Steve and Mark looked at her.
“What?” Steve said.
Tracy grinned. “I just mean it would be perfect. From a murder-mystery point of view. I mean look. Here’s a millionaire. He’s being visited by all his heirs one at a time. You got a detective taking notes of the exact times each one of them went in. Plus you got the Lutece van, so you know exactly when he had his dinner and what he ate. So the medical examiner would be able to determine the time of death by the stomach contents. It would be a nice, tidy little case.”
Taylor shook his head. “Jesus Christ.”
“Hey, don’t knock it,” Steve said. “You said Walsh hasn’t shown yet. So take it a step further. What if he doesn’t show and sooner or later a chambermaid goes in and finds him dead?”
Now Taylor stared at Steve. “Are you serious?”
Steve grinned. “No, but what the hell. It’s an interesting idea, we might as well play with it. What would happen then?”
“I know what would happen then,” Taylor said. “I would be sitting on top of a huge pile of evidence in a first-degree murder case, and you would be handing me oh-so plausible reasons why I should be withholding it from the police, and I would be having a nervous breakdown.”
“Relax,” Steve said. “You worry too much. We’re only playing what-if here. Wait till the corpse turns up.”
“Yeah,” Taylor said. “That’s the what-if I’m talking about. What if a corpse turns up?”
“In that case,” Steve said. “I would instruct you to take all of your operatives’ notes and make a full and complete disclosure to the police.”
Taylor stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Absolutely,” Steve said. “At least within the confines of the hypothetical situation Tracy’s set up.
“O.K., Tracy. It’s your party. What if Jack Walsh turns up dead?”
Tracy frowned. “Now that I think about it, it’s not so perfect after all.”
“Oh no? Why?”
“Because the relatives all came together.”
“What difference does that make?”
“Well,” Tracy said. “In a book they’d all come separately. And they’d go in and out without meeting each other. In fact, none of them would even know the others had appointments. Of course, that couldn’t happen in this case with them all living in the same house. Jack Walsh calls one, he gets ‘em all. So they all know they all have appointments, they all come together, and they discuss everything before each one goes up and after they come down.”
“Why does that make a difference?” Steve said.
“Because if they all came separately and there was no communication among ‘em, no one would know who did it. Or rather, who didn’t do it.”
Taylor frowned. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not following this?”
“I think I am,” Steve said. “But why don’t you spell it out.”
“O.K.,” Tracy said. “They’re all together. They’re all going up and coming down one at a time. There’s six of ‘em, right? O.K. Say the fourth person goes up and finds him dead. Well, then he knows the killer’s one of the first three who already went up. And he knows the killer isn’t one of the last two who haven’t gone up yet.”
“And he know it isn’t himself,” Taylor said.
“I’m serious, Mark,” Tracy said. She turned to Steve. “You see what I mean?”
“Yeah, I do,” Steve said. “But there’s another consideration. That fourth person-you got your notes there, Mark? Who was the fourth person? In fact, give me the order again.”
“O.K.,” Taylor said. “Jason Tindel, Fred Grayson, Rose Tindel, Pat Grayson-she’s number four. Then there’s Claire Chesterton, and Carl Jenson.”
“O.K.,” Steve said. “Take your example. Pat Grayson goes up and finds him dead. She knows Jason Tindel, Fred Grayson, or Rose Tindel did it. She also knows Claire Chesterton and Carl Jenson didn’t.”
“Seems a shame to wash out Jenson,” Taylor said.
“If that were the case,” Steve said. “She obviously didn’t tell anyone.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Claire Chesterton and Carl Jenson still went up.”
“Wait a minute,” Taylor said. “Why wouldn’t she tell?”
“Because she’s afraid they might think that she did it,” Tracy said excitedly.
“Oh, come on,” Taylor said.
“No, good enough,” Steve said. “That’s a motive for her, and that’s a motive for all the others. Take that as a premise. Whoever finds him dead won’t admit it. He’ll lie to the others and claim they met with him and he was just fine.”
“So what does that accomplish?” Taylor said. “She comes down, she doesn’t tell the others he’s dead. Big deal. The next person up is gonna know.”
“Right,” Steve said. “But only that one person. And that’s what makes the whole thing so interesting. It’s like one of those old logic problems. In fact it’s a paradox.”
“What?” Taylor said.
“I’m not following this,” Tracy said. “What’s the paradox?”
“It’s a nobody-could-have-killed-him paradox.”
“A what?”
“Look. Here’s the setup. Jack Walsh is found dead. One of the six must have killed him. Now we must assume all six will operate by the same rules. That is, if a person finds him dead, they won’t admit it, they’ll pretend he’s still alive. And we also must assume that the murderer doesn’t want to be known. In other words, the murderer won’t kill him if any other person would know for sure that he did it.
“O.K., that’s the setup. If Jack Walsh is found dead, which one of them could have done it?”
Mark Taylor stared at him. “How the hell should I know?”
“All right, Mark. Let’s make it easier. Which one of them couldn’t have done it? Logically, I mean.”
“Steve,” Taylor said. “I took Math 101 for football players. I got a gentleman’s C. This is out of my line.”
“All right. Tracy-you know who couldn’t have done it?”
“Sure.”
“Who?”
“Jason Tindel, of course.”
“Right. Why?”
“Because he came first. Jason Tindel called on him first. If he killed him, when Fred Grayson went up and found him dead, Fred would know Jason was the murderer.”
“Right,” Steve said. “And one of our rules is the murderer won’t do it if anyone would know it was him. You follow that, Mark?”
“Right. If Jason did it, Fred would know. So it wasn’t Jason. I’m with you there.”
“Fine,” Steve said. “Now consider Fred Grayson. Could he be the murderer?”
“Sure,” Taylor said.
“Oh yeah,” Steve said. “And how is that?”
“’Cause who would know? When the third person-Rose Tindel-came up and found Jack Walsh dead, she wouldn’t know whether Fred or Jason did it. Right?”
“Wrong,” Steve said.
Mark Taylor and Tracy Garvin both looked at him.
“What?” Tracy said.
“Wrong,” Steve said. “Rose Tindel would know.”
“How the hell would she know that?” Taylor said.
“Because we have to assume that Rose Tindel is intelligent and can reason just as well as we can.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
Steve shrugged. “Well, we just got through figuring out Jason Tindel couldn’t have done it. ’Cause if he had, Fred Grayson would know it. Well, Rose Tindel can figure that way too. She can say, ‘It can’t be Jason, or Fred would know it, and Jason wouldn’t be that stupid as to let Fred know he’d committed the crime. So it can’t be him. And if it isn’t him, it has to be Fred.’ You follow me?”
Taylor frowned. “I think so.”
“So it can’t be Fred. ’Cause he can reason that way too, and he won’t commit the crime if Rose Tindel would know it was him. You follow me?”
“Absolutely,” Tracy said. “And the same thing with Pat Grayson, right?”
“Exactly,” Steve said. “Pat Grayson knows it couldn’t be Jason or Fred would know. She knows it couldn’t be Fred, or Rose Tindel would know. So if she walks in and finds him dead, she’ll know it’s Rose Tindel. So it can’t be Rose Tindel. ’Cause she wouldn’t be that dumb.”
“You’ve absolutely lost me,” Taylor said.
“Oh, come on, Mark, it’s simple,” Tracy said. “Claire Chesterton figures the same way, right?”