“Yes,” said O’Leary, answering the unspoken inquiry. “Yes. It was Dr. Letheny.”
“Dr. Letheny!” cried Jim Gainsay.
“Not—not Dr. Letheny,” faltered Dr. Balman.
“It was Dr. Letheny,” repeated O’Leary quietly.
“I knew it!” cried Corole. “I knew it!”
No one looked at her. Our eyes were without exception fastened upon O’Leary’s face.
“How do you know?” I said at last.
O’Leary glanced about the room in indecision, then he shrugged.
“As well here as anywhere,” he said. “How did I know that it was Letheny? Why did not Higgins rouse the place? Because he saw the head doctor in this room. Why was there need to hunt for the radium? Because that man who hid the stuff was dead; Dr. Letheny, disturbed about the ugly business, afraid of being caught with it in his possession, hid the thing in the loud speaker, thinking no one saw him. And only Higgins knew where it was, and Higgins, terrified at what he had seen, was afraid to tell for he knew that someone—someone had come upon Letheny and killed him and Higgins hoped to escape the same fate. And since there were—others desiring the radium, a hunt was made for it. A search that was finally successful.” His clear gray eyes went from Corole to Hajek.
“But just as Dr. Letheny was about to leave the room another man came upon the scene, determined to take the radium for himself. Then—I don’t know exactly what happened but the two men struggled and in the struggle Dr. Letheny’s head struck with such force that it killed him—this”—he crossed the room to the massive, square-cornered lavatory. “I am sure of that,” went on O’Leary, “for I examined it before a thing in the room had been touched. The other man, frightened perhaps, knowing that he was in desperate danger of being charged with murder, dragged Dr. Letheny’s body into that closet, locked the door and got rid of the key, hoping to postpone the discovery of Dr. Letheny’s death for as long as possible and thus cover his own tracks. But first he found that the radium was not to be found and knew that Letheny must have hidden it somewhere in the room. He did not dare search for it then, he would have to return. He retreated by the way he had come, through the window, there, and—and crawled through the window of his own room in the hospital in time to answer Miss Keate who, by that time, was pounding on the door.”
His eyes went to Dr. Hajek, whose face was quite ghastly.
O’Leary forestalled the words on Dr. Hajek’s lips.
“Not now,” he said sternly. “You will have plenty of time to talk—later.”
“Then—then you feel sure it was Dr. Letheny who killed Jackson?” asked Dr. Balman incredulously.
“Positive,” said O’Leary. “As further proof, the revolver that belongs to Miss Letheny bears Dr. Letheny’s finger prints. Why should he bring a revolver to a hospital if his errand was entirely peaceful? He wanted the radium, he needed the money—I honestly believe that the man wanted the money for research.” There was a shade of pity in O’Leary’s voice. “And as to the mechanics of the situation, Dr. Letheny must have made up his mind quite suddenly to secure the radium for his own use; he came to St. Ann’s—I wonder what his feelings were when he examined the patient whom he was soon to rob, I do not think the murder was intentional—then, presumably he left. Outside the hospital he accidentally came upon Miss Day and detained her for some time—er—seizing her sleeve as she attempted to return to the wing, and in so doing detached her cuff link. Is that right, Miss Day?”
Without a word Maida nodded assent but her deep, blue eyes shot a glance of gratitude toward the young detective.
“Then, determining to carry out his hastily formed plan for stealing the radium, he watched his chance and while Miss Day was busy in the kitchen and Miss Keate was detained for some fifteen minutes in—Room 11?”
“Room 11,” I said.
“—he must have slipped along the corridor into the drug room and helped himself to morphine tablets and hypodermic needle and hurried back, unseen, to Room 18. Jackson very likely never knew what happened, but Dr. Letheny was safe because, in the first place, Jackson was not surprised at the presence of his doctor and would have had no occasion to object to a hypodermic injection, and furthermore, on waking from a drugged sleep, impressions immediately preceding that sleep are vague and confused and could scarcely be given as evidence. I do not believe that Dr. Letheny intended to make the dose fatal; I believe he only intended that Jackson should know nothing of the radium being removed, but in his natural excitement Dr. Letheny either misjudged the dose he was giving or the resistive powers of his patient, with the result that we know. Dr. Letheny tossed the needle through the open window, where it was later found. In the main, I believe I am right; there may be slight discrepancies. One can’t be absolutely sure when both—er—participants are dead.”
There was a moment of tense silence. Then Corole spoke.
“So it was Louis,” she said in a tone of ugly satisfaction. “I knew it. I knew it all along for I watched—” She checked herself.
O’Leary turned sharply.
“Just a moment,” he said coldly. “Your skirts are not entirely clear. There is Higgins’s death yet to explain, and the theft of the radium.”
“I knew nothing about Higgins’s death,” cried Corole.
“Go on, Mr. O’Leary,” begged Dr. Balman. Under the light his face looked drawn and aged.
“From that night on the struggle has been for the discovery and possession of the radium. It was thought, by those
