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Read Ebook: Faith Gartney's Girlhood by Whitney A D T Adeline Dutton Train
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Ebook has 2245 lines and 81221 words, and 45 pages
"Presently." Nick still detained him. "I first want to learn what is known about the crime. Who discovered it?"
"A milkman who called at the house in the rear of this one about an hour ago," said Kennedy. "He saw an old slouch hat in the back yard, near the fence that divides the two lots. He went and picked it up and found fresh spots of blood on it."
"And then?"
"Looking over the rear fence, he then saw that the back door of this house was wide open," Kennedy continued. "He could see no one, however, and knew that the house had not been occupied for a month. He then suspected there was something wrong, and he decided to look into the matter."
"What did he do?" questioned Nick.
"He vaulted the fence and entered the back door. That is as far as he went. It's as far as most men would have gone. When he saw the corpse on the kitchen floor--well, he dropped the hat and bolted."
"Bolted where?"
"Luckily, Mr. Carter, he ran nearly into the arms of Policeman Brady, who is on this beat in the morning," said Kennedy. "He told him what he had seen, and Brady returned with him to the house. He saw at a glance that a double murder had been committed, and he then notified the precinct station."
"That was about an hour ago."
"Yes. I was sent here with other officers, but was told to let things alone until you arrived, as headquarters had requested you to take on the case. That's all there is to it."
"You mean, Kennedy, that that's the beginning of it," said Nick. "To learn what there really is to it may tax the discernment of the best of us."
"That's true, Mr. Carter, after all," Kennedy readily allowed.
"Have you inquired at the neighboring houses?"
"Yes, sir. Only a woman living opposite can supply any information."
"What is that?"
"She saw two men and a woman, presumably Gibson and the couple mentioned, entering the house day before yesterday," Kennedy proceeded to report. "Something like an hour after dark yesterday, or about seven o'clock in the evening, the same woman was seated at her front window waiting for her husband to come home to supper. She saw two men entering this house, and a moment later she saw the reflection of a light in the dining room."
"In any other rooms?"
"No, sir. Nor could she tell me anything more, for her husband came in just then and she went to supper with him."
Nick glanced toward the street.
"There is an arc light on the corner," he observed. "I suppose, since it was evening, that the electric light enabled her to see the two men."
"Yes, sir. I asked her about that."
"Did you ask her for a description of them?"
"I did, sir," Kennedy nodded. "She said that one appeared to be a man of middle age and was very well dressed. She also noticed that he wore a full beard."
"Possibly a disguise."
"The other looked a bit rough, she said, and wore a gray slouch hat, the same that the milkman found in the next yard this morning," said Kennedy. "I sent an officer over to show it to her, and she readily identified it."
"Anything more?" queried Nick.
"She told me he carried a suit case, also, and she judged that he had come from a distance. She noticed that the suit case appeared to be old and battered and that one of the straps was dangling, corresponding with the general appearance of the man himself. That was all she could tell me."
"Was any disturbance heard last evening by people in the neighboring houses?" Nick asked.
"No, sir," said Kennedy. "I have inquired at every house."
"Did the woman living opposite see from which direction the two men came?"
"She did. They came around the corner and entered the front door of this house."
"I see that you have unlocked it," Nick remarked, observing that the door then was ajar. "Have you identified either of the two victims?"
"I will size up their looks for myself, Kennedy," Nick interposed. "Are things about as you found them?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did Brady disturb anything?"
"No, sir. He has been on the force long enough to know where he is at."
"Very good." Nick turned and opened the door. "I'll have a look at the scene. Come with me, Chick."
Chick Carter accompanied him into the house, followed a moment later by Sergeant Kennedy and the physician.
Nick Carter had only to enter the hall of the house to see the first signs of the sanguinary conflict of the previous night.
On the wall opposite the dining-room door were spots and streaks of blood, great, irregular streaks and smooches, as if drops and splotches that had spurted upon the wall paper had been rubbed and spread by the garments of persons engaged in a terrific struggle. A rug near by had been kicked into a shapeless heap near the baseboard.
Nick merely glanced at these, then paused at the open door of the dining room, in which the scene was doubly shocking.
The roller shades of both windows had been raised, admitting the morning sunlight.
One lamp of an electric chandelier still was burning. It looked wan and yellow in contrast with the bright light from outside.
"Great guns!" Chick Carter muttered, then at Nick's elbow. "What a scene of disorder."
"It's the limit," Nick tersely agreed.
"Slaughter pen is right," added Chick, recalling the remark of the physician.
The scene was, indeed, a shocking one. The table was out of place. Broken glasses from the sideboard strewed the floor. Chairs were overturned and broken. Spots and splashes of blood were everywhere. It stood in a great, partly dry and congealed pool on the floor between the table and the hall door--a pool in which the corpse of a murdered man was lying.
He had fallen upon his back and was lying with face upturned in the sunlight shed through one of the windows. There was a great bruise under one eye and a gash in his cheek.
He had been stabbed twice in the breast, and from the second wound still protruded the weapon used by his assailant, a knife driven home to the victim's heart with all the merciless energy of bitter vengefulness, or utter desperation.
He was a man in middle life and of powerful build, a smooth-shaven man of dark complexion, close-cut hair, and a hard, somewhat sinister cast of features.
"Do you know him?" asked Nick, after viewing the scene for several moments.
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