“Quick. I’m afraid they’ve got Whittaker. Where in Hell are the police?”
Whittaker lay huddled over the table, his face in his arms. Dr. Giles’ hasty examination showed that he had been shot from behind. The bullet had entered below the left shoulder blade, passed through the heart (death being instantaneous), and lodged in the table, splintering the wood deeply. Berry remarked on the last.
“Close range, that,” he said. “Are you _sure_ there was no one else in the room, Belknap? Could someone have slipped in behind you both?”
“It seems very unlikely. I should have said the shot came from the direction of the library. But I myself was facing that particular door.”
“There were two shots fired,” said Julian.
“I beg your pardon, Mr. Prentice.” Belknap was short in his speech. “There was one shot fired as you can see.”
“Not necessarily. Every shot doesn’t hit its mark.”
“Granted. But that will be ascertained in due course.”
Sergeant Stebbins had been a strong and silent man since his arrival. A square-headed, ruddy-cheeked, heavy-jowled man, he gave the appearance of being a stone wall instead of a hurdle to anyone who didn’t take him cautiously. And something in Belknap’s last remark seemed to have set his back up.
“Due course!” he rumbled. “Due course! I guess that’s what’s been the whole trouble around here. You’ve been taking your time, haven’t you? Due course! In all your fancy detective work, Mr. Belknap, haven’t you caught on that when it’s one murder you act quick, when it’s two you jump into it, and when it’s three greased lightning shouldn’t have a look-in. I’m sorry to say it, but I think there’s been criminal negligence, Detective. Three murders in as many hours is rather a record in _my_ observation, and under your very nose, so to speak. It’s clearly my duty to put everyone in the house under arrest. You’re damn lucky I don’t include you. Now we’ll get down to brass tacks. A little examining of witnesses won’t come amiss. Who was in the library when the Judge got his?”
“I was; and I was there alone.” Nadia was contemptuous.
“I thought so, lady,” Stebbins said. “You look the kind. We’ll begin with you. The rest of you can clear out of here; and wait your turn in there.” He signified the library with a twist of his thumb.