The Origin of Evil (5 page)

‘No contract,' said Ellery testily. ‘No contract, Laurel. I'm just going to take a look around.'

‘Starting at the
Priam
house, of course.'

‘Yes.'

‘In that case, since we're all in this together — aren't we, Delia? — I suppose there's no objection if I trail along?'

‘Of course not, darling,' said Delia. ‘But do try not to antagonize Roger. He always takes it out on me afterwards.'

‘What do you think he's going to say when he finds out you've brought a detective around?'

‘Oh, dear,' said Delia. Then she brightened. ‘Why, darling,
you're
bringing Mr. Queen around, don't you see? Do you mind very much? I know it's yellow, but I have to live with him. And you did get to Mr. Queen first.'

‘All right,' said Laurel with a shrug. ‘We'll give you a head start, Delia. You take Franklin and Outpost, and I'll go around the long way, over Cahuenga and Mulholland. Where have you been? Shopping?'

Delia Priam laughed. She got into her car, a new cream Cadillac convertible, and drove off down the hill.

‘Hardly a substitute,' said Laurel after a moment. Ellery started. Laurel was holding open the door of her car, a tiny green Austin. ‘Either car
or
driver. Can you see Delia in an Austin? Like the Queen of Sheba in a rowboat. Get in.'

‘Unusual type,' remarked Ellery absently, as the little car shot off.

‘The adjective, yes. But as to the noun,' said Laurel, ‘there is only one Delia Priam.'

‘She seems remarkably frank and honest.'

‘Does she?'

‘I thought so. Don't you?'

‘It doesn't matter what I think.'

‘By which you tell me what you think.'

‘No, you don't! But if you must know … You never get to the bottom of Delia. She doesn't lie, but she doesn't tell the truth, either — I mean the whole truth. She always keeps something in reserve that you dig out much, much later, if you're lucky to dig it out at all. Now I'm not going to say anything more about Delia, because whatever I say you'll hold, not against her, but against me. Delia bowls over big shots especially … I suppose it's no use asking you what she wanted to talk to you alone about?'

‘Take — it — easy,' said Ellery, holding his hat. ‘Another bounce like that and my knees will stab me to death.'

‘Nice try, Laurel,' said Laurel; and she darted into the freeway-bound traffic on North Highland with a savage flip of her exhaust.

After a while Ellery remarked to Laurel's profile: ‘You said something about Roger Priam's “never” leaving his wheel-chair. You didn't mean that literally, by any chance?'

‘Yes. Not ever. Didn't Delia tell you about the chair?'

‘No.'

‘It's fabulous. After Roger became paralyzed he had an ordinary wheel-chair for a time, which meant he had to be lifted into and out of it. Daddy told me about it. It seems Roger the Lion-Hearted couldn't take that. It made him too dependent on others. So he designed a special chair for himself.'

‘What does it do, boost him in and out of bed on mechanical arms?'

‘It does away with a bed altogether.'

Ellery stared.

‘That's right. He sleeps in it, eats in it, does his work in it — everything. A combination office, study, living-room, dining-room, bedroom and bathroom on wheels. It's quite a production. From one of the arms of the chair hangs a small shelf which he can swing around to the front and raise; he eats on that, mixes drinks, and so on. Under the shelf are compartments for cutlery, napkins, cocktail things, and liquor. There's a similar shelf on the other arm of the chair which holds his typewriter, screwed on, of course, so it won't fall off when it's swung aside. And under that shelf are places for paper, carbon, pencils, and Lord knows what else. The chair is equipped with two phones of the plug-in type — the regular line and a private wire to our house — and with an intercom system to Wallace's room.'

‘Who's Wallace?'

‘Alfred Wallace, his secretary-companion. Then — let's see.' Laurel frowned. ‘Oh, he's got compartments and cubbyholes all around the chair for just about everything imaginable — magazines, cigars, his reading glasses, his toothbrush; everything he could possibly need. The chair's built so that it can be lowered and the front raised, making a bed out of it for daytime napping or sleeping at night. Of course, he needs Alfred to help him sponge-bathe and dress and undress and so on, but he's made himself as self-sufficient as possible — hates help of any kind, even the most essential. When I was there yesterday his typewriter had just been sent into Hollywood to be repaired and he had to dictate business memoranda to Alfred instead of doing them himself, and he was in such a foul mood because of it that even Alfred got mad. Roger in a foul mood can be awfully foul … I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to know.'

‘What?'

‘You're not listening.'

‘I am, though not with both ears.' They were on Mulholland Drive now, and Ellery was clutching the side of the Austin to avoid being thrown clear as Laurel zoomed the little car around the hairpin curves. ‘Tell me, Laurel. Who inherits your father's estate? I mean besides yourself?'

‘Nobody. There isn't anyone else.'

‘He didn't leave anything to Priam?'

‘Why should he? Roger and Daddy were equal partners. There are some small cash bequests to people in the firm and to the household help. Everything else goes to me. So you see, Ellery,' said Laurel, soaring over a rise, ‘I'm your big suspect.'

‘Yes,' said Ellery, ‘and you're also Roger Priam's new partner. Or are you?'

‘My status isn't clear. The lawyers are working on that now. Of course I don't know anything about the jewellery business and I'm not sure I want to. Roger can't chisel me out of anything, if that's what's in your mind. One of the biggest law firms in Los Angeles is protecting my interests. I must say Roger's been surprisingly decent about that end of it — for Roger, I mean. Maybe Daddy's death hit him harder than he expected — made him realize how important Dad was to the business and how unimportant
he
is. Actually, he hasn't much to worry about. Dad trained a very good man to run things, a Mr. Foss, in case anything happened to him … Anyway, there's one item on my agenda that takes priority over everything else. And if you won't clear it up for me, I'll do it myself.'

‘Because you loved Leander Hill very much?'

‘Yes!'

‘And because, of course,' remarked Ellery, ‘you
are
the big suspect?'

Laurel's little hands tightened on the wheel. Then they relaxed. ‘That's the stuff, Ellery,' she laughed. ‘Just keep firing away at the whites of our eyes. I love it. There's the Priam place.'

The Priam place stood on a private road, a house of dark round stones and blackish wood wedged into a fold of the hills and kept in forest gloom by a thick growth of overhanging sycamore, elm, and eucalyptus. Ellery's first thought was that the grounds were neglected, but then he saw evidences of both old and recent pruning on the sides away from the house and he realized that nature had been coaxed into the role she was playing. The hopeless matting of leaves and boughs was deliberate; the secretive gloom was wanted. Priam had dug into the hill and pulled the trees over him. Who was it who had defied the sun?

It was more like an isolated hunting lodge than a Hollywood house. Most of it was hidden from the view of passers-by on the main road, and by its character it transformed a suburban section of ordinary Southern California canyon into a wild Scottish glen. Laurel told Ellery that the Priam property extended up and along the hill for four or five acres and that it was all like the area about the house.

‘Jungle,' said Ellery as Laurel parked the car in the driveway. There was no sign of the cream Cadillac.

‘Well, he's a wild animal. Like the deer you flush occasionally up behind the Bowl.'

‘He's paying for the privilege. His electric bills must be enormous.'

‘I'm sure they are. There isn't a sunny room in the house. When he wants — you can't say more
light
— when he wants less gloom, and air that isn't so stale, he wheels himself out on that terrace there.' To one side of the house there was a large terrace, half of it screened and roofed, the other open not to the sky but to a high arch of bare gum eucalyptus leaves and branches which the sun did not penetrate. ‘His den — den is the word — is directly off the terrace, past those French and screen doors. We'd better go in the front way; Roger doesn't like people barging in on his sacred preserves. In the Priam house you're announced.'

‘Doesn't Delia Priam have anything to say about the way her house is run?'

‘Who said it's her house?' said Laurel.

A uniformed maid with a tic admitted them. ‘Oh, Miss Hill,' she said nervously. ‘I don't think Mr. Priam … He's dictatin' to Mr. Wallace. I better not …'

‘Is Mrs. Priam in, Muggs?'

‘She just got in from shoppin', Miss Hill. She's upstairs in her room. Said she was tired and was not to be disturbed.'

‘Poor Delia,' said Laurel calmly. ‘I know Mr. Queen is terribly disappointed. Tell Mr. Priam I want to see him.'

‘But, Miss Hill —'

A muffled roar of rage stopped her instantly. She glanced over her shoulder in a panic.

‘It's all right, Muggsy. I'll take the rap.
Vamos
, Ellery.'

‘I wonder why she —' Ellery began in a mumble as Laurel led him up the hall.

‘Yours not to, where Delia is concerned.'

The house was even grimmer than he had expected. They passed shrouded rooms with dark panelling, heavy and humourless drapes, massive uncomfortable-looking furniture. It was a house for secrets and for violence.

The roar was a bass snarl now. ‘I don't give a damn what Mr.
Hill
wanted to do about the Newman-Arco account, Foss! Mr.
Hill
's locked in a drawer in Forest Lawn and he ain't in any condition to give us the benefit of his advice … No, I won't wait a minute, Foss! I'm running this — business, and you'll either handle things my way or get the hell out!'

Laurel's lips thinned. She raised her fist and hammered on the door.

‘Whoever that is, Alfred —! Foss, you still there?'

A man opened the heavy door and slipped into the hall, pulling the door to and keeping his hand on the knob behind him.

‘You picked a fine time, Laurel. He's on the phone to the office.'

‘So I hear,' said Laurel. ‘Mr. Queen, Mr. Wallace. His other name ought to be Job, but it's Alfred. The perfect man, I call him. Super-efficient. Discreet as all get-out. Never slips. One side, Alfred. I've got business with my partner.'

‘Better let me set him up,' said Wallace with a smile. As he slipped back into the room, his eyes flicked over Ellery. Then the door was shut again, and Ellery waved his right hand tenderly. It still tingled from Wallace's grip.

‘Surprised?' murmured Laurel.

Ellery was. He had expected a Milquetoast character. Instead Alfred Wallace was a towering, powerfully assembled man with even, rather sharp features, thick white hair, a tan, and an air of lean distinction. His voice was strong and thoughtful, with the merest touch of … superiority? Whatever it was, it was barely enough to impress, not quite enough to annoy. Wallace might have stepped out of a set on the MGM lot labelled
High Society Drawing Room
; and, in fact, ‘well-preserved actor' had been Ellery's impulsive characterization — Hollywood leading-men types with Athletic Club tans were turning up these days in the most unexpected places, swallowing their pride in order to be able to swallow at all. But a moment later Ellery was not so sure. Wallace's shoulders did not look as if they came off with his coat. His physique, even his elegance, seemed home-grown.

‘I should think you'd be smitten, Laurel,' said Ellery as they waited. ‘That's a virile character. Perfectly disciplined, and dashing as the devil.'

‘A little too old,' said Laurel. ‘For me, that is.'

‘He can't be much more than fifty-five. And he doesn't look forty-five, white hair notwithstanding.'

‘Alfred would be too old for me if he were twenty. — Oh. Well? Do I have to get Mr. Queen to brush you aside, Alfred, or is the Grand Vizier going to play gracious this morning?'

Alfred Wallace smiled and let them pass.

The man who slammed the phone down and spun the steel chair about as if it were a studio production of balsa wood was a creature of immensities. He was all bulge, spread, and thickness. Bull eyes blazed above iron cheekbones; the nose was a massive snout; a tremendous black beard fell to his chest. The hands which gripped the wheels of the chair were enormous; forearms and biceps strained his coat sleeves. And the whole powerful mechanism was in continuous movement, as if even that great frame was unable to contain his energy. Something by Wolf Larsen out of Captain Teach, on a restless quarter-deck. Beside that immense torso Alfred Wallace's strong figure looked frail. And Ellery felt like an underfed boy.

But below the waist Roger Priam was dead. His bulk sat on a withered base, an underpinning of skeletal flesh and atrophied muscle. He was trousered and shod — and Ellery tried not to imagine the labour that went into that operation twice daily — but his ankles were visible, two shrivelled bones, and his knees were twisted projections, like girders struck by lightning. The whole shrunken substructure of his body hung, useless.

It was all explicable, Ellery thought, on ordinary grounds: the torso over-developed by the extraordinary exertions required for the simplest movements; the beard grown to eliminate one of the irksome processes of his daily toilet; the savage manner an expression of his hatred of the fate that had played such a trick on him; and the restlessness a sign of the agony he endured to maintain a sitting position. Those were the reasons; still, they left something unexplained … Ferocity — fierce strength, fierce emotions, fierce reaction to pain and people — ferocity seemed his centre. Take everything else away, and Ellery suspected it would still be there. He must have been fierce in his mother's womb, a wild beast by nature. What had happened to him merely brought it into play.