Murder on the Yacht by Rufus King

Author:Rufus King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, crime, detective, murder, classic, sleuth
ISBN: 9781479404902
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2015-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A BOMB BURSTS MILDLY

The commissioner was impressed. He said: “Then you discount pretty heavily, Valcour, the information about Barlowe?”

“Not essentially, Commissioner, but I do feel certain that there is something else. Something we haven’t been able to place a finger on as yet at all. As you may have noted, it’s an odd case.”

“Odd? It’s as bad as a charity tableau.” The commissioner sighed audibly. “Barlowe would make it so simple.”

“I cannot give up the conviction that Hedglin was impersonated. It’s the only rational thing to believe. And with Barlowe’s figure he never could have done it. I’m not inclined toward there having been any accessories either before or after the crime. I think it’s a one-man job. I also can’t give up the conviction that the crime was unpremeditated, and yet, unless Bettle or Doorn or Mrs. Wiggins did it, how did the impersonator pull out of his sleeve a perfectly convincing crop of gray hair?”

“Who’s Doorn? Who’s Mrs. Wiggins? What about gray hair?”

Valcour explained. Then he said: “Did you line up anything on Carlotta Balfé?”

“Nothing beyond the fact that she lives circumspectly—aren’t you fond of the word ‘circumspectly’? I am. I’ve often wondered just what it means. At any rate, she lives at the Shelton and receives quite prominent people in her apartment. The management seemed surprised and a little upset at the idea that she dabbled in spiritualism. I imagine it’s a little too Coney Island. She’ll probably find out when she gets back that she’s moved. How does she strike you?”

“She struck me this morning, Commissioner, as being a rather startled and a very worried woman.”

“You’re not putting any stock in this dead-on-the-quarter-hour business, are you?”

Valcour’s laugh was apologetic. “I prefer to answer that question to-morrow,” he said.

“Nonsense!”

“Remember the Osterholt case?”

“But in that instance the message was faked.”

“Well, there’s no reason why Maybelle’s shouldn’t have been. I haven’t examined the scene of last night’s séance. It took place in a small library just forward of the saloon.”

“But doesn’t Maybelle do all her talking via Carlotta herself?”

“There’s this point to consider, Commissioner. You’ve run into as many mediums as I have. Personally I feel that after they’ve been in the game for a while, no matter how much charlatanism they use in it, there isn’t one of them who doesn’t get bitten.”

“Bitten?”

“Yes. With doubt. With doubt as to whether there might not be something genuine in it after all. If anyone dramatizes himself for a long enough time in any role he can’t help but subconsciously to live that role a little, to feel moments when he almost believes that the role is reality.”

“Possibly true, Valcour, and I don’t know how much money this talk is costing Bettle per minute. But what of it? Suppose Balfé is bitten?”

“It’s the only explanation for her having made what would otherwise be an absurd statement. She doesn’t impress me as being on the verge of committing suicide. On the contrary, up to this morning she seemed like any cat on the point of swallowing any canary.

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