The Door Between (21 page)

To Ellery, listening as Terry rattled on, not giving Eva time to think, making her smile, making her talk, everything looked extremely bleak. As he attacked the soup it occurred to him that for all this breeziness and lack of polish Mr. Terence Ring was an extraordinarily subtle young man. You never knew, he reflected, what Mr. Ring was really thinking.

“Soup’s delicious,” said Ellery. “Now excuse me for interrupting the autobiographical details, but it seems to me, Terry, you’re suspiciously like a man whistling in the dark.”

“You here yet?” groaned Terry.

“What
am
I going to do?” said Eva in dismay. “You’re right, Mr. Queen. It’s no good pretending.”

“Have some of this egg-roll,” said Terry.

“You’re sweet, Terry, but it’s really useless. I’m in this up to my ears. And you know it.”

Terry glared at Ellery. “Well, you know your old man. What’s he going to do now?”

“Look for the missing half of the scissors. You’re sure you didn’t see it anywhere, Eva?”

“Positive.”

“It wasn’t there,” snapped Terry. “Whoever pulled this job took it away with him. Your old man knows that, too. His men went over those premises with a vacuum-cleaner. Cellar, grounds, house inside and out –”

Ellery shook his head. “I wish I knew what to suggest. But I don’t – completely at sea. I’ve never seen a case so fruity in appearance and with so little actually to chew on.”

“I’m glad of one thing,” said Eva, pecking at the egg-roll. “Mother couldn’t – have done it. Not with that door bolted from inside Karen’s bedroom.”

“Well, we have a breathing-spell, anyway. Until dad finds out about that bedroom door, we’re all right,” said Ellery.

“How’s he ever going to find out? The only way he will is if one of us spills.” Terry scowled. “There’s one who might.”

“Who?” But Eva, flushing, knew whom he meant.

“The guy who gave you that diamond. This Scott. What the hell ever made you fall for
him
? Have some of this chop-suey.”

“I wish you wouldn’t talk about Dick that way! He’s upset – why shouldn’t he be? It’s not easy for him, with a
fiancée
on the verge of being arrested for murder.”

“Well, it’s no easier for you, is it? Listen, kid, he’s a heel. Give him his walking papers.”

“Please!”

“If I may interrupt this romantic interlude,” said Ellery, putting down the chopsticks with which he had been vainly trying to snare a piece of shrimp, and groping for a fork, “I think I’ve thought of something.”

They cried together: “What?”

Ellery put the paper napkin to his lips. “Eva, where were you standing when friend Terry went over to the bedroom door – I mean the one going to the attic – and discovered it was bolted?”

Terry’s eyes contracted. “What difference does that make?”

“Possibly a great deal. Well, Eva?”

She was staring from him to Terry and back again. “I think I was against Karen’s desk. Watching. Why?”

“That’s right,” said Terry. “Why?”

“Did you see the bolt
before
he went to the attic door?”

“No. The Japanese screen was hiding it. I told him where the door was and he threw the screen aside.”

“His body was blocking the door, then? You didn’t see the bolt until he moved aside?”

“I didn’t see it then at all. He just told me –”

“Hey, wait a minute,” said Terry. “What the devil are you driving at, Queen?”

Ellery slumped back. “You know, I have the type of mind that simply will not digest an impossibility. I’m a chronic unbeliever, Terry.”

“Skip the embroidery!”

“Here’s a situation in which the facts say only one solution is possible. Hypothetically there are three exits from Karen Leith’s bedroom. One is a window – but the windows were iron-barred. One is the door to the attic – that, however, was bolted from inside the bedroom. The third is the sitting-room – but Eva says not a soul passed through it, and she didn’t leave it for an instant. Solution: Eva killed her aunt. She was the only one who could possibly have committed the murder. That is,
if the basic facts are really true
.”

“Well, she didn’t do it,” said Terry pugnaciously. “So what?”

“Patience, my boy. I’m arguing on the assumption, of course, that Eva
is
innocent.”

“Thank you,” said Eva ironically.

“Well, what facts have we? The windows – that was a fact I confirmed myself; they simply couldn’t have been used as an exit. The sitting-room – if we assume, as we do, that Eva is guiltless then we must also assume that she is telling the truth, and that no one
did
pass through. Consequently, we have left only the bolted door to the attic.” Ellery sat up. “And strangely enough, Terry, the evidence that the door
was
bolted cannot be confirmed.”

“I don’t get you,” said Terry slowly.

“I’m sure you do. How do we know the door was bolted when Eva entered the bedroom and found her aunt dying? Did she see it? No, the screen concealed it. Then you arrived, and eventually you flung the screen aside and announced that the door was bolted. Did Eva see it then? No! And shortly after that, she fainted. True, when she revived, she did see the bolt – you began wrestling with it, finding it apparently stuck – but only
after she had been unconscious for some time.
”

“Who do you think you’re kidding?” Terry’s face was mahogany again. “She was out only a few seconds. And that bolt
was
stuck!”

“So
you
say,” murmured Ellery. “We’ve only your word for it.”

Eva was staring at the brown man now with a horrified inquiry; and he was so furious she thought he would blast Ellery across the room. But he controlled himself and said in a choked voice: “All right, let’s say for the sake of argument that I put one over on Eva. Let’s say the door wasn’t bolted when I looked, I only made believe it was. Why? What was my big idea?”

Ellery thrust a forkful of chow mein into his mouth. “If the door wasn’t bolted at all, the situation
isn’t
impossible. That’s one point in favor of the theory. It’s possible for someone to have got in through the attic, killed Karen, and escaped the same way.”

“But why should
I
lie about the bolt!”

“Suppose,” mumbled Ellery through the chow mein, ‘suppose you had stabbed Karen Leith.”

“You crazy – crackpot!” shouted Terry.

Fung ran up, wringing his hands. “Te’y! You no yell. You no make noises. You stop!”

“You go to hell!” yelled Terry. “
I
did it? Why, you –”

“Now, now, Terry, you haven’t the contemplative spirit. I’m only saying ‘suppose’”. Can’t you suppose calmly? If the attic door was really open all the time, then you could have been the one who got in by the attic route, stabbed Karen Leith while Eva sat waiting in the sitting-room, escaped by the attic, and then came back through the front of the house
in order to
bolt that door from inside the bedroom!”

“But why?”

“Oh, that’s of the very essence of simplicity. To frame Eva for the crime. To make her appear the only possible criminal.”

“Yah!” sneered Terry. “You’re off your nut. If I made believe the bolt was in the socket, then why the hell did I turn around and save the kid by pulling it out of the socket again?”

“Yes,” said Eva breathlessly. “That doesn’t make sense, Mr. Queen.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Ellery. “Mm, this is really excellent tripe … Well, you might have unframed your victim, Terry, after having first framed her, for the simplest reason in the world. Story-book reason.
Sizzling
Romances
. Mush-mush. The grand and instantaneous passion. You fell in love with her. First sight, you know. Wei! Would you be kind enough to pour some more of this execrable wine?”

Eva turned cherry-red and fumbled with her fork. Fell in love! It was the most preposterous … He was so self-sufficient. Big and strong and defiant and confident. Terry Ring would never fall in love at first sight. Not he. He would be slow, careful, watchful. He’d always have a good
reason
… She glanced sideways at him and was startled to see him eating furiously, eyes on his plate, manipulating the chopsticks with a savage energy, while the tips of his small, delicate brown ears burned like redfire on election night.

“You see,” sighed Ellery, setting his glass down, “there’s a reason for everything.”

“Don’t talk to me,” snarled Terry. “I didn’t kill that woman. The bolt was in the socket. And I didn’t fall for any dame. Get me?”

“Well, don’t be so vehement about it,” said Ellery, rising. “It’s hardly complimentary to the young lady. Will you excuse me a moment? Wei, your telephone, if any.”

Wei gesticulated, and Ellery strolled through the archway into Fung’s supplementary establishment. Terry and Eva ate in silence, Terry with very Chinese gulps, Eva delicately and with absorption. The three old Chinese gentlemen in black hats glanced over at them and began to gabble suddenly in their contrapuntal tongue. Terry, who understood a little Cantonese, felt his ears burn more brightly. They were saying, it appeared, that the little flower of the brown white man had displeased him, to judge from his wrath, and that it were better to endure the Torture of a Thousand Cuts than to endure a woman who had grown unendurable.

“You know,” said Eva suddenly, “this is the first time we’ve ever been alone. I mean – since Monday.”

“Give me that rice.” He continued to flick chow mein into his mouth.

“I haven’t really thanked you, Terry, for being so wonderful to me. Don’t mind Mr. Queen. I think he was just trying to amuse himself. I know how silly –”

“What’s silly?” he demanded, throwing down the sticks.

Eva colored again. “I mean this love nonsense, and all that. I know why you helped me. You were sorry for me –”

Terry swallowed hard. “Listen, kid, he’s right.” He seized her hand. “First time I ever fell for a skirt, so help me! Poison to me, women. But I’m nuts about
you.
I can’t sleep or anything. I keep seeing you all the time!”

“Terry!” said Eva, snatching her hand away and looking around. The three Chinese gentlemen shook their heads. The ways of the white man were ever mysterious.

“I never thought I’d fall for a girl like you, anyway. I’ve always liked the big ones. I mean – you know – plenty of what it takes. You’re so damned skinny –”

“I’m not,” cried Eva. “I weigh –”

“Well, maybe skinny isn’t the word,” he said judicially, looking her over. “But you need fattening up. And then there’s your nose. Turned up – that’s what I mean. Like Myrna Loy’s. And the dimples.” He scowled. “Sucker for a dimple!”

Eva felt rather like laughing, and then rather like crying. Things happened so suddenly these days. Terry Ring! This large, uncouth … She felt instantly ashamed. That wasn’t very nice. And he
was
real, and exciting. You never knew what he would do or say next. Life with him would be … But Eva stopped herself. It was all too ridiculous. What did she know about him? For that matter, she was engaged to another man!

“I know I must seem like some kind of a freak or greaseball to you,” muttered Terry. “No education except what I’ve picked up, dragged up on the streets, no manners or anything. I guess it’s just my lousy luck to fall for a girl who’s miles above me.”

“I don’t like you any better for saying
that
. Manners and education and how you were brought up – they don’t mean very much.” Eva added bitterly: “Karen Leith proved that.”

“Not that I give a damn, you understand!” he snarled.
“I’m
okay. I get along all right. And if I wanted to learn what spoon to use on the Beluga, why – say, I’ve learned tougher things than that!”

“I’m sure you have,” murmured Eva.

“What’s this stuffed shirt you’re hooked to got that I haven’t got? Running out on you! No guts, that’s what he’s got. A yellow streak a mile wide – that’s what he’s got!”

“Now please, Terry,” said Eva desperately. “I won’t have you saying things like that about Dr. Scott.”

“So he’s got a family. Me – I was swiping rolls from a bakery and sleeping on the docks at seven. All right, he went to some fancy college and became an M.D. and has dough and knows all the answers and gets all the nit-wits on Park Avenue chasing him –”

“That’s quite enough, Terry,” said Eva, coldly.

“Aw, listen, kid, forget it.” He rubbed his eyes. “I guess I’m being a dope. Forget it.”

Eva smiled suddenly. “I don’t want to quarrel with you, Terry. You’ve been nicer to me than … anyone.” She put her hand on his arm. “I’ll never forget that.”

“’Scuse,” said Fung in Terry’s ear. “Te’y, you come.”

“Huh? Some other time, Fung. I’m busy.”

But Fung was insistent. “You come, Te’y, you come!”

Terry looked away, looked up again. Then he rose, fingering the knot of his tie. “Excuse me a minute, Eva. It’s probably some guy on the ’phone .”

He stalked away after the Chinese, and Eva saw them vanish through the archway into the adjoining room.

As she opened her bag to get her compact, Eva wondered just why Ellery Queen had thought it necessary to employ artifice to speak to Terry Ring. For a moment the world contracted around her and she felt alone again.

Eva slowly unscrewed her lipstick and poised the inner lid of the compact. In the mirror she caught a glimpse of the two men standing together just beyond the archway, in earnest conversation. She saw Terry’s face, and it looked worried. And she also saw something small pass from Ellery to Terry, and Terry putting it into his pocket.

Mystery! More mystery. Eva stroked the lipstick on – two dabs on the upper lip, one in the center of the lower lip; and while her little finger spread the red stuff, shaping it to the curve of her lips, she wondered with a constriction of her heart where it would all end. She put the lipstick away, and powdered herself, and in the mirror regarded the nose which Terry Ring had so fervently admired. And she even tried out – quickly, furtively, of course, and feeling a little guilty – the dimple at the left side of her mouth.

Then the two men came back, grinning to conceal an unconcealable gravity, and Terry paid for the meal, incredibly, with a dollar bill and some coins, and flipped a half-dollar at Wei, who caught it very deftly, and took Eva’s arm and led her up into Pell Street, squeezing her elbow experimentally and yet with reassurance.