Flint’s voice was a low mutter of thunder. “Damn you! You never made a call before! That’s the one—”
Merlini nodded. “I had no chance earlier. And you wouldn’t have let me—”
“Who did you phone?”
“If you don’t let everyone in the house know we’re here, you’ll find out in about two minutes.”
Flint hesitated. He looked at the door and then at Merlini again. He shook his head obstinately. “You didn’t call anyone. But you’d like me to think you did. This is more of your damned misdirection. We’re going down to the station right now. Lovejoy—”
Quickly, Merlini said, “All right, Lieutenant. I’ll tell you who I called. But give me a chance to prove it. If you’ll stay away from that door for a few minutes we’ll catch her red-handed. Otherwise—”
“Her? Are you trying to give me the Mrs. Wolff yarn too?”
Merlini’s answer was straight out of a nightmare. “No,” he said slowly, “I’m not.”
I stared at him and felt a sick spasm of fear tighten in my stomach.
Flint’s voice seemed to come from far away. “You mean—”
“Yes. I phoned Kathryn Wolff.”
I have never been hit on the chin by Joe Louis, but I know now exactly how it feels.
Then, as though that first shattering blow were not enough, Merlini followed through with a barrage of body punches that had all the swift impact of machinegun bullets.
“Smith vanished from this room just as Ross said. He left by the door while I was still downstairs. I know where he went then, too. I’ll come to that in a moment. But first let me answer one of the questions I asked Ross. Why did he shove Ross out the window? The answer is that, since he had no reason he did nothing of the sort. The moment he knocked Ross out, he went away fast. And then, also before I returned, Kay entered the study from her room. She found Ross lying on the floor but assumed, in the dark, that it was Smith’s body. Why? Because she expected to find Smith there, and, since she set the trap gun that nearly got Smith, she expected to find him dead. That was why she came to the study. She had to get rid of the body. And that’s why Ross was shoved out the window!
“The other joker is that when she shot her father a moment later, she did it because he had threatened to cut her out of his will if she continued to be obstinate about seeing Ross. She wanted to have her cake and eat it too, not knowing that she’d just pushed it out into the Sound!”
I finally found my voice. “Merlini!” I exploded. “That’s completely impossible and you know it! What the hell are you trying to—”
He turned in his chair. “No, Ross, it’s not impossible and you know it. When her escape from the room by the door was cut off she got out the same way Flint said that you did. She’s an expert swimmer. She dived out the window. You saw her! But you’re in love with her and, murderess or not, you’re covering her!”
Then, as I stared at him in a blank paralysis of astonishment, Flint turned to face me. And behind his back Merlini’s right eye opened and closed in a broad wink.
The successive shocks had almost completely demoralized my nervous system, but somehow it managed shakily to absorb this new one. Merlini had not phoned Kathryn. He was improvising in a desperate attempt to keep Flint interested long enough for the real murderer to come in answer to the phone call.
I picked up my cue. I looked at Flint and said what I would have said if Merlini’s charge had been true, the only thing I could say in any case.
“He’s lying!”
Merlini shook his head. “It won’t do, Ross. Not when she walks in through that door.”
The uncertain look that was on Flint’s face said that these unexpected accusations had rocked him too. Merlini gave him no chance to recover.
“Then, because Kathryn had twice before tried to kill Smith, because Smith knew it, and because, if he talked, you’d know she was capable of murder, she had to get rid of him. And so she put the dry ice in the car. What’s more, I can tell you how she made that flower vase tip over in the living-room. Ice is the answer there too. She moved the vase so that it stood just on the table’s edge, its base overlapping. She tilted it back slightly and inserted a small piece of ice beneath its outer edge. As it melted the vase tipped slowly forward. Then, finally overbalanced, it dropped to the floor. Dry ice would leave no clue at all. Ordinary ice would leave only a small puddle that would pass unnoticed in the bigger splash of water that spilled from the vase when it broke.”
As Merlini spoke, Flint’s uncertainty vanished. He smiled grimly. “And the fingerprint. What about that?”
“Sleight of hand,” Merlini said. “If you’ll try putting the pieces of that vase back together again you’ll find that the one bearing the fingerprint won’t fit. It’s an extra piece cracked from a similar vase in the butler’s pantry. Kathryn had previously arranged that Smith should handle it. Later, when she placed the ice beneath the vase in the living-room, she dropped the fingerprinted fragment in among the flowers. It was a simple but effective piece of hocus-pocus that—”
“No,” Flint contradicted suddenly, “it’s not nearly as effective as you think.”
The gun in his hand lifted and pointed at Merlini.
His voice was cold and hard and confident. “Lovejoy, handcuff him again. And this time get those lockpicks he carries. He’s just told me all I wanted to know!”
Merlini’s eyebrows lifted. This turn of events was apparently not one he had planned. I’ve told you—
“Yeah. Yon certainly have. Thanks for explaining the flower-vase trick. That bothered me. But Miss Wolff didn’t put Smith’s fingerprint on that extra piece. You did! You saw Phillips take that vase into the living-room just before we left to investigate the traffic accident. And then you went into the kitchen for a moment. You’re the one who cracked a piece from another vase, and you added Smith’s print when we saw his body later at the morgue. You put the piece in with the flowers and put the ice under the vase just after we got back.
“I let you pull this bluff of trapping the murderer because I wasn’t sure just what kind of sleight of hand you were leading up to this time. I know now. You’re trying to frame Miss Wolff in a desperate attempt to save your own skin. You’re the guy who knows so much about burial-alive and dry-ice murder methods. You think that if you mix enough truth with your misdirection I’ll believe it. That burial-alive blackmail scheme is just the sort of thing a magician would think up, and a magician is just the sort of person who’d know someone like Zareh Bey. You shot Wolff!”
“I did? Why?”
“You were trying to get backing for your show. That’s why you tried to blackmail Wolff. But things went wrong when your Algerian stooge wouldn’t stay dead. You didn’t come out here last night to investigate a ghost; you came to get rid of him. But Smith tried to get you first. When Harte came into the study in the dark, Smith thought it was you. That’s why he tossed Harte out the window!
“Then, after he left, Kay didn’t come in. You did. You took cover behind the desk when Mrs. Wolff and then Wolff arrived. Wolff had begun to suspect you. You heard him begin to tell his wife that. You shot him. She fainted. Then you went out into the hall, locked the door behind you with your lockpicks, and, when everyone else arrived, pretended you were trying to get in to investigate the shots.”
“You almost convince me, Lieutenant. And the murder gun? How did I get that out? I was still at the door when you arrived, and you had the sergeant search me immediately after.”
“Lovejoy hasn’t had much experience frisking magicians. You palmed it. That’s why you picked the smallest you could find.”
“And I put the dry ice in the car heater too?”
“Sure. You had to get rid of Smith. He knew too much.”