The 10 Faces Of Cornell Woolrich: An Inner Sanctum Collection of Novelettes and Short Stories by Cornell Woolrich & Ellery Queen

Author:Cornell Woolrich & Ellery Queen [Woolrich, Cornell & Queen, Ellery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Collection, Anthologies, Pulp, Fiction, Detective, Crime, Mystery
Publisher: Vibhatsu
Published: 2024-12-04T18:30:00+00:00

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He was still in the same clothes, hadn’t been to bed at all, when the morning paper was left at the door. He lifted himself stiffly off the chair that he had tilted on its two hind legs against the door, to make sure that she stayed in the place, took the paper inside, and looked for the account. It wasn’t played up much; they’d put it out after it had destroyed the staircase, and they were inclined to think that two tramps who had found shelter on one of the upper floors had inadvertently started it, either by smoking or cooking their food. One had run away, but one had been found with a broken leg in the rear yard where he’d leaped down, trying to save himself, and was in the hospital. Jordan got an envelope and jotted down the fellow’s name and the hospital on the outside of it, then stuck two five-dollar bills in it with a note, just two words: “Sorry, buddy.”

Then he got the police on the wire. “Are there going to be charges against this vag So-and-so with the broken leg, in connection with that fire last night?” There certainly were, he was assured: vagrancy, unlawful entry, and setting fire to the premises, and who wanted to know anyway? “I’m an investigator for the Herk Insurance Company. He’ll have to take the rap on the first two counts maybe, but I’d like to say a word for him on the fire charge. Let me know at my office when the case comes up.” Time enough to figure out a way of clearing the man without involving her when the time came.

Then he telephoned his boss. “Cancel that report I turned in on the fire night before last, the Lapolla property, and hold up the indemnity.” He swallowed hard. “It wasn’t accidental—it was arson.”

Parmenter got excited right away. “Who was responsible, got any idea?”

“An unknown woman,” said Jordan limply. “That’s all I can tell you right now. Lapolla himself had no connection with it, take my word for it. I’ll give you a new report when I get a little more evidence—and—and I won’t be in until late today.”

He went to the bedroom door, took the key out of his pocket, and unlocked it. The room was dark; he’d nailed down the Venetian blinds to the window sills the night before. Looking at her lying there so calm, so innocent, he wondered if she was insane or what. Yet the specialists who had examined her when he and she had brought suit against the taxi company whose cab she had fallen out of hadn’t been able to find anything, not even a fracture or concussion; she was right about that. They had lost the suit as a result. But maybe things like that came on slowly, or maybe there was no connection, it was something deeper, more inexplicable. He woke her up pretty gently and said, “Better go in and get the kid ready for school.

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