The Gallows in my Garden by Richard Deming

Author:Richard Deming [Deming, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-3695-3
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company, Inc.
Published: 2011-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

XV

WARREN DAY’S NOSE began to whiten at the tip. He asked softly, “Would you like reinforcements, Lieutenant? Say a couple of squads with tear gas?”

Hannegan’s face slowly turned red. Without a word he about-faced and started upstairs again.

“Excuse me,” I said to Day, and ran after Hannegan.

I caught the lieutenant at the top of the stairs, grabbed his coattail, and said, “Whoa!”

He turned a beet-red face in my direction and slapped my hand away from his coat. But it slowed him enough for me to get past him and reach the bedroom door first.

Mouldy Greene sat in the chair where I had left him, a twin of the automatic he had loaned me in his hand. It was at full cock, and the safety was off.

“Hi, Sarge,” he greeted me. “What d’ya think? That plain-clothes cop who’s always with Warren Day tried to bust in here.”

Behind me Hannegan made a growling noise deep in his throat.

“Put up your gun, Mouldy,” I said.

“Sure,” he said obligingly, snapping on the safety and tucking it under his arm.

Crossing to the dresser, I picked up the four bottles by their necks with one hand and picked up the glasses with the other. I delivered them to Hannegan in the doorway.

“Got a permit for that gun?” Hannegan growled at Mouldy.

“Sure. Wanta see it?”

The lieutenant expelled air through his nose, made a sharp right turn, and disappeared.

“He acts mad about something,” Mouldy commented.

I examined the two women, found them still breathing deeply, and returned to the drawing-room.

As I entered the room, Jason, the gardener, was saying, “I can’t help what I oughta seen or heard. I didn’t see or hear nothing.”

Hannegan had set the empty glasses and Coke bottles on the bar. Just after I came into the room, Kate appeared through the dining-room arch with a paper bag in her hand. She crossed and gave it to Hannegan.

“This big enough?” she asked.

The lieutenant grunted and began transferring the Coke and glasses to the bag.

Warren Day said to me, “The gardener here says he was rolling and lining the badminton court about the time Miss Lawson was tossed in the pool. The badminton court isn’t fifty yards from the pool, but he’s blind and deaf.”

“They’s a hedge between the badminton and tennis courts,” Jason said sullenly.

“I know,” I said. “One about shoulder-high. Were you working on your hands and knees?”

“Part of the time,” Jason said. “While I was laying the chalk-line.”

“I passed there on the way in not a half hour before Doctor Lawson yelled,” I told Day. “Nobody was on the badminton court then.”

Jason’s expression turned belligerent. “Maybe I hadn’t started yet. Didn’t say I spent all afternoon there. All I know is when I pushed the roller past the pool after getting it out of the garage, Miss Grace and that other woman was sitting there. After that I never left the court till Edmund came after me.”

I asked, “Did the two women have glasses in their hands when you saw them?”

His tone indicated bored indifference.

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