As we rode up town that morning Markham appeared preoccupied and gloomy. No word had been spoken since we left the apartment; but as we turned west into Forty-eighth Street Vance asked:
What is the social etiquette of these early-morning murder functions, aside from removing ones hat in the presence of the body?
You keep your hat on, growled Markham.
My word! Like a synagogue, what? Most intrestin! Perhaps one takes off ones shoes so as not to confuse the footprints.
No, Markham told him. The guests remain fully clothedin which the function differs from the ordinary evening affairs of your smart set.
My dear Markham!Vances tone was one of melancholy reproofThe horrified moralist in your nature is at work again. That remark of yours was postively Epworth Leaguish.
Markham was too abstracted to follow up Vances badinage.
There are one or two things, he said soberly, that I think Id better warn you about. From the looks of it, this case is going to cause considerable noise, and therell be a lot of jealousy and battling for honors. I wont be fallen upon and caressed affectionately by the police for coming in at this stage of the game; so be careful not to rub their bristles the wrong way. My assistant, whos there now, tells me he thinks the Inspector has put Heath in charge. Heaths a sergeant in the Homicide Bureau, and is undoubtedly convinced at the present moment that Im taking hold in order to get the publicity.
Arent you his technical superior? asked Vance.
Of course; and that makes the situation just so much more delicate I wish to God the Major hadnt called me up.
Eheu![25] sighed Vance. The world is full of Heaths. Beastly nuisances.
Dont misunderstand me, Markham hastened to assure him. Heath is a good manin fact, as good a man as weve got. The mere fact that he was assigned to the case shows how seriously the affair is regarded at Headquarters. Therell be no unpleasantness about my taking charge, you understand; but I want the atmosphere to be as halcyon as possible. Heathll resent my bringing along you two chaps as spectators, anyway; so I beg of you, Vance, emulate the modest violet.
I prefer the blushing rose, if you dont mind, Vance protested. However, Ill instantly give the hypersensitive Heath one of my choicest Régie cigarettes with the rose-petal tips.
If you do, smiled Markham, hell probably arrest you as a suspicious character.
We had drawn up abruptly in front of an old brownstone residence on the upper side of Forty-eighth Street, near Sixth Avenue. It was a house of the better class, built on a twenty-five-foot lot in a day when permanency and beauty were still matters of consideration among the citys architects. The design was conventional, to accord with the other houses in the block, but a touch of luxury and individuality was to be seen in its decorative copings and in the stone carvings about the entrance and above the windows.
There was a shallow paved areaway between the street line and the front elevation of the house; but this was enclosed in a high iron railing, and the only entrance was by way of the front door, which was about six feet above the street level at the top of a flight of ten broad stone stairs. Between the entrance and the right-hand wall were two spacious windows covered with heavy iron grilles[26].
A considerable crowd of morbid onlookers had gathered in front of the house; and on the steps lounged several alert-looking young men whom I took to be newspaper reporters. The door of our taxicab was opened by a uniformed patrolman who saluted Markham with exaggerated respect and ostentatiously cleared a passage for us through the gaping throng of idlers. Another uniformed patrolman stood in the little vestibule, and on recognizing Markham, held the outer door open for us and saluted with great dignity.
Ave, Caesar, te salutamus[27], whispered Vance, grinning.
Be quiet, Markham grumbled. Ive got troubles enough without your garbled quotations.
As we passed through the massive carved-oak front door into the main hallway, we were met by Assistant District Attorney Dinwiddie, a serious, swarthy young man with a prematurely lined face, whose appearance gave one the impression that most of the woes of humanity were resting upon his shoulders.
Good morning, Chief, he greeted Markham, with eager relief. Im damned glad youve got here. This casell rip things wide open. Cut-and-dried murder, and not a lead.
Markham nodded gloomily, and looked past him into the living-room.
Whos here? he asked.
The whole works, from the Chief Inspector down, Dinwiddie told him, with a hopeless shrug, as if the fact boded ill for all concerned.
At that moment a tall, massive, middle-aged man with a pink complexion and a closely-cropped white moustache, appeared in the doorway of the living-room. On seeing Markham he came forward stiffly with outstretched hand. I recognized him at once as Chief Inspector OBrien, who was in command of the entire Police Department. Dignified greetings were exchanged between him and Markham, and then Vance and I were introduced to him. Inspector OBrien gave us each a curt, silent nod, and turned back to the living-room, with Markham, Dinwiddie, Vance and myself following.
The room, which was entered by a wide double door about ten feet down the hall, was a spacious one, almost square, and with high ceilings. Two windows gave on the street; and on the extreme right of the north wall, opposite to the front of the house, was another window opening on a paved court. To the left of this window were the sliding doors leading into the dining-room at the rear.
The room presented an appearance of garish opulence. About the walls hung several elaborately framed paintings of race-horses and a number of mounted hunting trophies. A highly-colored oriental rug covered nearly the entire floor. In the middle of the east wall, facing the door, was an ornate fireplace and carved marble mantel. Placed diagonally in the corner on the right stood a walnut upright piano with copper trimmings. Then there was a mahogany bookcase with glass doors and figured curtains, a sprawling tapestried davenport, a squat Venetian tabouret with inlaid mother of pearl, a teak-wood stand containing a large brass samovar, and a buhl-topped center table nearly six feet long. At the side of the table nearest the hallway, with its back to the front windows, stood a large wicker lounge chair with a high, fan-shaped back.
In this chair reposed the body of Alvin Benson.
Though I had served two years at the front in the World War and had seen death in many terrible guises, I could not repress a strong sense of revulsion at the sight of this murdered man. In France death had seemed an inevitable part of my daily routine, but here all the organisms of environment were opposed to the idea of fatal violence. The bright June sunshine was pouring into the room, and through the open windows came the continuous din of the citys noises, which, for all their cacophony, are associated with peace and security and the orderly social processes of life.
Bensons body was reclining in the chair in an attitude so natural that one almost expected him to turn to us and ask why we were intruding upon his privacy. His head was resting against the chairs back. His right leg was crossed over his left in a position of comfortable relaxation. His right arm was resting easily on the center-table, and his left arm lay along the chairs arm. But that which most strikingly gave his attitude its appearance of naturalness, was a small book which he held in his right hand with his thumb still marking the place where he had evidently been reading.[28]