Raine was the most surprised man of all. He stated emphatically that he had not seen Madame Blavsky for six months; had he known that he was to be the recipient of her bounty he certainly would not have taken advantage of the bankruptcy laws, but would have staved off his creditors until he was able to settle with them and re-establish himself upon a firm business foundation.
Because of the bequest the police grilled Raine, which, under the circumstances, practically amounted to accusing him of the murder. He countered with a cast-iron alibi. On the night of the murder he had not left his apartments, but had remained at home, going over his accounts and preparing for the bankruptcy courts.
His statement was corroborated by Hoskins, his valet. Hoskins, however, complicated matters by stating that he had admitted a heavily veiled woman shortly after nine o’clock in the evening and that she had not yet gone when Raine dismissed him at eleven. At Raine’s orders he had placed a cold lunch on the sideboard and had then retired to his own quarters in the rear of the ten-room suite. He did not know what time the veiled woman had left.
The servants at the home of Madame Blavsky stated that they had retired to their own quarters shortly after dinner. The only exception was Felice, whose night off it had been. She had returned from visiting a friend between ten and eleven, coming in by the servants’ entrance. It was always Madame’s orders that on such occasions she should go to her own room, the Madame preferring to prepare herself for bed rather than run the risk of being disturbed should she fall asleep.
Since none of Madame Blavsky’s household had seen her from the time dinner was served until her body was found next morning, the police worked on the assumption that it had been she who visited Raine on the night in question. Just what they expected to gain by the assertion they did not state. The press, however, made a great deal of the incident. To complicate matters Raine refused to divulge the name of his fair visitor, asserting angrily that to do so would compromise the name of a good woman who had visited him purely upon a matter of business which was no affair of the police or public.
Whereupon Fannie Fox, who had been a comedienne in one of Raine’s defunct companies, came forward and tearfully admitted to being the woman in question. She was willing to run the risk of ruining her reputation, she stated, rather than see Raine suffer for a crime of which he was innocent. She had gone to Raine’s apartments disguised at his request, she stated, because he was back in his salaries with all his players. She had known the manager for years and he Wished to settle with her without the others knowing it. They had been hounding him to a degree where he was afraid to go to his offices. Consequently, when he had telephoned to her earlier in the evening asking her to visit him and talk matters over she had veiled herself as he asked.
Raine’s alibi was complete.
A week later he took the police into his confidence and asked for their help. Where was the money Madame Blavsky had willed to him? In her signed statement she had admitted to being worth nearly half a million dollars. The books of the First National Trust and Savings Bank showed that they had had nearly that amount invested to her credit up until a week before her death. At that time she had suddenly asked that her securities be converted into cash and
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crook, though, he managed to hold her love and got her to make her will in his favor.
“Finding himself going to the wall, he asked her to help him, and she drew her money from the bank for that purpose.
“Meanwhile, he had been secretly married to the Fox woman, and the affair in some way reached Blavsky’s ears. Of an extremely jealous and emotional temperament, she disguised herself with a heavy veil and went to his apartments to denounce him.
“When she told him that she was through because he had thrown her overboard for a younger woman, Raine at first begged. Then, hard pressed for money and realizing that she was his last resort, he lost control of himself and tried force. He says that he had no intention of killing her; when he came to his right senses he had choked her into insensibility and really thought that she was dead.
“The emergency caused him to think rapidly. His apartments are on the second floor and there is a garage in connection. Running down the back stairs, he got out his car, brought it to the back door and, covering Blavsky’s body with a blanket, carried it down and drove like the devil for her home.
“The absence of lights aided him, as did the darkness of Blavsky’s grounds. Arriving, he carried the body into the house, letting himself in by means of her key. Realizing that he could be no worse off whatever happened, he commenced ransacking the place for money.
“About this time she recovered consciousness. He imagined that she was about to yell for help — probably she was — and he seized her again.
He choked her. She grabbed a paper cutter from the table and tried to fight back. But in her weakened state she was no match for him and he killed her with her own weapon. It was when she was dying that she shrieked out that curse that the maid heard. He hastily threw open the window, jerked the rings from her fingers and escaped through the door to his machine and got back to his own place unobserved. That is why there were no marks on the ground beneath the window.
“When he found himself up against it he admitted his guilt to the Fox woman. She lied in order to provide him with an alibi.
“I had a hunch that I might get him to make some misstep if I took him out there tonight. There was a storm brewing and it was an ideal night for ghost stories. That’s why I ’phoned for Gassidy to hustle out there and remove all the bulbs from the sockets before we arrived. I’ll admit, though, that I pretty nearly talked myself out of ghost stories waiting for that extra flashlight battery to burn itself out. I underestimated it by half an hour. Most men have a streak of superstition in them, even if I haven’t. But, then, I never committed a murder.
“I guess that I was pretty nearly as badly frightened as he was, though, when I saw the Madame coming at him as the lightning flashed. You see she had that picture of herself as Lady Macbeth on a secret panel that had been built in the old house. Why she had it turned to the wall at the time she was killed I don’t know. But, at any rate, Raine in stumbling pressed his hand accidentally against the button. The panel turned just as the lightning flashed and it looked as if she was rushing straight at him, her hands reaching out for him.
“Sure, she had the money hidden in the secret closet behind the panel. I brought it back with me.
“No, I’m not superstitious, chief. But remember that curse she put on him? Well, the way things happened just as they did — maybe Sir Oliver Lodge may be right after all.”
Thornton Smiled Significantly
by David Morrison
I
“There is a — lady outside who wishes to see you. There is a man with her.”
“What’s the name?” Thornton asked, visibly annoyed at the untimely intrusion.
“She would give no name. She said you would not know her. She seems very anxious to see you.”
Thornton reflected a few moments. It was rather early for callers, and he had been about to dictate his morning mail. He resented the visit, but, for some reason he could not fathom, he felt a slight curiosity as to the identity of his callers. He turned suddenly to his secretary.
“Show them in, Miss Armstrong, please.”
As the pair entered, Thornton’s curiosity was increased.
The woman was about thirty years of age and strikingly attractive. She was expensively gowned and bore all the earmarks of wealth, but her companion was rather shabbily dressed and impressed one as a servant of the woman. The woman entered first, the man following behind her slowly, almost timidly. Thornton noticed that he clutched in his hand a large, square, box-like affair covered with black cloth.