Doug Allyn - Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 134, No. 5. Whole No. 819, November 2009

Brett looked puzzled. He even said, “That’s true.”

But Victoria was not to be derailed. “Lorelei, Brett, Grimm, do you remember how Andrew ‘died’?”

“How?” Lorelei asked. “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember what happened physically when he went through his little death act?”

“Well,” Lorelei said, “he coughed several times and then he had a sort of fit, and then he sprawled over Nancy.”

“Who was on his left,” Victoria said. “And, as he draped himself over poor Nancy, what would naturally happen to his right hand? Visualize it.”

“It would pass over the area of Nancy’s wine goblet!” Lorelei said. “I see it. I see what you mean. And he could easily have dropped something in.”

“And before dinner,” Brett said, “he told me that one of the things he’s been doing is some children’s magic shows. That could perfectly well mean he’s used to doing sleight-of-hand...”

Everyone in the room looked at Andrew. Grimm’s grip tightened.

There was a long silence.

“All right,” Andrew said at last. “Yes. I did it.”

“Oh, Andrew,” Lorelei said.

“Good God,” Brett said.

Victoria just stared.

Grimm’s grasp tightened even more.

“Dropping the cyanide in Nancy’s goblet was child’s play. But she deserved it. She stole my idea. My idea. It would have been the making of me. It would have turned my life around, at last. But no, while you were all partying and planning how you would be spending your Frankie Almond money, I was still living hand-to-mouth, having to cuddle up to old women...”

“How dare you!” Victoria said.

“Having to hire myself out for party tricks. When instead it should have been me, me , playing my own role. Charlie Cashew, Private Eye. Brilliant. Sexy. Witty. Handsome. And rich.”

The apartment doorbell rang.

“That will be the police, I believe, Ms. Victoria,” Grimm said.

Copyright © 2009 by Michael Z. Lewin