“By George,” Drake said excitedly, “that’s it. Perry! That ties the whole thing together. That makes everything check. Milfield had just lit this fresh candle when the murderer came aboard. It must have been within five or ten minutes of the time he lit the candle.”
“Exactly,” Mason said. “That fixes the time of crime with almost a mathematical certainty, doesn’t it, Paul?”
Drake nodded.
“But,” Mason said, “Roger Burbank had his altercation with Milfield at around six o‘clock in the evening. Carol Burbank drove down to the yacht club as soon as she heard about it. She reached the yacht sometime after seven o’clock and before eight o’clock. The yacht was still on an even keel. She found the body lying in position number one. That’s her solemn statement to me.”
Drake said, “By George, Perry, you’re absolutely right. The girl’s lying. She’s lying like a trooper about the time element. It simply couldn’t have been the way she described it.”
“That’s right,” Mason said. “Everything checks. Carol Burbank is lying. She must have boarded the yacht sometime after nine o’clock. Bear in mind that either the murderer lit the candle, or she lit the candle. There is always the possibility that the candle was lit after the murder had been committed, and the murderer had departed.”
“Not very likely in view of the fact that the old candle had been removed,” Drake said.
“Not very likely,” Mason admitted, “but it’s a possibility.”
Drake said, “You’ve got me sold, Perry. Carol Burbank is lying.”
“Now wait a minute,” Mason said. “We come to the one thing which substantiates Carol’s story.”
“What’s that?”
“The location of the bloody footprint. The footprint is right in the middle of the tread of the companionway. That indicates the yacht was on an even keel when the bloody footprint was made. Now how do you account for that, Mr. Detective?”
Drake scratched his head and said, “Damn it, Perry, I don’t. It just doesn’t fit into the picture at all.”
“There you are” Mason said. “That bloody footprint indicates Carol is telling the truth. On the other hand, the evidence of the candle indicates she’s lying. The evidence of the bloodstain indicates she’s lying. According to the theory of the tides, the murder simply couldn’t have been committed before nine o’clock.
“And always remember that whenever you’re dealing with a murder case, you must take into consideration certain facts. The murderer will always lie. And certain witnesses will sometimes lie. Therefore, you have to take into consideration the fact that the story anyone tells, either on or off the stand, may be false.”
“Wouldn’t it be possible that this footprint could have been framed?” Della Street asked.
“Now,” Mason said, “you’re getting to the thought that’s in the back of my mind. Suppose a girl who knew something about tides, who’s smart enough to think fast in an emergency, realized that, for some reason or other, she wanted it to appear the murder had been committed at a time considerably earlier than had actually been the case. The yacht was tilted at the time she was aboard, but she realized that if she left a bloody footprint in the exact center of the tread of the companionway, it would indicate the yacht was on an even keel.”
“By George!” Drake exclaimed. “Now you’ve got something! And Carol is a fast-thinking little number.”
Mason said almost musingly, “I can’t afford to make any fumbles. I’ve got to hit the bull’s-eye with my first and only shot. The autopsy surgeon says the bleeding — that is the extensive bleeding — occupied a period of probably not over thirty minutes. There are just two big pools of blood, one in position number one, and the other in the position in which the body was found. That indicates a murder right around nine-twenty. The position of the candle indicates a murder right around nine-twenty. That bloody footprint is the one thing that doesn’t fit into the picture. Now, I’ve got to know why it doesn’t fit into the picture, when it was made, how it was made, and why it was made.”
“Is there a possibility,” Della asked, “that the footprint could have been made the next morning after the boat returned to an even keel?”
“That,” Mason said, “is the solution that I keep flirting with. It’s the only thing that could possibly account for all the facts as I see them now.”
“The question is, would the blood remain moist that long?” Drake asked.
“I think it would,” Mason said, “particularly where the blood had soaked into a carpet. Remember that this carpet on the floor of the cabin is very thick and very heavy. It fits into position and is held there by a series of snaps.
“By examining the circumstantial evidence, we have three clocks fixing the time of the murder with mathematical precision. The first and most important clock is the ebbing and flowing of the tide. The second clock is the candle, at an angle of approximately seventeen degrees from the perpendicular, yet with the wax running down smoothly on both sides, indicating that the candle was approximately erect at the time it was burning.”
“What’s the third clock?” Drake asked.
“The time during which the wound would bleed, probably not more than half an hour. That is, bleeding to the extent that it would leave blood spots the size found in the carpet. Now then, there’s only one way you can synchronize all three of those clocks so that they all point to one time as the time of murder, and the minute you do that, that bloody footprint becomes absolutely out of place.”
“Then,” Drake said, “the footprint was faked. This business of pulling her gloves out of her purse and letting the parcel checking ticket drop to the floor — that’s it, Perry, that’s bound to be it. The whole thing is some sort of a frame-up.”
“On whom?” Mason asked.
“On... Gosh, I don’t know, Perry. It seems to be on ourselves more than anyone else.”
Mason nodded somewhat glumly. “I’ve covered all of that in my mind, Paul. The footprint is the one thing that doesn’t fit in. It’s the thing that’s out of alignment with everything. Therefore, we must consider the possibility that the footprint was fabricated deliberately, and as you point out, that business of checking the package containing the shoes and subsequently letting the check flutter to the floor, may have been just what it seems. But on the other hand it is more apt to have been part of a deliberately planned campaign to get those shoes into the hands of the police under such circumstances that the evidence of the bloodstained shoe would seem to be even more sinister.”
Mason took a tide schedule from his pocket and said, “Well, Paul, tonight we’re going to make an experiment.”
“Just what are your plans?” Drake asked.
“Tonight,” Mason said, “high tide is at nine-forty-two p.m. Low tide will be at two-fifty-four a.m. tomorrow morning. According to the schedule we worked out, the boat should be aground about eleven o‘clock tonight. It should start tilting at twelve o’clock. It should have tilted away over by one-thirty. Somewhere around half an hour after midnight is the period I want to study, from then until one-forty-five.”
“Where’s the boat now?” Drake asked.
“As the representative of the owners of the boat,” Mason said, “I’ve been able to get it released from police custody, and it’s in my care. I’ve instructed Cameron at the yacht club to see that the boat is towed out to exactly the position it occupied the night of the murder, and anchored there. Shortly before midnight, we’re going down there and study the action of the tide.”