Dead Man's Knock by John Dickson Carr

Author:John Dickson Carr [Carr, John Dickson]
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780821720998
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 1987-09-15T02:47:15.156000+00:00

'Well, the joker couldn't, have got away by running. And so he out - manoeuvred me. He stood to the left of the door, out of sight, and closed it with his finger - tips. That's what I saw. When I decided he had gone into the stack - room, he tiptoed away.'

'Were there traces of him?'

'Yes! On top of two bookcases where he'd hidden. Still, without dragging in the police, I could hardly get fingerprints. In the south wing, much later, I found an unlocked window with a broken catch over a hundred years old; that's how the joker got in.'

'My dear Mark,' said Dr. Kent, with ruffled forehead and a mild anger twitching his dark eyebrows, 'all this is unimportant. What did Mrs. Walker see in the stack - room? What could she have seen? What frightened her so much? That's what I want to know.'

'So do I! So do all of us! I - -'

Mark stopped.

He had too strong a memory of Judith's apparent recovery from that faint. She could manage to walk, but she was incoherent and she needed help. He assisted her down past the Lawn; near North Marlborough she collapsed. With pity, with guilty realization that Judith could no more have been herself that evening than he had been himself, he carried her to her house in Harley Lane while Caroline phoned for the doctor.

It was edged with a sharp reminder of Brenda, too.

'Judith was still under sedation this afternoon,' Mark said. 'Mrs. Kent and Caroline stayed with her last night. I stayed too so that - - ' Again he stopped. 'But you must know all this, don't you? Surely Mrs. Kent or Caroline told you?'

'They are still with her,' Dr. Kent pointed out. 'Their messages have not been very clear, you know.'

'No, I suppose not.'

'I am very fond of Mrs. Walker; very fond! A shock, yes. But what kind of shock?'

'That's the trouble. There was nothing she could have seen straight in front of her except metal shelves full of books on archaeology. Unless we can get some kind of suggestion from ... Dr. Fell!'

'Hey?'

'Have you been following this at all?'

'Sir,' intoned Dr. Fell, drawing the napkin from his collar and sitting up in dignity, 'let me assure you I have been listening with far closer attention than my admittedly cross - eyed and half - witted appearance would seem to indicate. As proof of this, may I ask two questions?'

'Of course.'

Dr. Fell hoisted himself to his feet. Wheezing, he lumbered to the middle of the room, with the duskily bright war - scenes painted behind him.

'Are you sure,' he asked, 'that this so - called "joker" of the library was not in actual fact the casual tramp or sneak - thief you half imagined he might be at the time?'

'No; how can I be sure? That's why I didn't dare raise an alarm. And yet he's got to be the joker we're after, or there's no pattern in all this and - it makes no sense.

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