The Casebook of Lucius Leffing by Brennan Joseph Payne

Author:Brennan, Joseph Payne [Brennan, Joseph Payne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction.Horror, Fiction.Mystery/Detective, Fiction.Dark Fantasy/Supernatural, Short Fiction, Collection.Single Author
Amazon: B0006CBEJ8
Goodreads: 13570181
Publisher: Macabre House
Published: 2017-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

We all stood staring in astonishment as he continued.

“I fear, Mrs. Bladell,” he went on, “that your adopted son, probably as a result of his work at the local Botanical Experiment Bureau, was aware of the toxic content of jequirity seeds. Your niece indicated that Ronald may have stolen the necklace. I did not immediately fathom the implications of this until I suddenly recalled that Miss Armiston had also mentioned that Ronald had ground up fresh coffee for you early this afternoon. I am convinced that the missing necklace, sans string and clasp, disappeared into the coffee grinder, Mrs. Bladell!”

A subsequent analysis of the remaining ground coffee confirmed Leffing’s belief. The coffee contained enough abrin to kill twenty people.

As Leffing and I sat discussing the case some nights later—between sips of my friend’s choice cognac-I sighed and shook my head. “Your powers continue to confound me,” I admitted, “but must you be so melodramatic, Leffing?”

“Melodramatic, Brennan? How so?”

“Well, hang it all, did you have to dash that cup out of the old lady’s hand? Couldn’t you have, well, just told her not to drink it?”

Leffing glanced around his Victorian gas-lit living room with an air of deep contentment. “My dear Brennan,” he replied, settling back in ltis beloved Morris chair, “one can never take chances with a strong-willed old lady. Had I not dashed the cup from her hand, Mrs. Bladell, in spite of my warning, perhaps because of it, might have perversely swallowed the coffee on the spot! I have known these things happen, believe me!”

I was not convinced. Leffing’s tendency to dramatize situations is one of his incurable faults. But I said no more. When one is drinking a friend’s twenty-year-old, cask-mellowed cognac, one must not dwell unduly on his foibles!

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