Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty-Three

In his hotel room Arthur Calgary looked over the notes he had jotted down. He nods from time to time. Yes... now he's on the right track.At first he had been wrong to concentrate on Mrs. Argyle, the procedure had been correct nine times out of ten, but this was the tenth time it had been incorrect. He always felt that there was an unknown factor.If he can separate and recognize that factor, the case will be solved.In order to find this factor, he has been focusing on the dead woman.But now he knew that the dead woman was not important.In one respect, the dead are all the same. He changed his perspective—returning to when it all started.Turn back to Jack.

Not just Jack, an innocent young man sentenced to life -- but Jack, who is actually a human being.Wasn't Jack, to use the old dogma of the sect, "a doomed man" who was given every chance in life, wasn't he? In any case, it was Dr. Macmaster's opinion that he was a man born to be troubled.No amount of circumstance could help him or save him.is this real?Leo Argyle spoke of him with indulgence, with pity.What did he say? "One of those who are born to be ill." He accepted the statement of modern psychology, a patient, not a murderer.What did Hester say?To put it bluntly, Jack has always been terrible!

Plain, childish rhetoric.And what did Kirsty Lindstrom say?Say Jack is evil!Yes, she said that strongly.evil!Tina said, "I never liked or trusted him." So they all agreed, didn't they, roughly?It was only in the mouth of his widow that it changed from "roughly" to concrete.Maureen Craig sees Jack entirely from her own point of view.She spoiled herself on Jack.She had been captivated by his charms and she was outraged.Now, An An's remarried steadily, she echoed her husband's point of view.She bluntly explained to Calgary some of Jack's suspicious behaviors and some of his methods of obtaining money.money……

In Arthur Calgary's weary mind the words danced like letters on a wall.money!money!money!Like an opera theme, he thought.Mrs. Argyle's money!Money deposited into trust!Money to buy retirement pension insurance!Leftovers to her husband!Withdraw money from the bank!Money in the drawer! Hester is in a hurry to go out, there is no money in the purse!Two quid from Kirsty Lindstrom.The money found on Jack, who he swore was given to him by his mother. The whole thing formed a pattern—a pattern woven of irrelevant details about money. And of course, in this pattern, the unknown factor becomes apparent.

He looks at his watch.He promised Hester to call her at the appointed time.He took the phone and asked to connect to the other party's number. Then her voice came, clear and childish. "Hester. How are you?" "Oh yes, I'm fine." It took him a minute or two to catch the hidden meaning in her tone.Then he said abruptly: "What happened?" "Philip was killed." "Philip! Philip Durant?" Calgary looked disbelieving. "Yes. And Tina—at least she's not dead. She's in the hospital." "Tell me!" he ordered.

she told him.He keeps asking her until he understands everything. Then he said sullenly: "Calm down, Hester, I'll go. I"—he looked at his watch—"in an hour, and I've got to see Inspector Hush first." "What the hell do you want to know, Dr. Calgary?" Inspector Hush asked, but before Calgary could speak the phone on Hush's desk rang and he grabbed the receiver. "Yes, yes, I am. Wait a minute." He took a piece of paper and a pen, ready to write. "What? How do you spell the last word? Sniff, I understand. Yes, it doesn't seem to make sense, does it? Yes. Nothing else? Yes, thank you." He put the microphone back. "The hospital called," he said.

"Tina?" Calgary asked. The inspector general nodded. "She woke up for a few minutes." "Did she speak?" Calgary asked. "I don't really know why I should tell you, Dr. Calgary." "I want you to tell me," Calgary said, "because I think it will help you." Hu Xu looked at him and thought about it. "You care about all this, don't you, Dr. Calgary?" he said. "Yes, you know, I feel responsible for reopening this case. I even feel responsible for these two tragedies. Will the girl live?" "They think it will," Hu Xu said, "the blade missed the heart, but it might kill him with one stroke." He shook his head. "This is where the trouble always comes from," he said. "The average person doesn't believe that a murderer isn't safe. Strange to say, but it is. They all know there's a murderer among them, and they should tell what they know. The only safe place is if a murderer is near you. To tell the police everything you know right away, they didn't, they insisted on keeping it from me. Philip Durant was a good guy--a smart guy; but he saw it as a game. He spied around , set a trap and he finds the profile, or he thinks he has the profile, and someone thinks he has the profile. Result: I get a call saying he's dead, stabbed in the back of the neck. That's just not understanding The consequences of messing around with the dangers of a murder." He paused, clearing his throat.

"And what about the girl?" Calgary asked. "What does that girl know," Hu Xu said. "Something she didn't want to say. I think," he said, "she's in love with the boy." "You mean—Mike?" Hu Xu nodded. "Yes. Maybe Michel likes her too, but liking isn't enough if you're going crazy with fear. Whatever she knows is probably worse than she knows herself. So, after she found out about Du After Rant died, she hurried out and threw herself directly into his arms, and he took the opportunity to stab her." "It's just your own guesswork, isn't it, Inspector Hush?"

"Not quite a guess, Dr. Calgary. The knife is in his pocket." "The actual knife?" "Yes. There's blood on it. We'll test it, but it's going to be her blood. Her blood and Philip. Durant's blood!" "But—impossible." "Who says it's impossible?" "Hester. I called her and she told me all about it." "Really? Well, the truth is very simple. Mary Durant went down to the kitchen, leaving her husband alive, at ten minutes to four--with Leo Argyle and Gwenda Fern was in the study, Hester Argyle was in her bedroom on the second floor, and Kirsten Lindstrom was in the kitchen. Just after four o'clock Michael and Timo arrived by car. Michael went into the garden And Tina went upstairs, right after Kirsty, who had just delivered coffee and biscuits to Philip. Tina stopped to speak to Hester, then caught up with Miss Lindstrom, and together they found Philip dead. "

"And Michel was in the garden all this time. Surely that's an unassailable alibi?" "What you don't know, Dr. Calgary, is that there is a tall magnolia tree next to the house. The children are often climbing, especially Michael, on top of his method of getting in and out of the house. He may have climbed up that tree." , go into Durant's room, assassinate him, and then climb down. Oh, the timing is tight, but it's amazing how audacious you can be sometimes. To prevent Tina and Durant from meeting. To be safe, he has to kill them both." Calgary thought for a minute or two.

"You just said, Chief Inspector, that Tina has regained her senses. Can't she tell who killed her?" "What she said was not coherent," Hu Xu said slowly. "In fact I doubt she's properly regained her sanity." He smiled wearily. "Okay, Dr. Calgary, I'll tell you what she said. She named a person first. Michael..." "So she accused him," said Calgary. "It seems so," Hu Xu nodded. "Anything else doesn't make sense. It's kind of rambling." "what did she say?" Hu Xu looked at the legal pad in front of him. "'Mike,' and then a pause. Then, 'The coffee cup is empty...' and then another pause, and then, 'Pigeons on the mast.'" He looked at Calgary. "Can you think of any reason for these words?" "No," Calgary said.He shook his head and said doubtfully, "The pigeon on the mast...it seems very strange to say this." "As far as we know there are no masts and no pigeons," Hu Xu said. "But it meant something to her, she knew it. But, you know, it probably had nothing to do with the murder. God knows what illusion she's floating in." Calgary was silent for a while.He sat and thought it through, and he said, "You've arrested Michael?" "We've got him in custody. He'll be charged within twenty-four hours." Hu Xu looked at Calgary curiously. "I don't think this guy Michael is your answer?" "No," Calgary said. "No, Mike's not my answer. Even now—I don't know." He stood up. "I still think I'm right," he said. "But I know very well that I don't have enough credentials for you to believe me. I have to go there again. I have to see them all." "Oh," said Hush, "be careful yourself, Dr. Calgary. By the way, what are you thinking?" "If I told you I believe it's a crime of love," said Calgary, "would it mean anything to you?" Hu Xu raised his eyebrows. "Lots of lust, Dr. Calgary," he said. "Limitation, greed, fear, all lust." "When I say crimes of lust," Calgary said, "I mean the expression in its ordinary sense." "If you mean Gwenda Fern and Leo Argyle," Hush said, "then we've been thinking that way for a long time, you know, but it doesn't seem to fit." "It's more complicated than that," said Arthur Calgary.