Where There's a Will

"Were you there, right there on the spot, continuously from the moment you discovered the body until the sheriff arrived?" "Yes." "With both the gun and the body in full view?" "The gun wasn't in full view, it was concealed by the briars. I hadn't seen it at all until .1 looked for it after Miss Fleet left." Andy looked scornful. "If you're trying to establish that neither the gun nor the body was touched by anyone before the sheriff arrived, I can and will testify to it. As a lawyer, I am aware of the proper procedure in cases of death by violence. I am with Dunwoodie, Prescott & Davis." "I see. A member of the firm?" "Certainly not. I was admitted to the bar only last year." "And you can testify as you have stated?" "Yes. So can my father and the others." The district attorney's eyes circled again. "Mr. Stauffer? You arrived on the scene with Mr. Dunn, Senior? Do you confirm--" FR1;68 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "Yes," said Stauffer gruffly. "Neither the body nor the gun was touched." Mr. Regan said, with, it seemed, gloom rather ,than elation, "That's sewed up." Skinner nodded. "It seems to be." He looked at Prescott, and then at June. "As you see, Mrs. Dunn, I merely wished to verify some facts. I'll tell you now the basis for my statement a while ago. The sheriff's deputy appears to be an inquisitive and skeptical man. His superiors were for closing the incident as an adventitious tragedy; he was not. Due to his pertinacity the following facts have been established: First, both the stock and barrel of the gun had been recently wiped or rubbed, not by a cloth, as is usual, but by something scratchy that left many tiny streaks, revealed plainly under a magnifying glass. Second, instead of bearing many different fingerprints of Noel Hawthorne's, as a gun should after being carried by a man for more than half an hour, maybe an hour, and fired by him twice, it bore only three sets of his prints, all of the fingers of the right hand--one set on the stock, one on the breechblock, and one on the barrel. The prints were unusual--all four fingers close together. Juxtaposed, and none anywhere of the thumb. The set on the barrel was even remarkable, being upside down--that is, not as if the barrel had been grasped in the ordinary manner, but as if FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 69 it had been held for use as a club, to strike something with the butt." "This is all poppycock," declared young Dunn scornfully. Prescott said, "Let him finish, Andy." "I'll make it as brief as I can," Skinner went on, "but I wish to make it plain that this is merely the inevitable march of events under the guidance of the law. To finish with the fingerprints, they had all been made after the gun had been rubbed with something scratchy. As you doubtless know, Mrs. Dunn, the gun is the property of Titus Ames, who works for you. Ames says it has never been wiped with anything except the soft cloth he uses for that purpose, and that he wiped it with such a cloth Tuesday afternoon, when he went to get it for Mr. Hawthorne at Mr. Dunn's request." "So you've questioned Ames," Prescott observed. "I sure have," said Mr. Regan. Skinner ignored it. "But though Chambers, the deputy, established these facts, he was still unable to convince the sheriff, and the district attorney, Mr. Regan here, that there was ponderable doubt of it's having been an accident. In my opinion, that speaks well for the charitable nature of their minds and their disinclination to stir up trouble in the case of so eminent a citizen as Mr. Dunn. However, the sheriff did not forbid his deputy to make further 70 WHERE THERE'S A WILL inquiry. On Wednesday, Chambers brought the gun to New York. Thursday, yesterday, our police laboratory reported that there was blood residue, recently deposited, in analyzable quantity, in the crack between the stock and the heelplate, and traces elsewhere. Also yesterday. Chambers found something. A path goes through a corner of the woods, northeast, and at a point it branches, one branch going north to emerge at the edge of the public highway, and the other branch turning east toward your house. Under a shrub near that path, Chambers found a wisp of meadow grass that had been twisted and crushed and apparently used to rub something, and stained in the process. He and Mr. Regan brought it to New York this morning. Four hours ago the laboratory reported that the stains are a mixture of blood and the oily film of the gun, and further, that certain particles which they had previously found on the gun are bits of pollen and fiber from that bunch of grass. Mr. Regan, convinced, consulted me. He told me frankly that on account of the prominence of the persons involved he feared to act. Whatever Miss May Hawthorne may think, it was with reluctance that I accepted his conclusion, and with even greater reluctance that I agreed to help him." "The conclusion being?" June demanded. "The obvious and inescapable one, Mrs. Dunn, FR1;FR2;^ WHERE THERE'S A WILL 71 i; that your brother was murdered." Skinner met her steady gaze. "If his death was an accident, if he tripped or caught the gun trigger on a briar as was supposed, it is, to put it mildly, difficult to account for the fingerprints. A man doesn't handle a gun that way. And since we have your son's statement, and Mr. StauflFer's, that the gun wasn't touched after the body was discovered, there is no possible way, if it was an accident, to account for the wiping of the gun, the blood on it, and the wisp of grass. There would be the same objections to a theory of suicide, were such a theory advanced. Only on the supposition that it was murder can these facts be explained. The murderer shot your brother. He chose not to use his handkerchief, if he had one, to wipe his own fingerprints and a spot of blood from the gun, but instead plucked a bunch of grass. Then he printed your brother's fingers on the gun, using the right hand, and getting them on the barrel upside down. On his way out through the woods, he tossed the bunch of grass among some undergrowth. If he had done that after he reached the fork instead of before, we would know whether he was headed for the highway or for your house. As it is, he bungled badly, either because he figured no crime would be suspected, or because he was stupid, or because he feared someone might come and was in great haste." r <^t-< "' FR1;72 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "I don't believe it," said April Hawthorne. Everyone looked at her. Her pallor had disappeared, and the famous ripple was in her voice again. "Not any of it." Skinner faced her. "What is it you don't believe, Miss Hawthorne? The facts, or the interpretation of them?" "I simply don't believe that my brother was murdered. I don't believe that we Hawthornes are having this happen to us. I don't believe it." "Neither do I." It was Osric Stauffer backing her up, energetically. The district attorney shrugged and returned to June. "Do you, Mrs. Dunn? I mean, I earnestly want you to realize that this is what it is, what I said, the cruel and remorseless march of events. I regret it, but I have to deal with it." June looked at him, said nothing, gave no sign. "Here," Skinner said, "I want to convince you-- I want--I'll have to have--your co-operation in this--and you must understand that your sisters' suspicions, which I suppose you share--are absolutely groundless. No political gossip or slander has anything to do with it. I presume, since you were here consulting him, you regard Nero Wolfe as your friend. He is certainly an expert on crime and evidence." He pivoted. "Mr. "wolfe, is it your opinion that Noel Hawthorne's death was an accident?" FR1;I WHERE THERE'S A WILL 73 I "wolfe shook his head. "I'm an onlooker, Mr. Skinner. I happen to be here because this is my office." "But your opinion, based on what you have , heard?" "Well .. . am I to accept your facts?" "Yes. They are unassailable." / - " ; "Then they're unique. However, postulating them, Mr. Hawthorne was murdered." ' Skinner turned. But by the time he faced June again, she was on her feet. "You can find us at our brother's residence," she told him. "All of us. I shall telephone my husband from there. You'd bett ter come too, Glenn. This means--I know what it means. We'll have to take it." She moved. "Come, I Andy. May . . . April, bring Celia .. ." Wolfe's voice sounded: "If you please, Mrs. Dunn. Do you wish me to proceed with the little matter we were discussing?" "I think--" Prescott began, but June cut him off: "Yes. I do. Go ahead. Come, children." CHAPTER FIVE wolfe said, "Move closer. Miss Karn, so we won't have to shout. That red chair is the most comfortable."