The Daffodil Mystery Read online

  CHAPTER XXX

  WHO KILLED MRS. RIDER?

  The matron of the nursing home received Tarling. Odette, she said, hadregained her normal calm, but would require a few days' rest. Shesuggested she should be sent to the country.

  "I hope you're not going to ask her a lot of questions, Mr. Tarling,"said the matron, "because she really isn't fit to stand any furtherstrain."

  "There's only one question I'm going to ask," said Tarling grimly.

  He found the girl in a prettily-furnished room, and she held out her handto him in greeting. He stooped and kissed her, and without further adoproduced the shoe from his pocket.

  "Odette dear," he said gently, "is this yours?"

  She looked at it and nodded.

  "Why yes, where did you find it?"

  "Are you sure it is yours?"

  "I'm perfectly certain it's mine," she smiled. "It's an old slipper Iused to wear. Why do you ask?"

  "Where did you see it last?"

  The girl closed her eyes and shivered.

  "In mother's room," she said. "Oh, mother, mother!"

  She turned her head to the cushion of the chair and wept, and Tarlingsoothed her.

  It was some time before she was calm, but then she could give no furtherinformation.

  "It was a shoe that mother liked because it fitted her. We both took thesame size...."

  Her voice broke again and Tarling hastened to change the conversation.

  More and more he was becoming converted to Ling Chu's theory. He couldnot apply to that theory the facts which had come into his possession.On his way back from the nursing home to police headquarters, he reviewedthe Hertford crime.

  Somebody had come into the house bare-footed, with bleeding feet, and,having committed the murder, had looked about for shoes. The old slippershad been the only kind which the murderer could wear, and he or she hadput them on and had gone out again, after making the circuit of thehouse. Why had this mysterious person tried to get into the house again,and for whom or what were they searching?

  If Ling Chu was correct, obviously the murderer could not be Milburgh. Ifhe could believe the evidence of his senses, the man with the small feethad been he who had shrieked defiance in the darkness and had hurled thevitriol at his feet. He put his views before his subordinate and foundWhiteside willing to agree with him.

  "But it does not follow," said Whiteside, "that the bare-footed personwho was apparently in Mrs. Rider's house committed the murder. Milburghdid that right enough, don't worry! There is less doubt that he committedthe Daffodil Murder."

  Tarling swung round in his chair; he was sitting on the opposite side ofthe big table that the two men used in common.

  "I think I know who committed the Daffodil Murder," he said steadily."I have been working things out, and I have a theory which you wouldprobably describe as fantastic."

  "What is it?" asked Whiteside, but the other shook his head.

  He was not for the moment prepared to reveal his theory.

  Whiteside leaned back in his chair and for a moment cogitated.

  "The case from the very beginning is full of contradictions," he said."Thornton Lyne was a rich man--by-the-way, you're a rich man, now,Tarling, and I must treat you with respect."

  Tarling smiled.

  "Go on," he said.

  "He had queer tastes--a bad poet, as is evidenced by his one slim volumeof verse. He was a poseur, proof of which is to be found in his patronageof Sam Stay--who, by the way, has escaped from the lunatic asylum; Isuppose you know that?"

  "I know that," said Tarling. "Go on."

  "Lyne falls in love with a pretty girl in his employ," continuedWhiteside. "Used to having his way when he lifted his finger, all womenthat in earth do dwell must bow their necks to the yoke. He is repulsedby the girl and in his humiliation immediately conceives for her a hatredbeyond the understanding of any sane mortal."

  "So far your account doesn't challenge contradiction," said Tarling witha little twinkle in his eye.

  "That is item number one," continued Whiteside, ticking the item off onhis fingers. "Item number two is Mr. Milburgh, an oleaginous gentlemanwho has been robbing the firm for years and has been living in style inthe country on his ill-earned gains. From what he hears, or knows, hegathers, that the jig is up. He is in despair when he realises thatThornton Lyne is desperately in love with his step-daughter. What is morelikely than that he should use his step-daughter in order to influenceThornton Lyne to take the favourable view of his delinquencies?"

  "Or what is more likely," interrupted Tarling, "than that he would putthe blame for the robberies upon the girl and trust to her paying a priceto Thornton Lyne to escape punishment?"

  "Right again. I'll accept that possibility," said Whiteside. "Milburgh'splan is to get a private interview, under exceptionally favourablecircumstances, with Thornton Lyne. He wires to that gentleman to meet himat Miss Rider's flat, relying upon the magic of the name."

  "And Thornton Lyne comes in list slippers," said Tarling sarcastically."That doesn't wash, Whiteside."

  "No, it doesn't," admitted the other. "But I'm getting at the broadaspects of the case. Lyne comes. He is met by Milburgh, who plays histrump card of confession and endeavours to switch the young man on to thesolution which Milburgh had prepared. Lyne refuses, there is a row, andis desperation Milburgh shoots Thornton Lyne."

  Tarling shook his head. He mused a while, then:

  "It's queer," he said.

  The door opened and a police officer came in.

  "Here are the particulars you want," he said and handed Whiteside atypewritten sheet of paper.

  "What is this?" said Whiteside when the man had gone. "Oh, here is ourold friend, Sam Stay. A police description." He read on: "Height fivefoot four, sallow complexion ... wearing a grey suit and underclothingbearing the markings of the County Asylum.... Hullo!"

  "What is it?" said Tarling.

  "This is remarkable," said Whiteside, and read

  "When the patient escaped, he had bare feet. He takes a very small size in shoes, probably four or five. A kitchen knife is missing and the patient may be armed. Boot-makers should be warned...."

  "Bare feet!" Tarling rose from the table with a frown on his face. "SamStay hated Odette Rider."

  The two men exchanged glances.

  "Now, do you see who killed Mrs. Rider?" asked Tarling. "She was killedby one who saw Odette Rider go into the house, and did not see her comeout; who went in after her to avenge, as he thought, his dead patron. Hekilled this unhappy woman--the initials on the knife, M.C.A., stand forMiddlesex County Asylum, and he brought the knife with him--anddiscovered his mistake; then, having searched for a pair of shoes tocover his bleeding feet, and having failed to get into the house by anyother way, made a circuit of the building, looking for Odette Rider andseeking an entrance at every window."

  Whiteside looked at him in astonishment.

  "It's a pity you've got money," he said admiringly. "When you retire fromthis business there'll be a great detective lost."