Robert Heinlein - Expanded Universe

"I wouldn't know about that."

"Naturally not. She says she beefed a little but gave in and came on downstairs, where she joined you. Correct?"

"Correct."

"Mmmm .. . By the way, your remark about the fire door might lead to something. Hazel put me onto a boy friend for Estelle. Trumpeter in that rat race across the street. He could have ducked across and stabbed her. Wouldn't take long. Trumpet players can't be pushing wind all the time; they'd lose their lip."

"How would he know when to do it? It was supposed to be Hazel's show."

"Mmmm.. . Well, maybe he did know. Swapping shows sounds like Estelle had made a date, and that sounds like a man. In which case he'd know about it. One of the boys is looking into it. Now about the way these shows worked - do you suppose you could show me how they were staged? Hannegan tried it but all he got was a shock."

"I'll try it," I said, getting up. "It's nothing very fancy. Did you ask Jack about Hazel's statement that Estelle had permission from him to swap the shows?"

"That's the one thing he cracked on. He states flatly that he didn't know that the shows were swapped. He says he expected to see Hazel in the Mirror."

The controls looked complicated but weren't. I showed Jones the rheostat and told him it enabled Jack to turn either set of lights down slowly while the other set went up. I found a bypass switch back of the rheostat which accounted for the present condition - all lights burning brightly, house and stage. There was a blackout switch and there was a switch that cut the hand microphone and the turntable in through the juke box. Near the latter was the buzzer - a small black case with two binding posts - which the girls used to signal Jack. Centered on the under side of the bar was a hundred - and - fifty watt bulb hooked in on its own line separate from the rheostat. Except for the line to this light all the wires from all the equipment disappeared into a steel conduit underneath the bar. It was this light which had dazzled me during the eleven o'clock show. It seemed excessive; a pear bulb would have been more appropriate. Apparently Jack liked lots of light.

I explained the controls to Spade, then gave him a dry run. First I switched the rheostat back to "House” and threw off the bypass switch, leaving the rock brightly lighted and the Magic Mirror dark. "The time is five minutes of twelve. Hazel leaves me to go in. Stairs. I shift around to the bar stool just opposite where I am now standing. At midnight Jack comes and asks me if I've heard the buzzer. I say 'No.' I fiddles around a bit, clearing away glasses and t like. Then come two beeps on the buzzer. He picks the microphone but he doesn't announce the show a few seconds - he's just noticed Hannegan and Feinstein. Hannegan gives him the high sign and he go ahead." Then I picked up the mike myself and spoke into it:

"We now present the Magic Mirror!"

I put down the mike and flipped on the turntable switch. The same platter was on and the juke started playing Valse Triste. Hazel looked up at it

sharply, from where she had been resting her head her arms a few tables away. She looked horrified, at the reconstruction were too much for her stomach. I turned the rheostat slowly from "House"

"Stage." The room darkened and the stage lit

"That's all there was to it," I said. "Hazel sat do beside me just as Jack announced the show. As lights came on she screamed."

Spade scratched his chin. "You say Joy was staring in front of you when the buzzer signal came from upstairs?"

"Positive."

"You gave him a motive - the war he was having with Estelle. But you've given him an alibi too."

"That's right. Either Estelle punched that buzzer herself, then lay down and stabbed herself, or she was murdered and the murderer punched it to cover it, then ducked out while everybody had their eyes on the Mirror. Either way I had Jack Joy in sight."

"It's an alibi all right," he conceded. "Unless you were in cahoots with him," he said hopefully.

"Prove it," I answered, grinning. "Not with him. I think he's a jerk."

"We're all jerks, more or less, Eddie my boy. Let's look around upstairs."

I switched the bypass on, leaving both stage and house lighted, and followed him. I pointed out the buzzer to him, after searching for it myself. A conduit came up through the floor and ended in a junction box on the wall, from which cords ran to the flood lights. The button was on the junction box. I wondered why it was not on the "altar," then saw that the altar was a movable prop. Apparently the girls punched the button, then fell quickly into their poses. Spade tried the button meditatively, then wiped print powder off on his trousers. "I can't hear it," he said.

"Naturally not. This stage is almost a soundproof booth."

He had seen the egg timer but I had not told him until then about seeing the last of the sand run out. He pursed his lips. "You're sure?"

"Call it hallucination. I think I saw it. I'll testify to it."

He sat down on the altar, avoiding the blood stain, and said nothing for quite a long time. Finally he said, "Eddie my boy - "

"Yes?"

"You've not only given Jack Joy an alibi, you've damn' near made it impossible for anyone to have done it."

"I know it. Could it have been suicide?"

"Could be. Could be. From the mechanics angle but not from the psychological angle. Would she have started that egg timer for her own suicide? Another thing. Take a look at that blood. Taste it."

"Huh?"

"Don't throw up. Smell it then."

I did, very gingerly. Then I smelled it again. T' smells. Tomato. Blood. Blood and tomato catsup thought I could detect differences in appearance well. "You see, son? If she's going to have blood on I chest she won't bother with catsup. Aside from time and the timer it's a perfect, dramatic, female - style icicle. But it won't wash. It's murder, Eddie." Feinstein stuck his head in. "Lieutenant - " "What is it?"

"That musician punk. He had a date with her right."

"Oh, he did, eh?"

"But he's clear. The band was on the air at midnight in a number that features him in a trumpet solo.'

"Damn! Get out of here."

"That ain't all. I called the Assistant Medical examiner, like you said. The motive you suggested won’t go - she not only wasn't expecting; she hadn't even been had. Virgo intacta," he added in passable hi school Latin.

"Feinstein, you'll be wanting to be a sergeant next,” Spade answered placidly, "using big words like that. Get out."

"Okay, Lieutenant." I was more than a little surprised at the news. I would have picked Estelle a case of round heels. Evidently she was a tease in more ways than one.

Spade sat a while longer, then said, "When it's 1i1 in here, it's dark out there; when it's light out then its dark in here.

"That's right. Ordinarily, that is. Right now we got both sides lighted with the bypass."

"Ordinarily is what I mean. Light, dark; dark, hg Eddie my boy - "

"Yes?"

"Are you sweet on that Hazel girl?"

"I'm leaning that way," I admitted.

"Then keep an eye on her. The murderer was in K for just a few seconds - the egg timer and the buzzer prove that. He wasn't any of the people who knew about the swap in the shows - not since the trumpet playing boy friend got knocked out of the running. And it was dark. He murdered the wrong party, Eddie my boy. There's another murder coming up."

"Hazel," I said slowly.

"Yes, Hazel."

Spade Jones shooed us all home, me, Hazel, the two waiters, the other barman, and Jack Joy. I think he was tempted to hold Jack simply because he wouldn't talk but he compromised by telling him that if he stuck his head outside his hotel, he would find a nice policeman ready to take him down to a nice cell. He tipped me a wink and put a finger on his lips as he said good night to me.