Read The Door Between for Free Online Page B

looked rather done in in May.”
    “She’s run down,” said the big man. “Yes.”
    “Post-novel fatigue,” sighed Ellery. “You scientific fellows don’t know what hard work it is. And Eight-Cloud Rising! It’s like a piece of perfect jade.”
    “I wouldn’t know,” murmured the doctor with a tired smile. “I’m just a pathologist.”
    “Her grasp of Oriental psychology is simply uncanny. And that glittering prose!” Ellery shook his head. “No wonder she’s feeling it. Lost weight, I’ll wager.”
    “She’s a little anaemic.”
    “And high-strung, eh? Comes of a delicate strain, no doubt.”
    “Mostly nerves,” said the doctor.
    “Then why on earth didn’t she come with you?”
    “Eh?” Dr. MacClure flushed. “Oh, I’m sorry. I –”
    “I think,” smiled Ellery, “you’d rather be alone, Doctor.”
    “No, no, sit right down. Little tired, that’s all … No secret about it. Karen’s extremely timid. Damned near a phobia with her. Afraid of burglars – that sort of thing.”
    “I noticed her windows were barred,” nodded Ellery. “Funny how a notion like that will get you down. Result of her life in Japan, I suppose. Completely out of tune with her American environment.”
    “Maladjusted.”
    “I’ve been told she never leaves her house even for an overnight visit – spends all her time either indoors or in her garden.”
    “Yes.”
    “Reminds me of Emily Dickinson. In fact, one would almost say there had been some tragedy in Miss Leith’s life.”
    Dr. MacClure turned deliberately around in the deck-chair and stared at Ellery. “And what makes you say that?” he asked.
    “Why – was there?”
    The doctor sank back and lit a cigar. “Well … there was something. Years ago.”
    “Family?” suggested Ellery, who had an insatiable curiosity about everything.
    “A sister. Esther.” The doctor was silent for a while. “I knew them both in Japan in ‘13, just before the War.”
    “A tragedy of some sort, no doubt?” said Ellery encouragingly.
    Dr. MacClure put his cigar in his mouth with an abrupt gesture. “If you don’t mind, Mr. Queen … I’d rather not discuss it.”
    “Oh, sorry.” After a while, Ellery said: “Just what was it you got the award for, Doctor? I never could get scientific details straight.”
    The doctor brightened visibly. “Proves what I said. You fellows are all the same.”
    “But what was it?”
    “Oh, a lot of foolishness, as usual premature. I happened to be fooling around with enzymes, probing into the oxidation process in living cells – the fermentation process involved in respiration … following up the work Warburg of Berlin did. I didn’t strike it there, but I got off on a tangent … well.” He shrugged. “I don’t really know yet. But it looks encouraging.”
    “That sort of thing in cancer research? I thought doctors were generally agreed cancer is a germ disease.”
    “Good God, no!’ shouted Dr. MacClure, bouncing up in the chair. “Where the devil’d you hear that? Germ disease!”
    Ellery felt squelched. “Er – it isn’t?”
    “Oh, come now, Queen,” said the doctor irritably. “We discarded the germ theory of cancer twenty years ago, when I was a squirt with delusions of grandeur. A lot of men are working with hormones – there’s definitely a basic hydrocarbon connection. I have a hunch we’re all going to come out at the same place –”
    A steward stopped before them. “Dr. MacClure? There’s a New York call for you on the telephone, sir.”
    Dr. MacClure got hurriedly out of the deck-chair, his face heavy again. “’ Scuse me,” he muttered. “That may be my daughter.”
    “Mind if I trail along?” said Ellery, also rising. “I’ve got to see the purser.”
    They followed the steward in an odd silence to the A-deck lounge, where Dr. MacClure entered the ship-to-shore telephone room with a quick step. Ellery, waiting for the purser to placate a florid woman passionate about something,