Murder in the Bookshop by Carolyn Wells

Author:Carolyn Wells [Carolyn Wells]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI

ALLI RESPONDS TO THE LETTER

‘AS I see it,’ Stone went on, ‘the first thing to do is to find out for certain whether this is accident or murder.’

It was afternoon now and they were again downstairs, presumably undergoing an inquisition by the police, but really deferring to Fleming Stone’s leadership.

The Medical Examiner had been and gone. He had merely corroborated the statement of Doctor Kelsey that Guy Balfour had been suffocated by the escaping steam and had died a swift and probably painless death. He had given permission to remove the body and it had been sent to the mortuary.

A buffet luncheon had been arranged in the dining room, of which both the policemen had partaken separately.

Alli Balfour refused food with a mere shake of her head and sat like one benumbed, gazing out of a window and saying no word.

Keith Ramsay sat beside her, also silent, but alert and watchful.

They were in the library, Alli having chosen to go there, and they were grouped round a table on which were a few notes or lists belonging to the two policemen.

Stone had a few notes on a card in his pocket, but he did not display them.

‘I have spoken with the plumber and the electrician,’ he said, ‘but they seem to have no definite or personal knowledge of the fixtures in Mr Balfour’s steam room. They are new men, I think, and had nothing to do with the installation of the special plumbing Mr Balfour had put in. But I am even more curious about the lock on the steam room door.’

‘There’s no lock on the steam room door,’ said Alli, still looking and speaking like one in a daze. ‘He said no one could come in except his valet, and he never wanted to lock him out.’

‘There isn’t a lock on the door exactly,’ Stone explained, ‘but there is a catch which may be pushed in, that prevents the door being opened from the inside.’

‘Oh, yes, I remember now,’ and Alli suddenly became alert. ‘When the steam room was installed—you know Mr Balfour had all those bathrooms built to his own order—the knob or the scutcheon or whatever you call it was of a very elaborate type, and somehow the workmen put it on wrong, and the result was you could open the steam room door from the outside but not from the inside, unless the catch was off. Then it would open from either side. Mr Balfour always intended to have it fixed, but he procrastinated and after a time, he wouldn’t bother about it, for, as he said, the catch was never turned on, it was always off, and so the door would open either way. Now, in some way that catch must have got turned on, probably Guy did it himself, not knowing about it. I never thought of it, of course, and Victor, Mr Balfour’s valet, was here only one night while Guy was in those rooms—that very first night, you know, and he left the next day.

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