Calamity Town

He was never far from Nora’s room.

On the third day after the crime, he caught Patty as she came out and beckoned her upstairs to his room.

He latched the door.

“Pat, I’ve been thinking.”

“I hope it’s done you good.” Pat was listless.

“When Dr. Willoughby was here this morning, I heard him talk to Dakin on the phone. Your County Coroner, Salemson, has cut his vacation short, and he’s come back to town on the double. Tomorrow there will be an inquest.”

“Inquest!”

“It’s the law, darling.”

“You mean we’ll have to . . . leave the house?”

“Yes. And testify, I’m afraid.”

“Not Nora!”

“No. Willoughby refuses to let her leave her bed. I heard him say so to Dakin.”

“Ellery . . . what are they going to do?”

“Establish the facts for the record. Try to get at the truth.”

Pat said: “The truth?” and looked terrified.

“Pat,” said Ellery gravely, “you and I are at the crossroads in this labyrinth?”

“Meaning?” But she knew what he meant.

“This is no longer a potential crime. It’s a crime that’s happened. A woman has died?the fact that she died by accident makes no difference, since a murder was planned and a murder was executed. So the law comes into it . . . ” Ellery said grimly . . . ”a most efficient law, I must say . . . and from now on it’s snoop, sniff, and hunt until all the truth is known.”

“What you’re trying to say, and are saying so badly,” said Pat steadily, “is that we’ve got to go to the police with what we know . . . and they don’t.”

“It’s within our power to send Jim Haight to the electric chair.”

Patty sprang to her feet. Ellery pressed her hand.

“It can’t be that clear! You’re not convinced yourself! Even I’m not, and I’m her sister . . . ”

“We’re talking now about facts and conclusions from facts,” said Ellery irritably. ”Feelings don’t enter into it?they certainly won’t with Dakin, although they might with Bradford. Don’t you realize you and I are in possession of four pieces of information not known to the police?four facts that convict Jim of having plotted and all but carried out the murder of Nora?”

“Four?” faltered Pat. ”As many as that?”

Ellery sat her down again. She looked up at him with her forehead all tight and wrinkled. ”Fact one: the three letters written by Jim and now at the bottom of Nora’s hatbox next door?the three letters establishing his anticipation of her death at a time when she wasn’t even ill! Clearly premeditation.”

Pat moistened her lips.

“Fact two: Jim’s desperate need for money. This fact, which we know because he’s been pawning Nora’s jewelry and demanding money of her, plus the fact Dakin knows?that on Nora’s death Jim would come into a large inheritance?combined would fix a powerful motive.”

“Yes. Yes . . . ”

“Fact three: the toxicology book belonging to Jim, with its underlined section in Jim’s characteristic red crayon . . . a section dealing with arsenious trioxid, the very poison with which subsequently Nora’s cocktail was spiked and from which Nora nearly died.

“And fourth,” Ellery shook his head, “something I alone can establish, because I had Jim under observation every moment New Year’s Eve: the fact that no one but Jim could have put poison into the fatal cocktail, or did. So I’m in a position to establish that Jim not only had the best opportunity to poison that drink, but the only opportunity.”

“And that doesn’t even include his threat against Nora that afternoon when we brought him away from the Hot Spot blind drunk?when he said he was going to get rid of her. Dakin heard it, Cart heard it . . . ”

“Or,” added Ellery gently, “the two previous occasions on which Nora’s been poisoned by arsenic?Thanksgiving and Christmas, coinciding with the dates of Jim’s first two letters . . . Pretty conclusive, put together, Patty. How could anyone disbelieve, knowing all this, that Jim planned Nora’s death?”

“Yet you don’t believe it,” said Pat.

“I didn’t say that,” said Ellery slowly. ”I said . . . ” He shrugged. ”The point is: We’ve got to decide now. Do we talk at the inquest tomorrow, or don’t we?”

Pat bit a fingernail. ”But suppose Jim is innocent? How can I?how can you?set up as judge and jury and condemn somebody to death? Somebody you know? Ellery, I couldn’t.” Pat made faces, a distressed young woman. ”Besides,” she said eagerly, “he won’t try it again, Ellery! Not now. Not after he killed his sister by mistake. Not after the whole thing’s out and the police?I mean, if he did . . . ”

Ellery rubbed his hands together as if they itched, walking up and down before her, frowning, scowling.

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he said at last. ”We’ll put it up to Nora.” Pat stared. ”She’s the victim, Jim’s her husband. Yes, let Nora make the decision. What do you say?”

Pat sat still for a moment.

Then she got up and went to the door. ”Mother’s asleep, Pop’s at the bank, Ludie’s downstairs in the kitchen, Lola’s next door . . . ”

“So Nora’s alone now.”

“And Ellery.”

Ellery unlatched his door.

“Thanks for being such a swell clam?”

He opened the door.

“Taking such a personal risk?being involved?”

He gave her a little push toward the stairs.

* * *

Nora lay in a knot under the blue comforter, staring at the ceiling.

Scared through and through, thought Ellery.

“Nora.” Pat went quickly to the bed, took Nora’s thin hand between both her brown ones. ”Do you feel strong enough to talk?”

Nora’s eyes flew from her sister to Ellery, and then darted into hiding like timid birds.

“What is it? What’s the matter?” Her voice was tight with pain. ”Is Jim-did they??”

“Nothing’s happened, Nora,” said Ellery.

“It’s just that Ellery feels?I feel?it’s time the three of us understood one another,” said Pat. Then she cried: “Nora, please! Don’t shut yourself up! Listen to us!”

Nora braced herself and pushed against the bed until she was sitting up. Pat leaned over her, and for an instant, she looked like Hermy. She drew the edges of Nora’s bed jacket together.

Nora stared at them.

“Don’t be frightened,” said Ellery. Pat propped the pillow against Nora’s shoulders and sat down on the edge of the bed and took Nora’s hand again. And then in a quiet voice Ellery told Nora what he and Pat had learned?from the beginning. Nora’s eyes grew larger and larger.

“I tried to talk to you,” cried Pat, “but you wouldn’t listen! Nora, why?”

Nora whispered: “Because it isn’t true. Maybe at first I thought . . . But it’s not. Not Jim. You don’t know Jim. He’s scared of people, so he acts cocky. But inside he’s like a little boy. When you’re alone with him. And he’s weak. Much too weak to?to do what you think he did. Oh, please!”