Markham stepped aside.
“You are free, doctor, to do whatever you desire,” he said, a perceptible chill in his voice.
Von Blon bowed stiffly, and went up the stairs.
“He’s sore,” grinned Heath.
“No, Sergeant,” Vance corrected. “He’s worried—oh, deuced worried.”
Shortly after noon that day Hemming departed forever from the Greene mansion; and Sibella took the three-fifteen o’clock train for Atlantic City. Of the original household, only Ada and Sproot and Mrs. Mannheim were left. However, Heath gave orders for Miss O’Brien to remain on duty indefinitely and keep an eye on everything that happened; and, in addition to this protection, a detective was stationed in the house to augment the nurse’s watch.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Shadowy Figure
(Friday, December 3; 6 p. m.)
At six o’clock that evening Markham called another informal conference at the Stuyvesant Club. Not only were Inspector Moran and Heath present, but Chief Inspector O’Brien[25] dropped in on his way home from the office.
The afternoon papers had been merciless in their criticism of the police for its unsuccessful handling of the investigation. Markham, after consulting with Heath and Doremus, had explained the death of Mrs. Greene to the reporters as “the result of an overdose of strychnine—a stimulant she had been taking regularly under her physician’s orders.” Swacker had typed copies of the item so there would be no mistake as to its exact wording; and the announcement ended by saying: “There is no evidence to show that the drug was not self-administered as the result of error.” But although the reporters composed their news stories in strict accord with Markham’s report, they interpolated subtle intimations of deliberate murder, so that the reader was left with little doubt as to the true state of affairs. The unsuccessful attempt to poison Ada had been kept a strict official secret. But this suppressed item had not been needed to inflame the public’s morbid imagination to an almost unprecedented degree.