I didn't dignify her question with an answer.
Carol looked me straight in the eye and said, “I suspect that you suspect somebody other than the people we've named so far.” The pencil she had been playing with snapped. “Let's investigate this a little further. You took the trouble to find out that Gerald's bequest to Silver Acres was $500,000, not $100,000, as I had said.
“Then somehow my calendar book disappeared from my purse at Albert's house and then reappeared at my office. This sort of thing doesn't usually happen without some human intervention. And Wesley is suddenly scrutinizing the Silver Acres books, even though he's shown little interest in them during the year-and-a-half he's been president of the residents' association. However, he won't find anything.”
“What are you driving at?” Joe asked.
“Lillian thinks that I had something to do with putting the shellfish in the casserole.”
“But that's not true!” Joe said.
“Of course not. But you know how these old ladies are when their minds start to go.”
“We were both in our offices when the alarm went off,” Joe said, looking at Carol. “Somebody turned on the alarm switch by the reception area, but since Ophah was at lunch we don't know who. We were both on the phone and by the time we hung up and came out of our offices the person had disappeared-apparently down the corridor leading to the dining room. Or maybe the alarm switch was faulty.”
That sounded suspiciously like the gospel according to Carol.
Joe continued, “The established procedure is for Carol and me to clear everybody out of the building. We started at the reception area and covered the whole building.”
“Do you each have your own route to clear the building,” I asked, trying to gain some control, “or do you go together?”
“We go separately,” Joe said before Carol could speak. “It's faster that way.”
“Was Carol carrying anything when you started out?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Joe said, positively.
I hoped that Albert would call and I wanted to waste time, so I said, “Clearing the building reminds me of a problem in topology that goes like this: The city of Bridgeton has a river running through it with two islands in the river. One bridge connects the two islands. Four bridges connect one island with the mainland, two to each side of the river. Two bridges connect the other island to the mainland, one to each side of the river. Starting from wherever you wish, is it possible to cross all seven bridges without crossing any one bridge twice?”
“That's all very interesting,” Carol said, sarcastically, “but hardly relevant to the current discussion.”
“Not true,” I said. “The layout of this building is two long corridors, parallel to each other, with three cross corridors connecting them, two at each end and one in the middle. A short corridor runs parallel to the two long ones, from the reception area to the center cross-corridor and the dining room. Sort of like a boxy eight with an extra vertical line. Similar to but not as complicated as the puzzle.
“Rooms go off from each of the corridors. Your offices are at the two corners of one end of the building, with the reception area in between. If you each started your patrol from the reception area and covered all the corridors, between you, at least one of you had to double back, meaning re-cross a bridge, at some point.
“You're right,” Joe said. “Carol went up the corridor behind the reception desk to the dining room and then over the center cross corridor to the long corridor. There are a couple of rooms between that corridor and her office.”
“So she had to backtrack toward her office.”
“Yes.
“Where did you go?”
“I went up the other long corridor all the way to the end and took the last cross corridor over to the recreation room.”
“Did you beat Carol there?” I asked.
“Yes. She was still checking the library, which is beside the rec room, when I got there. I started back toward the front and passed her as she came out of the library.”
“Was she carrying anything?”
“I already answered that question.”
“But did you get a good look at her?”
“Well…no; she was partially behind the door of the computer room.”
“What did you do then?”
“There was obviously no fire so I went back to the front to shut off the alarm and call off the fire department.”
“And I went outside to tell you it was all right to go back to your bridge game,” Carol said to me. “So I guess that kills your theory.”
“You're the one who said it was my theory,” I replied. Then turning to Joe, “How long did it take you to get back to the front of the building and shut off the alarm?”
“It's a long corridor, but I walk fast. No more than a minute or so.”
I had to get to Joe. I said, “Okay, Joe, listen to this. When Carol doubled back she could have gone into her office for a moment and taken the shellfish out of her refrigerator. And she didn't come outside where we were until after the fire alarm was turned off-until after you turned it off.”
I continued, hurriedly, before Carol could respond, “That gave her enough time to go into the rec room, pour the shellfish into the casserole, give it a quick stir, lift up the heating vent, drop the container down the shaft, replace the vent and then come outside to get us.”
“I told you she's getting soft in the head,” Carol said to Joe.
“Whose idea was it to replace the heating ducts?” I asked.
“Don't listen to her,” Carol said.
“Be quiet,” Joe said. “Lillian is a very smart woman. I want to hear what she has to say.”
“Joe, Carol has been embezzling money from Silver Acres. She needed the bequest from Gerald to cover it up, but he was too healthy so she speeded up the process. She's a thief and a murderer, Joe.” I stopped to catch my breath and waited for a reaction.
Joe turned to Carol and said, slowly, “You didn't tell me when I signed that paper that you were going to kill Mr. Weiss.”
“I didn't want to involve you; you're too soft-hearted. Look, Honey, it was necessary.”
Honey? I remembered what Gerald's attorney had told me: He had had nothing to do with the codicil to Gerald's will and it had been witnessed by Carol and Joe. I wanted to scream, but it wasn't any use, especially with the door closed. Nobody frequented this part of the building at night.
Stall for time. “Ellen was in on it, too, wasn't she? She beeped you to tell you when to set off the fire alarm. She gave you the shellfish-actually, lobster.”
“It is true she wanted to get rid of Gerald,” Carol said, “but of course she isn't in on the money, which was a lucky guess on your part since you don't have any proof. And speaking of money, we need you to make an amendment to your will. I know from my conversations with Albert that you've got bundles to spare. Silver Acres needs it. I've hinted to Albert that you are making a gift to us so he won't be surprised.”
Albert hadn't said anything to me about that, but he was reluctant to discuss financial matters. The room got very cold. “Joe, you're not a murderer.”
“Joe will do what I tell him to.”
From the way he looked at Carol I could see that this was true. “But you and Albert…”
“Mental stimulation. Albert is a cultured gentleman. Joe, on the other hand, has…other abilities. Isn't that the fantasy of every educated woman, Lillian, to have one man for the bedroom and another for the intellectual side of life? Or are you too old to remember?”
“I had both in one man.”
“You were lucky. But now your luck, I'm afraid, has run out.”
I turned to Joe. “Doesn't that bother you, Carol going out with another man?”
“He just takes her to concerts and stuff like that. As long as she doesn't sleep with him it's okay.”