Malone opened his mouth, shut it again, and finally said: "Oh."
"So you see," the old woman said, "that I had some motive, perhaps, for harming Gerald — a motive which I cheerfully admit, since I did not kill him. But I had no such motive for doing away with James Dohr."
"Well," Malone said, and wondered what other words could possibly follow that. At last he said: "I suppose I ought to talk to your son next."
"You ought to talk to everyone," the old woman said. "You must gather all the facts, Mr. Malone, and satisfy your mind." She clapped her hands together sharply, and the maid appeared suddenly in the doorway. "Please send Ronald to us," the old woman said.
A few minutes later Ronald came in. His mother smiled at him. "Mr. Malone wants to ask you some questions," she said casually. "I shall remain while he does so." Malone opened his mouth to object, thought better of it and kept quiet. "It should be very interesting," the old woman said.
"Fascinating," Ronald said, "I don't doubt. Am I supposed to have knifed James, in some back-alley brawl?"
"I'm sure I don't know," the old woman said smoothly. "Mr. Malone, you have some questions to ask?"
Malone wiped some more sweat from his forehead. "I suppose so," he said.
* * **
Ronald was, he discovered, the helpful type. He cheerfully admitted that he knew nothing, but that didn't stop him from having all sorts of ideas, theories and suggestions. His mother watched the interview for a time with her bright, beady eyes, but she seemed to get bored after a while, and devoted herself to what was, Malone thought, a kind of half-sleep. She sat with her eyes closed, shifting position now and again, as far away from the interview as if she had been in Kamchatka.
"What about enemies?" Malone said at last, feeling a little desperate.
"Enemies?" Ronald said. "James didn't have any enemies. Except us, of course."
"You?"
"Well — Gerald," Ronald said. "You know about that, don't you?"
Malone nodded.
"And when I was little I used to tease James. You know how kids are. I really don't think he ever entirely liked me."
"How about Gerald Deane?" Malone said.
"You mean how did James feel about Gerald?" Ronald said. "I really don't know. He was always a good butler. There just didn't seem to be much else to bother about."
"Well, then," Malone said. He was coming to the final question, and he dreaded it. But there was nothing else to do. "Did you kill James Dohr?" he said.
"Who?" Ronald said with a surprised look. "Me?"
Malone had the horrible feeling that he was forging ahead into a complete vacuum, but he tried to ignore it. It was obvious, he told himself sternly, that Mrs. Dohr was innocent. And, as far as he could see, that meant that one of the Deanes was the guilty one. One of them had killed James Dohr.
The only trouble was that he didn't know which one, and he didn't know how he was going to find out.
Well, he thought, there was still one more Deane to cross-examine.
He asked for her.
Wendy, Ronald's wife, came into the room slowly, looking confused. Old Mrs. Deane was asleep in her chair; Ronald had left for another part of the house. Malone took a deep breath, but Wendy spoke before he had a chance.
"I don't see why you have to ask us about this terrible thing," she told him at once. "Whoever killed James had nothing to do with us. How could he have?"
Malone sighed. "I just thought you might know something," he said slowly. "For instance, suppose James had some information about the family. That could be important. If he knew something nobody wanted to talk about — "
"Oh, that," Wendy said, in a discouraged tone. "My goodness, yes. Only it's no good asking me what information he had. I wouldn't know, and the will was drawn up long before I even met Ronald or anybody."
"Ah," Malone said intelligently. "But you do know about it?"
"Oh, naturally," Wendy said. "Ronald's mother made sure everybody knew about it; she loved it, she loved to talk about it. It made old Mr. Deane so uncomfortable."
"I take it," Malone said, "that you didn't like her talking about the hush-money all the time?"
Wendy shrugged. "It got boring," she said. "Especially when you didn't know what the secrets could possibly be, or anything."
Boring, Malone told himself, was not the word. Confusing was more like it. He certainly had a lead — or, anyhow, he thought he had. Only it was a lead that didn't lead to anything, if that made sense. It didn't go anywhere.
Or did it?
Malone decided, with great suddenness, that it did.
He knew exactly who the murderer was.
And Wendy Deane had told him.
"But what I don't see," Mrs. Dohr said, later that afternoon, "is how you managed to figure out what the secret was. I mean the secret Gerald was paying hush-money for."
"Simple," Malone said. "The secret had to involve Gerald, his wife or Ronald. It couldn't have anything to do with Wendy; she wasn't even around when the will was drawn up. She said so herself, and it's easy enough to check."
"That still leaves three people," Mrs. Dohr objected.
"Not for long it doesn't," Malone said. "If the secret was something to do with Gerald, then there was no reason for James to be killed. Gerald's dead already."
"And that," Maggie said, "leaves old Mrs. Deane and Ronald. Why Ronald?"
"Because Mrs. Deane liked the secret, and liked the whole idea of James' having it. She said so — and so did Wendy. She wouldn't have liked it so much if she'd been the object of that secret. Right?"
"I suppose so," Mrs. Dohr said.
"So it couldn't have been Mrs. Deane," Malone said. "It had to be Ronald. Simple elimination."
Mrs. Dohr frowned slightly. "But, Malone," she said. "What was this secret? What did James know?"
Malone took out a fresh cigar and lit it with a casual air. "Frankly," he said, "I don't have the faintest idea. Ronald knows, but he won't tell. And James Dohr, of course, was a good butler. He kept his mouth shut."
"So we still don't know why my husband was killed," Maggie said.
"That's right," Malone said. "We don't know why. But, somehow, it doesn't seem to matter now. After all, the killer's safely behind bars."
Mrs. Dohr looked worshipful. "Malone," she said, "you're wonderful."
Malone took a slow, relaxed puff on his cigar. "That," he said with becoming shyness, "is a hell of an understatement."
Christmas Gift
by ROBERT TURNER
You might like this Christmas story very much. You might not like it at all. But of this I feel sure: you will remember it for many months to come.
There was no snow and the temperature was a mild sixty-eight degrees and in some of the yards nearby the shrubbery was green, along with the palm trees, but still you knew it was Christmas Eve. Doors on the houses along the street held wreaths, some of them lighted. A lot of windows were lighted with red, green and blue lights. Through some of them you could see the lighted glitter of Christmas trees. Then, of course there was the music, which you could hear coming from some of the houses, the old familiar songs, White Christmas, Ave Maria, Silent Night.
All of that should have been fine, because Christmas in a Florida city is like Christmas any place else, a good time, a tender time. Even if you're a cop. Even if you pulled duty Christmas Eve and can't be home with your own wife and kid. But not necessarily if you're a cop on duty with four others and you're going to have to grab an escaped con and send him back, or more probably have to kill him because he was a lifer and just won't go back.