The King is Dead (27 page)

‘Judah, I want you to come with us.'

‘Wrightsville?'

‘The outdoor pool.'

Brown Shirt said from his window, ‘Mr. Judah is confined to his apartment, Mr. Queen.'

‘I'm unconfining him. I'll take the responsibility.'

‘We'll have to come with him, sir.'

‘No.'

‘Then I'm sorry, sir. We have our orders from the King himself. No one else can countermand them.'

‘He kind of surprised Abel, I think,' murmured Inspector Queen. ‘He doesn't seem to want any more holes in his hide than he has already, in spite of what Abel told us.'

Ellery went to Judah's desk. He said into the telephone, ‘This is Ellery Queen. Connect me with Abel Bendigo. Wherever he is, whatever he's doing.'

The connexion was made quickly. Ellery said, ‘No, from Judah's apartment, Mr. Bendigo. Where are you now?'

‘At the Home Office.' Abel sounded curious. ‘I was beginning to think you'd walked out on us.'

‘If I did, I'm back in again with both feet.'

‘Oh!'

‘Mr. Bendigo, I want to take Judah from his quarters, without a guard. It's a private matter. I understand your brother King himself ordered Judah confined. Will you take these men off the hook?'

Abel was silent. Then he said, ‘Let me talk to one of them.'

Ellery held out the phone to Brown Shirt. Brown Shirt said, ‘Yes, Mr. Abel?' After a moment, he said, ‘But Mr. Abel, the King himself —' and stopped. Then he said again, ‘But Mr. Abel —' and stopped again and said nothing at all for sixty seconds. At last he said, ‘Yes, sir,' in a worried voice, and he handed the receiver back to Ellery. He nodded to Blue Shirt, who was frowning. The two plain-clothes men went quietly out.

‘Thus spake Zarathustra,' murmured Judah. ‘And now do we move toward Armageddon?' He put the mouth of the bottle to his lips and threw his head far back.

‘One other thing, Mr. Bendigo,' Ellery was saying into the phone, his eyes on Judah. ‘Please meet us at the outdoor pool immediately.'

Again Abel was silent. Then his Yankee voice said, ‘I'll be right over.'

Karla was looking frightened again, and King black at the sight of his brother Judah. Max'l swooped through the water and was out of the pool like a seal.

Ellery stepped before Judah. ‘It's all right, Max,' he said, smiling.

‘Max.' At his master's tone the almost naked beast came to heel. He kept glowering over Ellery's shoulder at the thin little man with the green bottle. ‘So you're back,' King Bendigo said grimly. ‘You're an annoying customer, Queen. How did you persuade the guards to turn my brother over to you?'

‘Abel gave the order at my request.'

The big man sat very still in the deck-chair. ‘Where is Abel?'

‘He'll be here in a minute … Here he comes now.'

The slightly tubby figure of the Prime Minister appeared, hurrying through the gardens toward them. The group at the pool waited in silence. Karla had sat up. Now she reached for a robe and threw it about her, as if she were suddenly cold. Her red hair kept glittering in the sun nervously. Judah took another pull from his bottle.

‘I got here fast as I could —' panted Abel.

‘Abel, I don't understand.' His brother's voice was arctic. ‘You knew my order. What has this fellow done, hypnotized you?'

Abel stooped over his brother's chair, saying something in an earnest whisper. But King's cold face did not soften. He kept looking at Ellery as he listened.

‘I still don't understand, Abel.'

Abel straightened. And a curious thing occurred. As he straightened he seemed to grow tall, and as he grew tall his bland bankerish face seemed to thin, until it looked almost gaunt. It was now as rigid as the face of his brother.

The brothers stared at each other for some time.

Suddenly King Bendigo sprang from his chair. He was trembling. ‘I'll clear this up later,' he exclaimed. ‘Right now I want to know what
you're
up to, Queen. You went away, now you're back. What did you find out?'

‘Everything.'

‘Everything about what?'

‘About what matters, Mr. Bendigo.'

‘I'm not impressed. What about the bullet I stopped? That's what I'm interested in, Queen, and I want it without frills — in business English. If you can't tell me how the trick was done, pack your bag, take your father, and get the hell off my island. I'm sick of seeing your faces around here.'

‘I'll be happy to tell you about the murder attempt, Mr. Bendigo.' Ellery walked over to the edge of the pool. He stood there, his right hand in his jacket pocket, looking down at the water. Karla was staring up at him; once she glanced at her husband. Abel was no longer looking at his brother; he watched Ellery closely.

Judah clutched his bottle and surveyed them all with unusual warmth.

The Inspector edged back. He felt a certain joy. He stopped very near Max.

Ellery turned to King, bringing his hand from his pocket as he did so. The little Walther nestled in his palm.

‘This is the weapon, Mr. Bendigo,' Ellery said, ‘which your brother Judah aimed at you through two walls. The problem is curious. I testify myself that when Judah raised the gun it contained no cartridges. When he squeezed the trigger, there was no shot. Still, the ballistics tests proved that the bullet Dr. Storm dug out of your chest had been fired from this gun and no other. Would you mind examining it, please?'

The big man had been listening stonily, but with attention. Now he strode to the edge of the pool and put out his hand for the automatic.

Ellery's right hand moved to meet it. King Bendigo stepped closer, and with a sweep of the left arm Ellery struck him a heavy blow at the side of the neck and toppled him over the edge into the pool. The King landed with a cry that was smothered in a great splash.

Ellery immediately wheeled. The Walther in his hand was now gripped at the stock and his finger was curled about the trigger.

‘You're not to help him,' he said. ‘I loaded this gun fifteen minutes ago.'

Behind Max, the Inspector said, ‘One move and I blow a hole clear through to your gut.'

Max stood still. His brutal face was convulsed.

Abel was making stiff little gestures toward the pool, Judah kept looking at Ellery. And Karla swayed on her knees, reaching.

‘Mrs. Bendigo, I must ask you,' said Ellery, looking at the men, ‘to get away from the edge.'

‘Son.' The Inspector sounded urgent.

‘Cover them, Dad.'

His father stepped back; there was a Police Positive in his hand.

Ellery turned to the pool again. Bendigo was flailing the water with his arms, bellowing and strangling. He went under, immediately reappeared, and immediately began to sink again.

Ellery flung himself on the pool's edge and reached far out. He caught the sinking man's hair, but somehow his quarry got away. He grabbed at a clutching hand. This time he held on, and a moment later he had pulled the big man out of the pool on to the shore.

King lay on his stomach, gagging.

Ellery stood over him. The Walther dangled. He made no attempt to touch Bendigo again.

After a while the big man pushed himself to an all-fours position. He was breathing awkwardly. He struggled to his feet, turned around.

He was unrecognizable. The hair that had given way in Ellery's hand was floating in the pool; all that was left on the magnate's head was a dank black fringe. And something had happened to his face. The vigorous cheeks had become hollow, and the strong mouth had changed its shape and outline. Little wrinkles radiated from their corners. The flesh of his neck was suddenly pouchy.

But the change was more than a matter of a lost toupee and dentures. Something far more vital had gone out of him. The black fires in his eyes-had been quenched; the proud confidence that had kept his belly in and his shoulders square had been soaked and rotted out of him. Now he was a sagging and drooping as well as a bald and lined old man.

A beaten and a broken old man.

He did not look at them. His wife made an involuntary movement toward him, full of pity, but then she checked herself.

He stumbled off the camouflaged apron of the pool and made his way through them in a ploddy shuffle, difficult to watch. His long arms bobbed and swayed with his shambling progress, mere appendages. He left a thin trail of water which under the hot sun began at once to dry.

They watched him move through the gardens to the rear entrance of the Residence. He did not once look up or back.

Finally he disappeared.

Max'l cried out and plunged away and through the garden, trampling flowers and making frantic gestures to the Residence.

Karla got to her feet. She seemed strangely calm. And she went to Abel Bendigo and stood close by him.

And Judah Bendigo went to both of them.

After a moment, as if one of them had spoken, the three turned and went side by side at a good pace around the garden and one of the five arms of the Residence and so out of the Queens' sight.

‘Will you tell me,' said Inspector Queen, ‘will you tell me what
any
of this means?'

Ellery was eyeing the toupee, floating like a black crab in the pool. ‘You know, Dad, I had no idea he wore a toupee. Or false teeth. He looked a thousand years old.'

The Inspector hefted his Police Positive. ‘If you don't open up,' he said, ‘so help me Hannah —'

Ellery laughed, ‘Not here,' he said. ‘Suppose I take you for a ride.'

15

They walked through the great hall of the Residence to the courtyard. There was a disturbing clatter and buzz all about. It seemed to come from everywhere. Servants and minor flunkies bustled about, doors banged, guards ran here and there. Outside, where they had left the Residence car, there was a traffic jam. An armed PRPD man was trying to untangle it; he was shouting for help. Finally the tangle was unsnarled and vehicles began to move through the gates. There were a great many trucks. On the road outside other trucks and cars struggled toward the Residence, bumper to bumper.

The Inspector stuck his head out of the car window. ‘Look at the sky!'

It was alive with aircraft. They were all big ones — transports, trimotored passenger planes. Curiously, as many seemed to be coming in as taking off. The island shook under their thunder.

‘What's happening!'

‘Maybe the King has declared himself a war,' said Ellery inching the car forward. ‘This has all the earmarks of a mobilization which has been thoroughly worked out in advance, with everything ready to roll at the touch of a button.'

‘The way he's feeling right now, he couldn't declare a dividend. Turn off this road if you want to get somewhere. This is worse than the Merritt Parkway on Labour Day.'

Just past the belt of woods surrounding the Residence, Ellery found a side lane, scarcely wider than a bridle path, which was free of traffic. He swung into it. A truck driver shouted enviously after him.

‘I think this comes out near the cliffs somewhere,' said the Inspector. ‘Near the harbour.'

‘Sounds like just the place for a quiet talk.'

A few minutes later they were parked on the edge of the cliffs. The harbour lay below them.

The sight confounded them. The bay was clogged with ships of all lengths and tonnages. The cruiser
Bendigo
had withdrawn from the neck of the bay; it was anchored some distance at sea, near a light cruiser which the Queens had not seen before. Launches darted and skipped about loaded with passengers. The turrets of several big submarines were surfacing. The docks were piled high with crated goods; they were being loaded at a furious tempo into the holds. The roads leading down from the interior of the island looked like ant trails. And from the entire harbour area rose a confused roar that increased in volume with each moment.

‘Whatever they're doing,' said the Inspector wonderingly, ‘they sure had everything ready. What's come over this place? Did you have anything to do with this?'

‘No,' said Ellery slowly. ‘No, I don't see how I could have.' He shook his head. ‘Well, do you want to see what I brought back from Wrightsville?'

‘Brought back?'

Ellery reached over to the back seat of the car. He opened the suitcase he had carried off the plane that morning. A bulky manila envelope lay on his haberdashery. He took this and sat back.

‘This is what I was doing in Wrightsville,' he said unclasping the envelope. ‘You'd better read it. To the end.'

It was a thick manuscript, and the Inspector took it with a glance at the harbour. But he read slowly, without looking up.

While his father read, Ellery watched the harbour. A fleet of seaplanes had landed in the bay to add to the mess. They were taking on passengers. Before the Inspector had finished they took off, making their runs along the narrow channel cleared by a squad of fast launches, evidently of the harbour traffic police.

When the Inspector had put down the last page, he stared incredulously at the frantic activity below them. ‘I hadn't realized the extent of his power … I suppose,' he said suddenly, ‘this is all on the level?'

‘Every word of it, Dad.'

‘It's hard for a schmo like me to believe. It's too … colossal. But, son.' The Inspector eyed the manuscript Ellery was stuffing back into the envelope. ‘You said —'

‘I know what I said,' Ellery interrupted fiercely. He tossed the envelope behind him. ‘And I say it again. What's been happening on this island in purgatory is all in that envelope. Not the details, not the little techniques of circumstances and plot! But the backgrounds, the reasons.'

Ellery took Judah's little Walther out of his pocket. He pointed it absently through the windshield at the heavy cruiser. And pulled the trigger. The Inspector ducked. But nothing happened. The gun was empty after all.