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Show MURDER CASE fljL S.$.VanDine w.n.u. CHAPTER X Continued 16 Vance appeared to accept his explanation ex-planation without question. "And what time did you' arrive here that evening, Major?" Higginbottom seemed to ponder the question; but before he could speak Annie supplied the" Information. Informa-tion. "You arrived about six o'clock, sir," she Informed him with a respectful re-spectful naivete. "And Miss Doris came in at half-past seven." "Ah, yes. Quite right, Annie." The major pretended to be grateful for having this moot point recalled to his memory. "Miss Delafleld," he explained blandly to Vance, "said she had been shopping." Vance turned to the maid. ''By the by, Annie," he asked, "was the dog here during dinner?" "Oh, yes, sir," the woman assured as-sured him. "She always gets under un-der my feet when I'm serving." "And how do you account for the fact that she disappeared Immediately Immedi-ately after Major Higginbottom and Miss Delafleld had gone?" "I don't know, sir honest I don't. I looked for her everywhere. I looked out in the back yard and in the court, and I went through every rear hallway in the house. But she wasn't anywhere." i, "Why didn't you look In the street?" Vance asked. "Oh, she couldn't have got idto the street," the maid explained. "She was in the kitchen and the dining room here, sir; and only the front door of the living room leads into the main hall. But that was closed and locked after Miss Doris and Mr. Higgonbottom went out." "Then, as I understand it, the dog could only have gone into the rear yard?" "Yes, sir; that's all. And that's the strange thing about it, sir; for if she had been in the rear yard, I would have found her." "Did you look In the vacant lot mm next door, between this house and Mr. Coe's residence?" "I looked there, too, sir, though I knew it wouldn't do any good. There's no way she could have gotten got-ten through the ga'te, for It's always al-ways kept locked." Vance did not speak for a moment; mo-ment; then he asked with unwonted unwont-ed seriousness: "At Just what time, Annie, did you start your search for the dog? It is quite important that you be accurate." ac-curate." "I can tell you almost exactly, sir," the woman answered, without hesitation. "It was when I was through with my dishes and the housework. Miss Doris and Mr. Higginbottom went out at nine o'clock, and when I had straightened straight-ened everything up, It was exactly half-pest ten." Vance nodded. "How do you account ac-count for the dog's disappearance, Annie?" "I can't account for it, sir. At first, when I couldn't find her, I thought maybe some delivery boy, m 1 ' Jfl "She Always Gets Under My Feet When I'm Serving." or one of the expressmen, had stolon her. She's a sly little devil, she Is. And very sweet And she has a lovable nature Almost anyone any-one could get her tn 'ollow them. But no one had been here after seven o'clock that evening." She turned to the major beseechingly. beseech-ingly. "I'm terribly sorry, sir, honest I m. I loved little Miss MacTav- rLsh " "That's quite all ridit. Annie." Vance said in a kindly tone. "Miss MncTnvish is well and happy." He turned to Higdnbottmn. "By the by." he asked, "where did you get Miss MacTavish, Major?" Ma-jor?" "I bought her from Mr. Henry Bixby, when she was five months old, and I turned her over immediately imme-diately to Miss Delafiekl," the major ma-jor said regretfully. "Doris became attached to her and Insisted upon showing her. I tried to discourage her " "She was quite worthy of being shown," said Vance. . . . "So you drove out to Mr. William Prentice's and had him trim her for the ring eh, what? .' . . But why did you enter en-ter her under your own name at Englewood?" "By gad, I don't know." The major ma-jor seemed thoroughly disgusted with himself. "One of those foolish fool-ish things we all do." He looked ap-pealingly ap-pealingly at Vance, who nodded sympathetically. "Mr. Bixby made out the papers In my name," the major continued, "and I never took the trouble to have the dog re-transferred. re-transferred. It never occurred to me that Doris would want to show her. So I filled out the blank and there you are. Trouble, trouble, trouble. ... Is there anything else, Mr. Vance?" "No, I think not. . . . Only, I'd like to ask Annie another question." He turned to the maid. "Annie," he said, "what kind of lipstick does Miss Delafleld use?" The maid seemed greatly surprised sur-prised at. this question and stared at Vance. Then she shot a quick glance at Higginbottom. "Well, do you know, or don't you, Annie?" the major asked her severely. se-verely. "Yes, sir, I know. Miss Doris sent me to Broadway to the drug store only Wednesday morning to buy her a lipstick." "Well, tell Mr. Vance what kind it was." "It was a Duplex Carmine or something like that ; Miss Doris wrote it out for me," she said. "Thanks awfully, Annie. That will be all." As we emerged Into Seventy-first street, the major expressed his curiosity curi-osity iD a question. "What about that lipstick, sir?" "Nothing serious I hope," Vance returned casually. "I just wanted to clear up a little point. An empty holder of Duplaix's Carmine lipstick lip-stick was found In the waste-paper basket In Mr. Coe's library Thursday morning." "By gad ! You don't say !" The major, however, did not seem particularly par-ticularly perturbed. "Doris must have dropped In on Archer Coe to say good-by." "Oh, she knew him, then?" The major nodded sourly. "I Introduced her to him about a year ago. She visited him occasionally, occasion-ally, I understand." Vance held out his hand. " "Well, Major, I want to thank you for your help. I'll let you know or any developments in connection with the little Scottle. In the meantime mean-time you may rest assured she Is being taken care of." "What should I do now?" asked the major. "Well," returned Vance cheerfully, cheer-fully, "if I were you, I'd go home and get a good night's rest" When he had gone, Vance entered en-tered his car, which was waiting outside the Belle Malson, and gave orders to be driven at once to the Criminal Courts building. As sood as we were shown Into Markham's ottice, Vance threw himself Into a chair and, lying back, closed his eyes. "1 have a bit of news. Markham, old dear," he announced. "I'm most grateful." Markham reached Into a drawer for a fresh cigar. "What might it be?" Vance sank even deeper into his chair. "I think 1 know who killed the Coe brothers." CHAPTER XI Death and Revelations. MAUKHAM leaned forward In his chair, and gave Vance a quizzical look. "You positively stagger me," he said. "What name shall I write ou the warrant?" 'Too much haste, Markham." Vance rein-imanded him. "Far too much haste. There are various little things to be done little knots to be tied before the arm of the law can pounce upon the culprit-only, culprit-only, arms don't pounce, do they?" "In that case, perhaps you could bring yourself to confide In me." Markham still spoke ironically. "I assume that you know how the crimes were committed." j "Alas, no!" Vance shook his head lugubriously. "That's the chief rea-! son why I shall hoard my theory as ! to who perpetrated thorn. I could ' make out an excellent case against ". the murderer for the doing-In of Archer. My great dilliculty. however, how-ever, would be that there was no point whatever In the murderer's killing Brisbane. Motive is lacking ! fact that particular murder Is meaningless from a logical point of view. But I'm sure the murderer murder-er most passionately desired the deatb of Archer. And yet, it would be utterly unreasonable to accuse him of killing Archer he apparently apparent-ly couldn't possibly have done it. . . And there you are. Do you not sympathize with me in my predicament?" pre-dicament?" "I'm on the point of bursting into tears," returned Markham. "But Just what do you propose doing to extricate yourself from your embarrassing embar-rassing situation?" "1 propose to go to the Coe house and ask many questions of its inmates. Will you accompany me?" Markham glanced at the clock on the wall and rang for Swacker. "I'm leaving for the day," he told his secretary. And taking his hat and coat from the stand in the corner, cor-ner, he went toward the private entrance en-trance door. "I'm Interested," he said, " in a mild way. . . . But what about Heath?" "Oh, the sergeant, by all means," Vance replied. "He's definitely indicated." indi-cated." We got into Vance's car, picked up the sergeant, who seemed unusually un-usually surly, and drove uptown. At Fifty-ninth street and Fifth avenue llllllH.liilfeilllllllllil Wrede Was Bowled Over Back-wards. Back-wards. we entered Central Park. I noticed a familiar figure seated on one of the benches just beyond the cut privet hedge, a little distance from the roadway; and at that moment Vance leaned over and gave an order or-der to the chauffeur to halt the car. "Wrede Is communing with his soul on yon bench," he said. "And he was one of the persons with whom 1 wished to have parley. I think I'll toddle over and put a few questions to him." He opened the door of the car. We followed him. Wrede was sitting with his back to us, perhaps a hundred feet away, gazing over the lake. Just as we came opposite him along the hedge, 1 noticed the rotund figure of En-right En-right walking down the path toward the bench on which Wrede sat. He had the Doberman Pinscher on a leash. "Well, well," Vance remarked ; "the talkative Mr. Enright Is Invading Invad-ing new territory. Perhaps Ru-precht Ru-precht tired of the vista over the reservoir. . . ." Just then an amazing thing happened. hap-pened. The Doberman suddenly halted In his tracks, drew back a foot or two, and crouched down as if In terror. Then, with a curious whine, he bounded forward, for-ward, dragging his leash from the astonished Enright's hand. He leapt straight toward Wrede. Wrede turned his head toward the dog, drew back, and started to rise. But he was too late. The Doberman sprang at him with unerring aim and fastened his powerful fangs in the man's neck. Wrede was bowled over backwards, with the dog on top of him growling throat-ily. throat-ily. It was a terrible sight Sergeant Heath yelled at the top of his voice in a futile effort to distract dis-tract the dog, and jumped over the hedge with an alacrity that amazed me. As he ran toward the struggling strug-gling Wrede. he drew his revolver. Vance looked on with a coldness that I could not understand. "There's Justice In that Markham," he commented, lighting a cigarette with steady fingers. Heath had now reached the dog and placed the revolver against Its head. There were two sharp reports. The Doberman stagcered forward on its side and went limp, lying very still. When we reached Wrede, there was no movement In his body. He lay on his back, his eyes staring, his arms, drawn up. as motionless as death. His throat was red. and a great pool of blood had formed under his head. It was a sight I wish 1 had never seen. Enright came lumbering up, his mouth open, his face the color of chalk. "My G d i oh, my G d :" he muttered over and over. Vance stood looking down at Wrede, smoking complacently. Lie turned to Enright "It's quite all right, don't y' know," he said in a hard voice. "It serves him jolly well right. He'd beaten and misused the animal In some outrageous fashion; and this is the dog's revenge.'1 I Vance knelt down and felt th. prostrate man's pulse. Then he stood up and shrugged. "He's quite dead, Markham," he said without the slightest emotion. "The dog's fangs severed the jugu lar vein and the carotid artery. Wrede died almost at once frc the profuse hemorrhage and, pos sibly, an air embolism. . . . No use rushing him to a doctor." "And what do you want me to do?" wailed the frightened Enright. Vance answered him. "Co home and take a stiff drink and try to forget the episode. If we need you, we'll call on you." Enright made an attempt to answer, an-swer, but failing, he turned and waddled away into the gathering mist. "Let's be going, Markham," suggested sug-gested Vance. "Wrede's appearance doesn't charm me, and the sergeant will look after things." He turned to Heath. "By the by, Sergeant, we'll be at the Coe home. Join us there after the ambulance comes." Heath nodded without looking up. He still stood, revolver in hand, gazing down at the dead body of Wrede, like a man hypnotized. "Who'd have thought a dog could do it !" he mumbled. "Personally I feel rather grateful to the Doberman," Vance said in a low voice, as he walked away toward to-ward his parked car. It was only two blocks to the Coe residence and nothing was said en route; but when we were seated in the library, Markham broke the silence si-lence by trying to put into words his baffled state of mind. "There's something queer about all this, Vance your interest In chat Doberman Pinscher, and then to have him attack Wrede in that brutal fashion. And I can't see that we're getting anywhere. There's just one tragedy after another, an-other, without any light on the case. 1 suppose you see some connection between the Scottish terrier and the Doberman. Would you mind telling me what was in your mind when you looked up Enright?" "There was nothing cryptic about it, my dear Markham." Vance was moving about the room aimlessly, looking at the various vases and objets d'art. "When the sergeant told me that Wrede owned a dog, I was particularly interested, for he wasn't the type of man that could love any animal. He was an enforced en-forced egoist, with a somewhat violent vio-lent inferiority complex His egoism. ego-ism. In fact, had been automatically automatical-ly built up to cover his complete lack of confidence In himself. He had a shrewd, unscrupulous brain which he was unable to use in any practical way. And he was constantly con-stantly In need of substitutes for his sense of inferiority. It is not uncommon uncom-mon for persons of his nature to go in for dumb animals. They do not do so because of any instinctive liking for the animals, but because, having failed to Impress themselves upon their equals, they can bully and torment tor-ment an animal, and thus give themselves a feeling of heroism and superiority. The animal Is merely an outlet for their lack of self-confidence; and, at the same time, the animal gratifies their profound pro-found Instinct for domination. The moment I heard that Wrede had owned a dogK I wanted to see the dog, for I was sure he had mistreated mis-treated It And when I saw the Doberman's frightened and timid demeanor, I knew that he had suffered suf-fered horribly at Wrede's hands. Markham, th.it Doberman showed all the signs of having been beaten and abused and that fitted perfectly perfect-ly with my estimate of Wrede's character." "But." objected Markham, "the Doberman certainly showed no timidity tim-idity at the sight of Wrede. He was aggressive and vicious ugh 1" "He had regained his confidence In himself," Vance explained. "En-right's "En-right's kindness and benevolent treatment after the dog's terrible experience at Wrede's hands, was what, In the end, revived the Doberman's Do-berman's courage sufficiently to kill Wrede." He sat down and lighted another cigarette. "Almost any man may be a murderer, mur-derer, but only a certain type of man can injure a dog the way that Scottle was injured here the other night. By striking that little bitch over the head, the murderer left his signature on the crime. . . . Now do you understand why I was so interested In Wrede's Doberman Pinscher?" Markham leaned forward. "Do you mean to say that Wrede?" Vance held up. his hand. "Just a moment I want to talk to Liang. There are certain thines to be explained. Perhaps Liang will tell us now." Before Gamble had brought In the Chinaman, Heath arrived. He was pale and upset. He nodded abstractedly ab-stractedly and sat down. Liang entered the library from the dining room and stood respectfully respect-fully at the door, without looking at any of us. Vance rose and went to him, holding hold-ing out his cigarette case. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |