The Album by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Author:Mary Roberts Rinehart [Roberts Rinehart, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784088248
Publisher: Head of Zeus Ltd
Published: 2013-07-16T19:36:00+00:00

Chapter XXVI

IT MUST HAVE BEEN an odd performance, all in all. For I believe Herbert took at first only a casual glance at the room, and then immediately got down on his stomach and wriggled under the bed. The chest had not been replaced, and with his searchlight he examined every inch of the under-side of the bed, including the box mattress.

All this was in silence, with the Inspector watching him and half-amused.

As I have said before, Mrs. Lancaster’s bed stood with its head toward her husband’s room behind it, and she had been found lying on the side toward the door into the hall. This was her customary place in it. Beyond the closet door stood a small chest of drawers, and it was to this corner, between the bed and the door to the hall, that Herbert Dean practically confined his activities that night.

From the bed he moved to the bed table beside it and followed much the same procedure there. The chest of drawers he examined, not only from beneath, but by pulling out each drawer and minutely inspecting its edges. And at last he took down a picture or two from the wall.

“Has it ever struck you,” he asked the Inspector, “that she may not have been in the bed when she was killed?”

“How the devil could she get out of it?”

“I’m leaving that to you. I’d say at a guess that she was standing in front of this chest when the first blow was struck, and that the others followed after she fell to the floor. It’s hard to explain blood on the under-side of the box springs in any other way, Inspector, and it’s there. It’s under the bottom of this chest too, and under the edge of the top drawer.”

“The woman couldn’t walk. Hadn’t walked for years.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”

“Listen, Dean,” said the Inspector. “I’m not saying you don’t know your stuff. You do. But I’ll put this to you. She was back in bed all right when she was found. Remember, I’m taking your word now for this idea of yours. I’ll go as far as to say that she didn’t weigh a whole lot, and she could have been lifted back easily enough. But I’m saying this too; that wasn’t done without leaving any marks. I’ll go so far as to say that whoever did it would have been smeared with blood from head to foot. It isn’t pleasant but it’s a fact.”

Herbert agreed grimly.

“I’ve never doubted that, myself. Of course blood washes off.”

The Inspector eyed him.

“What do you mean by that? We examined every inch of this house, and if anyone left it in that condition he wouldn’t have got a hundred yards. Unless—look here, Dean.” He lowered his voice. “I suppose somebody in this house could have stripped mother-naked and done it? This Margaret—by the Lord Harry, Dean! She was taking a shower when the other one called her!”

“Getting ready to take a shower. That’s not quite the same thing.

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