The room was ornate, heavily draped, and spacious. Everything in it screamed money. The two were sitting in soft leather easy chairs in the library just off Flix’s bedroom.
A magnificent chandelier hung from the high ceiling, but it was of no use, at the moment. The power lines had been knocked down by fierce winds. The roaring fire threw orange specters that danced merrily about the walls.
Richly-bound volumes lined the shelves that ran from floor to ceiling. The storm outside howled. Lightning flashed, and thunder rocked the foundations of the great mansion.
“It is a real monster of a storm, Cupid.”
“That is an understatement, Phalen. I am glad you accepted my invitation to dine with me, tonight.”
“I was surprised that the doctor permitted it, quite frankly. I had been told by the others that he is a stickler that you all attend meals together.”
“Well, this situation affords a little bending of those rules. Don’t you think?” said Flix.
“Definitely! Besides,” said Phalen, “I think Dr. Quintland felt sorry for me, what, with my car breaking down right outside his front door and having to be towed. That was a sorry sight!
And then, I told him that you and I were old war buddies.
I wanted to speak with you alone.
I think Dr. Quintland assumed I wished to rehash old times with you. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. The doctor readily agreed to allow us to visit privately.”
“Well,” said Flix, “the fact that you are staying over puts his mind at rest a little, I think. I believe he sees you as a sort of security blanket, Phalen. The possibility of having a murderer on the premises bids well for having a police detective nearby.”
“I’m just glad for the dry roof,” said Phalen. “The food’s not bad either. But I have to ask, Cupid, why are you here?
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw you.
Have you had a breakdown?
You didn’t return to Pinkerton’s after the war, did you, Cupid?”
“I can’t help but smile when you call me that,” Flix said. “Nobody but my brothers-in-arms ever called me Cupid.
And to answer your question, no, I didn’t have to return to Pinkerton’s to pay the bills when I came home from the war. My uncle left me a legacy that allows me to spend my time as I wish.”
“Lucky sot!”
“My uncle would beg to disagree,” Flix said. “I survived the war, but he did not, so to speak. Too old to fight, but not too old to die, I suppose.”
“Of course, I am sorry for your loss, I just meant . . .”
“I know what you mean, Phalen. And don’t be sorry. My uncle lived a good long life. I was just having a little fun with you.”
“Of course,” Phalen said. “You know, after our unit found out about your Christian name, what else could we have called you?
Valentine?
I don’t think so.
Not raunchy enough or funny enough.
Cupid seemed a most appropriate nickname back there in those godforsaken trenches.”
“My name is forever the butt of jokes.”
“Well, you must admit, Cupid, there was so little to take lightly over there.”
“I could not agree with you more,” Flix said. “They did not call them F-holes, for nothing. Too much death. Too much horror. Too much of everything bad.
A little levity, even at my expense, was a good thing. And I didn’t mind being the butt of your jokes. The place made everyone too serious. Fifteen minutes in the trench turned even the most optimistic boy into the worst sullen human on the planet.
But how could it have been any other way?
Asleep on the farm one minute, only to awaken in hell the next. It was a most grievous shock to your psyche.”
“That was our lot, Cupid,” said Phalen. “The world had gone mad, and we were the boys called up to make it sane, again.”
“Quite so. Quite so. And as to why I am here, well, honestly, Phalen, it’s the greenhouses.”
“The what?”
“Let this remain between us, but I simply had to get a look at them for myself.”
“Greenhouses? But, isn’t the country filled with them?”
“Not like these,” said Flix. “There is nothing on earth to compare with the collection of plants that thrive here. I have always heard Leigh’s greenhouses were the grandest ever constructed, that they rivaled the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and that Bernard Leigh spared no expense in their construction, or in amassing a collection of some of the world’s most exotic specimens.
And the rumors have proven true!
Leigh’s greenhouses exceeded my wildest expectations! I could spend a lifetime roaming over every nook and cranny of those fantastic buildings.
There are plants here that you will never see, except in books! Believe me, this collection is phenomenal!
I have found several specimens that haven’t been cataloged.
Leigh was renowned for collecting only the finest samples from around the world, but he also was fanatical about keeping his treasures only for his own enjoyment.
After his death, a codicil to his will insured the only way a person could visit the greenhouses was as a ‘guest’ of the estate. When his wife sold the place, she insisted that only guests be allowed inside them. The new owners bowed to her wishes.
Now, you can only gain admittance into the greenhouses by becoming a patient at the sanitarium.
I thought about it long and hard, but in the end, I had to see them.
And if Mohammed would not come to the mountain, as they say, well, I had to come here. As a patient!
It was all fairly easy to arrange. I handed over the requested monies, signed a few papers, and was ushered right into bedlam!”
Phalen looked skeptical.
“I have to admit, I was apprehensive that I would be, you know, strapped to a bed and fed gruel, but the place is more like a fancy spa. I figured I had to come as quickly as possible.”
Phalen burst out laughing.
“I hardly think that chains and whips would be used at this palace by the lake, but aren’t these types of jitter joints losing popularity?”
“Yes.” Flix said, “Many are closing. With the changing attitudes of modern times, what with Prohibition and all, these places are closing faster than a deb gets tanked at a whoopee parlor.
Even the ones whose clientele are from the richest families!
Why spend all that money on treatment when you can make the source of the problem illegal! Take away the booze, and the alcoholic is healed! That seems to be a growing sentiment. So, yes, places like this are disappearing.
And that is why I simply had to come here as quickly as possible. It was now or never. Who knows when they will bar the doors and close down this dip shop!”
“So, you pretended to be a lunatic, just to see the flowers? Cupid, you are insane!”
“Not insane,” Flix said. “But, not entirely truthful. I had to feign some sort of problem just to get in the door.
Alcohol, opium, bad nerves. Take your pick. Some sort of mental or physical malady that needed lots of fresh air, scenery, and a period of time for drying out. It was easy enough to persuade my doctor that I needed a place just like this to recover my good health. Coming back from the war, you know, it was easy enough to pretend something was wrong.”
“Oh, the war!” said Phalen.
“Some days,” Flix said, “it seems like it was a lifetime ago. Some days, it feels like yesterday.
I lied to get into this place, I’ll admit that, but it was worth it.
The specimens in the old man’s greenhouses are the finest on earth! And such variety!
You cannot imagine!
I only came here to study and see this great collection first-hand. I never thought I’d find murder among such a man-made utopia as Leigh created here.”
“Emphasis on Man, Cupid. Corrupt and hideous creatures, we are. I see it every day.”
“You will, I hope, Phalen, let me see the body.”
“Of course,” Phalen said. “You have obviously heard the rumors of how she looked. And that she was always rather sickly. Cupid, my friend, I cannot help but believe she was being poisoned. But that is not how she died. She was strangled!”
“Strangled! My goodness!” said Flix.
“We will know more tomorrow after we’ve examined the body. You know,” Phalen continued, “even though it is the site where the body was found, the boathouse was surprisingly undisturbed. Spacious, as you’d expect on a place of this size. Ropes. Oars. Couple of small boats being worked on. Tools lying about, but nothing amiss.
And the victim’s room is the typical servant’s quarters – at the end of a long hallway, next door to the communal bathroom. Cheap furnishing, and few pieces, at that. But, just what you’d expect. That whole end of the mansion needs work, but it is the servants’ section.
Her room is so sparsely decorated that it has a cloistered atmosphere about it. Almost like a convent. And to top it off, a mouse scampered across the room, and I guess I was so focused on my investigation, I missed it! I almost stepped on the darn thing! Couldn’t believe how far off the floor I jumped! Looked utterly ridiculous!
Ha! Ha! Ha!
But seriously, hers is the typical austere living arrangements for the hired help. The only book I found was a worn Bible, probably a gift from the orphanage when she left.
Blast! It all happened so late in the afternoon!
Darkness fell so quickly with those thunderheads! The sky turned black in moments, and there was hardly time to inspect the outside areas. With this storm, any evidence that may have remained on the grounds will, in all probability, be washed away.”
“Umm,” Flix muttered in agreement. “The storm is rotten luck.”
A particularly close bolt of lightning struck nearby. Both men flinched in their seats.
“Reminds me of over there,” Phalen said.
“Yes,” Flix said. “It is all I can do to keep from jumping out of my skin when the thunder booms. Sounds just like big guns, all over again.”
“I know what you mean. I don’t know about you, but one of the hardest things I had to get used to back over here was the silence.”
“Fritz loved his constant shelling, didn’t he?”
“I’ll say. It’s a wonder we aren’t stone deaf.”
“I know.”
Both men sank deeper into the rich leather of the soft chairs they occupied.
“Here’s to the boys who never made it back.”
“Here. Here,” said Phalen, draining his coffee cup.
“When I think of the mud and the gore, I wonder how we managed! Those trenches were truly hell on earth. How did we survive, Phalen? Why are we still among the living, when so many of the others that we called ‘brothers’ are not?”
“I know. I lie awake nights, wondering. Was it luck? Fate? Chance?”
“Remember Eddie?” Flix asked.
“I’ll never forget him,” Phalen said. “He hadn’t been on the line two days. Fresh out of the hay fields, that Eddie.
Somebody should have told him he wasn’t faster than a bullet.”
“I know,” Phalen said. “Sticking your head up just to have a peek at the enemy. It was suicide!”
“And what was there to see?”
“Nothing. Nothing but wire and tortured earth. Not one jot of green left. Not a leafy tree. Not one blade of grass. Nothing but a bloody field of madness and destruction.
But, it wouldn’t have made one ounce of difference.
With Eddie, I mean.
You couldn’t tell him anything.
That boy thought he knew it all.
Was going to stick it to the Huns and win the war single-handedly.”
“Well, they showed Eddie, didn’t they?” Flix asked. “But enough about the past, tell me what else you have discovered about this case.”
“Ahh. The old Pinkerton juices still flow. I am glad to see that. Well, I’ll be honest, Cupid, there isn’t much to tell. The bruise on her neck tells me she was strangled.
And as I said, the storm is sure to wash away any evidence that may have been outside.”
“I agree.”
“If I get the chance,” Phalen said, “I’ll go back and search more thoroughly tomorrow, when the light is better. Her body was taken off the estate, much to my dismay, but the doctor who runs this place thought it would be disturbing to his patients. I suggested taking her into the city, but he insisted upon removing her to some place a few miles from here.
Assured me that this fellow was a bonafide medical man. Could do the autopsy for me. Why the devil he didn’t let me do as I wish is beyond me, but the blasted regulations of this place are beyond me, too.
They run this whole county like a fiefdom. Off in their own world. Above the rest of us. Do as they damn well please, and my superiors have given strict orders that I must do as Dr. Quintland wishes. It’s almost as if he is a puppeteer pulling their strings!”
“Do not trouble yourself much about the politics,” Flix said. “Politics is the prerogative of the very rich, my friend. They inhabit another sphere above the rest of us mere mortals.”