“Well, you knew that. I explained that. I felt sorry for...”
“I don’t want to hear any more of your preposterous lies. Why on earth did you tell me that about the skiing teacher? Didn’t you know that as soon as I found out the truth I’d begin to doubt all the rest of your stories?”
“They weren’t lies,” Gracie said sharply. “I’m not that dumb. Schultzie was fired since I heard from him.”
“And the dancing business?”
Gracie looked uncomfortable. “Well, I guess I sort of exaggerated that. I’m a dancer, all right, but I’ve been on my uppers for awhile and I came up here to be — to be a sort of hostess. A glorified waitress,” she added bitterly.
Isobel stared at her and thought, she’s more ashamed of that than she is of having killed Floraine.
“You did kill her, didn’t you?”
“Not exactly. It wasn’t my fault. It was an accident.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing.”
“You can’t do nothing. You killed her. You’re admitting it.”
“Not to anyone but you,” Gracie said. “And they can’t do anything to me, because it was an accident. She tried to kill me first.” She shrugged her shoulders fatalistically. “It was a case of her or me, so it was her. I pushed her over the balcony.”
“The balcony of her room,” Isobel said. “Why did you go there?”
Gracie came over and sat on the edge of the bed. “Listen, you never had to look out for yourself, did you?”
“You can make the excuses later.”
“They aren’t excuses,” Gracie said simply. “I’m telling you why I went to her room. I told you before that I knew she shot off the rifle and killed the cat just to get rid of us. And I figured if she wanted to get rid of us so badly she had a good reason. And then I figured if she had a good reason she’d be willing to pay to keep it quiet.”
“Blackmail,” Isobel said.
“Well, if you want to fuss around with words, call it blackmail. I didn’t call it anything. I needed money and I saw a chance to get it and I got to look out for myself. I knew there was something between Crawford and Floraine. You remember when she shot at us and Crawford made us all get down in the snow? But he stood up and waved his hat. He was signaling to her.
“And anyway I’d seen him before in a night club in Montreal and his name wasn’t Crawford or Rudd. Somebody pointed him out as a smooth crook. He was scattering money around to beat hell, but there was something about him I didn’t want a part of — he looked too dangerous.
“Well, anyway, there was Crawford carrying a gun and signaling to Floraine and I began to smell a plot. And then when Miss Rudd began to call him Harry, the rest of you thought she was crazy, but me, I wasn’t so sure. I watched him carefully and I saw he was scared to death of her. Then I saw that there’d been a lot of things removed from the house, like pictures and furniture, and Miss Rudd kept accusing Harry of stealing. So that clicked. I was sure he was Harry Rudd, and that he and Floraine were playing a smelly game between them.
“The crazy part of it is, I didn’t know what the game was till afterwards! I let on to Floraine that I knew and she thought I did. But I didn’t figure it out until Miss Rudd brought me the papers with Jeanneret’s picture in every one of them. Then the bus driver’s clothes that you found, and the ski wax and Floraine being so anxious to kick us out added up. Jeanneret was the driver. He went to the house and Floraine fitted him out with skis, food and clothing. Then he went on his way. But that didn’t work out on account of the blizzard.
“One thing sort of puzzled me until I talked to Sergeant Mackay. Why didn’t Crawford drive the bus? Well, Mackay said Jeanneret didn’t trust Crawford an inch. Crawford was always sort of wild, and I guess Jeanneret figured he’d handle everything himself as far as he could. And it turned out he was right,” Gracie added grimly. “You never get anywhere trusting people. You got to look out for yourself.”
“You said that before,” Isobel said dryly. “So you went to Floraine’s room.”
“I went to her room,” Gracie said. “You were sleeping. You’d been up for a long time snooping...”
“That’s why you wouldn’t go with me, wasn’t it? You didn’t want anyone to get suspicious about you.”
Gracie nodded. “You were sleeping pretty well and didn’t hear me. Floraine’s room was right next door so I went out by the balcony and rapped on her window. I could tell she thought it was Crawford because she came to the window all smiles and opened it. I said I wanted to talk to her and she said we couldn’t talk inside the house, she’d get a coat and come out.
“When she came out I told her I knew who Crawford was and what the two of them were doing, and without any warning she grabbed me by the throat. She was crazy about Crawford, she would have done anything for him. I guess a lot of women would.”
“Yes,” Isobel said.
“Well, she started to choke me. I wasn’t very frightened because I’m strong. I can do a one-arm handstand. I didn’t even scream.”
“You pushed her off,” Isobel said.
“She was going to kill me. I had to. She just screamed once, very faintly, as she was going over. I waited as long as I could out there and when I didn’t hear anything more I figured — well, I figured she was dead and I better get back to my room. I came in our window just as Mrs. Vista began to shout. You were just waking up and you were too sleepy to notice that my feet were wet from the snow. Anyway, nobody caught on and if I acted funny, well, the rest of you were acting a little funny, too.
“Then poor Miss Rudd began pounding on her door. It’s funny how the rest of you kept thinking she killed Floraine when all the time she was locked in her room, and the windows locked, too. Well, I thought it would be a good idea if the rest of you kept thinking that, and a good idea to keep Crawford confused. He was so scared of her, and I figured she could be a sort of bodyguard for me if Crawford caught on to me. And I also felt sorry for her, naturally, on account of my aunt, so I let her out.”
She stubbed her cigarette. “I’m kind of sorry I did it now. I didn’t want her to be murdered.”
“Such delicacy of feeling,” Isobel said.
“I’m very soft-hearted,” Gracie said. “I’m always letting my heart run away with my head.”
“But not very far.”
“But I guess she’s better off this way,” Gracie added, more cheerfully.
“He’s dead, too.”
“Is he? My, things are certainly working out, especially for me. Though it’s no job for a girl like me, being a waitress practically.” She let out a sigh. “Well, I guess that’s all.”
“And you really think you can get away with it?” Isobel said.
“Well, my goodness, I didn’t actually murder anybody. It was pure accident. Besides, nobody knows but you and me.”
“It’s my duty to tell the authorities. I’m sorry, but it’s my duty.”
“They won’t believe you,” Gracie said calmly. “That nice policeman thinks I’m cute, and I bet when they open her up they’ll find she died of heart failure. I read about how they find things out like that and how people’s hearts may fail when they’re falling.”
Isobel said nothing.
“Anyway,” Gracie added, “I think I should even get a medal. They were a nasty bunch of crooks, if you ask me.”
“It’s my duty to tell...” Isobel began again, but she knew how useless it was to go on. She went out into the corridor and walked slowly towards the elevator.
When she reached the lobby she saw that Monsieur Roche and Mr. Grube were in earnest and worried conversation. She approached the desk, and Mr. Grube looked at her with a feeble smile.