Chapter 5 chapter Five
Officer Quinn overslept.At 9:45 on Tuesday morning, he rushed out the door like a slow-starting horse suddenly whipped, but when he saw the man who was drinking coffee with Ellery, he slowed down. When he walked to the dining table, his pace was already slow.
"Look who's here," said the Inspector, smiling. "Morning, McKell."
"Morning, officer," said Jimmy McKell, "ready for the slaughterhouse?"
"Alas!" the police officer sighed, "I think I need to have a sip or two of mocha coffee first to clear myself up." He pulled out a chair and sat down, "Morning, son."
"Morning, morning," Ellery replied absently, reaching for the coffee pot. "Jimmy's got the newspaper."
"Is anyone still watching now?"
"A visit from Kazalis."
"Oh?"
"'Gentle but firm neutrality, a calm voice and methodical, lucid exposition. We make no promises. Even so, one has to be overwhelmed by the knife hand under his piercing eyes.' The mayor must I am happy to fly to the eleventh heaven."
"Only the Seventh?" Jimmy McKell said.
"Egypt's cosmology is different from ours, Jimmy. Also, Kazalis seems to have a pharaoh-like air. 'Soldiers, I'm looking down on you from these 4,000-year-old pyramids.'"
"Sounds like Napoleon."
"Like Napoleon in Egypt. Khazalis is everyone's throat syrup, great for morale."
"Leave him alone," the officer grinned, looking at the newspaper. "You can't tell him... Seriously, this is a good drug. You're no longer a reporter, McCail? I don't see you among the turds."
"The Richardson case?" Jimmy seemed to be hiding something, "Yesterday was Labor Day, and that was my holiday, and I will stick to it."
"Did you go on vacation?"
"Are you resting for a longer walk," Ellery said, "or are you on duty, Jimmy?"
"you could put it that way."
"You're dating Celeste Phillips."
Jimmy laughed. "And it wasn't just yesterday. It's been a sweet time, and it's all thanks to this interesting assignment you've given me, dear sir, you're supposed to be our municipal news editor."
"So you two get along very well."
"It's all right," Jimmy said, "for mutual tolerance anyway."
"She's a good girl," the officer nodded. "Son, this coffee is as bad as the refills!"
"Can we talk, Jimmy?"
"Ah, this has become my favorite topic."
"Let's have another drink, everyone." Ellery poured coffee for everyone kindly.
"I don't understand what medicine you two witch doctors are selling in your gourd," Jimmy said. Two reports, this lady is really clean from the mud." He touched the cup with his fingertips, "I'm not joking, I really feel like a mean stalker."
"Stalking is hard work," Ellery said. "Would you mind pointing out the virtues of this subject for us? Just what you found?"
"How should I put it? This girl is beautiful, smart, good-natured, courageous, and ambitious..."
"ambitious?"
"Celeste wants to go back to college again. You know, she dropped out of freshman year to take care of Simon, which is when Simon's mother died..."
"Simon's mother?" Ellery frowned. "From what you're saying, it seems that Simon and Celeste weren't born to the same mother?"
"Don't you know?"
"what do you know?"
"Isn't Celeste Mrs. Phillips' daughter?"
"You said that the two of them are not real sisters?" The police officer's cup and plate collided, making a crisp sound.
Jimmy McKell looks at this quinn, then at another quinn.He pushed back his chair. "I don't know if I like doing this," he said. "Actually, I know pretty damn well that I don't."
"What's the matter, Jimmy? Is something wrong?"
"I'm still waiting for you to tell me!"
"I have nothing to tell you, however," said Ellery. "I ask you to investigate Celeste as best you can, and if we can learn anything new about her..."
"About her?"
"I mean, getting some information about her that we didn't know before. What's the matter, you're doing a good job!"
"Stop the bullshit, you fucking detective!"
"Jimmy, sit down."
"I want to know what the hell you're doing!"
"Why are you so angry all of a sudden?" Officer Quinn yelled, "Think about it..."
"Think about it," Jimmy sat down suddenly, "it's nothing to think about. Simon is Celeste's distant cousin three floors up, that's the kind of relative anyway. Celeste's parents died in a gas explosion accident. Both died. Mrs. Phillips was her only relative in New York, so she took her in. That's how it happened. After Mrs. Phillips died, Celeste took care of Simon. They were always like sisters. I know Many biological sisters, no one has given as much as Celeste!"
"Even without the ambiguous tone," Ellery said, "I know."
"what?"
"Go on, Jimmy."
"She missed college like crazy. When Mrs. Phillips died and she had to leave school, she was half dead. Look at the books that girl was reading! It was deep stuff, philosophy, psychology... You know what, she knows more than I do, thanks to a Princeton degree I bought with sweat, oil, and mall intrigue. Now that Simon is dead, she can live her own life again, Go back to school and change yourself. This week she will go to Washington Square College to register for the fall class. She wants to study for a degree in humanities, majoring in English and philosophy. In the future, she still misses graduate school and wants to teach in the future."
"She must have dreamed of it, and made a plan for herself to go to night school to make it happen."
"Night school? Who mentioned night school?"
"The economy is still a tormenting problem in this society, Jimmy. Or," said Ellery cheerfully, "are you going to help her with that burden?"
"Well," the officer blinked, "that question is off topic, unworthy, and none of our business."
Jimmy clutched the edge of the table: "Are you two boring people implying to discuss..."
"No, no, Jimmy, it's the priest's business, of course."
"Oh, um... don't drag me into it." His handsome face was full of anger and guard.
"She can't be modeling and going to college during the day, Jimmy," Ellery said.
"She's quitting that job."
"Really?" said the officer.
"Well," said Ellery, "it turns out she's got a night job."
"She wasn't looking for a job at all!"
"I'm afraid," said Ellery, with mock piteousness, "I missed something. No job? How is she going to support herself?"
"Use Simon's savings!" Jimmy was almost yelling at this moment.
"Savings?"
"What? Um...Jimmy, what savings?" the officer asked.
"Listen," Jimmy said, furiously, "you sent me a dirty job, and I did it. I don't know what the hell is going on, I don't know at all. But it looks like you're important Big man in the department, Quinn, I want you to tell me, now you know I found these leads, then what? Can it really help?"
"Only the truth can help."
"It sounds so esoteric, I suspect you are cheating."
"McKail." Officer Quinn's face darkened, "I have a lot of people working on this case, and I am also very busy. This is the first time I have heard that Simon Phillips can be so busy Why didn't Celeste tell us about having an inheritance other than back pain?"
"She only found out last week, too, and it has nothing to do with the murder!"
"Found?" Ellery whispered. "Where?"
"While she was sorting out Simon's things. There was an old wooden desk clock, made in France, it seemed to be a family heirloom or something, it hadn't been gone for ten years, but Simon wouldn't let Celeste repair it , has been sitting on a shelf above her bed. Well, when Celeste took it off last week, she accidentally slipped her hand and fell to the floor, and the clock broke like an egg, and she was inside Found a large bundle of banknotes tied up with an old rubber band."
"Money? I thought Simon..."
"So did Celeste. The money was left by Simon's father. There was a note in it, in his handwriting, tied to the banknote. According to the date on the note, it was written just before he was about to kill himself." When the stock market crashed and went bankrupt in 1929, he took out 10,000 yuan from the remaining money and left it to his wife."
"Is Celeste completely unaware?"
"Mrs. Phillips and Simon never mentioned it to her. Most of the money is still there, about 8,600 yuan. Celeste guessed that the missing 1,400 yuan may have been Mrs. Phillips' complaints about Simon's illness in the past. I took it to pay the doctor's bill when I was hoping. Of course Simon knew about the money, because she lost her temper every time Celeste approached the clock. Well, now it's Celeste's money. Well, she can live comfortably for a while at least. That's her great secret." Jimmy raised his chin. A super tasteless person. Think about it, let that poor girl live in a place like a Calcutta slum to take care of her, work hard every day with a broken leg to feed the two of them, and during this time, Simon secretly hid nearly 9000 Yuan money! What is she hiding that money for? Is she going to use it when she is going to the high school graduation party?... What's wrong? Why are you looking so serious?"
"What do you think, Dad?"
"Any way you look at it, Ellery, that's a motive."
"Motive?" Jimmy said.
"The first motive we've been able to find so far." The officer walked to the window with a serious look on his face.
Jimmy McKell started laughing out loud, but stopped shortly thereafter.
"I wonder if she had a motive when she came here last week," said Ellery thoughtfully.
"Celeste?"
Ellery didn't answer.
"I see," said Jimmy. "It's a plot straight out of a Wells science fiction novel. An unknown gas seeps into the Earth's atmosphere from space, and everyone on Earth is dying, including the great Egyptian. Lerry Quinn. Have you forgotten, Quinn?" he growled, "She's here to help you find Simon's killer!"
"However, now we find out that the victim was not her own sister, and she was deliberately tortured for many years."
"My God! I need air, nice, normal air!"
"I'm not saying that she must be the murderer, Jimmy, but, based on this evidence, do you dare to say that the murderer must not be her?"
"Of course I fucking dare! She is as pure and innocent as the original me, until I accidentally broke into this Siberian weathered area and got polluted this morning! Besides, I thought you were looking for a strange cat—that le The murderer who killed seven people!"
"Ellery." Officer Quinn came back to the table.Obviously, he struggled and debated with himself in his heart, and he still didn't know who would win or lose, "Impossible, it can't be that girl."
"There's a man here at last," exclaimed Jimmy, "at least he's awake on one toe!"
Ellery kept staring at the cold coffee.
"Jimmy, have you ever heard of the ABC theory of multiple murders?"
"What theory?"
"X wants to kill D, and X's motive is not obvious, but if he kills D in the usual way, the police investigation will eventually find the only X, or the most likely motive to kill D. So X's problem is How to kill D without highlighting his motives. X knows that one way to do this is to use other murders as a smoke screen for D's murder, that is, to deliberately commit many other murders first by the same means. murders to make them look like a series of related homicides. So X would first go and murder A, B, and C...these were all innocent people with no connection to him; and then to some appropriate When the timing is right, he goes to murder D.
"The effect of this is to make D's murder look like just one part of a serial murder. The police don't just look for people who have a motive to kill D, they only look for people who have a motive to kill A, B, C, D killed people one by one. But because X has no motive at all to kill A, B, and C, his motive for killing D, will be ignored, or simply ignored. I just want to tell you that there is at least this The theory exists."
"A quick detective's tip--" said Jimmy McKell, "in a series of murders, the murderer is the one who has the motive to kill the last victim. I'm saving my money on injections."
"That's not entirely true," said Ellery. "It's not surprising that X is much smarter than you and I think. He knows that if he doesn't let go of the one murder that might convict him, he'll still be in danger." That murder case was particularly interesting, and he wanted to avoid it by serial murder. So, after X murdered the related D, he went on to the unrelated murders of E, F and G, if necessary, may And H and I and J. He may continue to kill innocents until he feels that his most important motive for murder can be successfully removed."
"Wow, I'm finally out of the jungle of esoteric language," Jimmy grinned. "Now I get it. This 23-year-old masked female was a human-faced demon who strangled Ebernath, Smith, Ole Leigh and Monica, in order to get rid of her crippled Cousin Simon, to hide this case in that murder sandwich. Quinn, have you been checked by a good doctor lately?"
"Celester dedicated five years of his life to Simon," Ellery continued patiently. "In the future, we may need to sacrifice more. How many more years? 10 years? 20 years? Simon may live forever." Go on. Clearly Celeste has been taking good care of her, and Simon has never had bedsores in his medical records, and a patient like this would definitely need long hours of intensive care.
"But Celeste wanted to be successful on her own, and she wanted to get out of this environment that was so lifeless and restrictive because of Simon and her. Also, Celeste was young, beautiful, and full of life, and she lived with Simon. , her love life was also restricted. Then, one night, not last week, but in, say, May, Celeste discovered a considerable amount of money that Simon had been hiding all these years If she had this money, for a long time, Celeste would be able to live out her dreams. There is only one thing that stands in the way of her owning and using this money, and that is her cousin, Simon. She cannot bear to abandon A helpless cripple..."
"So kill her," Jimmy grinned, "and six other guys."
"Of course, we need to assume a person with a need to confuse motivation, and personality..."
"Don't get too far, Quinn, I think what you need is not to re-examine your views, what you need is major surgery, and start from scratch!"
"Jimmy, I didn't say that Celeste killed Simon and six others. I didn't even mean anything like that. I just put the known facts together in a possible way. This killing field is now closed. With seven people killed and more likely to follow, can you ask me to ignore the possibility of Celeste being involved because she's young and attractive?"
"Charming? If your 'assumption' about Celeste is true, she's crazy."
"Go and read what the great psychiatrist Edward Cazalis said in an interview yesterday. Crazy, especially of the deceitful type—exactly what the great doctor is looking for .I have to say, his argument is very convincing."
"I'm one of those lunatics," Jimmy said through gritted teeth. "Sanity can only go so far. Wait and see!" He threw himself on the dining table as if it were a swimming pool.
But fortunately, Ellery had already stood up one step earlier, and with a flash of his body, Jimmy was lying on the table, splashing coffee all over his face.
"That's silly, Jimmy. Are you all right?"
"Let go of me, you trample on other people's personality!" Jimmy yelled, waving his hands in the air angrily.
"Watch out, boy." The officer put his hand out on his arm. "You've probably read too much Ellery."
Jimmy shook off the officer's hand, his face pale.
"Quinn, go find someone else to do your job, I'm quitting. And, I'm going to tell Celeste the danger she's in. Yes, I'm going to tell her how you tricked me into collecting Rubbish! If from now on she loses her appetite when she hears my name, I deserve it!"
"Don't do that, Jimmy."
"Why not?"
"We agreed before."
"Bring out the black and white paper! What do you think you bought? My soul?"
"You weren't forced to do this, Jimmy. You came to me on your own initiative, and I accepted it on condition that you made it clear, remember, Jimmy?"
Jimmy glared at him.
"Although it's only a one-in-a-million possibility, I still want you to calm down and don't leak it, okay?"
"Do you know what you're asking me to do?"
"keep the words."
"I'm in love with her."
"Oh," said Ellery, "that would be terrible."
The officer yelled, "So fast?"
Jimmy laughed: "Officer, in your day, did someone time this kind of thing for you?"
"Jimmy, you haven't answered my question yet."
Then the doorbell rang.Quinn and his son looked at each other in blank dismay.
"Who?" the officer yelled.
"Celester Phillips."
McKell rushed to open the door like a bird flying to its prey.
"Jimmy, you didn't tell me you..." He put his long arms around her.
"Jimmy!" She smiled and tried to break free.
"I want you to be the last person to hear that..." Jimmy McKell yelled, "I love you."
"Jimmy, what..."
He pressed a kiss on her lips fiercely, and then rushed downstairs.
"Come in, Celeste," said Ellery.
Celeste blushed.She came in, frantically rummaging through her compact with one hand.Some of her lipstick was stained, and she couldn't stop staring at the mirror.
"I don't know what to say. Is Jimmy drunk? Why is he like this this morning?" She smiled awkwardly and—Ellery thought—looked a little scared.
"It seems," said the sergeant, "that he knows exactly what he's doing. Don't you, Ellery?"
"In my opinion, it has constituted the crime of obstructing the peace of others."
"Okay," Celeste said, smiling and touching up her makeup, "but I still don't know what to say."
She wasn't quite as stylish this morning, but it was new, her own—Ellery thought—bought with Simon's money.
"Miss Postbus didn't discuss the situation, and I thought Jimmy would explain it to me when he had the chance."
"Sit down, Miss Phillips, please," said the sergeant.
"Thank you, but what's wrong with him? He seems very excited, what happened?"
"The first time I told a girl I loved her I discounted her father's best hat. Ellery, did you have a date with Miss Phillips this morning?"
"No."
"You told me that I can come to you if there is anything, Mr. Quinn." Her black eyes were covered with a look of anxiety. "Why do you want me to investigate Jimmy McKell as much as possible?"
"Remember our agreement, Celeste?"
She lowered her eyes to her manicured nails.
"Well, Ellery, don't act old-fashioned when you are young." The police officer said kindly. "A kiss can erase all agreements. What's the matter, Miss Phillips, this mission is not that mysterious. Jimmy McCail is a reporter, and he may want to use this opportunity to spy on the inside story of the strange cat case, and then run a scoop, not just because his sister is also a victim, as he said, for personal reasons. We have to be sure This. Do you think he's okay?"
"He's very honest indeed, and if that's what you're worried about..."
"Okay, then it's over, isn't it?" The police officer smiled.
"Now that you're here, Celeste," said Ellery, "let's just chat."
"I don't really have much to add to what Jimmy already told you last week. He and his father have always been at odds, and they've hardly spoken since he got out of the Army because Jimmy insisted on taking his own life. Paying his dad $17 in rent every week." Celeste giggled, "Jimmy said he'd pay $75 instead once the lawyers had gone through the red tape."
"lawyer?"
"Oh, it's about his grandfather's property."
"His grandfather," said the inspector, "wait a minute, let me see, that's..."
"Mrs. McKell's father, Constable. He was a very rich man. He died when Jimmy was thirteen. Jimmy and his sister were his only grandchildren. He put a fortune in trust. Leave it to them to start receiving money from that trust when they turn 30. Monica's share has been taken for seven years, but Jimmy will have to wait another five years or so to start receiving money. But there is one exception-Jimmy is now in this situation-according to his grandfather's will, if one of the two grandchildren dies, all property, principal plus interest income, will immediately go to the living child Owned by one person. The entire property is probably worth several million dollars. Jimmy is very uncomfortable with the whole thing, I mean, the reason the property fell into his hands is because Monica died in the tragedy... What happened to you guys? "
Ellery looked at his father. "How did you miss this news?"
"I don't know. No one in the McKell family has mentioned this foreign trust fund, of course, we will find out after all."
"Find what?" Celeste asked worriedly.
Both men fell silent.After a while, she stood up: "You mean..."
"I mean," Ellery said, "Monica McKell's death was an asset to her younger brother who supported himself by running the news. In an industry as depressing as ours Here, Celeste, it's called 'motivation.'"
"motivation!"
Anger changed her whole being from the beginning. That change started deep in her heart, like a small amount of energy released from the very center of dynamite, and then exploded in full.Celeste jumped up from her chair.
Ellery felt her nails grabbing him and wondered absurdly, Isn't this like a cat?
"You use me to frame him!"
She kept screaming, Ellery grabbed her flailing hands, and the officer quickly stopped her from behind.
"You thought Jimmy would do something like that! How dare you! I'm going to tell him!"
While crying, she turned and ran out.
As Celeste slams open the front door and sprints out, they see Jimmy coming out of the basement next door.I don't know what Jimmy said, but when she turned around and saw him, she ran down the stairs and fell into his arms, crying and talking.When she stopped, he said something to her calmly, and after she listened, she covered her mouth with her hands.
Then, a taxi sees them waving, pulls up to the sidewalk, Jimmy opens the door to let Celeste in, and he gets in too, and the taxi drives away.
"The experiment is over," Ellery sighed, "or rather, it's just begun."
Sergeant Quinn grunted, "Do you believe the ABC's and D's and X's you told McKell?"
"It's possible."
"Would someone commit seven murders for just one of them and the others are just a smoke screen?"
"possible."
"Of course I know it's possible, I'm asking you if you believe it!"
"If a man is involved in one of the seven murders, are you sure he wasn't responsible for the others?"
The officer shrugged.
Ellery dropped a dirty handkerchief on the sofa.
"Take Celeste and Jimmy as an example. The way the two of them came to the door has logically constituted suspicious conditions. Moreover, the innocent and selfless manner in which they revealed information that is not good for each other Even so, I am still willing to continue to believe-I don't believe that the strange cat is one of them. No, there is a logical impossibility in it, maybe, "Ellery Say, "Maybe my head is rusted from being out of use for so long. What do you think?"
"You haven't convinced yourself yet."
"And you?"
"Answer yourself before asking me!"
"Maybe I'm just asking myself!"
The sergeant reached for his hat and said grimly, "I'm going down town."
Notes:
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