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"We have already established that three of you here have been black– mailing Otto steadily over the years. His other two fellow directors, his daughter and Stryker, joined wholeheartedly in what had become by this time a very popular pastime. They, however, used a very different basis for their blackmail. This basis I ca
"There's nothing of this rubbish that can be proved."
"Not yet. Now, Otto was driving the car but when Divine recovered from the effects of the crash he was convinced-no doubt by Otto-that he had been at the wheel. So for years now Divine has been under the impression that he owes his immunity from manslaughter charges purely to Otto's silence. The salary lists show-'
"Where did you get the salary lists from?" Goin asked. "From your cubicle-where I also found this splendid bankbook of yours. The lists show that Divine has been receiving only a pittance in salary for years. How admirable is our Otto. He not only makes a man take the responsibility for deaths which he himself has caused but in the process reduces that man to the level of a serf and a pauper. The blackmailed doing some blackmailing on his own account. Makes for a very pretty picture all round, does it not? "But the Strykers knew who had really caused the crash for Otto had been driving when they left the house. So they sold their silence in return for jobs on the board of Olympus Productions and vastly inflated salaries. You are a lovable, lovable lot, aren't you? Do you know that this fat monster here actually tried to have Lo
"In effect, Otto would clear his board in one fell sweep. He'd get rid of the people he hated and who hated him. He'd buy enough time by their deaths to conceal his embezzlement. He'd collect very considerable insurance money and get back in the black with the help of accommodating accountants who can be as venal as the next lot. He would get all that lovely gold for himself. And, above all, he'd be forever free of the continuous blackmail that had dominated his life and warped his mind until it drove him over the edge of insanity." I looked at Goin. "Do you understand now what I mean by saying that without me you'd have been dead by the end of the week?"
"Yes. Yes, I think so. I have no option other than to believe you are right." He looked at Otto in a kind of wonder. "But if he was only after the board of directors-"
"Why should others die? III luck, ill management, or someone just got in his way. The first intended victim was the Count and this was where the ill luck came in. Not the Count's-Antonio's. Otto, as I think digging into his past will show, is a man of many parts. Among some of the more esoteric skills acquired were some relating to either chemistry or medicine: Otto is at home with poisons. He is also, as so many very fat men are, extremely gifted at palming articles. At the table on the night when Antonio died the food, as usual, was served from the side table at the top of the main table where Otto sat. Otto introduced some aconite-only a pinch was necessary-into the horse-radish on the plate intended for the Count. Unfortunately for poor Antonio, the Count has a profound dislike of horseradish and passed his on to the vegetarian Antonio. And so Antonio died. "He tried to poison Heissman at the same time. But Heissman wasn't feeling in the best of form that evening, were you, Heissman-you will recall that you left the table in a great hurry, your plate untouched. The economical Haggerty, instead of consigning this clearly untouched plate to the gash bucket, put it back in the casserole from which the two stewards, Scott and Moxen, were served later that night-and from which the Duke stole a few surreptitious mouthfuls. Three became very ill, two died -all through ill luck."
"Aren't you overlooking the fact that Otto himself was poisoned?" the Count said. "Sure he was. By his own band. To obviate any suspicion that might fall on him. He didn't use aconite though-all that was required was some relatively harmless emetic and some acting. This, incidentally, was why Otto sent me off. on a tour of the Morning Rose-not to check on seasickness but to see who else he might have poisoned by accident. His reaction when he heard of Antonio's death was u
"I admit everything." Otto spoke with a massive calm. "You are correct in every detail. Not that I see that any Of it is going to do you any good." I'd said that he was an artist in palming things and he proceeded to prove it. The very unpleasant-looking little black automatic that he held in his hand just seemed to have materialised there. "I don't see that that's going to do you any good either," I said. "After all, you've just admitted that you're guilty of everything I claimed you were."
I was standing directly under the co