Read Online Queen’s Bureau of Investigation by Ellery Queen - Free Book Online

birds?”
    â€œThere’s an old bird in that bedroom who’s going to squawk. To the D.A.!” said Miss Baggott venomously.
    â€œAnd suppose she doesn’t.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œSuppose she doesn’t,” said the lawyer, squeezing the deck of cards. “Suppose tonight we had to cut our bridge game short because, say, Miss Baggott wasn’t feeling well. And suppose Dr. Cooke gave her some sleeping pills, and Miss Baggott retired to her room and went out like a light, and the doctor and Mr. De Rose left. And suppose, as soon as they were gone, that slippery apartment burglar who’s been working the West Side lately broke in here. And suppose,” said the lawyer, looking up at them, “suppose the old woman surprised him and he lost his stupid head. And suppose, since he’s known to carry a knife—”
    â€œNo,” whispered Miss Baggott. “No.”
    â€œYes,” mocked the lawyer. “Unless you want to go to jail for ten years. I don’t. Do you, Doctor?”
    â€œYour diagnosis,” said Dr. Cooke slowly, “convinces me.” Then he said quickly, “Let’s agree on the modus operandi before she comes back …”
    Ellery and Inspector Queen broke into the Andrus apartment thirty-five seconds too late. Ellery stopped in the living room to bend over the still bleeding body in the wheelchair while his father, pistol drawn, kicked open the bedroom door to be buffeted by a storm of black wings and bass bird cries. But the Inspector beat his way through in time to catch Dr. Cooke, Attorney De Rose, and Miss Baggott all trying to pile through the same window to get to the fire escape.
    The interruption had come so suddenly on the heels of the murder that, while the knife had been wiped clean, there had been no time even to replace it in the kitchen drawer.
    Later, when the assistant medical examiner wheeled the frail corpse into the bedroom for his examination, the myna birds swooped and hopped and chattered about the closed door as if they knew what had happened.
    Cut! boomed one bird, a particularly large fellow. Cut, cut!
    â€œYes, Blackie, yes.” Ellery picked him up and, stroking his throat feathers, faced the pale manacled trio with cold anger. “Whatever phony plant you animals had in mind, it was doomed to failure before it was even hatched. Mrs. Andrus phoned me early this evening after sending Miss Baggott out on an errand. She told me all about what she’d found out today, and about calling you three together for a showdown tonight. I warned her not to show her hand till we got here, but apparently she was too outraged to wait. And you killed her.”
    Cut! said the myna bird again.
    â€œCorrection noted, birdie,” rasped Inspector Queen. “Which one of you did the actual cutting?”
    â€œYou’ve got us all wrong, gentlemen.” De Rose’s lips were stiff. “The doctor and I arrived late, and Miss Baggott was just coming back from a walk. We all saw a masked man duck out the window. Then you pounded on the door, and we panicked—”
    â€œYou don’t say, Counselor!”
    â€œThere must be some way of telling,” mumbled Ellery, walking over to the bridge table. “They came here tonight ostensibly for a bridge game—”
    â€œHold it, son.” The assistant medical examiner was coming out of the bedroom. “Well, Prouty?”
    â€œFour knife wounds, left chest.” Dr. Prouty examined the silent trio with the enthusiasm of a funeral director. “No one wound sufficient to cause instant death, but at her age and condition they were cumulatively fatal.… What did he say?”
    Cut, cut, cut! the big myna was squawking. He struggled, and Ellery let him go. The bird hopped onto the bridge table and began vindictively to peck at a card. After a moment he lost interest and flew off.
    â€œHe said ‘cut,’” said Dr. Prouty