OCR Text |
Show MM BLACK mSJ. Iffes SOMBREROOpk f3l''$wTCLIFFORD KNIGHT i Elsa ChatHeld li disinherited by tier Aunt Kitty who died of an overdoie of morphine. Hunt Rogers and Barry Madl-ton Madl-ton to to Mexico to solve what they believe be-lieve to be Aunt Kitty's murder. On arriving ar-riving they find that Elsa's party has preceded them by plane. James Chese-bro Chese-bro Is murdered, Elsa's father, Sam, meets death from the sword of a marlln when his chair breaks, toppling him Into the sea, and George Rumble Is murdered and thrown into the sea near the dock. Rogers questions Berta, Sam's wife, and on examining the quirt wilh which Elsa had beaten Chescbro discovers by twisting twist-ing tho knob that It conceals the knife that killed C'besebro. Now Continue. CIIAPTER XVIII "In the presence of Senor Lom-bardo Lom-bardo and realizing the implication In it that you killed Chesebro?" For only a fraction of a second did she hesitate, then she answered calmly, "Yes." Senor Otilio Lombardo, jefe del policia, came up the Orizaba's ladder lad-der the next day but one, followed by Dr. Miguel Cruz. On the heels of the doctor came the barefooted, ragged mariachfs, Felipe and Pan-cho. Pan-cho. "I have puzzled much, gentlemen," gentle-men," remarked Lombardo in English Eng-lish after cigarettes had been lighted, light-ed, "about the confession of Senorita Chatfield that she killed Senor Chesebro. Chese-bro. I do not understand It, and I v take no action. I had come that evening persuaded that It was better, bet-ter, despite your promise, that I keep Senor Barton In jail for the murder of Senor Rumble. But when Senorita Chatfield speak I am confused, con-fused, senor, and do not know what Is best to do." A faint smile twitched at Rogers' lips and he looked away across the bay to the shore where the coco palms seemed to shoot like bursting green rockets Into the sky. "There are many confusing things In this affair, senor," he remarked. "They have puzzled me too, but I believe that I can explain them all now." "I would be very glad if you would." "Four persons have died, Senor Lombardo Katherine Chatfield in California; James Chesebro, Sam Chatfield and George Rumble, in Mexico. The explanation must include in-clude all four. It must be logical and there must be proof." . "Yes, of course," said Rogers. , "Sam Chatfield and his wife, Berta, Ber-ta, arrived In California for their annual visit a year ago last winter. They stopped at a hotel In Pasadena, Pasa-dena, and, uninvited, went to spend the night with his sister, Katherine Kather-ine Elsa's Aunt Kitty. That night Katherine Chatfield was murdered. ine meinoa usea was an overdose of morphine, to which drug she was an addict, taking it hypodermically. A very faint odor of chloroform detected de-tected the next morning by only one Investigator furnishes the single clue to what happened. A few drops of chloroform on a handkerchief, I believe, be-lieve, suddenly held to the unsuspecting unsus-pecting victim's nose, and kept in place during the brief and violent struggle which probably followed, and the . victim was unconscious. There was necessary only to load the hypodermic with an overdose of morphine and shoot it into the unconscious victim, wipe away all fingerprints from the syringe and the supply bottle, and press the prints of the victim on these things. Simple?" "It is most simple, Senor Rogers," Rog-ers," said Lombardo, a serious expression ex-pression upon his round, brown face, j "Either a man or a woman could have done that, senor," Rogers be-J be-J gan again. "Now, consider these j facts: Present in the house, besides the servants, who do not figure In it j alT. was Sam Chatfield. He knew that his sister was the mother of a child. He knew that she not only had refused to acknowledge the fact, but had permitted his daughter. Elsa, El-sa, to be cruelly slandered, and not , only had done nothing to quiet the i gossip, but most likely had been in-; in-; stnimental in circulating it "Also in the house that night was Elsa, who openly and frankly at all ( times, as you heard the other night, jj aa admitted that she hated her aunt. Besides these two there was J Benora Berta Chatfield, who ever j ince she married Sam had resent-I resent-I ed the treatment given her by ber sister-in-law, and who, as a wife, knew how her husband felt A toward Katherine Chatfield. n "There, Senor Lombardo," Rog-j Rog-j rs continued, "I have named three Persons with motives to kill and ob-; ob-; viously with the opportunity to do J w. But there were othets that C tdght who came and went George Rumble, who had done some pub-! pub-! "City work for Katherine Chatfield, came to receive his pay, which was i refused him. There was an argu- aent and hot words, and Rumble V But he remained in the neigh-borhood neigh-borhood uncertain whether or not lf ' b should return. Did he go back fl tad kill her?" ' Rogers was developing very logi-; logi-; cally the facts In that first claying, "d lombardo followed his words Closely. Doctor Cruz 8at smoking ,4i comhusk cigarettes endlessly, bis f, eyelids making mere slits for bis eyes. Neither spoke. A "That night, also," Rogers went J ? evenly, "Reed Barton was at -i Catherine Chatfleld's home to give i J book sent by Chesebro. Reed I been very frank to admit that his father's death a suicide can be laid at the dead woman's door. A little leniency shown in a critical time would have saved his property for him. Did Reed Barton kill her? "James Chesebro arrived and departed de-parted that night; we do not know why, the reason for his visit never having been explained before his death. Did he have some motive to kill the woman? Next came Dwight Nichols." Rogers nodded " in Dwight's direction. The'latter merely mere-ly sat and smoked calmly, listening without offering to interrupt. "Dwight Nichols profited by some two hundred thousand dollars at the dath of Katherine Chatfield, because be-cause of some jointly owned property. proper-ty. Dwight has stated that he was summoned, for some reason unknown un-known to him, to advise with Miss Chatfield. Margaret Nichols was jealous of Katherine Chatfield, because be-cause she feared her husband's love was being stolen from her. She, also, made a visit that night. However, How-ever, Mrs. Nichols says she got only as far as the entrance hall when someone dashed out of the house in panic, someone who, she says, did not see her concealed behind some drapery. That person admittedly "And finally, there Is Elsa," said Rogers thoughtfully. was her husband. Dwight Nichols says that he arrived only to find Katherine Chatfield dead. Is he telling tell-ing the truth? Is his wife telling the truth; did either, or both, of them kill the woman?" Rogers halted to sip from his frosty glass. "It is all very strange, Senor Rogers," Rog-ers," said Lombardo, stirring uneasily un-easily in his chair. "How can you discover the truth In so complicated compli-cated a case?" Rogers smiled faintly, and I thought that there was the merest twinkle in his mild blue eyes. "If," he began again, "we exclude from suspicion all those persons who subsequently sub-sequently died by violence Chesebro, Chese-bro, Sam Chatfield, George Rumble as victims of and not themselves the probable killer, whom have we left?" He glanced from Doctor Cruz to Lombardo, then named them: "Elsa Chatfield, Senora Berta Chatfield, Chat-field, Margaret Nichols, Dwight Nichols, and Reed Barton. Those five. "Now, then," Rogers said, a crisp-ness crisp-ness coming into his voice, "we come to the death of James Chesebro. Chese-bro. Of these five who could possibly possi-bly wish him to die? Senora Berta Chatfield? I can think of no reason; I know of no motive, in fact. On the other hand, Reed Barton and Chesebro Chese-bro quarreled with each other over the love of Elsa Chatfield. Chesebro Chese-bro had discharged Barton from his employ. An excellent motive," he commented. "But Dwight Nichols had been defrauded by Chesebro of fifty thousand dollars in a mining deal. That is a lot of money. Men have been murdered before now for much less, Senor Lombardo. And how about Margaret Nichols, the wife? Again fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money to a woman." "Yes, of course, much money," murmured Lombardo, absorbed In his own mental processes. "And, finally, there is Elsa," said Rogers thoughtfully. "Hers Is a stronger motive than all the others put together, senor. A young woman's wom-an's good name is her most valuable possession. You are Mexican, and can understand the word revenge. Elsa was willing night before last to permit the inference that she had killed Chesebro. Senor, is Pedro, the pulque seller, a lying scoundrel who seeks to protect a woman, or does he tell the truth when he says that Dwight Nichols is the one who killed?" Lombardo's face was puzzled; he was now hopelessly at sea. A frown had gathered on the forehead between be-tween the slitted eyes of Doctor Cruz as he followed the intricacies of the problem as set forth by Rogers. Rog-ers. As for Rogers, I could not escape the conviction that he was enjoying himself hugely at the expense ex-pense of Lombardo. His face, however, how-ever, was more solemn than that of a judge. Lombardo started slightly at Rogers' question. "Yo no se, senor," he admitted, reverting o Spanish in his confusion. confu-sion. "I think, Senor Lombardo," said Rogers, dropping with a smile into Spanish, "you will let Pedro out of jail when I finish telling you who is the guilty person." Lombardo's only response was an Involuntary lifting of the eyebrows. "However," Rogers took up again In English in a more serious vein, "the name of the guilty one must wait a few minutes longer. I will come to it at the proper time. But now let us look for a moment at the death of Sam Chatfield,. His is the most puzzling in the entire series. So much seems accident, so little may have been the handiwork of a murderer. A nut had come unscrewed un-screwed from the swivel mechanism of the chair in which Sam sat in the launch. If the chair had not collapsed, there is little likelihood that he would have fallen overboard, probably none at all. Did some body remove the nut? There was opportunity to do so for everybody who went on the fishing excursion, and even for George Rumble, who did not go. All of us, except the women members of the party, knew beforehand that Sam Chatfield would sit in that chair when we went after marlin. "And, yet, I know of no motive upon the part of anyone for the death of Sam Chatfield. Of course, one never knows what's between a husband and a wife. Did Senora Chatfield have some motive unknown un-known to us, and did she learn in some manner which seat her husband hus-band would occupy on that fatal excursion ex-cursion in the launch? But let's drop Sam Chatfleld's death for the moment, and go on to George Rumble's. Rum-ble's. I think that in it we will find something of interest perhaps the key we are seeking." Lombardo shifted in his chair and looked away for a moment to the tall towers of the church. Doctor Cruz crushed out the spark in his cigarette under his heel, and for a moment his hands were idle. The mariachis were growing restless, understanding nothing that had been said in English. Reed Barton sat easily with legs crossed, and Dwight continued calmly to smoke. "There are motives recognizable In the death of George Rumble," Rogers began once more. "For Margaret Nichols there was no opportunity. op-portunity. Senora Chatfield has admitted ad-mitted she went to the wharf that night to find someone to send for her husband's fishing equipment. Felipe and Pancho went on that errand er-rand for her. She returned to the yacht. She asserts, however, that she did not see Rumble, who was murdered on the wharf that night. There was a motive for the murder of Rumble on the part of Dwight Nichols; he and Rumble quarreled only a short time before Rumble died. Rumble knew that Dwight was the man who rushed in panic out of Katherine Chatfleld's house the night she was murdered; he held it over him, as it were, and Dwight believed it was for the purpose of blackmail. After the two separated, separat-ed, Dwight, in the presence of Barry Bar-ry Madison, Sam Chatfield and me, made a remark which could be interpreted in-terpreted as a threat. He said that he would have to manage some way to quiet Rumble definitely." Dwight was unmoved by this recital; re-cital; he tapped the ash from his cigarette and continued to gaze calmly at Rogers. The latter paused to sip his glass of limeade before he went on. "Another motive, not so strong, perhaps, is one that can be assigned to Reed Barton. George Rumble had fallen in love with Elsa. You knew that didn't you. Reed?" "Yes." "Again, Senor Lombardo," said Rogers, turning back to the chief, "love is a possible motive. Hov strong? How shall It be evaluated?"1 He paused only briefly. "However, there's a very definite motive, and I think the real one, to account for Rumble's murder Rumble knew too much. He boasted that he knew who the killer was. What, in that case, will a murderer do? He will strike at the first opportunity, for he prizes his safety above all else. And that's what happened." Lombardo stirred uneasily In his chair. "Who, Senor Rogers," he asked, "heard Senor Rumble boast that he knew the murderer?" "Barry Madison, Sam Chatfield, Dwight Nichols, and I." "So?" Reed Barton shifted his feet and cleared his throat lightly. "I shouldn't be left out, Hunt. Rumble hinted very broadly to me that he knew who killed Chesebro, then closed up like a clam when I asked him about it." Rogers looked at him sharply, as if to determine whether the statement state-ment was made In a vein of bravado, bra-vado, or because he wished to be helpful. For a moment he was silent and then appeared to shift his approach ap-proach to the problem of Rumble'f murder. (TO BE CONTINUED) |