The incongruity of the situation caused Selby to suppress a smile.
Brandon surveyed the battered countenance of the butler with professional interest, taking due note of the thick lips, the cauliflower ears, the flattened nose, and the permanently swollen eyes.
“You might put on some hot water, Lefty,” Carr said. “Get out some of that seventy-year-old rum, the brown sugar, the spices and the butter. I’ll put the ingredients together.”
“Yes, sir,” the man said, and turned obediently.
Carr smiled, and said, “A former client of mine. He’s very devoted to me, gentlemen, really very devoted.”
“Client!” Brandon snorted.
“That’s right, Sheriff.”
“I suppose he consulted you in connection with some oil-bearing properties and wanted you to handle the leases,” Brandon said sarcastically.
Carr threw back his head and laughed. “Now there, Sheriff,” he said, “you have me. You really do. I’ll have to admit as much. However, to satisfy the curiosity, which I can see is underlying your bit of repartee, I’m quite certain he really didn’t commit the murders for which I defended him — and secured his acquittal.”
“Indeed,” Selby said.
Carr, smiling at the sheriff, waited for just the proper moment, and then added with perfect timing, “Twice! And now, if you will excuse me, gentlemen, I will see about the hot buttered rum.”
Carr moved over toward the door, then paused. His wife crossed her knees, lit a cigarette, and surveyed the two county officials with the cautious appraisal of one sizing up an adversary before engaging in a contest.
Brandon blurted, “I hope you don’t hold anything against us or...”
She smiled. “On the contrary, I feel I owe a lot to you.”
Catching Doug Selby’s eye, she closed her own right eye in a strictly mischievous wink.
Old A. B. Carr, standing behind her, moved so he could see her face. She turned and met his glance with a look of cherubic innocence.
“Well,” Carr said, “I’ll repair to the culinary department and see what can be done about that hot buttered rum.”
“You’ll have to count me out,” Brandon said. “I’m on duty investigating a serious crime.”
“Come, come, Sheriff. A little hot buttered rum won’t hurt you.”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“How about you, Counselor?” Carr asked Selby.
“Well,” Selby acquiesced, “if you’ll promise not to load it.”
“But of course,” Carr said. “A ‘loaded’ drink is a betrayal of hospitality and a gustatory crime. It takes just a certain proportion of rum, butter, water, sugar and spices to give the perfect drink. To add too much rum is as bad as adding too much sugar. The whole thing is a beautifully proportioned, streamlined...”
“Well, give me a small cup,” Brandon interrupted. “I’ll go so far as to change my mind.”
Carr smiled, nodded, turned back to the door of the butler’s pantry, then paused to say, “By the way, my dear, I neglected to mention it, but I’d like very much to have you co-operate with Sheriff Brandon and District Attorney Selby. Just tell them anything. Absolutely anything that you know. It’s so seldom that we can be completely unreserved with these gentlemen, and they’re investigating a tragedy involving a friend of yours.”
“A friend of mine?”
“That’s right.”
“Who?”
“Someone who telephoned you tonight and wanted you...”
“Not Daphne!”
Carr inclined his head. “I’m afraid it’s Daphne, my dear, but I’m quite certain that Major Selby would like to conduct the inquiry in his own way.”
“But what in the world? Why Daphne didn’t know anyone here. She...”
“Exactly, my dear,” Carr said. “It’s a puzzling problem, but if you’ll excuse me I’ll withdraw so that the officials can question you without being embarrassed by my presence.”
And Carr stepped swiftly through the door into the butler’s pantry.
“What happened to Daphne?” Mrs. Carr asked.
Selby said, “She seems to have been stabbed, Mrs. Carr.”
“And... you mean...?”
“Yes, she died almost instantly.”
“Where did it happen?”
“In the park. The body was found there and from indications it would seem that the body had not been transported. The crime must have been committed right there.”
“But that’s absolutely incredible.”
“You had known her for a long time?” Selby asked.
“Fairly long. But Mr. Selby, who on earth would have wanted to murder Daphne? Why she...”
“That’s exactly what we’re here to find out,” Brandon interrupted.
“I can’t help you at all.”
“Perhaps you can help us in a preliminary way,” Selby said. “Did she come here to see you?”
“I guess so. She must have... well, now wait a minute. Now that you ask the question, I... I don’t think she did.”
“She must have had some reason for coming here.”
Mrs. Carr nodded dubiously. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“Perhaps it would help to find that reason if you’d tell us a little about her background,” Selby said.
She said, “I’ll be frank with you, Mr. Selby. You’re a good scout. Of course you understand that my relationship here is a strange one. While our marriage was sudden, it was... Well, you understand the circumstances.”
Selby nodded.
She said, “I wasn’t foolish enough to walk into it with my eyes closed. When my husband suggested that we get married in the interests of what I would call self-preservation, and what you would call thwarting justice, I was smart enough to realize that temporarily I had the whip hand. I insisted upon a marriage settlement which would give me something of what I wanted. I knew, of course, that my husband intended only to seal my lips for the three years during which the statute of limitations would run, and then he would get a divorce. And I know that he’s shrewd enough so that when he wanted to get that divorce he would make it appear that I was absolutely in the wrong, so he could throw me out without a cent.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you all this except that... well, you were nice to me and you’re a square shooter and I like you. I want to get the cards on the table and help you just as much as I can, but I’m not kidding you about this marriage, and I’m not kidding myself.”
“Go ahead,” Selby said.
“All right,” she said. “You know my background. I wasn’t any gilded lily. I tried to keep my own self-respect, but... well, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Selby said.
“I tried to use my head. I had a living to make. I wanted some of the good things of life. I tried to get them. A girl needs friends. There are times when she wants the companionship of her own sex, but situated as I was, such friendships are dangerous. However I formed a few.”
“Daphne Arcola?” Selby asked.
“She was one.”
“What about her background?”
“Naturally,” Mrs. Carr said, “under the circumstances I was hardly in a position to select my friends from the social register.”
Selby nodded.
She said, “Daphne and I shared an apartment in Windrift, Montana.”
“Wasn’t that rather an isolated place for you?” Selby asked.
She smiled. “During certain seasons of the year it wasn’t at all isolated. Not when I was there. There were two dude ranches a short distance out of Windrift and the place was fairly crawling with Eastern dudes who had money, wanted to wear cowboy clothes, and had roving eyes.”
Sheriff Brandon clamped his lips in a straight line of disapproval. Selby nodded encouragingly. “Go ahead.”