Ellery Queen - Cat of Many Tails

Ellery began to assemble a face somewhere before him. It was reassuring and he sat still, dutifully.

“Had you discovered the truth within ten minutes of the moment when you first engaged to investigate the murders, the result for Cazalis would have been, I am afraid, identical. Let us say that you were enabled to demonstrate at once that Mrs. Cazalis was the psychotic murderer of so many innocent persons. She would have been arrested, tried, convicted, and disposed of according to whether your laws admitted of her psychosis or held that she was mentally responsible within the legal definition, which is often absurd. You would have done your work successfully and you would have had no reason to reproach yourself; the truth is the truth and a dangerous person would have been removed from the society which she had so greatly injured.

“I ask you now to consider: Would Cazalis have felt less responsible, would his feelings of guilt have been less pronounced, if his wife had been apprehended and disposed of?

“No. Cazalis’s guilt feelings would have been equally active, and in the end he would have taken his own life as he has done. Suicide is one of the extremes of aggressive expression and it is sought out at one of the extremes of self-hate. Do not burden yourself, young man, with a responsibility which has not been yours at any time and which you personally, under any circumstances, could not have controlled. So far as your power to have altered events is concerned, the principal difference between what has happened and what might have happened is that Cazalis died in a prison cell rather than on the excellently carpeted floor of his Park Avenue office.”

Professor Seligmann was a whole man now, very clear and close.

“No matter what you say, Professor, or how you say it, the fact remains that I was taken in by Cazalis’s deception until it was too late to do more than hold a verbal post-mortem with you here in Vienna. I did fail, Professor Seligmann.”

“In that sense — yes, Mr. Queen, you failed.” The old man leaned forward suddenly and he took one of Ellery’s hands in his own. And at his touch Ellery knew that he had come to the end of a road which he would never again have to traverse. “You have failed before, you will fail again. This is the nature and the role of man.

“The work you have chosen to do is a sublimation, of great social value.

“You must continue.

“I will tell you something else: This is as vital to you as it is to society.

“But while you are doing this important and rewarding work, Mr. Queen, I ask you to keep in mind always a great and true lesson. A truer lesson than the one you believe this experience has taught you.”

“And which lesson is that, Professor Seligmann?” Ellery was very attentive.

“The lesson, mein Herr,” said the old man, patting Ellery’s hand, “that is written in the Book of Mark. There is one God; and there is none other but he.”

If one of the functions of fiction is to hold a mirror up to life, its characters and places must be identified as in life; that is, through names. The names in this story have had to be numerous. For verisimilitude they are common as well as uncommon. In either category, they are inventions; that is to say, they are names deriving from no real person or place known to the Author. Consequently if any real person finds a name in this story identical with or similar to his or her own, or if any place in this story has a nominal counterpart in life, it is wholly through coincidence.

The story has also required the introduction of certain official- and employee-characters of New York City. Where names have been given to characters in this category, if such inventions should prove identical with or similar to the names of real officials and employees of New York City, again the resemblance is coincidental and the Author states in the most positive terms that no real official or employee of New York City has been drawn on in any way. Where names have not been used, only official titles, the same assurance is given. A special point should be made in the case of the characters of the Mayor (“Jack”) and the Police Commissioner (“Barney”). Neither the present Mayor and Police Commissioner of the City of New York, nor any past Mayor or Police Commissioner, living or dead, has been drawn on in any way whatsoever.

The list of person- and name-places invented follows. If any occur in the text which do not appear on the list, it is through failure of a weary proofreading eye and the reader should assume its inclusion.

Abernethy, Archibald Dudley

Abernethy, Mrs. Sarah-Ann

Abernethy, Rev.

Bascalone, Mrs. Teresa

Bauer, Frau Elsa, Austria

Beal, Arthur Jackson

Castorizo, Dr. Fulvio, Italy

Caton, Dr. Lawrence

Cavell, Dr. John Sloughby, Great Britain

Cazalis, Dr. Edward

Cazalis, Mrs. Edward

Chorumkowski, Stephen

Cohen, Cary G.

Collins, Barclay M.

Cuttler, Nadine

Devander, Bill

Ellis, Frances

Ferriquancchi, Ignazio

Finkleston, Zalmon

Frankburner, Jerome K.

Frawlins, Constance

Gaeckel, William Waldemar

Goldberg (Detective)

Gonachy, Phil

Hagstrom (Detective)

Heggerwitt, Adelaide

Hesse (Detective)

Immerson, Mrs. Jeanne

Immerson, Philbert

Irons, Darrell

Jackson, Lal Dhyana

Johnson (Detective)

Jones, Evarts

Jurasse, Dr., France

Katz, Donald

Katz, Dr. Morvin

Katz, Mrs. Pearl

Kelly’s Bar

Kollodny, Gerald Ellis

Larkland, Dr. John F.

“Leggitt, Jimmy”

Legontz, Mrs. Maybelle

MacGayn (Detective)

“Martin, Sue”

Marzupian, Harold

Mayor of New York City (“Jack”)

McKell, James Guymer

McKell, Monica

Merigrew, Roger Braham

Metropol Hall

Miller, William

Naardvoessler, Dr., Denmark

“Nostrum, Paul”

O’Reilly, Mrs. Maura B.

O’Reilly, Rian

O’Reilly, Mrs. Rian

Park-Lester Apartments

Petrucchi, Father

Petrucchi, Mr. and Mrs. George

Petrucchi, Stella

Phillips, Celeste

Phillips, Simone

Piggott (Detective)

Police Commissioner of New York City (“Barney”)

Pompo, Frank

Quigley (Detective)

Registrar of Records, Manhattan Bureau of Vital Records and Statistics of the Department of Health

Rhutas, Roselle

Richardson, Mrs. Della

Richardson, Leeper & Company Richardson, Lenore

Richardson, Zachary

Sacopy, Mrs. Margaret

Sacopy, Sylvan

Schoenzweig, Dr. Walther, Germany

Selboran, Dr. Andrés, Spain

Seligmann, Dr. Béla, Austria

Smith, Mrs. Eulalie

Smith, Violette

Soames, Billie

Soames, Mrs. Edna Lafferty

Soames, Eleanor

Soames, Frank Pellman

Soames, Marilyn

Soames, Stanley

Stone, Max

Szebo, Count “Snooky”

Treudlich, Benjamin

Ulberson, Dr. Myron

Velie, Barbara-Ann

Whithacker, Duggin

Whithacker, Howard

Willikins, Beatrice

Willikins, Frederick

Xavinzky, Reva

Young (Detective)

Zilgitt (Detective)