I can't explain. It'll delay me another half-hour.'
'I'll tell Mayor Harrison.'
'Tell him. See you.'
'See you,' said Karen Grant.
Varney hung up, and returned the telephone to the public operator.
Quickly, he left the Zion Hotel lobby to cross over to the opposite corner and await Fanny before taking a detour to Dr Holmes's office and then going on to Mayor Harrison's office.
He felt triumphant as the hotel door closed behind him. He just hoped that he had not contracted syphilis too.
Dr Herman Holmes had no sooner pulled on his white medical jacket than the doorbell rang.
He went from his office to the entrance and opened the door.
Fanny, whatever her last name was, stood there, wearing a great feathered hat. She was with the man called Simon, whatever his real name was. Both were unable to conceal their nervousness.
Dr Holmes beckoned them inside, led them to his austere office, and ordered them to be seated.
He lowered himself into a chair behind his desk. 'It won't take long,' he said, 'but allow me to explain the procedure. I'm going to examine you once again, Fanny, in better light, just to be absolutely sure of my diagnosis. Then if necessary, I'll examine you, Mr Simon, to learn if there are any signs of your having the disease.'
'I certainly hope not,' said Varney.
'There's a fifty-fifty chance. If you show no evidence of the disease, you have not a thing to worry about. If you do show any signs of syphilis, I'll treat you just as I'll treat Fanny.'
'I've never had it before,' said Fanny. 'What are you going to do to cure me?'
'If the syphilis has been absorbed into your blood, I'll prescribe the mercury treatment,' explained Dr Holmes. 'I'll give you mercury in the form of pills, and then you'll need – your friend as well – a mercury vapour bath.'
'It won't take long, will it?' asked Varney.
'No more than the examination itself.' Dr Holmes stood up. 'Now follow me down the hall to my examining- room.'
'I thought you were going to examine us here,' said Fanny, rising.
'I prefer to undertake examinations of this sort in an isolated room,' said Dr Holmes. 'Please come along.'
He walked them both to the rear and pushed a button, sliding open the door to his airtight room.
'Come inside,' he ordered.
Dr Holmes went into the chamber, followed by a bewildered Fanny and Varney.
The physician led them to an oversized examining-table in the centre of the room, and waved his hand at the features of the room around him.
'The sheeting and covered windows are to give absolute assurance of privacy. I suggest you both undress and seat yourselves side by side on the examining table.'
'Together?' Fanny asked. 'Both of us at the same time?'
'Do it,' Holmes replied sharply.
Turning his back, he left the room. Once outside the room, he secured the heavy door.
He walked leisurely to his office.
Once at his desk, he took up a pipe, filled it, lit it and smoked, taking his time to give them the interval to undress. Their nakedness would save him a lot of time later.
After three or four minutes, he put his pipe down in a copper ashtray, and strolled over to the concealed levers.
Coolly, he flipped on the lever that would send gas into the room where Fanny and Varney awaited his reappearance. The poisonous gas would begin to pour from four jets into the airtight room. In seconds Fanny and her friend would become aware of it. In a minute, they would realize that something was amiss. In a few minutes, they would begin choking, strangling, crying for help.
But no one anywhere would hear their pleas.
Dr Holmes smiled broadly. He pulled out his watch. In five minutes they would be asphyxiated. First one, then the other, would drop to the floor.
He peered at his watch.
One more minute and they would be dead.
The Everleigh Club would be safe for Dr Herman Holmes.
The watch in his hand ticked on. A full minute had passed.
The two of them were dead. The double-crossers had been silenced for ever.
Dr Holmes turned off the gas. Then he pressed a second lever upward to open the narrow windows on top of the secret room. This clearing process usually took about ten minutes.
In fifteen minutes, the chamber would be safe for the return of Dr Holmes.
Waiting, Holmes shuffled through several medical journals, but had no patience with them. He had recently purchased two novels by E. P. Roe and George Barr McCutcheon. He picked up the Roe book and tried to begin reading, but his excitement made it too hard to continue. He brought up his watch twice, and after twelve minutes had passed he threw the novel aside, walked out of his office, and made for the lethal chamber.
Parting the sliding doors, he stepped inside. A faint aroma of gas was still in the air. Inhaling, Holmes was satisfied the chamber was clear enough. His eyes held on the two bodies crumpled on the floor in front of the examining table. Fanny was nude, but, curiously, the man named Simon had not undressed.
Holmes went to them, kneeled, and felt for a pulse.
No beat in either.
Dead. Both dead.
Pleased, Holmes took hold of Fanny underneath her armpits and dragged her to the trap door leading to the basement. Lowering her to the floor, Holmes tugged open the trap door. Unceremoniously, Holmes lifted Fanny's corpse, settled it into the chute, and let go. It slid down and away and out of sight. Then he sent her clothes down after her.
Holmes decided he'd dispose of Fanny first, before coming back to get rid of Simon. Holmes strode to the second trap door, yanked it free, and carefully descended the staircase.
Once downstairs, Holmes opened the furnace and started a fire. He turned to lift up Fanny's body, carried it to the tank of quicklime, and lowered it inside. After a short interval, he emptied the tank, and, donning long rubber gloves, picked up Fanny's corpse and carried it to his dissection table. He stretched the remains out flat, peeled off his gloves, picked up a scalpel, and resumed his work.
Slowly, with considerable precision, Holmes dismembered the body part by part, until seven parts lay before him.
Opening the furnace, he took each part and tossed it into the blazing kiln. Then he threw in her clothes.
He shut the furnace. While the remains were being cremated, Holmes carefully washed and cleaned the dissecting-table. When he was satisfied, he went to the staircase and climbed up into the secret chamber.
There was still the man to be dealt with. Holmes headed for this second corpse, prepared to cast it down the chute, when he hesitated.
Simon's complete disappearance might not deter Mayor Harrison's investigation, Holmes decided.
He thought about it some more. If Simon's body could be found, and identified, the mayor would somehow learn about it. This would shock Harrison, and remind him that his effort to infiltrate the Everleigh Club had been of no avail. This might deter Harrison from risking another agent to expose the Club.
Holmes stared down at the lifeless body. Finally, Holmes went to his knees and began to search Simon's trousers and jacket. There was only a wallet stuffed with money and a pack of richly embossed calling-cards that plainly identified the man as Jack Simon, president of Quality Beer Company in St Louis. Obviously a fake – but it had been enough to gain Simon entrance to the Everleigh Club, and it would be enough to have the corpse brought sooner or later to the mayor's attention.
Instantly, Holmes's mind was made up.
No chute, no quicklime, no dismemberment, no cremation for Jack Simon.
His corpse would be found whole, a victim of murder, but whole and identifiable.
That surely would give Harrison pause and make the mayor quit his investigation.
Dr Herman Holmes would then have the Everleigh Club to himself.
