“Tried to kill Howe?” I stared at her.
I looked upward. Above me was a
“When? Where?”
maze of flys and catwalks, anchored to the
“On stage, about fifteen minutes ago.
narrow balcony which ran around the four
The Second Act Is Murder
19
sides of the old ballroom. The company in his throat as if he’d started to clear it and members did a good job. It looked very was choking instead. I paid no attention, professional.
offering my arm to Susan.
Someone could have stolen across the
“Shall we go? There are several things
catwalk from the balcony and severed the
I’d like to tell you.”
weight hanging above Howe’s head, then
“Of all the crazy things.” We were in
retreated the way he had come.
the lobby. “Do you realize what you’ve done?
“See anyone?” I asked the question of
What if the murderer had heard you? He’d
no one in particular, directing it at all of them.
come after you tonight, to silence you.”
I got no answer.
“Why else do you think I said it.”
“I’ve had enough,” Larry Swift said.
Her eyes widened. “Mark.”
“Larry!” It was Bertrand Howe. “You
“Sh-h-h!” I warned her, as Mary Jones
can’t walk out on me.”
joined us. “I don’t know about you girls, but
“Who says I can’t? I didn’t bargain to
I’m going to bed. And Sue. That thing I gave
come up here to be shot at.”
you after dinner, keep it handy tonight.”
“Has anyone shot at you?” I asked
I’ve always had a horror of doing
quickly.
things alone. Even as a child, I wanted
He shook his head, stubbornly. “No,
someone else to share experiences with me. I
but they might start any time and I don’t care was thinking this as I unlocked the door of my to be around when they do.”
room and stepped in. I started to take the coat
“I don’t think you have to worry.” My
over to the closet, then changed my mind and
words were pointed. “I know who the killer
tossed it onto a chair.
is.”
I didn’t undress and I didn’t go to bed.
Instead I propped a second chair against the
MY WORDS seemed to explode there on the
wall, close to the closet door, facing the
stage, leaving a heavy silence in their wake.
entrance from the bath. For I was certain that
“You know?” Larry Swift was staring
the attack would come from that direction.
at me. “You’re crazy, how do you know?”
I switched off the light and sat down in
“A number of little things,” I said.
the darkness, waiting.
“Don’t forget I’m the only one alive who has
I’ll never know exactly how long I sat
had personal contact with the killer.”
there. Gradually the noises in the old hotel
“That’s what you say,” Swift’s voice
died as one after another of the occupants
had a nasty ring. “Go ahead, tell us.”
went to bed. Finally the silence settled, heavy
“I’m not quite ready yet,” I made my
and dull. Yet so intense was my excitement
tone sound thoughtful, studied. “Morning will
that it seemed to set up a dull ringing in my
be time enough, when the sheriff comes ears.
back.”
There was a little light, for the moon
“Morning might be too late,” Howe
had finally struggled through the clouds and
said, quietly. “He might strike again tonight.”
drifted faintly into the room. I watched the
I smiled. “I think not. That’s why I
bathroom door. Several times my imagination
said what I did, as a warning. I’ll be watching told me that it moved.
for him to do just that, don’t you see? So, he’ll I sat there straining to hear, yet
lay low, trusting that I’m wrong, that I don’t fighting the self-hypnosis which kept stealing know anything. Don’t you agree, Swift?”
over me.
The young1 actor made a funny noise
At last I heard sound. It didn’t come
Thrilling Detective
20
from the bathroom door. It came from my
sport.
side, from the closet. For one horrified instant
“The mistake I made was bringing you
I thought that the old watchman had come
up here,” he said. “I realized it last night. You alive, that it was he.
aren’t an actor. You aren’t so impressed with
I started to turn but Bertrand Howe’s
your own importance that you can’t think.
voice stopped me.
What told you that I’d caused that sand bag to
“I wouldn’t, De Cloudt. Just keep fall?”
facing the bathroom. You expected me to
“That was pretty crude, Howe,” I said.
come through the bathroom, didn’t you?”
“You didn’t need that touch. The end of the
“How’d you get into that closet?” I
rope showed plainly that it had been cut
asked.
almost through and then broken by a
“Very simple.” He chuckled. “I came
downward pressure. I didn’t think there was
up here before you did I’ve been watching you
enough weight to the bag.”
the whole time.”
“There wasn’t,” he admitted. “I had a
“And I suppose you came to help me
light cord around the bag dangling down
rewrite the second act of the play?” I tried to behind one of the drops. When no one was
get some lightness Into my voice.
looking I pulled it. The rope broke, the bag
“We’ll let death do that,” he said. fell, the looped cord slipping off the broken
“You think you’re very clever, don’t you?
rope. I merely tossed it back stage. But
You were using psychology on me, down enough talk... Come on! We’re going calling.”
there to the theater, telling me that the
“Calling?” This wasn’t part of my
murderer wouldn’t dare to make a move plan. The sheriff and his men were waiting because you’d be watching. It was a outside, ready for me to summon them. If I challenge. De Cloudt, I can’t ignore didn’t call by two-thirty, they were coming up challenges.”
to my room.
“I know you can’t,” I said. “You must
I’d
stalling,
hoping against hope
have hated them very much to go to all this
that they’d arrive.
trouble.”
Howe must have read my thoughts.
“I did.” He showed no surprise that I
His laugh was a crackling sound, hardly
had guessed. “They were so smart, so human.
patronizing when I was trying to act. After I
“Let me have the gun, De Cloudt. No,
had money, they were so friendly, so servile. I don’t pick it up. I’ll do that for you.” His hand made them squirm. I made them take my
streaked out and got the thirty-eight from my
order
s, knowing all the time that I would kill knees.
them, rid the world of their useless droning.”
“I’m curious,” I said, “I can
understand why you killed Albright. He was
HIS voice had risen as he spoke and the
an egotist. I can imagine that he made your
sharpness of the tone made the hair at the back life unbearable. I can even understand why
of my neck prickle. He wasn’t crazy, not in
you killed the old ham Anthony. But why
the accepted sense. But he was abnormal. were you cutting that hole in Susan Foster’s He’d sweated under their sneers, their ceiling?”
laughter, and their gags. And when money had
I turned as I asked the question. He
made him their master, he’d set up this had stepped back after he had taken my gun.
summer theater for the pleasure of lording it
Evidently he thought I was no longer
over them, and killing when he tired of his
dangerous.
The Second Act Is Murder
21
The moonlight was uncertain, but I
alone, waiting. When I heard Bertrand’s voice
could see his small face twist in anger.
it shocked me so that I couldn’t do anything
“No,” he said. “No, I didn’t hate her,
for a minute. Then I thought I’d better listen.”
as I did the others. She never laughed at me.
“And you heard everything he said?”
She was kind, kind.” The word was bitter in
his mouth. “I loved her, do you hear? Loved
THE red came up into her cheeks again and
her. But even with my money I knew that I’d
she hastily went on to change the subject.
never have her. I could tell by the way she
“What made you suspect him,” she
looked at you. Now do you understand? If I
asked me. “Bertrand, I mean?”
couldn’t have her, you couldn’t either. No one
“I didn’t at first,” I admitted. “Then I
could.” His voice was rising, and I hoped that got to thinking. All these people wouldn’t
the sound would waken someone. But on one
have been up here together, except for Howe.
side was Albright’s empty room, on the other,
Albright’s death might be laid at anyone’s
the stairs.
door, even the Jones girl, since she didn’t like
“You’re wrong,” I told him. “There
big attentions to her sister. But certainly she isn’t anything between Miss Foster and me.”
wouldn’t have hanged Anthony, nor tried to
“Don’t lie!” He struck me across the
cut through the ceiling into your room.
“The man that attacked me in the
“Move on through that bathroom door.”
darkness was small, shorter than I. Howe was
“Where are we going?”
small, but so was Larry Swift. But I think
“Never mind,” he said. “You’ll find
what really made me suspicious was Howe’s
out soon enough. Move.”
manner. He was so driving, so domineering.
“No.” It was Susan Foster. She’d He was almost like a man, playing a part. I pushed open the hall door and switched on the
went in town tonight and called a friend of
lights at the same instant. “Don’t move, mine, a man who knows Broadway. I asked Bertrand.” The twenty-five caliber automatic
him to find out what kind of a person Howe
was is her hand.
had been during his acting days. My friend
She was behind him and he turned.
reported that he had been the butt of show
I turned too, simultaneously, and my fist business, that managers gave him tiny parts, crashed against the point of his jaw. He went
merely to laugh at him, that the actors made
over as if I’d used an ax. I think that I never fun of him.
before threw as hard a blow. I probably never
“I could guess then what went on in
will again.
his warped mind. Men with little ability often Afterward, when the sheriff and his
dramatize themselves. Howe’s interest in the
men led Howe away, the producer had gone
theater told me that he probably did. I pictured all to pieces, shrieking and ranting at the top him, brooding over the slights, the laughter. I of his voice.
saw him suddenly in a position of power, a
The girl turned dazed eyes toward me.
position where he could crack the whip and
“Why, he’s crazy. I never guessed. If it hadn’t make those whom he hated uncomfortable.
been for you he’d have killed us all.”
This he did. But was it enough? I guessed it
“And if it hadn’t been for you, he most
wasn’t, I guessed that he had brought you
certainly would have killed me. How long had
here, intending to kill you one at a time, so
you been listening at the door?”
that the others would worry, and would suffer
She blushed. “Since everyone went to
from uncertainty.”
bed. I couldn’t bear for you to be in there
The girl shuddered. “But why did you
Thrilling Detective
22
risk your life?”
“Please!” she said.
“I had no proof,” I said. “I had to force
Then Mary Jones came across the hall
him into the open, to dare him to come after
to speak to us. I never wanted to see anyone
me. Then I sat down to wait. But his cunning
less in my life. There were so many things I
brain out-guessed me. He beat me to my wished to say to Susan, wished to say for her room, by sneaking up the back stairs, I benefit alone.
suppose. He was already in the closet when I
But I—well, there was time to say
came in. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be
them later. Plenty of time.
dead.”