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Overview
When Godfrey Mumford retired to focus on his chrysanthemums, he was worth a little over $5 million. A decade later, his family gathered for his birthday, he delivers shocking news: Thanks to poor investments on behalf of his financial manager, every penny is gone. The house is mortgaged, the stocks are sold—the only valuable item remaining is a priceless chrysanthemum pendant that once belonged to the emperor of Japan. It is Mumford’s prized possession, and it will be his doom. Soon after Mumford is paralyzed by a stroke, he is found murdered. The bizarre death catches the eye of world-famous detective Ellery Queen, who will unravel the mystery of this novella, Mum’s the Word, with the same elegance that he brings to each of the stories in this marvelous collection.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781504016582 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | MysteriousPress.com/Open Road |
| Publication date: | 07/28/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 234 |
| Sales rank: | 182,642 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen’s first appearance came in 1928, when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that was later published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who uses his spare time to assist his police inspector uncle in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee’s death.
Ellery Queen was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty-two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age “fair play” mystery. Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen’s first appearance came in 1928, when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who uses his spare time to assist his police inspector uncle in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee’s death.
Read an Excerpt
QED Queen's Experiments in Detection
By Ellery Queen
MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media
Copyright © 1968 Ellery QueenAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1658-2
CHAPTER 1
DYING MESSAGE NOVELETTE
Mum Is the Word
December 31, 1964: The birthday of the new year and the old man became a fact at midnight. The double anniversary was celebrated in the high-ceilinged drawing room of Godfrey Mumford's house in Wrightsville with certain overtones not in the tradition. Indeed, in accepting the offerings of his family and his friend, old Godfrey would have been well advised to recall the warning against gift-bearing Greeks (although there had never been a Greek in Wrightsville, at least none of Godfrey's acquaintance; the nearest to one had been Andy Birobatyan, the florist, who was of Armenian descent; Andy had shared the celebrated Mumford green thumb until the usual act of God severed it).
The first Greek to come forward with her gift was Ellen Mumford Nash. Having gone through three American husbands, Godfrey's daughter had just returned from England, where she was in the fifth year of a record run with number four, an Egyptologist connected with the British Museum — the prodigal daughter home for a visit, her nostrils flaring as if she smelled something unpleasant.
Nevertheless, Ellen said sweetly to her father, "Much happiness, darling. I do hope you find these useful."
As it developed, the hope was extravagant. Her gift to him was a gold-plated cigaret case and lighter. Godfrey Mumford had given up smoking in 1952.
Christopher's turn came next. A little less than thirty years before, Christopher had followed Ellen into the world by a little less than thirty minutes. (Their father had never allowed himself to be embittered by the fact that their birth had killed their mother, although he had had occasional reason to reflect on the poor exchange.)
Ellen, observing her twin over the champagne they were all sharing, was amused by his performance. How well he did the loving-son bit! With such talent it seemed remarkable that dear Chris had never risen above summer stock and walk-ons off Broadway. The reason, of course, was that he had never worked very hard at his chosen profession; but then he had never worked very hard at anything.
"A real swinger of a birthday, father," Christopher was saying with passionate fondness. "And a hundred more to come."
"I'll settle for one at a time, son. Thanks very much." Godfrey's hair was gray but still vigorous; his big body tended toward gauntness now, but after seventy years he carried himself straight as a dancer. He was examining a silver-handled walking stick. "It's really handsome."
Christopher sidled stage right, smiling sincerely; and Godfrey set the stick aside and turned to the middle-aged woman standing by. She was small, on the dumpling side; the hands holding the gift had the stub nails and rough skin of habitual housework. Her face under the snowy hair lay quiet as a New England garden.
"You shouldn't have gone to all this trouble, Mum," the old man protested, "with the work you have to do around here."
"Goodness, Godfrey, it was no trouble. I wish it could have been more."
"I'm trying to remember the last time I had a hand-knit sweater." Godfrey's voice was gruff as he fingered it. "It's just what I need to wear to the greenhouse these days. When on earth did you find the time?"
The sun came through to shine on the garden. "It's not very elegant, Godfrey, but it will keep you warm."
It was over twenty-eight years since Margaret Caswell had come to Wrightsville to nurse her sister Louise — Godfrey's wife — in Louise's fatal pregnancy. In that time she had brought into the world a child of her own, buried her husband, become "Mum" to the three children growing up in the household — Godfrey's two and her one — and planned (she had recently figured it out) more than thirty thousand meals. Well, Godfrey Mumford had earned her devotion; he had been a second father to her child.
She sometimes felt that Godfrey loved her Joanne more than his own twins; she felt it now, in the drawing room. For Godfrey was holding in his hands a leather desk set decorated with gold-leaf chrysanthemums, and his shrewd blue eyes were glittering like January ice. The set was the gift of Joanne, who was watching him with a smile.
"You're uncanny, Jo," Godfrey said. "It's taking advantage of an old man. This is beautiful."
Jo's smile turned to laughter. "With most men it's supposed to be done with steak and potatoes. You're a pushover for chrysanthemums. It's very simple."
"I suppose people think I'm very simple. A senile delinquent," Godfrey said softly.
A frail little man with a heavy crop of eyebrows above very bright eyes hooted at this. He was Godfrey Mumford's oldest friend, Wolcott Thorp, who had formerly taught anthropology at Merrimac University in Connhaven. For the past few years Thorp had been serving as curator of the Merrimac University Museum, where he had been developing his special interest, the cultural anthropology of West Africa.
"I'll contribute to your delinquency, too," Wolcott Thorp chuckled. "Here's something, Godfrey, that will help you waste your declining years."
"Why, it's a first edition of an eighteenth-century compendium on mums!" Godfrey devoured the title page. "Wolcott, this is magnificent."
The old man clutched the tome. Only Jo Caswell sensed the weariness in his big body. To Wrightsville and the horticultural world he was the breeder of the celebrated Mumford's Majestic Mum, a double bloom on a single stem; he was a member of the Chrysanthemum Society of America and of chrysanthemum clubs in England, France, and Japan; his correspondence with fellow breeders and aficionados encompassed the globe. To Jo he was a gentle, kind, and troubled man, and he was dear to her heart.
"I'm grateful for all these kindnesses," Godfrey Mumford said. "It's a pity my response has to be to give you bad news. It's the wrong occasion, but I don't know when I'll have you all together under this roof again. Forgive me for what I'm about to tell you."
His daughter Ellen had an instinct for the quality and degree of trouble. By the flare of her nostrils she had sensed that what was coming was bad news indeed.
"Father —" she began.
But her father stopped her. "Let me tell this without interruption, Ellen. It's hard enough ... When I retired in 1954, my estate was worth about five million dollars; the distribution in my will was based on that figure. Since that time, as you all know, I've pretty well neglected everything else in experimenting with the blending and hybridizing of mums."
Godfrey paused, took a deep breath. "I recently found out that I'm a fool. Or maybe it was fated. Anyway, the result is the same."
He glanced at the old book in his hands as if surprised to find it still there. Then he set it carefully on the coffee table and sat down on the crewel-fringed couch.
"I had put all my financial affairs in the hands of Truslow Addison's law firm. Where I made my mistake was in sticking with the status quo when Tru died and his son took over the practice. I should have known better. You remember, Christopher, what a wild youngster Tru Junior was —"
"Yes," said Christopher Mumford. "Father, you don't mean —"
"I'm afraid so," the old man said. "After young Tru died in that auto accident last May, the affairs of the law firm were found to be like a basket of broken eggs. You couldn't even make an omelet of them. Some of the funds in his trust he had simply gambled away; the rest vanished because of bad business judgment, stupid speculations, investments without rhyme or reason ..."
His voice trailed away, and after a while the silence was cracked by the voice of Ellen Mumford Nash. Her slim and elegant figure was stiff with outrage.
"Are you saying, father, that you're without a shilling?"
Behind her Christopher made an abrupt move, extending his arm in a sort of forensic gesture, as if he were trying to argue away a legal point that threatened his whole case.
"You're joking, father. It can't be that bad. There's got to be something left out of so much loot."
"Hear me out," his father said heavily. "By liquidating assets I've managed to pay off all the creditors. This house and the property are mortgaged; there's not very much equity. I have an old annuity that will let Mum and Joanne and me live here decently, but on my death the income from it stops. I'll have to cut down my mums operation —"
Ellen broke in, bitter as the cold outside. "Damn your mums! If you'd stuck to growing seeds, the way you started, father, none of this would have happened. Left without a farthing! After all these years."
Godfrey had gone pale at her curse; otherwise his face showed nothing. He had apparently prepared himself well for the ordeal. "Your brother was right in one respect, Ellen. There is something valuable left — something that no one's known about. I want to show it to you."
Mumford rose and went over to the wall behind him. He pushed aside an oil painting of a vaseful of chrysanthemums, exposing a square-doored wall safe. His silent audience heard the faint clicking — more like a swishing — of a dial. He removed something, shut the door of the safe, and came back.
Ellen's breath came out in a whinny.
Her father's hand was holding up a magnificent pendant.
"You'll recall," the old man said, "that on my retirement I took a trip to the Far East to bone up on Oriental mums. Well, while I was in Japan I managed to get my hands on this beauty. I paid nowhere near what it's worth, although it cost me a lot of money. How could I pass this up? There are records authenticating it as a royal gift from the Emperor Komei, father of Meiji. It's known as the Imperial Pendant."
The gold links of the chain were exquisitely carved in the shape of tiny, intricate chrysanthemums; the pendant itself was a chrysanthemum, with an enormous diamond in the center surrounded by sixteen diamond petals. The superb gems, deep yellow in color, gathered the light in the room and cast it back in a shattering explosion.
"These stones are perfectly matched. The Emperor's agents searched the world to find enough of these rare yellow diamonds to complete the pendant. As a group, they're unique."
Ellen Nash's eyes, as hard as the gems, became slitted. She had never heard of Emperor Komei or the Imperial Pendant, but she was not invulnerable to beauty, especially when it had a high market value.
"Father, that must be worth a fortune."
"Believe it or not, it's been appraised at a million dollars." There was an arpeggio of gasps; and the warmth in Godfrey Mumford's voice expired, as if his pleasure had been chilled suddenly. "Well, you've seen it, so I'll put it back in the safe."
"For God's sake, father," cried Christopher, "not in a dinky little home safe! Why don't you put it in a bank vault?"
"Because I like to take it out every once in a while and look at it, son. I've had it here for a long time, and no one's stolen it yet. By the way, I'm the only one who knows the combination of the safe. I suppose I ought to leave a record of it, in case anything happens to me."
"I should think so!" said Ellen.
Godfrey's expression did not change. "I'll take care of it, Ellen."
He returned to the wall safe. When he faced them again, the painting hung in place and his hands were empty.
"So there's what's left of my estate," he said. "A piece of historic jewelry worth a million dollars." His fine face saddened now, as if he had reached the limit of self-discipline. "Wolcott, my old will included a bequest to you of a hundred thousand dollars to finance that expedition to West Africa you've always talked about."
"I know, Godfrey, I know," said Thorp.
"Now, when I die, I'm afraid your legacy will be only one-fifth that."
Wolcott Thorp made a face. "I'm getting too old for expeditions. Do we have to talk about these things?"
He said this in a mutter, as if the whole subject were painful to him. Godfrey Mumford turned mercifully to Margaret Caswell.
"Mum, I originally planned a bequest to you and Joanne of a quarter of a million dollar trust fund. Well, I'm not going to make you suffer for my mistake after giving me half your lifetime, at least any more than I can help. The inheritance tax will cut down the pie, but my new will takes ample care of you in a revised trust. I wanted you and Jo to know that."
He turned to Ellen and Christopher. "What's left, of course, will go to you children, share and share alike. It isn't what I'd planned, and I know it won't be what you expected, but you'll have to make the best of it. I'm sorry."
"So," said Ellen with a little snap of her jaws, "am I."
"Oh, shut up, Ellen," her brother said.
And there was a silence.
It was broken by Joanne. "Well! Shall we drink a toast to the birthday boy?" And she made for the rest of the champagne she had ordered from Dunc MacLean in the Square (which was round), in High Village, leaving behind her a definitely dismal New Year's Eve party.
January 1, 1965: Christopher Mumford was suffering from an unfamiliar malady — some sort of malfunction of the glands, as he diagnosed it. His mood had changed overnight. He gulped a mouthful of air as cold and clean and heady as Joanne's night-before champagne, and blew it out with a happy snort, like a horse. Even the thought of his many creditors failed to depress him.
"What a scrumbumptious day!" he exulted. "What an absolutely virgin way to start the year! Let's mosey on up to the woods beyond the greenhouse. I'll race you, Jo — what do you say?"
Joanne giggled. "Don't be a chump. You'd fall flat on your tunkus after twenty yards. You're in pitiful physical condition, Chris, and you know it. Dissipated, is what."
"You're right, of course. As dissipated as father's estate," said Christopher cheerfully.
"You could still repair the damage."
"Gyms make me dizzy. No, it's hopeless."
"Nothing is hopeless unless you make it so."
"Beware! Little coz is mounting her pulpit! I warn you, Jo, for some ridiculous reason I'm higher than the Mahoganies this morning. You simply can't spoil it."
"I don't want to. I like to see you happy. It's such a welcome change."
"Right again. In pursuance whereof, and since New Year's Day is the time for resolutions, I hereby resolve to restrict my coffin-nail intake, ration my poison-slupping, and consort only with incorruptible virgins, starting with you."
"How do you know I'm, well, incorruptible?"
"By me you are," said Christopher. "I ought to know. I've tried enough times."
"And that's a fact," said Jo in a rather grim tone. But then she laughed, and he laughed, too.
They skirted the big glasshouse, whose panes cast into the hard bright air a fireworks of sparks, and went on across a carpet of dead grass toward a noble stand of evergreens.
Christopher was happily conscious of Joanne beside him. Her stride was long and free, a no-nonsense sort of locomotion that managed to emphasize her secondary sex characteristics, which were notable. And not even the wool stockings and the thick-soled walking shoes could spoil as captivating a pair of legs as his connoisseur's eye had ever studied.
"You implied that I'm different when I'm happy," Christopher said.
"You certainly are."
"Well, I've been feeling different this morning, and I couldn't figure it. Now I can. I'm not different — I'm the same old swinger I've always been. What I am is, I'm responding to a fresh stimulus. You, cousin. It's you who spell the difference."
"Thank you, sir," said Jo.
"Oh, before this I've gone through the battlefield maneuvers with you, but I didn't actually notice you. You know what I mean?"
"I'm getting a clue," said Jo warily.
"But now I am. I mean I'm noticing you, cousin. In the aggregate, as it were, not merely here and there. Am I communicating? What does it mean?"
"It means you're bored, and you've decided to make a little time to while away your boredom."
"Not at all. Suddenly you've turned into a marvelously desirable piece of goods."
"And you're the susceptible buyer."
"Not the way you mean. You forget that I make my way boards-treading. I'm used to desirable women — the theater is lousy with them. So much so that I've been in danger of turning monk."
"Then why are you tickling my hand?"
"Because I've decided against celibacy. With your permission I'll go further. I'll put my arm around you."
"Permission denied. I've been through that maneuver before with you, and it leads to a major battle. We'll sit here on this log for a while and rest. Then we'll go back."
They sat. It was cold. They sat closer — for warmth, Joanne told herself.
"Gosh, it's wonderful," breathed Christopher in little puffs, like smoke.
"What's wonderful?"
"How things change. When we were kids I thought you were the world's biggest stinker."
"I couldn't stand you, either. There are times when I still can't. Like last night."
"Last night? Why, I was a model of deportment!"
"You don't know your father well, do you?"
"Father? As well as anybody."
"Your gift to him didn't show it. Nor Ellen's — Uncle Godfrey hasn't smoked in years. And you gave him a cane, for heaven's sake! Don't you realize Uncle Godfrey's too proud to use a cane? He'd never admit dependence that way."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from QED Queen's Experiments in Detection by Ellery Queen. Copyright © 1968 Ellery Queen. Excerpted by permission of MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
DYING MESSAGE NOVELETTE,Mum Is the Word,
CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS IN DEDUCTION,
Object Lesson,
No Parking,
No Place to Live,
Miracles Do Happen,
Q.B.I: QUEEN'S BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION,
Gambling Dept.: The Lonely Bride,
Spy Dept.: Mystery at the Library of Congress,
Dead Ringer,
Kidnaping Dept.: The Broken T,
Murder Dept.: Half a Clue,
Anonymous Letters Dept.: Eve of the Wedding,
Probate Dept.: Last Man to Die,
Crime Syndicate Dept.: Payoff,
THE PUZZLE CLUB,
The Little Spy,
The President Regrets,
HISTORICAL DETECTIVE STORY,
Abraham Lincoln's Clue,
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