Part 2 (2/2)
”No, Walter!” Kennedy headed me off with a smile. ”This wasn't an ordinary murder of pa.s.sion. This was well thought out and well executed. Not one medical examiner in a thousand would have found that tiny scratch. It may be very difficult yet to determine the exact cause of death. This, my dear Jameson”--it was playful irony--”is a scientific crime.”
”But Millard--”
”Of course! Anyone may be the culprit. Yet you tell me Millard did not contest her divorce and that it would have been very easy for him to file a counter-suit because everyone knew of her relations.h.i.+p with Manton. That, offhand, shows no ill-will on his part. And now we find this note from him, which at least is friendly in tone--”
I shrugged my shoulders. It was the same blind alley in which my thoughts had strayed upon the train on our way out.
”It's too early to begin to try to fasten the guilt upon anyone,”
Kennedy added, as we returned to the library through the living room.
Then he turned to Mackay. ”Have you succeeded in gleaning any facts about the life of Miss Lamar?” he asked. ”Anything which might point to a motive, so that I can approach the case from both directions?”
”If you ask me,” the little district attorney rejoined, ”it's a matter of tangled motives throughout. I--I had no sword to cut the Gordian knot and so”--graciously--”I sent for you.”
”What do you mean by tangled motives?” Kennedy ignored the other's compliment.
”Well!” Mackay indicated me. ”Mr. Jameson explained about her divorce.
No one heard whom she named as corespondent. That's an unknown woman in the case, although it may not mean anything at all. Then there's Lloyd Manton and all the talk about his affair with Miss Lamar. Some one told one of my men that Manton's wife has left him on that account.”
”Did you question Manton?”
”No, I thought I ought to leave all that to you. I was afraid I might put them on their guard.”
”Good!” Kennedy was pleased. ”Did you learn anything else?”
”This deputy of mine obtained all these things by gossiping with the girl who plays the maid, and so they may not be reliable. But among the players it is reported that Werner, the director, was having an affair with Stella also, and that Merle s.h.i.+rley, the 'heavy' man, was seen with her a great deal recently, and that Jack Gordon, the leading man, who was engaged to marry her as soon as her decree was final, was jealous as a consequence, and that Miss Loring, playing the vampire In the story and engaged to s.h.i.+rley, was even more bitter against the deceased than Gordon, Miss Lamar's fiance.
”That made eight people with possible motives for the crime. When I got that far I gave it up. In fact”--Mackay lowered his voice, suddenly--”I don't like the att.i.tude of Emery Phelps. This is his house, you know, and he is the financial backer of Manton Pictures, yet there seems to be an undercurrent of friction between Manton and himself. I--I wanted him to show me some detail of the arrangement of things in the library, but he wouldn't come into the room. He said he didn't want to look at Miss Lamar. There--there was something--and, I don't know. If he is concerned in any way--that would make nine.”
”You think Miss Lamar and Phelps--”
Mackay shook his head. ”I don't know.”
Kennedy turned to me, expression really serious. ”Is this the way they carry on in the picture world, Walter?” he asked. ”Is this the usual thing or--or an exception?”
I flushed. ”It's very much an exception,” I insisted. ”The film people are just like other people, some good and some bad. Probably three-quarters of all this is gossip.”
”I hope so.” He straightened. ”The only thing to do is to go after them one at a time and disentangle all the conflicting threads. It looks as though there will be any number of possible false leads and so we must be careful and deliberate. I think I'll question each in turn--here.”
He walked over to the fireplace, stopping for just a moment to glance at the body of Stella. Then he pulled the blinds down halfway, so that the room seemed somber and gruesome. He drew a chair so that the different individuals as he examined them, would be unable to lose sight of the dead woman. His arrangements completed, he faced the district attorney.
”Manton first,” he directed.
In an instant I caught the psychology of it--the now darkened library, the beautiful body still lying on the davenport, the quiet and quick arrival of ourselves. If anything could be extracted from these people, surely it would be betrayed under these surroundings.
IV
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