the family, either,” said Mr. Queen.

“You’re different!”