Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Mr. Quinn and Dragon's Tooth
"The old man is livid," Willie whispered to Mr. Quin.It was almost noon, and they stood in the living room of Room 1724, watching Mr. Quinn's audience arrive one after another.
"Do you have to tell me that?" whispered Mr. Quinn. "I have to live with that livid man. . . . Ah, Kelly. How do you feel on such a beautiful morning?"
"Damn it, thanks." She was blue under her eye sockets; her skin was slightly gray and taut. "Where's Beau? He didn't even—"
"Bo," replied Mr. Quinn, "on mission, but he could arrive any minute now. He's lost a lot of sleep for your sake, Kelly."
"Not as much as I lost for him, I bet," Kelly drawled, "this mission he's on—does it matter?"
"It's—very important to you," said Ellery cheerfully. "Just one more argument, and this nightmare will be over. Now, sit down, Kelly, like a good boy." Girls like that. Don't do anything, just listen."
"I think I'm going to sit next to Vi. Poor Vi! Look at her, you'd think she'd been charged...that disgusting word."
"That's what friends are supposed to do. Ah, Sampson. Worrying, as usual. Is your throat better?"
"Don't worry about my health," said the District Attorney irritably. "Better think about your own! Is it true this time? You really got something this time, right?"
"Why not wait and see for yourself? Come in, Captain Angus! Obviously last night's experience has done you no harm, but it is inappropriate to say that to you, Mr. de Carlos. You feel this morning Okay? Yes, yes, I know - being a little tipsy isn't bad, and the head ache from the drink is unbearable... Mr. Goossens! Sorry to trouble you again, but I promise you this is the last time. Officer Quinn ,good morning!"
The officer said only one word: "Huh?"
"You'll see." Mr. Quinn glanced casually at his watch.Where is Bo and the evidence?He smiled, cleared his throat, and walked to the center of the room.
"Yesterday," he began, "Beau Rumel made a promise, which I agreed to. We promised that within twenty-four hours we would hand over to the authorities the murder of Ann Bloom— The murderer who went by the pseudonym Margot Cole. We are ready and we will keep our word. The murderer of Ann Bloomer is in this room."
Officer Quinn and District Attorney Sampson stare directly at Kelly Sean.She blushed and looked down at her fingers.Then she glared back at them defiantly.
"That man," continued Mr. Quinn, "could save me a great deal of tongue-in-cheek if I surrender now. I assure you," he said, looking piercingly over the faces, "the dance is over. .Are you going to take off the mask automatically, or do you have to ask me to do it for you?"
—Where is Bo?
The police officer and the district attorney couldn't help but scan the crowd.Everyone felt the sting from that look.They held their breath until they could hold it no longer, and then they breathed it out together—innocent and guilty alike.
In this regard, Officer Quinn and District Attorney Sampson seemed helpless.
Mr. Quinn shrugged and continued his speech.
"It's still a fluke," he said, "but I assure you—no mercy. Well, you forced me to say it. Because your crime was purely about money, and because you insisted on waiting To be found out, 'to hide' in your crimes, as the old saying goes. You will have no mercy, I assure you."
But still no one broke the silence.
——Why hasn’t Bo come yet?
"This case," said Mr. Quin suddenly, "or, rather, the solution depends on three facts. Three facts, and three evidences.
"First the facts. These are the three characteristics of Ann Bloom's murderer, which I have concluded from a detailed analysis of the circumstances I have.
"The first feature is actually a matter of identification. As I explained to you last night, Mr. Edmond De Carlos"——Hearing this, De Carlos seemed to be choking on something, Mr. Quinn paused until he had swallowed what was lodged in his throat—"Mr. De Carlos inadvertently left out a This fountain pen is unique in that it bears certain easily identifiable markings. These markings set it apart from all pens of similar style and brand...despite the fact that thousands of such pens were sold to all over the world.
"Let me paraphrase that statement. Those indentations—groups of tiny curved impressions on the cap of a pen—could only have come from human teeth. Human teeth, though inconspicuous, are the most representative of humanity. Marks: They are all imperfect. I am not referring to caries or any other pathology. I am referring only to the structure and shape. No two sets of teeth will ever be the same, no matter how healthy they are. The entire row of teeth The curvature of the teeth, the size of each tooth, the way they are arranged in the entire arc, the relationship to each other, etc., etc. - these all vary from person to person. Two sets of teeth may appear to the layman to be the same , but any dentist can spot dozens of differences with just a cursory inspection.
"No further explanation is needed on this point. In the past anyone could have recognized false teeth in a stranger's mouth at a glance - because they were too neat and unnaturally straight. Today's dentists can realistically simulate natural teeth. They Manufactured dentures can fool most laymen's eyes. Why can they fool our eyes? Because modern dentures can not only simulate the color and luster of natural teeth, but also their irregular arrangement and imperfect shape.
"Criminological research has long recognized the value of tooth marks as identification clues. Clear tooth marks collected, like fingerprints, are regarded as indisputable evidence. Indeed, the tooth marks on the cap of this pen we are talking about Not the impression of a whole set of teeth, or even of the most important tooth in the set. But even these are enough for a careful observer."
The audience was absolutely silent, and there was an air of tension and alertness in the silence.It was as if every word Mr. Quinn uttered had a huge stake in each of them.He glanced at his watch again.
"I must confess now," he said with an embarrassed smile, "that I did something that was undoubtedly against the law: I concealed important evidence. You can judge for yourself how important this evidence is. But I did conceal it." This piece of evidence. Mr. Rummel and I found it under the radiator in room 1726, from where Ann Bloomer's murderer had just escaped. In short, it is compatible with the pen just mentioned —is a mechanical pencil, made of the same black hard rubber, with the same gold trim."
Officer Quinn stared at District Attorney Sampson, who stared back at him, and then they both turned to stare at Mr. Quinn.
The officer got up and shouted, "What did you find?"
"Punish me later, please," said Mr. Quinn. "May I go on now? The facts are as follows: The room had been cleaned just before that in preparation for the reception, and it was spotless. The pencil came from the heater and the windowsill. and rolled into the heater. Because the murderer had been standing in front of this window before and during the shooting with the murder weapon, it is obvious that the pencil was taken by the great man during or before the crime. Leftovers. By the way, Dad, I left those ashes and matchsticks and cigarette butts. That's for you—I've got to leave something in place of that pencil, don't I?"
The police officer slumped in his chair, blushing.
Mr Quinn went on rapidly: "Examination of the pencil showed that it belonged to the same set of two pens as the fountain pen, and belonged to the same owner, as the pencil had exactly the same tooth marks as the pen.
"This now," said Mr. Quinn, in a more stern tone, "is a scientifically verified fact. I have called for expert opinion to prove it--this is done in consideration of legal recognition, and I have even Before consulting an expert, it was decided that the two sets of tooth marks were the same. This individual with the regrettable pen biting habit had a very long canine tooth, which formed a unique pattern with the left, right and lower teeth. ties. I could show pictures of the technology I got, but I'm sure it'll bore you.
"Just remember one thing, it was the indentation made by this canine tooth, and the impressions made by the teeth around it, that made the test affirmative. The pencil and pen pictures of the tooth marks are exactly the same, They must have been caused by the same tooth. So who left this pencil in that room—the room where the bullet that killed Ann Bloom flew? Occupied that room when the crime was committed. The person in the room, in other words, is the murderer."
De Carlos struggled to say something.
"Well, Mr. De Carlos?"
"That's not—that's not my pen," he gasped, "it's not mine!"
"Isn't it?" asked Mr. Quinn mildly. "Then perhaps we can save ourselves a lot of talking now, Mr. De Carlos. If the pen and pencil don't belong to you, then who do they belong to?"
De Carlos looked around with a puzzled expression on his face.Then he lowered his head, lowered his eyes, and whispered, "I won't say it. I won't say a word."
"Perhaps in a little while," muttered Mr. Quinn, "you'll be willing to talk about it, Mr. de Carlos. The second characteristic of the murderer: this is so peculiar that I almost missed it. But I'm a fastidious Well organized people, unfortunately for our slavish friend the murderer. I went back and reorganized all the details and that's when I first spotted it - the shape and size was right.
"On the second day of the so-called marriage between Miss Shaun and Mr. Rumel, the police received an anonymous whistleblower cable. The responsible whistleblower stated that the marriage was not a marriage. The police investigation confirmed the marriage, It was a hoax, as the tip said, and this information provided the perfect motive for the police who were weaving evidence against Miss Shawn.
"Who wants to pin this charge firmly on Miss Shawne? Apparently the one who stole her revolver, the one who killed Ann Bloomer with it, and the one who subsequently killed her from 1726 The person who threw the gun into this room across the corner of the courtyard - in other words, the one who deliberately tried to blame Miss Shawn for the murder... the murderer himself. If more facts are needed to confirm this reasoning , I only need to point out that the method used by this person to inform the police-calling a public telephone to the telegraph office, dictating the contents of the telegram, and the telegraph office sent it to the addressee-is the same as the method used to book room 1726 on the night of the murder. same."
Officer Quinn nodded guiltily, as if he had thought of it, and the D.A. flushed as if it had never occurred to him.
"This leads us again," continued Mr. Quin in melodious tones, "to the third feature. On a less memorable occasion not long ago, I pointed out by a rigorous logical deduction that the impostor Margot Cole's woman—that is, Ann Bloomer—must have an accomplice...an obscure, invisible accomplice who provided various identification documents to the notorious Ann Bloomer, These documents, in turn, established her as one of the heiresses to the Cole estate.
"This unknown accomplice had three motives for the murder of Ann Bloom: first, vengeance, if Ann Bloom refused to share the spoils after being admitted as Margo Cole - known as Ann Bloom Second, the fear that she would reveal the identity of her accomplice, perhaps on her own initiative, after her false identity had happened to be discovered, or inadvertently—as it was—in the I accidentally said Lu when my vigilance was slackened; and the third motive I have to—” Mr. Quinn smiled apologetically and said, “I will not explain it for now, I will leave it to you to appreciate later.
"You know, by revealing the identities of Miss Bloom's accomplices and digging out the mastermind behind her fraudulent claim of her inheritance, obviously you've also found her murderer.
"To sum up, what do we find? The people we are looking for are: 1. The owner of the pen and pencil set; Bloom's secret associate.
"Or, to put it another way, we must find the only person who has the criminal opportunity - the pencil proves that the person was in the room where the fatal bullet was fired; the criminal motive - revenge on Ann Bloomer At the same time, his accomplices also want to kill people to silence them to avoid revealing their identities; they have an attempt to frame Miss Xiao En-specifically, they report to the police about the bogus marriage.
"That's a pretty complete picture," murmured Mr. Quin with satisfaction. "Need I go any further? Doesn't our obscure accomplice friend want to step up and put an end to this intolerable suspicion?" ?”
In the ensuing silence Mr. Quinn thought angrily: "Damn Beau! Why hasn't he come yet?"
Still in this silence, as if answering the question in Mr. Quinn's mind, the phone rang suddenly.
The audience was taken aback, and their expressions became more and more nervous.But Mr. Quinn rushed to the phone with enthusiasm: "It's the call I've been waiting for. You don't mind?"
The weary but joyous voice in his ear said, "I'm Beau Rumel. Who are you?"
"It's exactly the person you're looking for," Quinn said anxiously, "How is it?"
"I got it, my friend."
"Okay, okay." Mr. Quinn let out a long breath, his brows brightened. "When will you be here with—er—goods?"
"I'm downtown, maybe fifteen minutes. How's it going?"
"So far so good."
"Leave me the last card. Is Kelly okay?"
"Patience like a Spartan. Come on, will you?"
Mr. Quinn put down the receiver and turned to face his audience.There was a slight, strange rustling sound among them.It wasn't impatience, or fatigue, or the awkward silence that had finally been broken.This is actually a form of tension. Under unbearable pressure, people try to seek some kind of relief through physical activities.
One had an ugly look on his face.
Mr. Quinn was deliberately not paying attention to the unapologetically dead white there.He said cheerfully: "Let us further analyze the second condition. Who informed the police about the inside story of the fake marriage, thereby intensifying the framing of Kelly Sean?"
"Before the whistleblowing incident, there were four people who knew about the sham marriage. Only four people. One was my partner, Beau Rumel, the 'groom officer'. So is it possible that Mr. Rumel was the whistleblower What? No, no, there are many reasons why we should exclude this possibility. I will only point to one of them. Mr. Rummel happened to be in the elevator on the seventeenth floor of the Villanoy Hotel when the gunshots rang out. , is stepping out of the elevator. The elevator attendant has testified to this. Since it is impossible for a human body to be in two spaces at the same time, it is obviously impossible for Mr. Rummel to be in room 1726 at the same moment. Therefore, he It can't be the man we're looking for."
Mr. Quinn lit a cigarette: "The second person who knows the truth of a marriage is--myself. Of course, I can make some strong arguments to prove that I am not Ann Bloomer's accomplice, and therefore did not murder her. the murderer—"
"Say the next one!" District Attorney Sampson couldn't help shouting.
"Thank you, Mr. Sampson," said Mr. Quinn in a low voice. "I'm flattered. Just ask, Miss Day—I think you're Miss Day, though I've never been formally introduced—why do you seem How sad?"
Wei was obviously taken aback, seeing all the eyes focused on her, her face turned pale: "I——had accused Mr. Rumel of being...forget it, let's not mention it. I don't understand—— "
"I see." Mr. Quinn smiled. "Mr. Rumel told me about it, it was very interesting. I hope you will apologize to him, Miss Day."
Kelly smiled and squeezed Vi's hand, who sat back with tears in his eyes.
"I hate to interrupt you," Kelly whispered, "but I—had a similar thought."
"Yeah, Beau is an introvert. He looks fierce, but he's not. I hope you'll apologize too!"—Kelly blushed and looked down—"I think you would, and Rue Mr. Mel will be very content with that. Where did I say that?
"Oh, yes! That leaves us with two of the four. The remaining couple are Mr. Goosens and Mr. De Carlos, the trustees of Cole's estate. Right after Mr. Rumel and Mr. The night Miss Sean checked into the Villanoy Hotel as husband and wife, the night of the murder, Mr Rummel left his 'beautiful wife' just after checking into the hotel. That little girl is pitiful. This move seems heartless, but it is actually a gentleman's move. I don't want to take advantage of that pure girl—"
"Don't digress, keep talking." The police officer urged sharply.
"According to orders. In short, he was driven by conscience and left the hotel, but he didn't know what to do with the time. Then he decided to use the time for something meaningful. He went to our office and wrote two letters with the same content-- —One to Mr. Goossens, the other to Mr. De Carlos.
"In his letters he informed the two gentlemen - the trustees - that the marriage was a fraud and asked the recipients to keep the matter confidential. The only reason Bo wrote these letters was that if he did not tell the trustees the truth administrator, the latter would immediately oust Kelly from the line of heirs. If Miss Shawn was not actually married, she would still be able to inherit.
"My partner sent two letters by special delivery. It was late at night, so the letter must have been delivered to the addressee the next morning. So, on the morning of the second day, two more people knew about the fraud. The matter of marriage—that is, the aforementioned Messrs. Goossens and De Carlos. Well, it stands to reason that either of you two gentlemen," said Mr. Quinn, smiling slightly at the two trustees, " It is possible to provide anonymous tips to the police."
"I didn't offer it!" De Carlos yelled.
"Me neither," Goossens said.
"Wait a minute," shouted the officer, "you mentioned four, Ellery. There should have been five. You forgot to count the fake judge who performed the fake wedding. Of course he knows the truth!"
"Oh, no, Dad, don't you have to tear down my desk?"
"Five!"
"Four." Mr. Quinn shook his head resignedly. "I said it was four, and now I still say it is four. In fact, it is a special algorithm."
"Rummel, Goossens, De Carlos, you, and the fake judge—that's five!"
"It pains me so much," murmured Mr. Quin. "I can't quite agree. Four. Because, you see, I'm the fake judge."
He grinned at Kelly, who stared at him dumbfounded.The officer waved his thin hand feebly.
"Go ahead," said Lloyd Goossens, lighting his pipe. "It looks like Mr. De Carlos and I are going to be ruled out by some logical reasoning too. I'm curious to hear how you go about it." .”
"I don't want to hear that!" De Carlos yelled. "I'm getting out of here! I've had enough of this—"
"Not far, Mr. De Carlos," Ellery said, looking at him intently.De Carlos sat down on the chair in pain, "Since you are so unwilling to listen, then you must still listen. We must pay special attention to you, Mr. De Carlos. The trouble you caused in this case, I am sure, Far more than your weight in the case! From beginning to end, you have been a master showman, a super smoke bomb. However, the strangest thing is that although you have given me many sleepless nights, I It must be admitted that without your factor, this case would never be solved."
"I have to say," De Carlos began desperately, "I have to say—"
"Let me tell you, okay?" Mr. Quinn smiled, "You see, it was you, under Cole's guise, who brought that lovely, important glue-on pen into my life. Does that pen belong to you? Huh?"
"I told you, it doesn't belong to me!" De Carlos yelled, "It doesn't belong to me!"
"Oh, I know it doesn't belong to you. But not because of your denial. The reason it can't be your pen is because of your teeth, you know."
"Of course, of course," said De Carlos eagerly. "You know—I wear dentures—"
"Nonsense. Even a man with dentures could leave that mark on this pen. But that wouldn't be a man with dentures like yours, Mr. De Carlos. You should overpay your dentist That's right, he's a terrible dentist, but that's what you should be thanking him for. Because when I looked at your dentures—remember that little thing, Mr. De Carlos? Mr. Rummel turned you into a living cocktail shaker with your false teeth flying out of your mouth? - When I checked it out I found it to be a genuinely dated piece... of the nasty kind , with inhumanly straight teeth, so neat, so perfectly aligned, that it was impossible for them to make such a deep dent in this pen. That dent could only have come from a ragged The canine teeth are longer and sharper than normal. Therefore, I know that pen is not yours."
De Carlos wiped the sweat off his face with a handkerchief.
"So, I asked myself then, how did Mr. De Carlos get that pen? A reasonable guess is that it belonged to Cole. The first time I saw that pen was in De Carlos pretending to be Cole, he had that pen in his hand. Is that pen Cole's?
"At the time I thought it might have belonged to Cole, because of my limited knowledge; but last night Captain Angus refuted this guess, and the pictures he showed confirmed his words: Cadmus Cole mouthed a have no teeth, and have never worn dentures. Therefore, the pen does not belong to Cole. If it is neither Cole's nor yours, Mr. De Carlos, then you must have got it by accident, or I mistook it, mistook it for your pen. It was a wild guess, like a leap in the dark—but not a guess, a leap that covered every inch of distance The facts are laid out.
"I know you're highly nearsighted. When you were pretending to be Cole three months ago, you had to take off your glasses because Cole doesn't wear glasses. As a result, your perception is greatly reduced: your eyes are blurred." , hit the door frame twice, you blink, you are unnatural - all these subtleties prove one thing: high myopia.
"Anyone who mistakes a door frame for a smooth path can easily mistake one pen for another. So, I suppose, if you had just met someone before you came to our office that day, you would have Possibly got the wrong pen at that person. Did you visit anyone else before you came to our office that day? Oh yes, you did. You said so yourself. You even told us about the Who is it. You are visiting Mr. Goossens to deliver Mr. Cole's sealed will with your own hands.
"Be quiet," Mr. Quinn said quickly to the gaping, wide-eyed, eager audience in front of him. "I'm still talking. The pen that De Carlos left in our office." Was it Goossens's? Let's see. If De Carlos took Goossens's pen by mistake, he probably left his own in Goossens's office."
He flew forward and took off his lawyer's coat.Goossens was so shocked that the pipe almost fell from his mouth.Mr. Quinn took out an old black fountain pen from the man's vest pocket, held it up to his eyes for a closer look.There are several tooth marks and dents on the cap.
"You haven't got over your old biting habit, have you, Goossins?" asked Mr. Quin.Then he turned and held the pen up to De Carlos' nose.
"Mr. De Carlos, is this your property?"
De Carlos pointed to the small clover letters on the barrel with trembling fingers——EDC
"I think, by this time, Mr. Lloyd Goossens," said Mr. Quinn, turning quickly, righteously, "that you should stop your jesting and confess your crime of murdering Ann Bloomer!"
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