"Maud develops a psychological deafness. By not attending, by a deep inner loafing, she really doesn't hear. Or, at the very least, she seems not to hear. But I really don't know how you are going to prove that she doesn't"
"Likewise," said Fred gloomily, "how are you going to prove that she does?"
Duff sighed. "We can go on guessing," he said. "Did you notice anything in her room, Alice?"
"I looked as hard as I could," she said. "There's no
alarm on her clock, but then, Maud's not the type to have an alarm clock. I'll bet she doesn't care when she gets up. I must say, she didn't seem to hear you when you were being mysterious about the telephone call. You were trying to trick her, weren't you?"
"I wonder if I didn't," said Duff.
Alice drew her brows together. "When?"
"When I dropped my voice and got, as you say, mysterious. She stopped chewing."
"But . . ."
"Ever eat Melba toast?"
"Certainly."
"It makes," said Duff, "a terrible racket in your own ears."
"Sure. Like celery, only worse," said Fred, "She stopped chewing, did she? lin."
"Oh, go on. It could have been just a coincidence," said Alice.
"It could," said Duff. "But she did stop chewing on her Melba toast. If she can hear, then she arranged to be able to hear, when I appeared to be telling secrets. She's curious, you know. If she had gone on eating, I should have thought her truly deaf, or utterly indifferent Alice is right of course. It's no proof. Either way," he added wearily.
"So we're still guessing," Alice said.
Duff cleared his throat. "Did you notice a funny paper stuffed into her window, into the crack?"
"Yes."
"Why do you stuff a newspaper into a crack?"
"To stop a draft," said Alice promptly.
"In which case, you stuff it carefully along the length of the crack, do you not?"
"I guess you do."
"But she didn't."
"No, she didn't."
"Then, do you think of another reason?"
"To stop a rattle," said Fred. "By gum!"
"That," said Duff, "is what occurred to me. A deaf woman?"
"Well, it makes you wonder," said Fred slowly, "doesn't it?"
"That's dreadful," said Alice, "to think of her hearing as well as anybody, and grinning to herself, and making all that fuss."
"I don't suppose there's much to make a fuss about, ordinarily," Duff reminded her. "The excitements of the last two days are rare. Ordinarily, being deaf would be more convenient than not being deaf. Isn't that so?"
"Do you think she can hear?"
"I find cause to wonder," Duff said, "that's all. Well, suppose we go over the attempts again. Let me see. The first one, the lamp falling. We had decided that it was not Maud, possibly Gertrude, possibly Isabel."
'We were wrong," said Fred.
"I did wonder how good Gertrude's perception is, in three dimensions," Duff said thoughtfully. "Especially since the bathroom off the lower hall was put there since her blindness. Could she know that a man emerging from that door would come, in just so many steps, exactly under the crossing edge of the upstairs hall? Judgment of distance, at least three-dimensional distance, depends so much on sight. Doesn't it strike you as difficult for a blind woman?"
"She could hear," said Alice. "Maybe the sound changed. His footsteps would seem louder when he got out from under, into the open hall."
"Perhaps," said Duff. "Still, it would seem that such a change would warn her too late. She would have to touch the lamp just before he emerged."
"That's when it fell," said Fred, "just before."
"Perhaps I am being too subtle," Duff admitted. "After all, we don't know how accurate the timing was, because you jumped first. Well, well say it's possible for Gertrude to have tried that. Even though her room is not upstairs and it meant, for her, planning to get up there. Being there, surely, before anyone could know that Innes would go into that bathroom at all."
"I see what you mean," Fred said, "but it couldn't have been planned by anybody. It was grabbing the chance. And she might have gone upstairs just for instance."
"Attempt number one, not Maud, possibly Gertrude, possibly Isabel."
"That's wrong. It could have been Maud. If she can hear."
"But not if Gertrude is blind."
"Why not?"
"Maud," said Duff, "was probably—and surely, if Gertrude is blind—downstairs at the time, in the parlor, behind the curtains, reading the newspapers."
"How do you know?"
"You couldn't see her face, could you?"
"No. That's what I told you."
"Why not?"
"Because she was holding the newspaper up."
"Was it a tabloid?"
"No."
"Then wilh how many hands was she holding it up?"
"With two hands," said Fred. "So, of course, it wasn't Isabel. I see."
"But . . ." Alice stopped herself.
"A blind woman, you know," Duff purred, "doesn't read the newspaper."
Alice and Fred looked at each other.
"Yes, but how did you know she was holding the thing spread out?"
"It must have been spread out, to hide her whole face and head. Try to hold a newspaper in one hand when it's spread out."
"One to you," said Fred. "O.K. Even if Gerty can see a little, she wouldn't be reading the newspaper. I give up. So it wasn't Maud." He leaned back, looking gloomy.
"Therefore, let us say in the case of attempt number one, only Maud couldn't have done it,"
"Go on," said Fred.
"Attempt number two, the accident to the car, the moving of the detour sign. Not Gertrude, was said."
"But possibly Maud."
"Especially if she can hear. If she did hear you say which road you'd be taking."
"That's right"
"And possibly Isabel, of course. Then let us say of attempt number two, only Gertrude couldn't have done it,"
"Go on," said Alice.
"Attempt number three, the coal gas, the tampering
with the furnace. What about that?"
"Not hkely Gertrude," said Fred. "She couldn't see the signs on the pipes."
"She knows everything about that house," objected Alice. "She makes a point of it. Besides, all she'd really have to know is which one went to Papa's room, and turn off all the rest."
"I had wondered," Duff said, "whether Maud could have moved as quietly as would have been necessary, if she couldn't hear her own noise. With the storm to help her, I had concluded that it was possible. But, of course, if she can hear . . ."
"Listen, old Maud could have managed that one. Gertrude's well. . . just a possibility. Barely."
"Barely," said Ahce significantly, and looked at Duff.
"But now Isabel," said Duff. "Number three, only Isabel couldn't have done it."
"Why couldn't she?"
"Whoever turned the dampers got a greasy stain on her arm when she reached for the pipe to the kitchen. No stained sleeves. Therefore a bare arm. Isabel can't scrub such a stain off her own left arm, with only her own left hand to do it."
"But Gertrude could have scrubbed it off for her," said Alice triumphantly, "with the witch hazel!"
Duffs eyes twinkled. "How true!" he said. "Gertrude denied it was her arm. Said it was her limb. A limb's a leg, isn't it? Could it possibly be anything else? However, what's to prevent Isabel from putting her hand into her bedroom slipper, shall we say. To a blind sister, her arm was her shin, or limb. Yes, it does look suspicious, especially if Gertrude is really blind. But alas, kids, Maud gives her an alibi."
"Maud says she came upstairs about eleven, when the heat was still pouring out of the registers, and that she did not go down later. At least not through Maud's room. Fred says she didn't go down by the only other route. Isabel has an alibi."