Read Inspector Queen’s Own Case for Free Online

tonight! she thought. Why didn’t I wash out the orlon?
    When they had repeated their stories, Chief Pearl went to the window.
    â€œIs that your ladder, Mr. Humffrey?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhere is it usually kept?”
    â€œIn the tool shed where Stallings, my gardener, keeps his equipment.”
    â€œTake a look, Borcher.”
    The detective went out.
    Abe Pearl turned to Jessie. “This man,” he said. “Would you know him if you saw him again, Miss Sherwood?”
    â€œI doubt it.”
    â€œHe didn’t say anything? Make any sound?”
    â€œI didn’t hear anything but the window being slid up little by little. When I ran in he disappeared.”
    â€œDid you hear a car?”
    â€œNo. I mean, I don’t recall.”
    â€œDid you or didn’t you?”
    Jessie felt herself growing hot. “I tell you I don’t know!”
    â€œThat’s all right,” Chief Pearl said. “People get excited.” He turned his back on her, and Richard Queen blinked. He knew what his friend was thinking: Tag the nurse as a possible question mark. Of course, Abe didn’t know her. He was surprised to find himself thinking of her as if he had known her for a long time. “Did you hear a car drive away, Mr. Humffrey?”
    â€œI can’t say. There was a great deal of noise here, naturally, after Miss Sherwood screamed.”
    Abe Pearl nodded. “The chances are, if he came in a car, he parked on the road off your grounds. You didn’t find a note of any kind, did you?”
    â€œNo.”
    Sarah Humffrey whispered, “ Note?”
    Her husband said sharply, “Sarah, don’t you think you’d better go to bed?”
    â€œNo, Alton, no, please. I couldn’t sleep now, anyway. I’m all right, dear.”
    â€œSure she is, Mr. Humffrey. Think you can answer a few questions, Mrs. Humffrey?” The chief’s tone was deferential.
    â€œYes. But I can’t tell you anything——”
    â€œAbout your servants, I mean.”
    â€œThe servants?” Sarah Humffrey repeated.
    â€œJust a matter of form, Mrs. Humffrey. You never know in cases like this. How many you got, and how long they been with you?”
    â€œOur housekeeper, Mrs. Lenihan, has been with us since our marriage,” Sarah Humffrey said. “Mrs. Charbedeau, the cook, has worked for us almost ten years. Rose Healy and Marie Tompkins, the maids, are Boston girls who have been with us for a number of years.”
    â€œHow about those two old fellows out there?”
    â€œStallings, the gardener,” Alton Humffrey said, “is a local man, but we’ve employed him since we purchased this property. He stays on as caretaker during the winters. Henry Cullum, the chauffeur, drove for my father as a young man. I’ll vouch for both of them. For that matter, for the women, too. We’re very careful about our servants, Mr. Pearl.”
    â€œHow about Miss Sherwood?” Chief Pearl asked casually.
    Jessie said, “I resent that!”
    â€œMiss Sherwood has been with us only since a week or so before the baby came. However, she was highly recommended both by Dr. Holliday of Greenwich, our pediatrician, and Dr. Wicks of Taugus, who is our family physician during the summers.”
    â€œCheck her references, Mr. Humffrey?”
    â€œVery thoroughly indeed.”
    â€œI’ve been a registered nurse for twenty-three years,” Jessie Sherwood snapped, “and I’ve taken an awful lot in my time, but this is the limit. If I’d been in cahoots with some psychopath to kidnap this darling baby, do you think I’d have let out a yell and chased him away?”
    Chief Pearl said mildly, “Just getting the picture,” and went out.
    Inspector Queen said to nobody in particular, “Don’t blame the chief. It’s his job.”
    Nurse Sherwood tossed her head.
    When Abe Pearl came back he said to