“Yes, that one.” And then, the calm of Katherine Dallas broke down and
she burst into a piteous flood of tears.
I was not surprised. I had noticed her clenching fingers and her tapping
foot, and I knew she was striving to keep a grip on her feelings.
It was Inspector Farrell who opened the door for her, and as she stumbled
through, we saw Alma Remsen awaiting her, and knew she would be duly
cared for.
Farrell returned into the room and closed the door, and went slowly back
to his seat.
“What about it?” he said, including both Hart and Keeley Moore in his
glance of inquiry.
“Whoever killed that man, it was not Mrs. Dallas,” Kee declared. “I don’t
suppose anybody thought she did, but there’s no slightest reason to
suspect her.”
“What about the girl?” asked Farrell, with brooding eyes.
“Drive a nail in her uncle’s head!” Moore exclaimed. “I can’t see her
doing that! Can you, Norris?”
“No,” I said, and it was God’s truth. That lovely girl connected with a
brutal, inhuman deed,—no, nobody could believe that!
“Well, then, where are we at?” Farrell asked.
“At Harper Ames,” said the coroner, and we realized that he was sticking
to his first impressions.
“All right,” Farrell sighed. “Get him in here next, then.”
But just then, Sally Bray came to the door. Farrell let her in and asked
the result of her investigation of Mr. Tracy’s belongings.
“There’s nothing missing as Griscom and I can see,” she reported, “except
two things—I mean, three.”
“What are they?” and Farrell placed a chair for her and spoke in a kindly
tone.
“One is the Tottum Pole.”
“The what?”
“She doubtless means the Totem Pole,” said Moore, quietly. “Is that it,
Sally?”
“Yes, sir, that’s what I said, the Tottum Pole. It was one of Mr. Tracy’s
favourite toys. It was Indian, Griscom says, and it always stood on his
bedside table. He thought it was a—a charm, like.”
“A Luck you mean, I dare say.” Keeley had taken the inquiry into his own
hands for the moment.
“Yes, sir, it was his Luck, that’s what Griscom said.”
“How large was it?”
“About so big.” Sally measured a foot or more with her hands. “Oh, it was
fierce! Yet beautiful, too.”
“Bright colours, and a face at the top——”
“Yes, sir. But a norful face, all eyes——”
“I know. You understand, Mr. Farrell, don’t you? She means a miniature
Totem Pole. They have them in the better class of shops round here that
carry Indian trinkets. The little Totem Poles are interesting, and are
called lucky. I have two or three at home. But mine are smaller, only six
or eight inches. And so this Totem Pole is missing. What else, Sally?”
“Two of Mr. Tracy’s best weskits, sir! His striped dark blue morey, and
his pearl-coloured figgered satin.”
“He wore fancy waistcoats, then?”
“Oh, yes, sir, he was a great hand for weskits of beautiful stuff. Never
gay or gaudy, but soft, lovely colours and the expensivest materials.”
“And two of them are gone. Are you sure?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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