Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-04-01
by S. S. VAN DINE
Copyright S. S. Van Dine
WNU Service
CHAPTER 1

There were two reasons why the
terrible and, in many ways, incredi-
BILE Garden murder case-which
took place in the early spring fol-
lowing the spectacular Casino muir
der case-was so designated. In
the first place, the scene of this
tragedy was the penthouse home
of Professor Ephraim Garden, the
great experimental chemist of Stuy-
vesant university; and secondly, the
exact situs criminis was the beauti-
full private roof-garden over the
apartment itself.
It was both a peculiar and i'm
plausible affair, and one SO cleverly
planned that only by the merest
accident-or perhaps, I should say
a fortuitous intervention--was it dis
covered at all.
The Garden murder case involved
a curious and anomalous mixture
of passion, avarice, ambition and
horse-racing. There was an admir-
ture of hate, also; but this potent
and binding element was, I mag
inc, an understandable outgrowth
of the other factors.
The beginning of the case came
on the night of April 10. 1t was one
of those mild evenings that we often
experience in early spring following
spell of harsh dampness, when
all the remaining traces of winter
finally capitulate to the inevitable
seasonal changes. There was a
mellow softness in the air, sud-
den perfume from the burgeoning
life of nature-the kind of atmos-
phere that makes one lackadaisical,
and wistful and, at the same time,
stimulates ones imagination.
I mention this. seemingly irrele-
want fact because / have good rea-
son to believe these meteorological
conditions had much to do with the
startling events that were imminent
that night and which we're to break
forth, in all their horror, before an
other "a. hours had passed.
And I believe that the season,
with all its subtle innuendoes, was
the real explanation of the change
that came over Vance himself dur
ing his investigation of the crime.
Up to that time I had never con-
sidered Vance man of any deep
personal emotion, except in so far
as children and animals and his in
innate masculine friendships were
concerned. He had always i'm
pressed me as man so highly
mentalized, so cynical and imper-
sonal in his attitude toward life,
that an irrational human weakness
like romance would be alien to his
nature. But in. the course of his
deft inquiry into the murders in
Professor Gardens, penthouse, I
saw, for the first time, another and
softer side of his character. Vance
was never a happy man in the
conventional sense; but after the
Garden murder case there were evil
dences of an even deeper loneliness
In his sensitive nature.
AS I have said, the case opened
so far as Vance was concerned with
ton the night of April 10. John
FIX. Markham, then district attor-
ney of New York county, had dined
with Vance at his apartment in
East Thirty-eighth street. The din
ner had. been excellent-as all of
Vance's dinners were-and at ten
o'clock the three of us were sitting
in the comfortable. library.
Vance and Markham had been
discussing crime waves.in a desul-
tory manner. There had, been a
mild disagreement, Vance discount
ing the theory that crime waves
are calculable, and holding that
crime is entirely personal and there
fore incompatible with generaiza-
tons or laws.
It was in. the midst Of this dis
cussion that Currie, Vance's old
English butler and, majordomo, APP
peared at the library door. I no
ticed that he seemed nervous and
i'll at ease as he waited for Vance
to finish speaking; and / think
Vance, too, sensed. something I'M
usual in the mans attitude, for
he stopped speaking. rather abruptly
and turned. H..
"What is it, Currie? Have you
seen a ghost, are there burglars in
the house?"
II have just had a telephone call,