“Then, in a way, Dr. Roth was over both of you?”
“More than in a way. He didn’t exactly hire us—the Board of Regents does all the hiring—but we both worked under him. In different capacities, of course.”
“I understand that,” Randall said. “Then you could say Dr. Roth’s job was something like mine, head of a department. Your relationship to him would be about that of your friend, Sebastian, to me, and Alister Cole would be—umm—a mess attendant over on the jail side, or maybe a turnkey.”
“That’s a reasonably good comparison,” I agreed. “Of course I was the only instructor who worked directly under Dr. Roth, so I was a lot closer to him than Jack would be to you. You have quite a few detectives under you, I’d guess.”
He sighed. “Never quite enough, when anything important happens.”
There was a knock on the door and he called out, “Yeah?” The detective named Wheeler stuck his head in. “Miss Roth’s here,” he announced. “You said you wanted to talk to her. Shall I send her in?”
Chief Randall nodded, and I stood up. “You might as well stay, Carter,” he told me.
Jeanette came in. I held the chair I’d been sitting in for her, and moved around to the one Jack had vacated. Wheeler had stayed outside, so I introduced Jeanette and Randall.
“I won’t want to keep you long, Miss Roth,” Randall said, “so I’ll get right down to the few questions I want to ask. When did you see Alister Cole last?”
“This afternoon, around three o’clock.”
“At your house?”
“Yes. He came then and asked if Dad was home. I told him Dad was downtown, but that I expected him any minute. I asked him to come in and wait.”
“Did he and you talk about anything?”
“Nothing much. As it happened, I’d been drinking some coffee, and I gave him a cup of it. But we talked only a few minutes—not over ten—before Dad came home.”
“Do you know what he wanted to see your father about?”
“No. Dad took him into the library and I went out to the kitchen. Mr. Cole stayed only a few minutes, and then I heard him leaving.”
“Did it sound as though he and your father were quarreling? Did you hear their voices?”
“No, I didn’t hear. And Dad didn’t say, afterwards, what Mr. Cole had wanted to see him about. But he did say something about Mr. Cole. He said he wondered if the boy was—how did he put it?—if he was all right. Said he wondered if maybe there wasn’t a tendency toward schizophrenia, and that he was going to keep an eye on him for a while.”
“Had you noticed anything strange about Cole’s actions or manner when you talked to him before he saw your father?”
“He seemed a little excited about something and—well, trying to hide his excitement. And then there’s one thing I’d always noticed about him—that he was unusually reticent and secretive about himself. He never volunteered any information about his—about anything concerning himself. He could talk all right about other things.”
“Do you know if Cole knew your mother would not be there tonight?”
“I don’t believe—Wait. Yes, he did. I forget just how it came into the conversation when I was talking with Mr. Cole, but I did mention my aunt’s being sick. He’d met her. And I think I said Mother was staying with her a few nights.”
“Was anything said about the ladder in your yard?”
“He asked if we were having the house painted, so I imagine he saw it lying there. It wasn’t mentioned specifically.”
“And tonight—what time did you last see your father?”
“When he said good-night at about ten o’clock and went up to bed. I finished a book I was reading and went upstairs about an hour later. I must have gone right to sleep because it seemed as though I’d been asleep a long time when I heard the phone ringing and went to answer it.”
“You heard nothing until—I mean, you heard nothing from the time your father went to sleep at ten until you were wakened by the phone—which would have been at a quarter to eleven?”
“Not a sound.”
“Did your father usually lock the door of his room?”
“Never. There was a bolt on the door, but he’d never used it that I know of.”
Chief Randall nodded. “Then Cole must have bolted the door before he went back down the ladder,” he said. “Is there anything you can add, Miss Roth?”
Jeanette hesitated. “No,” she said. “Nothing that I can think of.” She turned and smiled, faintly, at me. “Except that I want you to take good care of Brian.”
“We’ll do that,” Randall told her. He raised his voice, “Wheeler!” The big detective opened the door and Randall said, “Take Miss Roth home now. Then take up duty at Forty-five University Lane—that’s where Carter here lives. Outside. Jack Sebastian’ll be inside with him. If the two of you let anything happen to him—God help you!”
Chapter IV
A Window is Opened
PULLING THE car to the curb half a block from my place, Jack said, “That looks like Wheeler in a car up ahead, but I’m not taking any chances. Wait here.”
He got out and walked briskly to the car ahead. I noticed that he walked with his hand in his right coat pocket. He leaned into the car and talked a moment, then came back.
“It’s Wheeler,” he said, “and he’s got a good spot there. He can watch both windows of your room, and he has a good view of the whole front of the place besides.”
“How about the back?” I asked him.
“There’s a bolt on the back door. Cole would have trouble getting in that way. Besides, we’ll both be in your place and your door will be locked. If he could get into the house, he’s got two more hurdles to take—your door and me.”
“And don’t forget me.”
“That’s the hurdle he wants to take. Come on. I’ll leave you with Wheeler while I case the joint inside before I take you in.”
We walked up to Wheeler’s car and I got in beside him. “Besides looking around in my place,” I told Jack, “you might take a look in the basement. If he got in while we were gone, and is hiding out anywhere but in my place, it would be there. Probably up at the front end.”
“I’ll check it. But why would he be there?”
“He knows that part of the place. Mr. Chandler, the owner, turned over the front section of the basement to me for some experiments that Dr. Roth and I were doing on our own time. We were working with rats down there—an extension of some experiments we started at the university lab, but wanted to keep separate. So Alister Cole’s been down there.”
“And if he wanted to lay for you someplace, that might be it?”
“It’s possible. He’d figure I’d be coming down there sooner or later.”
“Okay, but I’ll get you into your apartment first, then go down there.”
He went inside and I saw the lights in my place go on. Five minutes later he came out to the car. “Clean as a whistle,” he said.
“Wait till I get my stuff from my own car and we’ll go in.”
He went to his own car half a block back and returned with a suitcase. We went into the house and into my place.
“You’re safe here,” he said. “Lock me out now, and when I come back, don’t let me in until you hear and recognize my voice.”
“How about a complicated knock? Three shorts and a long.”
He looked at me and saw I was grinning. He shook his finger at me. “Listen, pal,” he said, “this is dead serious. There’s a madman out to kill you, and he might be cleverer than you think. You can’t take anything for granted until he’s caught.”