Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 5, No. 19, November 1944

“Well?” the Chief demanded as soon as Máximo Roldán appeared. “Did you manage to learn anything?”

“I think so,” Máximo Roldán answered. He stood by the window, from which he could see the street door in the wall. “I think I can tell you who the murderer is.”

“All right,” the other said impatiently. “Let’s have it.”

Máximo Roldán kept his eyes on the garden. “You will recall, Chief, that in addition to the clues which belonged to the nephew and the chauffeur, there was one — the stickpin — which belonged to neither. You remember?”

“Yes.”

“Very well,” Máximo Roldán went on. His fingers drummed nervously against the windowpane. “The stickpin did not belong to the victim either.”

“So...?”

“So, since it did not belong to any of the three men in the household, the stickpin—”

“— must have come from outside,” the other interrupted.

A woman’s figure scurried across the garden, opened the street door, and disappeared. Máximo Roldán gave a little sigh and turned to the Chief of the Security Commission. “Exactly; it must have come from outside.”

“Then it was an outside job, and the murderer is a man after all.”

“Not at all. We established that it is a woman; I don’t need to go over that. There are three women here: the victim’s sister, his daughter Isabel, and the housekeeper. On the night of the murder all three had ready access to the rooms of the two men, since all three knew that the nephew and the chauffeur would be out all night. One of them is guilty. That one had in her possession a stickpin — an article of jewelry generally affected by young men who dandify themselves for one purpose: to please the girls.”

“Caramba! Then—”

“Yes, Chief. Neither the dead man’s sister nor the housekeeper is young enough to be in touch with such a youth, who might, say, give a girl such a stickpin as a memento or let her take it in a playful moment. There is only one woman in this house who fulfils the conditions: the youngest.”

“The daughter Isabel?”

“Excellent, Chief. The daughter Isabel, exactly.”

An impressive silence followed this announcement. The Chief had no comment. He seemed to balance the enormity of the unknown’s accusation against the inevitability of his reasoning. At last he opened the door, cast a glance along the empty hall, took a whistle from his pocket, and blew three blasts. Then he closed the door and returned to Máximo Roldán.

“There’s something I still don’t understand. Will you tell me why you asked me on the telephone if there was a dog in the house?”

“It’s very simple. The existence of a dog would have torn down all my structure of logic. Who could be sure that a playful puppy might not have dragged to the scene of the crime the garter, the necktie, the gloves, and even a stranger’s stickpin? This may seem a childish-hypothesis; but it had to be disproved. Once it could be struck out, my deductions were established as certain.”

The door opened and a man in uniform came in. “You want something, Chief?” he asked.

“Yes. Call together all the women in the house.”

“Very well.”

“Put a man on the street door with orders to stop any woman who tries to leave.”

“Very well.”

“That’s all.”

“Very well, chief.” The policeman left.

The Chief of the Security Commission walked up to Máximo Roldán. He contemplated him for a moment. Then he put his hands on Máximo Roldán’s shoulders and asked, “You still insist on not giving me your name?”

“No use, Chief. It won’t do you any good — at the moment.”

“And later?”

“Later...? You’ll know some day.”

“It’s up to you. But I should like to know now.”

They were silent a moment. Suddenly Máximo Roldán said, “Doesn’t it strike you as strange, Chief, that the daughter Isabel should be the murderer? Have you any idea what the motive could have been for... parricide?”

The Chief thought a moment. “You’re right,” he said, with a certain astonishment. “It’s terrible!” Then after another pause for thought, “It’s impossible!”

Máximo Roldán smiled. “I thought my reasoning seemed logical to you.”

“Yes, but...”

“But now you’re beginning to have your doubts. Is that it?”

“All right,” the Chief of the Security Commission demanded brusquely. “Can you explain the motive?”

“If you’ll allow me, I think I can.”

“I’m listening,” said the other.