There Was an Old Woman by Ellery Queen Page B

weapon
2.
Smith & Wesson .38/32 revolver
    Caliber: .38
Robert’s
    weapon
3.
Harrington & Richardson Trapper
    Caliber: .22
Cornelia’s
    weapon
4.
Iver Johnson safety hammerless automatic
    Caliber: .32 Special
5.
Schmeisser safety Pocket Model automatic
    Caliber: .25 Automatic
6.
Stevens “Off-Hand” single-shot Target
    Caliber: .22 Long Rifle
7.
I. J. Champion Target single action
    Caliber: .22
8.
Stoeger Luger (Refinished)
    Caliber: 7:65 mm.
9.
New Model Mauser (10-shot Magazine)
    Caliber: 7:63 mm.
10.
High Standard hammerless automatic Short
    Caliber: .22
11.
Browning 1912
    Caliber: 9 mm.
12.
Ortgies
    Caliber: 6.35 mm.
    So what?” demanded the Inspector.
    â€œSo very little,” retorted his son, “except that each one of the guns is of different manufacture. Ought to make the check-back easier. Sergeant, phone Cornwall & Ritchey and get an exact list of the fourteen guns Thurlow purchased.”
    â€œPiggott’s on that angle.”
    â€œGood. Make sure you locate those two missing toys of Thurlow’s.”
    â€œAnd while we’re playing detective,” put in the Inspector dryly, “we might start thinking about who had a motive to want Bob Potts six feet south. We already know who had your blasted whatchamacallit—opportunity.”
    â€œI can’t imagine who’d want Bob out of the way,” muttered Charley. “Except Thurlow, because Robert was always picking on him. But we know Thurlow couldn’t have done it.”
    â€œCockeyedest case I ever saw,” grumbled the Sergeant. “Guy who fires the shot can’t be the killer. Say, this chicken salad ain’t bad.”
    â€œPoint is,” frowned Inspector Queen, “somebody wanted Robert Potts dead, so somebody had a reason. Maybe if we find the reason we’ll find the somebody, too. Any ideas, Ellery?”
    Ellery shrugged. “Charley, you’re attorney to the family. What are the terms of Cornelia Potts’s will?”
    Charley looked nervous. “Now wait a minute, Ellery. The Old Woman’s very much alive, and the terms of a living testator’s will are confidential between attorney and client—”
    â€œOh, that mullarkey,” said the Inspector disgustedly.
    â€œCome on Ellery, we’ve got to talk to the old gal direct.”
    â€œBetter take along a bullet-proof vest!” Sergeant Velie shouted after them through the mouthful of chicken salad.

11 . . . “Infer the Motive from the Deed”
    â€œBut only for a few minutes, Inspector Queen.” Dr. Waggoner Innis was pinch-pale, but he had recovered his stance, as it were; and here, in Cornelia Potts’s sitting room, he was very much the tall and splendid Physician-in-Ordinary.
    â€œHow is she?” inquired Ellery Queen.
    â€œNerves more settled, but heart’s fluttering badly and pulse could be improved. You’ve got to co-operate with me, gentlemen—”
    â€œOne side, Doctor,” said the Inspector; and they entered the Old Woman’s bedchamber.
    It was a square Victorian room crowded with those gilded phantasms of love which in a more elegant day passed by the name of “art.” Everything swirled precisely in a cold paralysis of “form,” and everything was expensive and hideous. There were antimacassars on the over-stuffed petit-point chairs, and no faintest clue to the fact that a man shared this room with its aged mistress.
    The bed was a piece for future archeologists. Its corners were curved, the foot forming a narrower oval than the head. There was no footboard, and the headboard was a single curved piece which extended, unbroken, although in diminishing height, along the sides. Ellery wondered what was wrong with the whole production aside from its more obvious grotesquerie. And then he saw. There were no front legs; the foot of the bed rested on the floor. And since the head stood high, supported on a single thick, tapering