Detective and mystery stories; Forensic scientists -- Fiction
“The Inspector touches the spot as ever. Well, it hasn’t been quite
fair. I had the start of you. On the day before the murder Birdie
Bolton consulted me. She hadn’t been sleeping well. Heard noises at
night. Now you see your way, don’t you? No? Dear, dear. And I showed
you that broken rose! Well, well. These two beauties, Flora and
Nastitch, I suppose they got their situations to have a go for the
jewels. Nastitch, as Ford’s chauffeur, would have an excuse for
hanging round the house and a car to use. He’s had the car out of the
garage till the small hours several times. I think he got in by the
window last week--more than once, perhaps. And each time poor Birdie
stirred. Better for her if she hadn’t, poor girl. But they didn’t
mean murder, bless ’em. So they chose to drug her. There was morphia
in that coffee. As you heard to-day, Birdie didn’t drink hers.
Another rotten chance. So May Weston went to sleep while Birdie was
storming at her. Birdie raged off to her room. Whether she got out
that will and tore it, we’ll never know. It may have been Flora’s
little game. Nastitch came in, reckoning she was sure to be sound,
and Flora was with him, I think. Birdie was very wide awake. There
was a struggle and he stabbed her. He’s a hot-tempered devil, as you
saw to-day.”
“This is all very pretty, doctor, but it ain’t all evidence,” Mordan
said.
“You’re so hasty. When she was dead, they took her into the boudoir
where the Weston girl was asleep. They laid her on the couch and
stabbed at her with her scissors and the bodkin. Filthy trick. That
was what May Weston saw in the opium dream. Then I suppose they
cleared the safe, and Nastitch went off. Flora annexed the emerald
ring. Her perquisite, I suppose. Now, you shall have your evidence.
When I came to the body, I saw those scissors never did the business.
Ever tried killing anybody with scissors, Inspector? Poor game. No.
We wanted something like this.” He fingered the knife affectionately.
“Just like this. Also somebody had left his mark on Birdie--a queer
hand--a hand that wasn’t quite all there--long fingers with no top
joint. Did you notice Mr. Nastitch’s left hand?”
The detectives looked at each other.
“That was in a burglary in New York,” said the Superintendent. “He
escaped out of a window, and a constable smashed his hand on the
sill.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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