The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries Part 61

Stepany pushed the b.u.t.ton, held the bolt in with his thumb, then released the b.u.t.ton. The bolt immediately slammed back into an extended position. "Dear me!" Stepany waved his hand. "The spring driving that bolt is certainly a strong one. I couldn't hold it." He smiled. "I suppose that shoots me down, even if the card could be pulled through the doorjamb. If that bolt is to be held open, it would have to be done electrically."

Jordon nodded. "I agree. And, where something as thick as a credit card might not have made it, a pair of strong thin wires probably could. If the murderer placed a battery on the hall floor, gained entrance to the room, chocked open the door, then did the deed, he could run his wires through the hinged side of the opening, connect into the circuit where the wire jumps the gap between the baseboard and the door, and thus hold the lock open. Then he closes the door and pulls the wires after him, breaking the circuit and thereby closing the bolt."

Humpheries shook his head, went to the door of the room, and stooped to examine the wire where it jumped the hinge between the baseboard and door. "See here, Malcolm. The insulation on the wire hasn't been disturbed." He stood and examined the contacts to the solenoid. "Hmmm. He could have connected here, then pulled the wires out."

Sims-Danton held out a hand. "Gentlemen, the scheme now being pondered requires just the sort of equipment the police were looking for when they searched the rest of the house."

Humpheries stood. "Yes, Evan, but a battery and two lengths of wire can be made to appear very innocent. For example, the battery could easily be put into a radio or some other appliance. The wires could be tucked into a television set or just hidden in some small niche."

He smirked. "As we all know, gentlemen, the usual run of police inspector is not terribly bright. Could we send Collins for wires and a battery?"

After a few moments, equipment in hand, Humpheries nodded his thanks and Collins left the room. He removed the insulation from the tips of two lengths of steel bell wire, screwed the ends of the pair to a large dry-cell battery, then carried it to the "outside" of the unbroken door. "Very well if one of you will play Mrs Griever and push the b.u.t.ton, I will show you how it was done."

Jordon reached out a hand and pushed the b.u.t.ton set in the doorjamb. The lock buzzed and clicked open, then Humpheries pushed the door open and turned to Baines. "Wallace, old man, would you play the door chock and hold it open?"

"Yes, of course." Baines held the door open while Humpheries stepped through, carrying the wired battery.

"Now, gentlemen, I move to the bed, kill the victim, rush back, and attach these leads." He frowned at Jordon. "Release the b.u.t.ton."

Jordon removed his finger from the b.u.t.ton. "Sorry."

With the bolt extended, Humpheries bent one of the leads around one of the solenoid contacts. "And now, the other." As soon as he touched the second lead to the second solenoid contact, the lock buzzed, retracting the bolt. He bent the lead around the second contact and, still holding the battery, stepped through the door. "Now I remove the chock and close the door." The door closed on the wires and the lock controlled by the doork.n.o.b caught, while the solenoid lock remained retracted. "Now all I do is pull the wires through-" Humpheries grunted as he tugged at the wires. "Drat! That door does have a snug fit, doesn't it?" One last grunt and the solenoid de-energized, slamming the bolt home.

Jordon laughed. "Good show! Well done, Humpheries."

Sims-Danton pointed at the solenoid contacts. The wires were still attached. Humpheries walked around the door, sheepishly holding out the battery.

"I'm afraid I broke the wires."

Sims-Danton rubbed his chin. "Charles, try it again, but don't let the door latch. Leave it open just enough to pull the wires through."

The experiment was repeated, with the door held open a bit. As the wires were pulled from the solenoid, the bolt shot home, forcing the door to shut on the wires. "It's no use. I pulled them as fast as I could, but it's just not fast enough."

Sims-Danton pulled the door open. "Hook it up and try it again but this time open the door a little further."

The experiment was repeated but, instead of forcing the door shut, the bolt forced the door open. "Hmmm. That would never do." Sims-Danton again pressed the b.u.t.ton and opened the door. "The taper on the bolt seems to do it. When the door is in an approximate position, the bolt shoots for the bolt hole and either finds its way in, forcing the door closed, or hits the sharp edge of this lip, forcing the door open." He closed the door, released the b.u.t.ton, and shrugged. "I'm afraid that exhausts my theory as well." He faced Nathan. "In which case, Mr Griever, it looks as though Slaughterhouse has another member."

Nathan beamed but, feeling reckless, shook his head. "Sir James hasn't had a crack at it yet."

c.o.c.keral cleared his throat. "Nate, you must understand that I am your sponsor. It wouldn't be proper for me to make an attempt against my own candidate."

Nathan shrugged and held out his hands. "Please I insist."

The members.h.i.+p looked at Sir James, who smiled and turned toward Nathan. "Very well, then. I'll take a crack at it. Most of the solutions thus far appear to take up too much time. How long does it take to run from the kitchen, through the dining room and hall, then up the stairs to the bedroom door?"

Sims-Danton pulled out his notebook. "According to the police investigation, at the most Mr Griever would have fourteen to sixteen seconds from the time of the shooting to place the gun in the victim's hand, leave the room, and make it into his own bedroom. One of the officers making the run did it in eleven seconds, but he was, I gather, an exceptional athlete."

Sir James nodded. "That would appear to preclude anything complicated and time-consuming. If he used any extra equipment, I can't imagine where he could have put it. He would only have time enough to get to his room before he had to turn around and come out to meet Angela, thereby making it appear that he too had been drawn by the sound of the shot." He turned to Nathan. "Tell me, Nate what physical shape was Angela in old, young, slender, obese?"

"She was twenty-nine, but quite plump."

Sir James nodded. "Then, for the sake of argument, let's say the sixteen-second run was what she made." He went to the side of the bed. "Therefore, within sixteen seconds he had to place the gun in the victim's hand say four seconds. Then he had to traverse the distance from the bed to the door." Sir James turned to Jordon. "Give it a try, will you, old man? I'll keep your time."

"Of course." Jordon moved to the side of the bed.

Sir James examined his watch. "Go!"

Jordon ran to the door and opened it, stepped through, and let the door close behind him. He opened the door and looked through. "How did I do?"

Sir James nodded. "Three seconds." He turned to Sims-Danton. "Do we have the hallway outside the bedroom plotted? I would like to time a run from Mrs Griever's door to Mr Griever's door."

Sims-Danton turned again to his notebook. "We don't have it plotted, but tests by the police on the scene made the run at about four seconds, which includes opening his bedroom door, entering, and closing the door." The Major closed the notebook and smiled at Sir James.

"Very well." Sir James nodded and turned back to the bed. "Very well. On the sixteen-second run, that leaves only five seconds for Mr Griever to do whatever it was that he did to effect his exit. That would leave no time either to use or dispose of batteries, wires, and the like." Sir James opened the front of the night stand, stooped, and looked inside. He then stood, looked at the back of the night stand, and carefully traced the wire to the solenoid lock. When he was satisfied, he turned and faced the room. "The insulation along the entire length is undisturbed, and I saw no discreet little holes in the wall, which would appear to preclude any sort of timing mechanism prepared in advance." He rubbed his chin. "Hence, to my mind, it seems that whatever was used should still be in the room."

Wallace Baines cleared his throat. "Sir James, it really is bad form to work against your own candidate. If you should guess the method, Mr Griever would be disqualified for admission. I would think that would cause bad feeling between you."

The other members nodded and Sims-Danton stepped forward. "I agree."

Nathan Griever held out his hands and grinned. "Please, gentlemen. I insist that Jim have his go at it. I'm not worried." He turned to Sir James. "Go ahead, old boy. Give it your best shot."

Sir James shrugged and walked to the side of the bed, then turned to the night stand and placed his finger on the push b.u.t.ton. He tried it several times and listened as the solenoid energized and clicked back the bolt. Removing his finger from the b.u.t.ton, he looked at the articles on the night stand, then lifted up the gla.s.s half filled with whiskey and water. He sniffed at it, replaced it, then opened several of the plastic containers of pills, uncapped the three plastic nasal-spray bottles, and unscrewed the tops on a bottle of nose drops and a bottle of eye drops. Then, replacing all the caps, he again lifted the gla.s.s of whiskey and water. He turned to Sims-Danton. "Tell me, did the police laboratory find anything unusual in any of these containers?"

Sims-Danton frowned. "Surely, Sir James, you don't suspect that the victim was poisoned."

Sir James looked back at the gla.s.s. "Oh." He nodded and replaced the gla.s.s. "Of course not. How silly of me." He turned to Nathan. "Well, Nate, it looks as though you're a member of Slaughterhouse. We all seem to be baffled. Please accept my congratulations."

Nathan shook the hands that were extended toward him, his face wreathed in smiles. "Thank you. Should I demonstrate now?"

Sims-Danton patted his forehead with a handkerchief and nodded. "Please do."

Nathan walked to the side of the bed. "I suppose that all I have to do is to account for those five seconds?"

Sims-Danton replaced his handkerchief. "That is correct."

Nathan nodded. "Jim, old boy, if you would time what I do, I'd like someone else to time how long the lock on the door is open."

Sims-Danton pushed back his sleeve, uncovering the watch on his left wrist. "Any time, Mr Griever."

Nathan smiled, rubbed his hands together, and nodded. "Go!" Nathan turned from the bed, uncapped the bottle of nose drops, put the end of the dropper into the water and whiskey, and sucked up barely enough to fill it past the tapered tip. Then he held the dropper over the push b.u.t.ton, squeezed out four drops, and replaced the cap on the bottle as the liquid seeped into the s.p.a.ce between the b.u.t.ton and case, and shorted out the circuit. Nathan replaced the bottle as the solenoid buzzed and clicked open. "Of course the timing might be a bit off since I am using a different push b.u.t.ton," he said.

A moment later the buzzing stopped and the bolt shot back out. Sims-Danton looked up from his watch. "Seven seconds. That would enable him to get through the door with time to spare."

Sir James nodded. "I have five seconds on the nose, Nate. Bravo! That accounts for the missing time, lets you absent the premises, baffles the police and gets you into Slaughterhouse."

Nathan beamed. "You see, when my wife was in the hospital, I was able to try out a variety of liquids and numbers of drops. As chance would have it, four drops of her favorite drink did the trick. All I had to do was wait for the maid to be settled down in the kitchen. My wife always had a drink on the night stand."

Jordon nodded. "Excellent."

"Four drops is just enough to short out the push b.u.t.ton. Between the short, evaporation opens the circuit in just a little-"

Malcolm Jordon slapped Nathan on the back, took his elbow, and steered him toward the door. "Come, we must celebrate!"

Stepany, Humpheries, and Baines followed the pair through the door and down the stairs.

Sir James turned to his companion. "I almost m.u.f.fed it, didn't I, Lieutenant Danton?"

Danton nodded as he removed his handlebar moustache. "You had me worried, Inspector c.o.c.keral, no doubt about that."

c.o.c.keral nodded. "Of course your laboratory found nose drops in the gla.s.s and whiskey in the nose drops."

"Yes. As soon as we got the results, we knew how he had done it. The problem was getting him to admit it. The District Attorney was certain he'd never be able to convince a jury that Nathan Griever could be that imaginative. The defense could easily produce a thousand bits of evidence that his client is about as sharp as a pound of wet silage."

"Still, it is rather imaginative."

Danton nodded. "Twenty-three million dollars can mother a lot of invention."

c.o.c.keral nodded his head toward the door. "What happens to him now?"

"First, a party welcoming him to the club. Then, an epic pub crawl will begin that will end with his delivery back at the Los Angeles airport, where he will be arrested."

c.o.c.keral shook his head. "Pity. The fellow did so want to belong."

"Oh, he'll belong and wait till he gets a load of his new clubhouse." Danton turned and walked toward the door. c.o.c.keral followed.

"You must have been awfully certain he would fall for your charade."

Danton smiled. "I studied Nathan Griever very carefully. He's nothing but a small-time grifter who only made one clever score in his entire life. Can you imagine how frustrated he must have felt not being able to tell his story? All we did was provide an audience worthy of his confidence."

"Danton, what about the strange amount for the initiation fee? The $13,107.17?"

Danton shrugged. "Proposition Thirteen."

"Eh?"

"Proposition Thirteen. Money is very, very tight, and the only way I could get my superiors to go along with this was if it didn't cost us anything. $13,107.17 was the exact cost of the charade. We could have gotten more from him, of course, but it wouldn't have been sporting to make profit, don't you agree?"

The Birdman of Tonypandy.

Bernard Knight.

Bernard Knight (b. 1931) was for many years a Home Office Pathologist and is Emeritus Professor of Forensic Pathology at the University of Wales College of Medicine. He has written such key texts as Forensic Medicine (1985), Lawyer's Guide to Forensic Medicine (1982) and the definitive Knight's Forensic Pathology, now in its third edition (2004). Knight has also turned his talents to fiction and is the author of the historical mystery series featuring the twelfth-century coroner Sir John de Wolfe, which began with The Sanctuary Seeker (1998). Knight had previously written fiction under the alias Bernard Picton, starting with The Lately Deceased (1963). He also contributed several story lines to the TV series, The Expert, which ran from 1968 to 1974, and adapted a novel based on the series in 1976. But perhaps his main claim to fame will be that Knight oversaw the recovery of all twelve bodies of the victims from the garden of Fred and Rosemary West in Gloucester in 1994.

If anyone could concoct the undetectable perfect crime, Bernard Knight is surely our man. Maybe I ought to preface the following with "don't try this at home".

He laid his binoculars on the window ledge and decided that it was time that he murdered his wife.

Pondering for a few minutes, Lewis Lloyd reviewed the various methods that had been going through his mind for the past few weeks. He had more or less decided on one, the prime considera tion being that he should never be convicted of the crime. There was no doubt that he would be strongly suspected and if his luck was out, he might even be brought to trial, given their past record of domestic discord.

But found guilty never!

Having made the decision, Lloyd gave a sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the window. Picking up his gla.s.ses again, he trained them at the line of scraggy rowan trees and stunted oaks that rimmed the top of the mountain, high above his hut. He watched a group of magpies strutting about under the trees, until his attention was diverted by a pair of buzzards soaring high over the old coal tip, beyond the ruined lime-kiln.

Lewis Lloyd loved birds and this ramshackle hut was his only refuge from the nagging and abuse that he suffered down in the valley bottom. He often came up early in the morning, or when the pub was shut in the afternoon. Sometimes he even stayed overnight, in winter huddled over the little pot-bellied stove, blissful in his solitude.

Lewis smiled complacently behind his binoculars, thinking that when the deed was done, he could come up even more often, with no Rita to screech objections at him.

Yes, it was high time to put Plan A into action.

"b.l.o.o.d.y nonsense!" growled Mordecai Evans, tossing the letter on to his cluttered desk. "We've got enough aggravation already without daft women writing us letters."

"Mind you, boss, that family's got a bit of previous," murmured his sergeant, peeved that Mordecai had dismissed his offering in such a cavalier fas.h.i.+on. The detective-inspector, a squat bruiser who could have doubled for John Prescott, scowled up at w.i.l.l.y Williams.

"What previous? A bit of form for couple of domestics?"

"Lloyd broke her arm once and another time she got a couple of busted ribs," said w.i.l.l.y defensively. "The beak gave him six months, suspended on account of provocation."

"Big deal!" sneered the DI. "So we're supposed to take her seriously, are we?"

He hauled himself to his feet and grabbed the crumpled letter from the desk, going to the window for better light. Though he was reluctant to admit it, he couldn't see so well these days and a visit to Specsavers was on the cards soon. Peering at the cheap notepaper in the grey light that managed to percolate through the dark clouds looming over Pontypridd, he glowered at the unwelcome message.

"How did you come by this, w.i.l.l.y?"

"Eddie Morgan, the desk sergeant at the nick up in Ton Pentre gave it me yesterday, when I was up there about the break-in at the Co-op."

"And where did he get it?" grumbled Mordecai, slumping back into his chair.

"Rita Lloyd brought it in a few days ago. Apparently, she bent his ear something terrible, saying her old man was threatening to kill her, so she was making an official complaint." The detective-sergeant delivered this with some relish. "Eddie said he forgot all about it, knowing what a nutter Rita was but as I was there, he said he thought he'd better pa.s.s it on to us."

"Oh, Gawd!" sighed Mordecai. "Was she battered and bruised this time?"

"No sign of it, he said. But half-p.i.s.sed, as usual."

Wearily, the DI pulled a stack of case folders across the desk towards him. "Well, I haven't got b.l.o.o.d.y time to waste on that now. If she comes in with two black eyes, we'll have a word with her, otherwise it goes in my 'pending' file." He opened the top folder and peered myopically at the first page of endless police b.u.mf, so his sergeant took the hint and sloped off to the canteen for his refreshments.

Ten minutes later, his lanky ginger-haired figure slid back through the door and he came to stand in front of the desk, his knuckles resting on the edge.

"I think you'd better have another read of that letter, boss," he said in sepulchral tones. "I just had a cup of tea with the coroner's officer. He happened to mention that Rita Lloyd was found dead yesterday morning!"

"Nothing! What d'you mean, nothing?" demanded Mordecai Evans. "There must be something, for G.o.d's sake!"

On hearing his sergeant's news, the DI had gone storming downstairs to the little room where the coroner's officer presided, w.i.l.l.y trailing in his wake. He stood over Jimmy Armstrong, a large, placid man who had been a police officer before he returned after retirement to the same job as a civilian.

Jimmy shook his head sadly. "Sorry, guv, we got nothing. There was a post-mortem this morning and the doc found nothing that could have killed her. He's kept some samples for a.n.a.lysis, just in case."