The Crime in Nobody's Room by John Dickson Carr

Author:John Dickson Carr [Carr, John Dickson]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Exactly. Just two more questions. I believe that each of these flats communicates with a fire escape leading down into the mews behind?”

“Yes. What of it?”

“Will the same key open the front door of each of the flats?”

“No, certainly not. All the lock patterns are different.”

“Thank you. Now, Mr. Conyers —a question for you. Are you married?”

Hitherto Conyers had been regarding him with a look of watchful expectancy, like an urchin about to smash a window and run.

Now he scowled.

“Married? No.”

“And you don’t keep a valet?”

“The answer to that, Colonel, is loud and prolonged laughter.

Honestly, I don’t like your ‘social’ manner. Beston, our crime news man, knows you. And it’s always, ‘Blast you, Beston, if you print one hint about the Thingummy case I’ll have your hide.’ What difference does it make whether I’m married or not, or whether I have a valet or not?”

“A great deal,” said March seriously. “Now, Miss Bruce. What is your occupation, Miss Bruce?”

“I’m an interior decorator,” answered Anita.

She began to laugh. It may have been with a tinge of hysteria; but she sat back in a tall chair and laughed until there were tears in her eyes.

“I’m terribly sorry,” she went on, holding out her hand as though to stop them, “but don’t you see? The murder was done by an interior decorator. That’s the whole secret.”

Colonel March cut short Armingdale’s shocked protest.

“Go on,” he said sharply.

“I thought of it first off. Of course there’s no ‘vanishing room.’ Some sitting room has just been redecorated. All the actual furnishings, tables and chairs and sideboards, are just the same in every room. The only way you can tell them apart is by small movable things — pictures, lamp shades, book ends — which could be changed in a few minutes.

“Ron accidentally walked into the murderer’s flat just after the murderer had killed that old man. That put the murderer in a pretty awful position. Unless he killed Ron too, he was caught with the body and Ron could identify his flat. But he thought of a better way. He sent that man’s body down in the lift and dragged Ron out into the hall. Then he simply altered the decorations of his flat. Afterwards he could sit down and dare anyone to identify it as the place where the body had been.”

Anita’s face was flushed with either defiance or fear.

“Warm,” said Colonel March. “Unquestionably warm. That is why I was wondering whether you couldn’t tell us what really happened.”

“I don’t understand you.”

“Well, there are objections to the redecoration. You’ve got to suppose that nobody had ever been in the flat before and seen the way it was originally decorated. You’ve also got to suppose that the murderer could find a new set of lamp shades, pictures, and book ends in the middle of the night. – Haven’t you got it the wrong way round?”

“The wrong way round?”

“Somebody,” said March, dropping his courtesy, “prepared a dummy room to begin with. He put in the new lamp shades, the book ends, the copy of a well-known picture, even a set of new curtains.

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