CHAPTER XXIV
FOLDED HANDS
“HOLD her tight!" Odell's sharp warning cut through the dreadful cachinnation. "Don't hurt her, but look out for a sudden effort of strength."
"Effie!" Unmindful of his broken ribs Richard Lorne had started up on the couch, and his horror-stricken eyes stared at his sister-in-law. "My God, Effie, what is the matter with you?"
At the sound of his voice the woman's wild laughter ceased abruptly, and her body relaxed; but she returned his stare malevolently, and a sneer, infinitely sly and crafty, curled her lip.
"I fooled you all—all!" she cried; and freeing one arm by a lightning-like gesture, she beat her thin breast. "How I have laughed at you here, here, in these long years while you have patronized me, thrust me into corners! Me, the old maid, the one who stood aside, meek and docile and a nonentity—but useful! Ah, I saw to that! I wanted to be near you where I could watch you all and think of what I had planned!"
"The second generation!" Samuel Titheredge interjected solemnly.
"I hated her always; that yellow-haired vixen who stole my toys and finery when I was a child, whose doll-face claimed the affection which should have been mine, and who finally robbed me of my lover!" The woman had been muttering, but now her voice rose to a rasping scream. "For I loved him, do you hear? I loved Halsey Chalmers, and she took him from me!"
"Oh, stop her!" moaned Gene, burying his face in his hands. "I can't bear it!"
"Silence!" Odell commanded in a low, penetrating tone.
"Let her go on!"
Effie Meade broke into a soft, crooning laugh, more horrible than her wild shrieks had been; and when she spoke again her voice had sunk to a mutter once more.
"I attended her at her marriage to the man who should have been mine; I was present at the coming of her children; mine too, though my arms were empty! And all the time I hated her and waited! Waited! Then the baby, the one that was most like him, I—I let it fall from my arms, and it became a cripple, a curse! I could have killed myself from grief, but I lived because I had a double purpose now. She, who could endure nothing but beauty around her, turned in loathing from this maimed thing of her flesh; but I loved the little one as much as I hated her and all the other miserable puppets she had brought into the world; and I meant to see that he had everything, everything which she had hoped to give the rest!"
"You fiend!" Rannie started from his chair; but Odell forced him gently back, and Effie Meade gurgled as if he had called her an endearing name.
"He died, the man she had taken from me, and she married again, but I didn't care; it meant just so much more for Rannie, to make up for the debt I owed him, and there was plenty of time. I waited, watching the money pile up, watching the other children near the age when they could demand theirs; and at last the hour struck.
"How I planned and studied and worked! Christine I hated most, so I took her first. I listened to Rannie when he told me about the dear little things, smaller than the eye could see, which he kept in the box, and which some day would do my bidding! I dipped the pretty needle in among them one morning, and then watched her as she drew it in and out of her embroidery, waiting until it entered her flesh; for she was clumsy, my beautiful sister, as clumsy as she was stupid. I was my father's own clever daughter, though they called him 'crazy.' I was crazy, too, but nobody ever knew it; nobody even guessed; for I watched myself always, always!
"She pierced her finger with the needle, and I could have screamed aloud with joy, only that they would have known, and my work had only just begun. They thought I loved her; they let me stay beside her bed, and over and over again I infected her with a pin dipped in Rannie's tube. She thought at first it was accidental, when I lifted her in bed; but later she suspected the truth. I saw it in her eyes, although those fools of doctors never knew."
Richard Lorne raised his clenched hands above his head and shook them impotently, but the woman did not appear to see. At a motion from Odell her two guards had forced her into a chair; and now she crouched there, mouthing and grimacing in hideous triumph.
"The night she died I crept up to father's room and hid the needle in the folds of the couch on which he spent so many weary hours. Then I put another needle in that embroidery, in case they looked for it, and went to bed. It had been so easy, and part of her money would be Rannie's now.
"But it was all Rannie's. All the money which was being dissipated by Julian and Gene, thrown away on gew-gaws to deck her shallow prettiness by Cissie, like her mother before her. I learned that Julian meant to demand all that had been left him, and so he had to be the next! The little death-germs were gone from Rannie's room; but there were other ways, and I knew that the moment would come.
"One morning I went upstairs while Julian was shaving. He hadn't heard me enter, and as I stood watching him the way was shown to me. I called him suddenly, and the razor slipped and made just a tiny cut in his cheek; but he laid it down and started to staunch the blood. I offered to help him, but I snatched up that razor, and when he bent down for me to touch the towel to his face I slashed his throat instead! I knew just where to strike, for I had been reading Rannie's books, and Christine's first-born didn't take long to die!
"I put the razor near his hand, ran down and changed my dress, and went to the breakfast-table. How clever I was, then! How surprised I was and concerned when Peters came rushing down with his silly mouth wide open, and how horror-struck I appeared at the truth! If only I hadn't been laughing inside all the time, laughing with joy that one more who had stood in Rannie's path was gone!
"Then the others began to be afraid, and I knew and felt my power! It was sweet to me after the years when I had been merely tolerated. I used to look around the table sometimes and try to choose which should be next; for they must all go now, and quickly. Every bit of food they put into their mouths meant so much money out of Rannie's pocket, money which would help him to forget the injury I had done him!
"I had read somewhere of a mirror falling and killing someone; and I thought of that heavy portrait over the desk in the library and how I could coax Gene to sit under it; for he would have been of age in another month, and I decided that he must never get his hands on his property or it would be gone in a year.
"I was strong; nobody knew how strong I was—"
"Nobody knows how strong I am!" A raucous echo burst upon their ears; and for a moment the horrified, fascinated gaze of the others turned from the crazed woman to the huge cage in the corner, where Socrates danced excitedly upon his perch and faithfully repeated the message which he had at some past moment of gloating triumph learned from her lips. Odell seized a dark table-cover and threw it over the cage, and the echo died in an indignant squawk.
"I was strong, but I couldn't break that cable which held up the picture until one day I overheard a couple of workmen next me in a crowded car talking about a new electric file and what it would do. I went to an electrical supply shop and saw those files; and one of them went away with me under my cape, although I had asked for and purchased only a toaster. I thought I might need a big saw, too; and that I got at a hardware store over in Brooklyn. Do you see how clever I am? No one could ever know.
"I hid the tools up in father's room until I got Gene's promise to go through the letters of condolence and persuaded him to use that desk that evening. Then in the afternoon when everyone was out I slipped down, locked myself in the library, and filed through the strands of that cable so that they could not hold more than a few hours at most After that I did the cleverest thing of all! I telephoned to the first carpenter's shop whose number I could find in the book for them to send someone early on the following morning to rehang that picture, before any of the rest of the family were up. I didn't want them to notice those filed cable-ends, and they wouldn't have if only that meddlesome old lawyer there hadn't suggested calling in the police.
"I didn't want that, not just yet with only two gone; for Gene escaped by a miracle. Nobody thought I had had anything to do with the fall of that picture, though; I was too clever for them. I reminded them all that it was I myself who had arranged for Gene to sit there; and even that didn't bring the slightest inkling of the truth to their understanding!
"The police mustn't come, not at least until Gene and one or two more had been removed. I had only that night in which to stop Richard and this idiot Titheredge from interfering with my plans, and I hoped that they would fall downstairs and break their necks in the morning before they could leave the house. That wish brought a new inspiration to my mind, and I got my lovely, bright new saw and crept past the room where they were talking and sawed through the top step of the stairs.
"I never forgot a single detail; that's why no one ever knew. I gathered up every speck of saw-dust and took it to my room; and the next morning I burned it in the tray of the parrot's cage, which I had removed ostensibly for Jane to clean, and hid the ashes in Gene's grate. The saw and file I put in the tool-chest in the cellar, where anyone might find them. But only Richard was hurt; and the police came, and I had to be on my guard. That strange maid of Christine's was following me about too, and staring at me, as if she had begun to read through my eyes what was going on in my thoughts; and I dared not try another plan I had for getting Gene out of the way because I had to watch myself so closely.
"That wicked Cissie was the means of early bringing my secret to light; and for that I determined that she should be the next to go. She tried to run away, and when I stopped her at the very door she sneered at my love for Rannie. I would have killed her then, I think, only the young man from Headquarters was in the drawing-room, and I remembered in time that I must not use strength. My seeming weakness was the most perfect evidence in my defense as long as I could keep people from knowing how strong I really was."
She had babbled on as if talking to herself; and the others sat spellbound, listening as the dreadful story unfolded itself to their ears; and more than once the detective had glanced at Doctor Adams inquiringly. It did not seem possible that one of unsound mind could tell so connected and clear a tale; and the thought recurred that perhaps the woman was feigning insanity. Her hatred and jealousy of her sister and the money-lust combined would have been motive enough for even so hideous a series of crimes; but when be glanced in turn at her face all doubt died within him. Whether distorted with rage or smiling in malicious triumph, the light of reason had irrevocably fled from it; and the workings of her maniac mind showed plainly in her wildly staring eyes.
Mrs. Gael's words returned to him again, and with them a complete understanding of her attitude. No wonder that in view of her own former detention she dared not speak and proclaim the lunacy of this woman, who with the cunning of madness had concealed her condition from all the rest of the world even while realizing and glorying in it.
Effie Meade had been swaying to and fro in an ecstasy of triumphant glee; but all at once she stopped and glanced at the fragments of the cup upon the floor.
"That too would have worked my will," she muttered. "When Cissie went into the drawing-room to talk to that young upstart from the police who was trying to discover my secret I listened and heard her defame my darling, my Rannie. That minute decided her fate, but I was forced to dissemble. I did not want her to die as Julian had; I wanted her to suffer, to fade before my eyes as her mother had; that mother whom she was so like.
"I delved through Rannie's books once more and found out about the white powder and how easily it could be obtained. I told the clerk in the drugstore that I wanted it to kill rats; and so I did! The rats who stood between my boy and the wealth which I meant should be all his.
"I began to give the arsenic to her the very next day, but it was not until Saturday that she showed the first effects, and when she complained I rejoiced. I had mixed the powder in her soup and tea when I served her in the old-fashioned way, which Richard had always insisted upon when we were without guests; and when yesterday she took to her bed, it was a simple matter to prepare her broth myself and drop in my dainty seasoning before Marcelle's unsuspecting eyes.
"But I commenced to fear this young police officer; not that he dreamed mine was the hand, but he had probed into my sister's death and her son's, and discovered the severed picture-cables and the sawn stairs. This morning he took from Peters the broth intended for Cissie and spilled it; and when later the Doctor put me out of her room and took my place, I knew they were aware of her real condition; and if I did not want to fail as I had in Gene's case I must work quickly.
"I saved out enough arsenic for a death dose; and mixing the rest in a paste I spread it near a rat-hole in the wainscoting of father's room, where its presence could readily be accounted for if it were found. The powder I had saved I put in a fresh portion of broth intending to give it to Cissie at the first opportunity, but I was too careful to bring it up to her myself; I arranged for Peters to do that, so that in the end he would at least be equally under suspicion with the cook; for why should anyone think that I, the devoted aunt, could desire the death of my lovely niece?
"The opportunity came just now, and as soon as the doctor left me alone with her I rang for Peters to bring up the broth." Suddenly the woman's figure stiffened, and she pointed a shaking finger at Odell. "But for you, Cissie would now have gone the way I paved for her; but Peters knocked upon the door and told me that you had taken the broth from him once more and said that you wanted it for Rannie, and instructed him to bring up more for Cissie.—For Rannie! You would have killed him for whom I had planned it all!
"I saved him, though Cissie and the others still live. Rannie, Rannie, I did it all for you; and though they may rob you of a portion of the wealth which should be yours, you will still be richer than all; and I have made you so!"
She half rose in her chair with her hands outstretched to the object of her insane adoration; but he shrank from her, his eyes like livid coals of fire in his horrified face.
"Don't speak to me, you devil!" Loathing beyond the power of words filled his shaking voice. "If you were not mad I could kill you as you sit there! Murderess! You have done me a greater injury than when I was a child!"
Some inkling of his meaning must have filtered through to her diseased mind; for she began to whimper like a hurt animal and the tears rolled down her faded cheeks.
"It was for you! They hated you, all of them. They laughed at your infirmity; but I would have given you the power to triumph over them, every one!" Her tones rose once again to a shriek. "Rannie, I love you, love—"
The shriek ended suddenly in a rattling gurgle; and she clutched at her breast as the distortion of mania left her face and a look of wonder shot with pain took its place. A glow as of returning sanity suffused the staring eyes for a fleeting moment; then they dulled, and her head dropped forward on her breast.
Odell was by her side in an instant; but Doctor Adams was before him; and the detective retreated a step as the physician felt the woman's limp wrist and pressed his head against her heart.
Then he straightened and faced the others solemnly.
"She is dead," he announced. "That final paroxysm was too much for her already over-strained heart, and it failed. It was a merciful end."
"Too merciful!" cried Richard Lorne in a voice of agony. "Think of my wife! It was hatred, and crafty, awful revenge, not madness, which brought about her murder. Think of Julian, cut off in his youth!"
"It was the germ of insanity born in her, the heritage from her father." Doctor Adams turned to Blake and Shaw. "Help me lift her to the bed."
The others sat in a stricken silence while the frail little figure was composed upon the snowy coverlet and the hands which unseen had wrought such fearful tragedy were folded peacefully upon her breast.
••••••••••••
"Still I cannot understand, Sergeant, how you first discovered the truth."
Richard Lorne was the speaker as he, Gene, Rannie, Samuel Titheredge, and the detective were seated in his room on the following day. Cissie was slowly recovering under the care of the discreet Miss Risby; and below in the darkened drawing-room the still form of Effie Meade rested where so lately the bodies of her victims had lain.
"The point which puzzles me is why I did not discover it at once," Odell replied frankly. "The finding of the saw and file in so obvious a place as the chest where the other tools were kept ought to have led me to suspect the person who had as obviously suggested that your step-son sit beneath that loosened portrait, no matter how unlikely such a supposition would seem.
"Miss Meade had had access to the incubator in which Rannie kept his bacteria and to the medical books of which he had a store, and she had been the only one to listen to his talk on the subject; she had been with her sister when Mrs. Lorne pricked her finger with the infected needle, and she was the only member of the family who was constantly at her bedside, with unlimited opportunity to reinfect her until she died. She as well as another might have slipped up to her oldest nephew's room and, catching him off guard, slashed his throat with the razor. The thing which kept me more than anything else from suspecting was the supposed fact that a struggle must have taken place, and only a powerful person could have overcome Mr. Chalmers's strength; for I had been told that he was a trained athlete in spite of the temporary nervous condition which had pulled him down.
"Only a phenomenally strong person, too, could have pried that picture from the wall and filed away the supporting wires, to say nothing of wielding a saw heavy enough to cut the long, sweeping strokes which I noticed in the top step of the stairs."
"I recall now," Titheredge remarked, "that you asked me when we examined the stairs together if I observed anything else, and when I replied in the negative you said nothing more. What did you mean?"
The almost entire absence of sawdust," Odell responded. "I traced it afterward and learned how it had been disposed of. Another thing which led me off the track was the gruffness of the voice which spoke to Kenny the carpenter over the telephone. Miss Meade's was low and clear and softly feminine until she gave that cry outside Rannie's door when she thought he was about to swallow the poisoned broth."
"Oh, Aunt Effie could always do that," said Rannie. "Throw her voice and change its tone, I mean; she used to amuse us when we were kiddies by telling us the story of the three bears—a favorite of ours, I remember—and imitating their growls."
"But how did you first come to suspect her?" Gene asked.
"I did not, until a few hours before I tried that little experiment; but I had already decided that a crazed mind was back of the series of murders and attempted murders. Someone whom I may not name had hinted to me that a member of the household was unquestionably insane, and a little talk which I had with Mr. Titheredge here confirmed the possibility of it." Odell met the attorney's eye and shook his head reassuringly. "Down at Headquarters Peters had told us of a mysterious intruder at the hour of Mrs. Lorne's death, who passed up the stairs to the attic and whom he firmly believed to be a ghost. He did not see it but caught a glimpse of the light it carried and heard it say: 'The first one gone! So shall they all go, one by one!’"
"The she devil!" Lorne groaned. "But what was it that happened a few hours before you tricked her into betraying herself?"
"With Rannie's help I proved yesterday that your eldest stepdaughter was being slowly poisoned by an admixture of white arsenic in her food; and that narrowed the possible suspects down to Miss Meade, Mr. Gene Chalmers, and the three servants. During the morning I heard footsteps ascending to the very top of the house, and something in their stealthy, almost noiseless tread recalled Peters's story of the ghost to my mind.
"On an impulse I followed; but the person ahead was always just beyond my range of vision until I halted in the doorway of the storage room, the one with the barred windows. Then I saw Miss Meade. With her frail, slender arms she was moving two huge, heavy trunks which were piled one on top of the other; and she seemed to put forth no effort in a task that would normally require the energy of two husky men. I did not see her face at once; but when she turned it toward me the mask was off, and I knew that my search was ended even before I heard her insane speech: 'Eat that, my pretties. I have enough left for Cissie's last dose. I'll fool them all!'
"I made my escape before she was aware of my presence, and decided that the only way to convince any of you of her guilt would be to trick her into betraying herself. The greatest thing in her life was her love, or obsession, for Rannie; and I determined to play upon that. I gathered you in as witnesses, laid my trap, and sprung it as you know.
"I would feel culpable in having brought on the scene which resulted in Miss Meade's death, but there was no other way to bring her machinations home to her; and Doctor Adams has since informed me her case was incurable and that future existence would have meant for her a mere tortured blank. Her superhuman strength was, of course, a part of her madness."
"She is better dead," Titheredge observed in his dry judicial tones. "It is only a pity that her malady did not manifest itself a few short weeks ago; but we have you to thank, Sergeant, that she was prevented from carrying out her hideous scheme to exterminate the family."
"We owe you our lives," Richard Lorne declared brokenly. "When I think of my poor wife I could go mad myself, and it is as well perhaps that her sister is beyond my reach. Sergeant Odell, I shall not speak of reward at this moment; but you will not find me unappreciative of the masterly way in which you have handled this case and brought it to a successful conclusion, nor unmindful of the debt that I and mine owe to you."
Odell rose.
"It was only in the line of my professional duty, sir," he said quietly. "My one regret lies in the solution of the problem—that an afflicted, unfortunate member of your own family should prove to have performed the dreadful, self-appointed work of those unseen hands."
THE END