“Comus must have had some plan,” mumbled Ellery.
“Sure,” said the Inspector. “That old man disguise. And that purse-snatching act.”
“No, no, Dad. Something clever. He’s always pulled something clever.”
“Well, there’s the diamond,” said the lawyer comfortably. “He didn’t.”
“Disguise...” muttered Ellery. “It’s always been a disguise. Santa Claus costume—he used that once—this morning in front of the bank... Did we see a Santa Claus around here today?”
“Just Velie,” said the Inspector, grinning. “And I hardly think—”
“Wait a moment, please,” said Attorney Bondling in a very odd voice.
He was staring at the Dauphin’s Doll.
“Wait for what, Mr. Bondling?”
“What’s the matter?” said Ellery, also in a very odd voice.
“But... not possible...” stammered Bondling. He snatched the doll from its black velvet repository. “No!” he howled. “This isn’t the dauphin! It’s a fake—a copy!”
Something happened in Mr. Queen’s head—a little click! like the turn of a switch. And there was light.
“Some of you men!” he roared. “After Santa Claus!”
“Who, Mr. Queen?”
“What’s he talkin’ about?”
“After who, Ellery?” gasped Inspector Queen.
“What’s the matter?”
“I dunno!”
“Don’t stand here! Get him!” screamed Ellery, dancing up and down. “The man I just let out of here! The Santa who made for the men’s room!”
Detectives started running, wildly.
“But Ellery,” said a small voice, and Nikki found that it was her own, “that was Sergeant Velie.”
“It was not Velie, Nikki! When Velie ducked out just before two o’clock to relieve himself, Corpus waylaid him! It was Comus who came back in Velie’s Santa Claus rig, wearing Velie’s whiskers and mask! Comus has been on this platform all afternoon!” He tore the dauphin from Attorney Bondling’s grasp. “Copy...! Somehow he did it, he did it.”
“But Mr. Queen,” whispered Attorney Bondling, “his voice. He spoke to us... in Sergeant Velie’s voice.”
“Yes, Ellery,” Nikki heard herself saying.
“I told you yesterday Comus is a great mimic, Nikki. Lieutenant Farber! Is Farber still here?”
The jewelry expert, who had been gaping from a distance, shook his head as if to clear it and shuffled into the enclosure.
“Lieutenant,” said Ellery in a strangled voice. “Examine this diamond... I mean, is it a diamond?”
Inspector Queen removed his hands from his face and said froggily, “Well, Gerry?”
Lieutenant Farber squinted once through his loupe. “The hell you say. It’s strass—”
“It’s what?” said the Inspector piteously.
“Strass, Dick—lead glass—paste. Beautiful job of imitation—as nice as I’ve ever seen.”
“Lead me to that Santa Claus,” whispered Inspector Queen.
But Santa Claus was being led to him. Struggling in the grip of a dozen detectives, his red coat ripped off, his red pants around his ankles, but his whiskery mask still on his face, came a large shouting man.
“But I tell you,” he was roaring, “I’m Sergeant Tom Velie! Just take the mask off—that’s all!”
“It’s a pleasure,” growled Detective Hagstrom, trying to break their prisoner’s arm, “we’re reservin’ for the Inspector.”
“Hold him, boys,” whispered the Inspector. He struck like a cobra. His hand came away with Santa’s face.
And there, indeed, was Sergeant Velie.
“Why, it’s Velie,” said the Inspector wonderingly.
“I only told you that a thousand times,” said the Sergeant, folding his great hairy arms across his great hairy chest. “Now who’s the so-and-so who tried to bust my arm?” Then he said, “My pants!” and, as Miss Porter turned delicately away, Detective Hagstrom humbly stooped and raised Sergeant Velie’s pants.
“Never mind that,” said a cold, remote voice.
It was the master, himself.
“Yeah?” said Sergeant Velie, hostilely.
“Velie, weren’t you attacked when you went to the men’s room just before two?”
“Do I look like the attackable type?”
“You did go to lunch? — in person?”
“And a lousy lunch it was.”
“It was you up here among the dolls all afternoon?”
“Nobody else, Maestro. Now, my friends, I want action. Fast patter. What’s this all about? Before,” said Sergeant Velie softly, “I lose my temper.”
While divers Headquarters orators delivered impromptu periods before the silent Sergeant, Inspector Richard Queen spoke.
“Ellery. Son. How in the name of the second sin did he do it?”
“Pa,” replied the master, “you got me.”
Deck the hall with boughs of holly, but not if your name is Queen on the evening of a certain December twenty-fourth. If your name is Queen on that lamentable evening you are seated in the living room of a New York apartment uttering no falalas but staring miserably into a somber fire. And you have company. The guest list is short, but select. It numbers two, a Miss Porter and a Sergeant Velie, and they are no comfort.
No, no ancient Yuletide carol is being trolled; only the silence sings.
Wail in your crypt, Cytherea Ypson; all was for nought; your little dauphin’s treasure lies not in the empty coffers of the orphans but in the hot clutch of one who took his evil inspiration from a long-crumbled specialist in vanishments.
Speech was spent. Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? He who talks too much commits a sin, says the Talmud. He also wastes his breath: and they had now reached the point of conservation, having exhausted the available supply.
Item: Lieutenant Geronimo Farber of Police Headquarters had examined the diamond in the genuine dauphin’s crown a matter of seconds before it was conveyed to its sanctuary in the enclosure. Lieutenant Farber had pronounced the diamond a diamond, and not merely a diamond, but a diamond worth in his opinion over one hundred thousand dollars.
Question: Had Lieutenant Farber lied?
Answer: Lieutenant Farber was (a) a man of probity, tested in a thousand fires, and (b) he was incorruptible. To (a) and (b) Inspector Richard Queen attested violently, swearing by the beard of his personal Prophet.
Question: Had Lieutenant Farber been mistaken?
Answer: Lieutenant Farber was a nationally famous police expert in the field of precious stones. It must be presumed that he knew a real diamond from a piece of lapidified glass.
Question: Had it been Lieutenant Farber?
Answer: By the same beard of the identical Prophet, it had been Lieutenant Farber and no facsimile.
Conclusion: The diamond Lieutenant Farber had examined immediately preceding the opening of Nash’s doors that morning had been the veritable diamond of the dauphin, the doll had been the veritable Dauphin’s Doll, and it was this genuine article which Ellery with his own hands had carried into the glass-enclosed fortress and deposited between the authenticated Sergeant Velie’s verified feet.
Item: All day—specifically, between the moment the dauphin had been deposited in his niche until the moment he was discovered to be a fraud; that is, during the total period in which a theft-and-substitution was even theoretically possible—no person whatsoever, male or female, adult or child, had set foot within the enclosure except Sergeant Thomas Velie, alias Santa Claus.