Poisoned Hearts by Ted Coughlan
Black Book Detective, October, 1945
Captain Conway has a difficult mystery to solve when grim death strikes down Rex Harvey in an inexplicable manner!
HAT night, the three of them stayed in
somewhere else? I hate to go home. Doctor
Harvey’s Restaurant, smoldering Whitehurst is sure to be there with my wife T hatred between them as usual. Stout, and my brother-in-law. Whitehurst will be red-faced Rex Harvey, the restaurant owner, sitting in my favorite chair drinking my liquor middle-aged Bill Winston, a runt of a man, in and making eyes at my wife. Let’s hunt up
“reclaimed” second-hand clothes, and Eileen another place.”
Winston, his pretty, plump wife.
Bill Winston’s heavy eyebrows met
A slovenly bus boy threw an over his sunken gray eyes. Harvey was always embittered glance at Harvey’s two lingering talking about his possessions like his liquor companions, then viciously began sweeping
and that trick chair he boasted about eternally.
the floor without taking the trouble to wet Without making a gesture at paying the check down the dust. Rex Harvey pushed back his
he rose.
coffee cup and got to his feet. He didn’t bother
“It’s too late,” he grumbled. “We’d
to reprimand his employee. “It’s time to close better go home.”
up,” he said. “Would you like to go
“I’ll walk along with you,” Harvey
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2
said.
“You’ve done too much already,”
His hand slipped under Eileen Winston answered gruffly. “I’ll be ready to Winston’s dimpled elbow, helping her to her open in a few days. Good night.” He took
feet. Her wide, fuchsia-red lips stretched in a Eileen by the arm and almost pushed her
grateful smile. When her husband’s back was inside.
turned she patted Harvey’s arm tenderly.
Left alone, Harvey slowly turned away
Harvey linked his arm through hers,
and walked moodily toward the parking lot
and followed Bill to the door. His face was where he had left his car. He started it jerkily, shining as usual, but there was a deep furrow and drove toward home, subconsciously using in his forehead as he eyed Winston.
the longest route. He saw the lights still
“Can he be fool enough not to know,
blazing in the living room of his pretentious or—” he wondered. He didn’t want to finish pink stucco house. There were two cars in the the thought, even to himself. Perhaps Eileen, shiny asphalt driveway, so he parked his at the too, put up with him only because he was—to curb. For a while he sat sulkily at the wheel, a big extent—the couple’s bread and butter.
then got out and dragged himself wearily
Outside, in the cool December along the flag-stone path.
evening, he shrugged his thoughts aside,
It was exactly midnight when he
walking up palm-lined Sarasota Boulevard,
walked into the cathedral living room. His watching the shadows thrown by the three-small, youngish blond wife and her brother, quarter moon dance in Eileen’s glossy black the hatchet-faced Major Alexander
hair. Bill walked alone in front of the pair, his Bloodworth of the Army Medical Corps, were eyes on the ground, paying no visible attention playing bridge with Doctor Samson
to them. Harvey, heavy, stocky, got out of Whitehurst.
breath quickly, for his legs were too short for Mrs. Harvey glanced at her husband.
his torso, and he had to quicken his pace to Her finely-plucked eyebrows rose
keep in step with the tall, Junoesque girl.
questioningly.
None of them spoke until they came to
“Where have you been?” she
the small, unpainted shack in the back of a demanded. “You knew I was having guests.”
densely wooded lot where Bill and Eileen
There was restrained anger in her low voice.
lived.
Harvey shrugged his stocky shoulders
“Won’t you come in for a while, and passed his hand wearily over his tired Rex?” Eileen invited Harvey in her husky,
eyes. “You didn’t want me here. How are
stage-loud voice.
you?” His look and question took in both men.
Harvey hesitated before he spoke. He
“Just fine.” Dr. Whitehurst’s steady
didn’t want to go home.
gray eyes bored into Harvey’s. “Did you go to
“It’s late—too late,” Bill said. the hospital for that check-up?”
“Besides, I want to get in a couple of hours Harvey nodded, as he seated himself in
work before I go to bed. Good night, Harvey.
his favorite chair.
See you tomorrow.” It was a curt dismissal.
“Yes. They say I’m sound. If I were
“Go home and squeeze a drink out of that trick ten years younger, I’d be A-one. Join me in a chair of yours—the one that you showed me.”
nightcap before I go to bed?”
The highballs were passed around.
HARVEY obviously longed to stay longer.
Harvey drained his in one gulp, laid his glass
“When do you expect to open your bookstore, on the butterfly-inlaid tray, and turned toward Bill? Anything I can do to help?”
the door.
Poisoned Hearts
3
“Good night.” His voice was certificate, Major?”
impersonally polite.
“Of course, I am!” Bloodworth
Halfway up the circular staircase, he
snapped,
clutched at his throat. With a moan, he
“I—I’m not so sure, you should. You
grabbed at the banister.
heard what he said about the examination he He swayed, fell over, rolled down the
had this afternoon. If there was nothing wrong tiled stairs, and landed in a twisted heap in the with his heart, this death seems strange.”
narrow hallway.
Bloodworth’s voice rose to an angry
Bloodworth was the first to reach him.
pitch. “Nonsense. Old Jurgens probably gave He listened for Harvey’s heartbeat, felt him one of his superficial goings over. Well, Harvey’s pulse, and shook his own billiard-are you going to help me move him from
bald head. Then he turned solicitously to his here?”
sister.
“After I make a telephone call.”
“I’m sorry, Susan. It was his heart.”
Whitehurst dialed a number.
Fearfully
catching
the significance of
“Dr. Jurgens? I’m sorry to disturb you
the word “was,” Susan Harvey bent over the at this time of the night, but—” He went on body of her husband. Her greenish eyes stared and told Jurgens what had happened, then
at the floor, and her body went rigid. For a added: “Did you examine his heart this
moment it looked as if she were about to
afternoon?”
collapse; then she recovered herself.
Getting the answer, he frowned and
“Are you sure?” she asked. “It doesn’t
broke the connection.
seem possible—”
Again Bloodworth shook his head, this
ALMOST at once, he nervously dialed
time with sad finality. Authoritatively he took another number. His voice was determined,
her by the arm and led her to a living room when he spoke.
couch. Returning to the hall, he turned to Dr.
“Police headquarters? May I speak to
Whitehurst.
Captain Conway?” After a short wait, he
“Help me get him upstairs. Then I’ll
spoke again. “Hello, Captain. This is Dr.
call the funeral parlor and make Whitehurst. Please, come out to Seventeen arrangements.” His voice was cold, as if Hundred Poinciana Avenue. Bring the medical touched by the icy breath of the recent death.
examiner with you . . . Yes, sudden death. All
“I don’t think we’d better move him.”
right, I’ll see that nothing is disturbed until Whitehurst looked from the twisted corpse to you get here.”
the telephone underneath the stairway. “He He hung up and explained to
died so suddenly, it might be better to call the Bloodworth, who was staring at him angrily.
police first.”
“I had to call him. Jurgens insists that
“There’s no need for the police,” he examined Rex Harvey thoroughly this Bloodworth contradicted him almost savagely.
afternoon, and positively states that there was
“He died from heart failure. Why make things nothing wrong with his heart. You’d better go any worse for Susan? Gosh knows, she went
in and prepare Susan for another shock. I’ll through enough with him while he was alive, wait out here until the police arrive.”
without trying to rake up a scandal, now that When the door chimes rang, a few
he’s gone.”
minutes later, Dr. Whitehurst admitted the Whitehurst was still hesitant. “As a
bulky police captain, two uniformed officers, doctor, are you willing to sign the death and Doctor McKenzie, the short, plump
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4
medical examiner. Without waiting even to
manner that of a saucy bluejay. He practically greet his colleague, the M.E. dropped to one strutted.
knee by the body, opened his bag, and began
“He was poisoned,” McKenzie
his investigation.
announced. “Arsenic or aconite. Don’t ask me Captain Conway shook hands with which until I get a chance to look at his Whitehurst. His large brown eyes twinkled, innards. Can I take him away?”
and there was an upcurve to his lips as he Conway shook his large blond head.
glanced at the busy medical examiner.
“Not until the boys take a couple of
“Tell me what happened, doctor.”
shots. Hang around, they’ll be through in a Whitehurst told him the details from
hurry.” He motioned to the uniformed
the time of Harvey’s arrival home until his policeman who held a camera, then beckoned death.
to Whitehurst. “Let’s go into the living room
“I may be out of order calling you,” he
and see the others.”
added apologetically. “However, in view of Whitehurst introduced Captain
what Dr. Jurgens said, I wanted to be on the Conway to Mrs. Harvey and her brother. The safe side.”
Captain nodded acknowledgement. Then
“I hope it’s not murder, but you did the
standing with his back to the door, he made an right thing in any case,” Conway apology.
complimented him. “Who else was in the
“I’m sorry to butt in on you at this
house when it happened?”
time, but the Medical Examiner opines that
“His wife, brother, and myself. We
Mr. Harvey was murdered. Tell me, Mrs.
were playing a last rubber of bridge when he Harvey, was there anyone else in the house came home.”
this evening?”
“Where are the others?”
“Only the maid,” Mrs. Harvey said
“In the living room. Do you have to
falteringly. “She’s probably gone to bed.” The question them?”
widow was sitting straight on the edge of the
“Not unless it turns out to be modern sofa. “I—I’m sure there must be a suspicious.”
mistake, George.”
Conway approached the still crouched
“Now, Susan, control yourself,” Dr.
figure of the medical examiner. “How does it Bloodworth laid a soothing hand on her
look to you, Mac?”
shaking shoulder, then turned to Conway.
“Murder.” The medical examiner
“Must you question my sister now,
grunted the word without even looking up.
Captain? It is clear that she has had enough
“Give me time and I’ll tell more about it; then shock for one night.”
maybe you can tell me who did it.” He stood
“I’m afraid I’ll have to, but I’ll be as
up and spoke to Dr. Whitehurst for the first easy with her as possible.” Conway nodded
time: “Hello, Doctor. You mean to tell me you sympathetically to the widow.
didn’t know what happened to him?”
“At what time did your husband come
“I didn’t try to find out. Bloodworth
home?”
seemed satisfied that it was heart failure. I
“Midnight.” Mrs. Harvey started
only sent for you to salve my own crying loudly, apparently unable to control conscience.”
herself. Conway shrugged. No use questioning Dr. McKenzie looked up at the much
a woman in this condition. He looked at
taller Captain Conway. McKenzie’s impish Whitehurst.
middle-aged face was creased with lines, his
“You were here when he came in. Tell
Poisoned Hearts
5
me just what happened.”
the evening.”
Whitehurst sat down, sipped at a tall
Bloodworth looked at Mrs. Harvey.
drink, and retold his story. The detective She nodded.
thoughtfully rubbed his chin stubble.
“I guess he was out with his friends,
“Who mixed the drinks?”
the Winstons,” he told the detective. “He spent
“Mrs. Harvey poured them, I believe.”
most of his spare time in their company. They probably ended up as non-paying customers at CONWAY walked over to the table which
Rex’s restaurant. They generally did that.”
held the now empty glasses.
Conway called in a uniformed
“Which one did he drink from?”
policeman.
“It’s hard to remember. But it was one
“Drive down to Harvey’s restaurant,
of these, I think,” he pointed to the three tall and find out if the owner was in there between glasses sitting on a damp tray. “I’m afraid eleven and twelve, and with whom. If it was you’ll have to examine them all.”
the Winstons, pick them both up and bring
Bloodworth, who had succeeded in them out here.”
quieting Mrs. Harvey somewhat, broke into
The policeman was leaving the room
the conversation.
when Mrs. Harvey’s hysterical voice stopped
“This is a lot of nonsense, Captain. I’m
him.
sure the M.E. made too hasty a diagnosis. Rex
“Don’t you dare bring them here! I
did die from heart failure. The least you can won’t have that woman in this house!”
do is make sure of the cause of death before Conway shrugged and changed his
subjecting us to this cross-examination.”
order. “Find out if they’re home and call me
“I have no reason to doubt McKenzie,”
here.”
Conway d
eclared tentatively. “What I would After the policeman left, Conway
like to know is—why are you so all fired
spoke to the photographer.
anxious to stop an investigation? I think you’d
“Dust those glasses. See which has
better tell me what you know, and stop Harvey’s prints on it, and then send all three shielding the person you apparently think down to the lab. Tell them to give me a quick responsible for the death. It’ll be better in the report on what’s-in them. There’s plenty left long run.”
for an analysis.” He watched the man applying Bloodworth paled imperceptibly.
the powder to the glasses. The prints showed
“You should know better than that,
up clearly.
Captain!” he blustered. “In my position I
“How’m I gonna tell which are his?”
couldn’t afford to shield a killer, even if I had the photographer asked. “We haven’t got a
any desire to. If, as you insist, it was murder, record of any of them, as far as I know.”
the mere fact that he died in the house doesn’t
“You know where to get Harvey’s,
mean that one of us had anything to do with don’t you?” Conway suggested grimly.
his death.”
“Why don’t you get it off your chest,
Again Conway studied the face of the
Major?” he asked Bloodworth. “It’s obvious belligerent physician.
you either killed Harvey yourself, or know