Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:00 pm
Dick's armed and there's only one person left. Go down.
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I seriously doubt that. If anything,Darth Rabbitt wrote:Dick's armed and there's only one person left. Go down.
So much for hoping to find an ally....I tried all of the store rooms. They looked just as they should. The one that I couldn't try was the one in which Harper's body had been locked. It was still locked and I remembered that McNab had the key. He must have taken it with him and there was no way that I could get it now.
The only other place in the basement was the swimming pool. I couldn't think that anyone would be hiding there, but if I tried it, that would be the end of the search.
I opened the door and switched on the rows of lights. The place was empty, as I expected. The water was very still and, with the lights reflected from the surface, looked like a sheet of silver.
I thought that I had now been right round the building and, at least, I hadn't found anyone.
I began to switch off the lights, until only one row remained. I glanced back at the pool. With most of the lights off, there wasn't the same reflection from the water and I could see down into it with its lining of blue tiles.
I could also see something else, a dark shape under the water on the side farthest away from me.
I walked round to the other side of the pool and looked down into the water. Lying on the bottom was a body. It was Miss Smith!
I had no means of knowing how long she had been there, but there was no doubt that she was dead. I felt my stomach going into a knot, and a tightness in my throat. It wasn't just the shock of finding another body. It was knowing that Miss Smith could not be the murderer.
Who had fired the shot that had started the avalanche? If it was Miss Smith, then who had killed her, and what was her body doing back at the hotel?
I wasn't sure what to do. The body was lying at the shallow end of the pool. Should I leave it there and go back to the lounge, or try to get it out?
Well, here's our car crash survivor....but is he the murderer, too?I had often waited in hotel lounges. It was the first time that I had waited for a murderer who I knew was looking for me.
The first warning that I got was the sound of footsteps out in the reception area, but they were no ordinary footsteps. It was the sound of someone dragging one leg, someone moving very slowly in my direction.
I took the gun out of my pocket and walked very quietly to the doorway of the lounge. I could see the whole of the reception area, but it appeared to be empty. My eye caught a slight movement to my left. Someone was standing behind one of the pillars.
I shouted. 'Who's there?'
There was no reply.
I took a few paces forward. It was Clapper. He was leaning against the pillar, his face covered in blood. He was using one arm to support himself. The other hung at his side with a meat cleaver grasped in the hand.
I stood, staring at him.
He saw me, raised himself from the pillar and started to move towards me. I could see that he moved with great difficulty and that the bottom half of one trouser leg was also soaked in blood.
I raised my gun.
'No closer!' I told him, 'and for a start, you can drop that meat cleaver.'
He stopped, but he didn't drop the cleaver. He was trying to speak, but his lips were so cut and swollen that I could not understand what he was trying to say.
'The cleaver first,' I said. 'There'll be plenty of time for talking, later.'
I thought that he was going to drop it, then, quite suddenly, he straightened up, his whole body tensed. My fingers tightened on the trigger of the gun. Clapper had raised his meat cleaver in the air!
Did I pull the trigger, or didn't I?
Kudos to MisterDee, for not only identifying the murderer, but also getting most of the details right!I hesitated. Clapper was still holding the meat cleaver in the air, but he was trying again to speak. He made a sign at me with his other hand.
I understood - just in time! I ducked my head, the cleaver whistling past me as he threw it. There was a cry behind me, and a shot. I spun round.
Judge Hannibal Baines was standing near to the bottom of the main staircase and clutching his shoulder. The red ski clothes didn't hide the blood that was pouring from it. A rifle was lying on the floor where he had dropped it. He moved to pick it up.
'No!' I shouted.
I was still holding my pistol and I stepped back so that both Clapper and the judge were in front of me. I was anything but certain of what was happening. Clapper found his voice.
'Not me, you fool! Him! Baines! Baines is your murderer!'
'He's mad!' said Baines. 'Look at him! If you want to know where I got the rifle, I found it on the snow when I was climbing back to the hotel. I'm sure it's the same one that was fired at me and started the avalanche.'
He had said the one thing that proved Clapper's innocence. Clapper was standing right next to me when that shot was fired. I gave Clapper the pistol. I still wasn't sure about the judge, but there was one way to find out.
I walked just far enough from the hotel to be able to see down to the bottom of the avalanche. It was still there, the body dressed in red ski clothes. I had no doubt that it was Jackson's body and that Judge Hannibal Baines was our murderer.
Baines, or Lane as we now call him, was bleeding badly where the cleaver had hit him. It was more than Clapper or I could patch up. He needed hospital treatment, and he knew it. With the game up, and his own life in danger, he was more than willing to tell us where he had cut the telephone line. Within the hour I was speaking to Felsdorf.
It would have been a pity, but at least we wouldn't have lived to regret it....McNab was alive. He had jumped seconds before the car had crashed. He had a broken leg and several cracked ribs. Clapper had a bullet hole through the calf of his leg, a lot of cuts and bruises and slight concussion. Both would recover.
It was now possible to piece the story together.
The real Judge Hannibal Baines has been killed in England and Lane had taken his place. He had killed Jackson first because he was the only one to have seen the real judge without his robes and wig. Jackson had tried to leave a clue by starting to draw an elephant. The most famous Hannibal of all times was the general who took his elephants over the Alps to defeat the Roman Army in 218 B.C.
Miss Smith had accidentally caught Lane as he shot Harper. He had pushed the gun into her hand, run back to his rooms and come out again as McNab was leaving his to see what the shooting was about.
Lane had taken Jackson's body. Poor Miss Smith, afraid that she was going to be accused of the murders, had run off. For the second time, she had caught Lane, this time dressing Jackson's body in red ski clothes. He had strangled her, putting her body in the hotel swimming pol.
When he had set off on skis, he had already hidden Jackson's body and a rifle, just out of our sight. Lane had fired the rifle and pushed Jackson's body down the mountain. The avalanche was a lucky bonus. Lane had come back to the hotel while the rest of us were busy near the car.
As the car moved off, Lane had shot Clapper, the sound of the shot covered by the clatter of the bolt coming loose. The bullet had gone through Clapper's leg, but he had fallen, striking his head on the platform and lain, unconscious, beneath it. Lane thought he was dead. He also thought that McNab had been killed in the crash.
Clapper had come to under the platform. He had seen Lane fire the shot at him. He had got the meat cleaver from the kitchens and arrived just in time to stop Lane from shooting me.
It would have been a pity if I had shot the wrong man!