“And that, coupled with the number of poison cakes which had been placed around, would indicate to you that the poisoner was very anxious to get the dog out of the way?”
“Exceedingly so. He wasn’t taking any chances. Any one of those poison cakes would have killed the dog.”
“Now, in order to plant that poison on the inside of the room, the poisoner must have had access to that room, isn’t that right?”
Dr. Perry’s forehead twisted into a perplexed frown. “Why, of course,” he said, “that goes without saying.”
“Therefore the dog wouldn’t have been poisoned merely so the poisoner could have had a few minutes in that room.”
“Why?” Dr. Perry asked.
“Because he already must have had access to the room when he planted the poison.”
“That’s right... But wait a minute — how could he have planted the poison with the dog there?”
Selby said, “That’s exactly the point. You see, Doctor, we have more definite clews to work on when it comes to trapping the poisoner of the dog than we do in trapping the murderer of William Larrabie. Therefore, I want to be reasonably certain that one and the same man was guilty of both the dog poisoning and the murder. Then I want to concentrate on getting that dog poisoner.”
“I see what you’re getting at,” Dr. Perry said slowly, “and I think I can assure you, Mr. Selby, both the dog poisoning and Larrabie’s death had this much in common — they were the work of some man who knew something of drugs, who had an opportunity to compound a five grain tablet containing a lethal dose of morphia, or who had access to such a tablet. And such a tablet, of course, would be exceedingly rare in the normal course of medical use. Also, the man knew something about dogs.”
Selby stared steadily at Dr. Perry. “Is there,” he asked, “any chance that Harry Perkins might have poisoned his own dog?”
Dr. Perry’s face showed startled surprise. Then he said swiftly, “Why, Mr. Perkins was all worked up about it. He was going to kill the man who did it. He told me to spare no expense. The man was actually crying when he thought the dog was going to die. There were real tears in his eyes.”
“Nevertheless,” Selby said, “he might have poisoned the dog and then rushed him to you in order to counteract the effects of the poison.”
“But why would he have done that?”
“Because he would want to make it look like an outside job. Mind you, Doctor, I’m not accusing Perkins, I’m simply asking you a question.”
Dr. Perry said, “You mean that unless the dog had been absent from the premises, which he wasn’t, the person who dropped that poison inside of the room must have been someone the dog knew. A stranger might have tossed it over the fence, but a stranger couldn’t have planted it in that room.”
“That,” Selby told him, “is right. Now, then, Perkins, I believe, is a registered pharmacist.”
“I believe he is, yes.”
“And the poison which was given the dog was rather quick acting?”
“Yes, very.”
“Isn’t it rather unusual that Perkins would have detected the symptoms of poisoning and brought the dog to you as soon as he did?”
“Well,” Dr. Perry said slowly, “it depends, of course; some people know their dogs so well they can tell the minute anything goes wrong. Still...” he let his voice trail away into thoughtful silence.
At that moment Amorette Standish knocked on the door, opened it and beckoned to Selby.
“Excuse me for a moment,” Selby said... “Although, on second thought, Doctor, I guess that’s everything I wanted to get from you. I’d like very much to have you make some investigation along the theory I’ve outlined and see if you can find out anything.”
Dr. Perry clamped on his hat, strode purposefully toward the door.
“You can count on me,” he said, “and also on my absolute discretion. I’ll be at the coroner’s for a few minutes, if you want to reach me. I have some questions to ask him.”
“Thanks, Doctor,” Selby said.
When Dr. Perry had left the office, the district attorney turned to Amorette Standish.
“We’ve got the numbers,” she said in a low voice.
The door of the other office opened as Sylvia Martin came from the extension line. She nodded and said, “I have them here. The sale was made to Mr. Larrabie shortly before Christmas of last year.”
“Well, let’s check the numbers,” Selby said.
He led the way to the private office, took the camera from the case, read out the numbers. Both girls nodded their heads. “That’s right,” they said.
At that moment the door of the outer office opened and Sheriff Brandon entered the room.
“Find any fingerprints on the space bar of the typewriter?” Selby asked.
“Yes, there are a couple of good ones we can use.”
“Were they those of the dead man?”
“No.”
“By the way,” Selby said, “what number did I give you on that camera?”
The sheriff pulled a notebook from his pocket, read forth a string of figures.
Sylvia Martin exclaimed, “Why, those aren’t the figures that we have, and... Why, they aren’t the figures that are on the camera!”
Doug Selby grinned. “Rex,” he said, “while I’m outlining a damn good story to Sylvia, would you mind sprinting down the courthouse steps? You’ll find Dr. Perry just getting into his automobile. Arrest him for the murder of William Larrabie.”
Chapter XX
Sylvia Martin stared at Selby with wide open eyes.
“You aren’t bluffing, Doug?” she asked.
“No,” he told her.
“Then give it to me,” she said, looking at her wristwatch, “and hit the high-spots. I’ve got to get this story licked into shape. Give me the barest outline. Tell me how you doped it out, and tell me how you know Dr. Perry’s guilty.”
“Let’s go back to what we know,” he told her. “We know that Larrabie had business here. It was business other than raising the five thousand dollars.”
“How do we know that wasn’t his business?”
“Because he didn’t leave here after he had the five thousand dollars in his possession.”
“I see.”
“We know that he wrote someone here in Madison City, that this someone telephoned him and made arrangements for him to come to Madison City, with the utmost secrecy. That was the person with whom Larrabie was doing business, and it’s reasonable to suppose that business was connected in some way with the Perry Estate, because Larrabie’s brief case contained documents relating to two independent pieces of business; one was the Perry Estate and the other was the scenario.
“Remember, I warned you that all people had problems, that we mustn’t make the mistake of feeling that all of these problems must be related merely because the people happened to be under the same hotel roof. As a matter of fact, the five thousand dollars, Brower’s trouble, whatever it may have been, and Shirley Arden’s relationship with Larrabie, were all entirely independent of the business which actually brought Larrabie here.
“We should have known that if we had stopped to think, because he came here instead of going to Hollywood. Any business with the actress would naturally have taken him to Hollywood, where he’d have supposed it would have been more convenient for her to have joined him, since he knew nothing of her connections here, and we know his business with her related to getting five thousand dollars, yet he stayed on here after that business had been completed.