EQMM 2012-08 by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

Author:Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine [Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Sabina was already at her desk when he walked into the Market Street offices of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, the next morning. She was a handsome woman, his partner and unrequited love—the possessor of a fine figure, eyes the color of the sea at dusk, and sleek black hair layered high on her head and fastened with a jeweled comb. Today she wore one of the leg-of-mutton blouses which he usually found enticing, but his mood was such that he took only peripheral notice of her. His night had been a mostly sleepless one in which he’d wrestled unsuccessfully with the problem of how R. Sonderberg had been murdered and by whom. His lack of success was all the more frustrating because he prided himself on having an uncanny knack for unraveling even the knottiest of seemingly impossible problems.

Sabina said, as he shed his umbrella and rain-spotted overcoat, “Titus Willard telephoned a few minutes ago. He was upset that you failed to contact him last night.”

“Bah.”

“Well, he asked that you get in touch with him as soon as you arrived.”

“I’ll see him later this morning. He won’t be pleased to hear the news I have for him at any time.”

“You weren’t able to identify the blackmailer, then?”

“On the contrary. The blackmailer’s name is, or was, Raymond Sonderberg, the proprietor of a cigar store in Gunpowder Alley. He was murdered in his locked quarters before I could confront him and recover the blackmail evidence and payoff money.”

“Murdered? So that’s why you’re in such a foul humor this morning.”

“What makes you think my humor is foul?”

“The scowl you’re wearing, for one thing. You look like a pirate on his way to the gibbet.”

“Bah,” Quincannon said again.

“Exactly what happened last night, John?”

He sat at his desk and provided her with a detailed summary. They often shared information on difficult cases in order to obtain a fresh perspective. Sabina’s years as a Pink Rose, one of the select handful of women operatives hired by the Pinkerton Agency, plus the four years of their partnership, had honed her skills to a fine edge. He would never have admitted it to her or anyone else, but she was often his equal at the more challenging aspects of the sleuthing game.

“A puzzling series of events, to be sure,” Sabina said when he finished his account. “But perhaps not as mysterious as they might seem.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know from experience, John, that such mysteries generally have a relatively simple explanation.”

He admitted the truth of this. “But I’m hanged if I can see it in this case.”

“Well, the first question that occurs to me, was the crime planned or committed on the spur of the moment?”

“If it was planned, it was done in order to silence Sonderberg and make off with the five thousand dollars.”

“By an accomplice in the blackmail scheme.”

“So it would seem. The accomplice must have been waiting for him in his quarters. The stove there was glowing hot and there was not enough

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.