The «Canary» Murder Case / Смерть Канарейки. Книга для чтения на английском языке

And I can’t see any object in such senseless vandalism.”

“Neither can I,” sighed Vance. “It’s all devilish queer.”

Heath looked up at him sharply. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. But there’s nothing what you’d call queer about this mess. It is a straight-away case.” He spoke with an overtone of insistence, like a man arguing against his own insecurity of opinion. “The dress might’ve been torn almost any time,” he went on stubbornly. “And the flower might’ve got caught in the lace of her skirt so it couldn’t roll off.

”

“And how would you explain the jewel-case, Sergeant?” asked Vance.

“Well, the fellow might’ve tried the poker, and then, finding it wouldn’t work, used his jimmy.”

“If he had the efficient jimmy,” countered Vance, “why did he go to the trouble of bringing the silly poker from the living-room?”

The Sergeant shook his head perplexedly.

“You never can tell why some of these crooks act the way they do.”

“Tut, tut!” Vance chided him. “There should be no such word as ‘never’ in the bright lexicon of detecting.

”

Heath regarded him sharply. “Was there anything else that struck you as queer?” His subtle doubts were welling up again.

“Well, there’s the lamp on the table in the other room.”

We were standing near the archway between the two rooms, and Heath turned quickly and looked blankly at the fallen lamp.

“I don’t see anything queer about that.”

“It has been upset—eh, what?” suggested Vance.

“What if it has?” Heath was frankly puzzled.

“Damn near everything in this apartment has been knocked crooked.”

“Ah! But there’s a reason for most of the other things having been disturbed—like the drawers and pigeonholes and closets and vases. They all indicate a search; they’re consistent with a raid for loot. But that lamp, now, d’ ye see, doesn’t fit into the picture. It’s a false note. It was standing on the opposite end of the table to where the murder was committed, at least five feet away; and it couldn’t possibly have been knocked over in the struggle.

… No, it won’t do. It’s got no business being upset, any more than that pretty mirror over the gate-legged table has any business being broken. That’s why it’s queer.”

“What about those chairs and the little table?” asked Heath, pointing to two small gilded chairs which had been overturned, and a fragile tip-table that lay on its side near the piano.

“Oh, they fit into the ensemble,” returned Vance.