“You mean I did,” chuckled the King, lowering himself into his chair again.
The servants leaped forward as he picked up his napkin. But he waved them away.
“And you, Maxie. You leave Judah alone,” he said severely. “He’s had a strenuous morning. Max.”
The gorilla had leaped from his chair. Judah was stirring. There was blood on Judah’s face.
“Sit down.”
The gorilla sat down.
“Here, Judah, let me help you—” began Inspector Queen.
Judah raised a hand. Something in the way he did it stopped the Inspector in his tracks.
Judah’s brothers looked on, Abel gray as evening, King with no flicker of pity.
Judah crept out of the dining-room. They watched him go. His right leg took a long time getting out of the room. But finally it, too, disappeared.
“Karla, my dear,” said King briskly. “Karla!”
“Yes. Yes, Kane.”
“I’ll be at the Home Office all day and most of the evening — I’ll have dinner there. You meet me at eleven at the Confidential Room.”
“You mean to work tonight, Kane? In spite of—?” Karla stopped.
“Certainly, darling.”
“But Judah — his threats—”
“He won’t lift a pinkie when the time comes. Believe me, Karla. I know Judah... Yes, Queen? You were going to say something?”
Ellery cleared his throat. “I think, Mr. Bendigo, you tend to underestimate the intellectual, liberal democrat when aroused. I don’t know why I say this — it’s certainly nothing to me whether you live or die—”
“Or maybe it is,” said King Bendigo, smiling.
Ellery stared at him. “All right, maybe it is. Maybe after what I’ve seen here I’d greet the news of your death with cheers. But not this way, Mr. Bendigo. I’m an anti-murder man from way back — was indoctrinated from childhood by the Bible and I happen to believe in democracy. They both teach the ethics of the means, Mr. Bendigo. And murder is the wrong means—”
“You’d like to see me die, but you’ll lay down your life to protect mine from violence.” King laughed. “That’s what’s wrong with you people! Could anything be more hopelessly asinine?”
“You really believe that?”
“Certainly.”
“Then it would be a waste of your valuable time to discuss it.” And Ellery went on in the same painful way, “What I have been trying to say is that your brother Judah not only wants to kill you, Mr. Bendigo, he’s made plans about it. So he must have some weapon in mind. Prepared. Does he own a gun?”
“Oh, yes. Pretty good shot, too, even when scuppered. Judah practises sometimes for hours at a time. On a range target, of course,” the big man said dryly. “Nothing alive, you understand. Makes him sick. Judah couldn’t kill a mouse — he’s often said so. Don’t be concerned about me, Queen—”
“I’m not. I’m concerned about Judah.”
The black eyes narrowed. “I don’t get that.”
Ellery said slowly, “If he gets blood on his hands, he’s lost.”
“Why, you’re nothing but a psalm-singer,” King said impatiently. “You’re through here. I’ll have you flown out this morning.”
“No!” Abel jumped up. He was still shaken. “No, King. I want the Queens here. You’re not to send them away—”
“Abel, I’m getting tired of this!”
“I know you,” shouted Abel. “You’ll put a gun in his hand and dare him to shoot! King, I know Judah, too. You’re under-estimating him. Let the Queens stay. At least till tomorrow morning.”
“Let Spring handle it.”
“Not Spring, no. King, you’ve got to let me handle this my way!”
His brother scowled. But then he shrugged and said, “All right, I suppose I can put up with these long-faced democrats another day. Anything to stop this gabble! Now get out, the lot of you, and let me finish my breakfast.”
10
By written order of Abel Bendigo, the Queens were permitted that afternoon to inspect the Confidential Room. Colonel Spring himself, looking a wee bit flustered, unlocked the big steel door. The Colonel, the officer in charge of the household guards, and two armed guards went in with them and watched them as closely as if it were the bullion vault of Fort Knox.
It was a great empty-looking room painted hospital gray. There was only one door, the door through which they had entered. There were no windows at all, the walls themselves glowing with a constant, shadowless light. A frieze of solid-looking material ran around the walls near the high ceiling; this was a porous metal fabric invented by Bendigo engineers to take the place of conventional heating and air-conditioning vents and grilles. “It’s a metallic substance that actually breathes,” explained Colonel Spring, “and does away with openings.” The air in the room was mild, sweet, and fresh.
No pictures, hangings, or decorations of any kind broke the blankness of the walls. The floor was of some springy material, solidly inlaid, that deadened sound. The ceiling was soundproofed.
In the exact center of the Confidential Room stood a very large metal desk, with a leather swivel chair behind it. There was nothing on the desk but a telephone. A typewriter-desk, its electric typewriter exposed, faced the large desk; this one was equipped with an uncushioned metal chair. Solid banks of steel filing cases lined the walls to a height of five feet.
Above the door, and so in direct view of the occupant of the large desk, there was a functional clock. It consisted of two uncompromising gold hands and twelve unnumbered gold darts, and was embedded in the wall.
And there was nothing else in the room.
“Who besides the Bendigo family, Colonel, uses this room?” asked Inspector Queen.
“No one.”
Ellery said: “Does Judah Bendigo come in here often?”
Colonel Spring cocked a brow at the officer of the guard. The officer said: “Not often, sir. He may wander in for a few minutes sometimes, but he’s never here very long.”
“When was the last time Mr. Judah visited this room?”
“I’d have to consult the records, sir.”
“Consult them.”
The officer glanced at Colonel Spring. The Colonel nodded, and the officer went away. He returned shortly with a ledger.
“About six weeks ago was the last time, sir. And a week before that, and three weeks before that.”
“Would these records show if at those times he was in this room alone?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was he?”
“No, sir. He never comes in here when the room is unoccupied. He can’t get in. No one can but Mr. King and Mr. Abel. They have the only two keys, aside from an emergency key kept in the guardroom in a wall safe. We have to open the room daily for the maids.”
“The maids, I take it, clean up under the eye of the guards?”
“And the officer on duty, sir.”
The Queens wandered about the Confidential Room for a few minutes. Ellery tried a number of filing cases, but most of them were locked. The few that were not locked were empty. In one of the unlocked drawers he found a bottle of Segonzac cognac, and he sighed.
Ellery examined the steel door. It was impregnable.
When they left the room, Colonel Spring tried the door with his own hands and gave the key to the captain of the guard. The officer saluted and took the key to the guardroom.
“Is there anything else I can do, gentlemen?” asked the Colonel rather plaintively, Ellery thought. “My orders are to put myself completely at your disposal.”
“Just the matter of the air-conditioning unit, Colonel,” the Inspector said.
“Oh, yes...”
Ellery left them and crossed the hall. He knocked on Judah Bendigo’s door. There was no answer. He knocked again. There was still no answer. So he went in.