The Man Without a Memory Part 38

CHAPTER XIX

MURDER

Some horror-filled moments pa.s.sed before I grasped the full significance to me of the unfortunate woman's death. I turned dizzy and bewildered like a drunken man, and could do nothing but just stare at the body, literally stupefied by the suddenness of it.

It wasn't the fact of death that startled me; I had seen too many dead bodies at the Front to be much concerned.

But I made a big effort to pull myself together. I examined her to be certain that she was really dead, for the body was still warm. There was no doubt about it. The poor thing had been choked, and the marks of the murderer's fingers showed on her throat.

There had been a struggle in the room, and some of the wretched furniture had been overturned. My wits were beginning to clear by that time; and I was glancing about the room wondering who had been brute enough to commit the murder and what I had better do, when I made a discovery that told me everything and turned the blood in my veins icy cold.

In examining the body I had disarranged the bedclothes slightly, and by the side of the neck, just where it would have fallen from the murderer's finger, lay a ring.

Von Erstein's! The puzzle ring he had once shown and explained to me!

It was impossible to mistake it; and there was probably not another ring like it in Berlin.

I didn't lose my head that time; the instinct of self-preservation was too strong to allow of any other feeling. My one absorbing thought was to get away before any one could come.

I darted back into the sitting-room and s.n.a.t.c.hed at my hat which I had left on the table. In my flurry I fumbled. It fell to the floor and rolled under the table; and when I grabbed for it again, the quaint little card case which Rosa had given me lay open just beside it.

Too obsessed by the desire to get out of the place, I had no other feeling than a faint satisfaction at finding it again; not realizing for an instant the full significance of the incident I pocketed the thing, picked up my hat and left the flat. I took care to shut the door; this would serve to postpone the discovery of the murder; went down the staircase without undue hurry, made sure there was no one to see me leave, walked leisurely away until I turned the first corner and then made off at a rapid pace.

A sensation of profound relief that I was safe for a time at any rate was followed by some minutes of acute reaction in which I was incapable of consecutive thought. A mental blank from which I awoke pretty much as a man might wake from sleep-walking. I gazed about me unknowingly, and seeing the gate of a small public garden close at hand, I went in and sat down.

I soon began to get my wits in working order and bit by bit pieced things together. Curiously enough, almost the first thought was about the comparative trifle of the card case. I remember that I took it out and looked at it, wondering stupidly when I could have dropped it in Anna's room. Then I recalled that I had missed it in the morning when with von Gratzen. It couldn't have been in my pocket therefore when I went to Anna; and in a few seconds I understood.

The last time I had touched it was on the previous night when I had taken Rudolff's statement out of it to show von Erstein and he had tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the paper away and had only got the little case. I remembered that he had thrown it down close to him and had fiddled with it nervously afterwards.

It was clear that he had taken it away with him and had intentionally left it in Anna's room to shift his villainous deed on to me. It was worthy of him; and it would have succeeded but for that wonderful slice of luck--ineffably blessed luck, indeed--by which I had found the card case.

That helped me to piece the rest together. Panic-stricken by what I had told her about von Gratzen, Anna had no doubt threatened to expose everything; Erstein's whole scheme would be ruined the moment she opened her lips: and this had roused the brute in him until he had been driven to strangle her. The ring had slipped from his finger without his noticing the loss of it in his rage. Then he must have tossed my card case down under the table to connect me with the crime.

He had obviously left the door ajar for the same reason; had probably rushed to the first public telephone box and called me up in a voice which was enough like a woman's to mislead me; and intended to send some one to catch me red-hot on the scene of the crime.

Two points were not clear. Why no one had caught me? There had been ample time, supposing that he was hiding in wait for my arrival. And why had the murder been committed in Anna's room, seeing that she had gone from me to find him?

One of two suggestions seemed to answer the last question. Either she had not found him at first and had left a sufficiently urgent message to make him hurry to her, or that after a first interview he had induced her to go home and had followed at once. The plan to kill her must have been in his mind then, and obviously he couldn't do it in his own rooms.

The first question--why I had not been caught--wasn't so readily solved; but the ring might well account for it, if he had only discovered the loss of it in the interval of waiting for me. With that d.a.m.ning bit of evidence against himself, the bottom had dropped out of his scheme against me, and he would not dare to try and have me caught in the act.

And now I had fortunately shut the door against him. He couldn't go back for the ring even if he had the pluck, which I doubted.

This was another stroke of luck, indeed; and it was needed in all truth, for the mess was bad and black enough to need a heap of it, if I was to escape being charged with the murder. Such a charge would ruin me lock, stock and barrel. Even if I could clear myself--and that was almost impossible--all the truth about myself would be ferretted out, and it was thousands to one that I should be shot for a spy.

Only one expedient occurred to me at first--to bolt. But that looked hopeless in the new circ.u.mstances. It would be tantamount to a confession of guilt; von Erstein would tell some plausible lie about the ring belonging to Anna; and it would be believed easily enough if suspicion were lifted from him by my flight; the hue and cry would be raised all over the country; old Graun would tell his story--that I had a workman's papers in the name of Liebe; and my arrest would be a matter of hours possibly, certainly one of days at the outside.

That idea had to be set aside, therefore. Before there could be any thought of flight suspicion must be fastened on von Erstein. But how?

Not by sitting on a public seat and nibbling my nails; so I got up and started back to the centre of things.

I had completely recovered from the disturbing panicky condition which had so confused me in the first rush of things. I don't think I was even afraid. My chief feeling was that I was in the very devil's own mess and that I should go under, unless my own wits could save me. If Feldmann had been in Berlin I should have gone to him; but he wasn't, and it was no use wishing he had been.

There was only one other man in the whole city--von Gratzen; and the moment that became clear and plain, I hailed a taxi and was driven straight to his office.

He was still there, but refused to see me, sending von Welten to ask my business. I said that it was on personal business I wished to see his chief.

This didn't work, however. Von Welten returned, saying the Baron was exceedingly busy and would I state my business in writing. This looked ugly; but after thinking a second, I wrote on my card: "Please see me for the sake of the Unterga.s.se affair;" placed it in an envelope and sent it in. If anything would induce von Gratzen to have me in, that would.

I was right. Von Welten came back smiling. "The chief will see you in a minute or two, Herr La.s.sen. I'm glad." He was an exceedingly pleasant fellow and stayed chatting with me until von Gratzen's bell rang and I was shown in.

"You're giving me a lot of trouble, young man, as you can see," he said, pointing to a portfolio in which there appeared to be a lot of papers on the top of which were the coveted tickets for Nessa and me.

"And now what about this Unterga.s.se affair? Found anything out that's valuable? I can't give you many minutes."

"I'm in a devil of a mess, sir, but it has nothing to do with that. I wrote that because I was compelled to see you."

"I agree with you. You've been in one ever since you reached the city, it seems to me, indeed. Nothing fresh, I trust?"

"There is, and the worst of all, sir. I'm in danger of being charged with murder."

"With what?" he cried in amazement. "Phew! Well, tell me."

"When I saw you this morning I gathered that the reason those tickets for Miss Caldicott and myself could not be used was because of the trouble about the woman, Anna Hilden."

"True, but you yourself said you wished it cleared up first."

"So on leaving here I went to see her again."

"Good G.o.d, you don't mean to say you lost your head and laid hands on her in this awful way?" The thought of it appeared to affect him deeply.

"Oh dear no, sir. I hope I'm not capable of such a thing. From what she said, I became certain the whole thing was a fraud and----"

"So it is," he interposed, nodding. "You are right. We know all about the woman already. Go on."

"I tried persuasion first; but that was no use, so I let her know that the matter was in your hands."

"I hope that frightened her."

"It did, sir. She was almost out of her wits and promised to tell me everything this afternoon. I was to call at five o'clock."

"Where did you go next?" he shot in abruptly.

"To the von Reblings."

"To tell Miss Caldicott about these, I suppose?" holding up the tickets.