Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online

not exist at this moment; two, that the new will does exist at this moment.
    “Consider the first. If the will does not now exist, it means that Woodruff lied when he said he saw it in the safe five minutes before the funeral, that the will wasn’t there at that time, that the will had been previously destroyed by person or persons unknown. Or Woodruff told the truth, the will was stolen after he saw it, in that five-minute interval, and then destroyed. In this last event, it would have been possible for the thief to have burnt or torn up the will, disposing of the remains by slipping them down a bathroom drain, perhaps; but, as I pointed out an instant ago, the fact that the steel box has not turned up at all points to the improbability of this destruction theory. No remains of the steel box were found; then where is the steel box? Presumably taken away. If the steel box were taken away, then plausibly the will also was taken away, not destroyed. But, you say, under the circumstances, if Woodruff was telling the truth, the box couldn’t have been taken away. We have reached an impasse, therefore, in our first major possibility. In any event, if it is true that the will was destroyed, there is nothing further to be done.”
    “And that,” said Sampson, turning to the Inspector, “that’s a help, that is. My God, man,” he said irascibly, swinging on Ellery, “we know all that. What are you getting at?”
    “Inspector dear,” said Ellery mournfully to his father, “do you allow this man to insult your son? Look here, Sampson. You’re anticipating me, and that’s fatal to logic. Having thrown aside the first theory as so much tenuous vapor, we attack the alternative theory—that the will does exist at this moment. But what have we?—ah, a most fascinating state of affairs. Lend ear, gentlemen! Every one who left the house to attend the funeral returned to the house. The two people in the house remained in the house—one of them, Weekes, actually in the study, where the safe is, all the time. No one entered the house during the funeral. And at no time was there contact between the people of the house and the cortège with outsiders; for every one in the graveyard to whom the will might have been passed also returned to the house.
    “Yet,” he continued rapidly, “the will was not found in the house, on the persons of any one in the house, along the courtyard route, or in the graveyard! I therefore entreat, sue, beg, implore you,” concluded Ellery, his eyes mischievous, “to ask me the enlightening question: What is the only thing which left the house during the funeral, didn’t come back and has never been searched since the will was found to have disappeared?”
    Sampson said, “Tommyrot. Everything was searched, and damned thoroughly as you’ve been told. You know that, young man.”
    “Why, of course, son,” said the Inspector gently. “Nothing was overlooked—or didn’t you understand that when the facts were related?”
    “Oh, my living, breathing soul!” groaned Ellery. “‘None so blind as those that will not see …’” He said softly, “Nothing, my honorable ancestor, nothing but the coffin itself, with Khalkis’ corpse in it!”
    The Inspector blinked at that, Pepper muttered disgustedly in his throat, Cronin guffawed and Sampson smote his forehead a mighty blow. Ellery grinned shamelessly.
    Pepper recovered first, and grinned back at him. “That’s smart, Mr. Queen,” he said. “That’s smart.”
    Sampson coughed into his handkerchief. “I—well, Q., I take it all back. Go on, young man.”
    The Inspector said nothing.
    “Well, gentlemen,” drawled Ellery, “it’s gratifying to speak to such an appreciative audience. The argument is arresting. In the excitement of the last-minute preparations for the funeral, it would have been a simple enough matter for the thief to have opened the safe, extracted the small steel box with the will in it and, watching his opportunity in