“That’s what they told me.” Dodd was quick to agree. “The water was still quite warm when I got here. He must have had it very hot. He did hate cold, I know. Of course, he’d spent all his life in the East - Malay States and so on.”
“Yes. Man of sixty - five - sixty - five plus. Worked himself pretty hard in the tropics. Nothing abnormal his having a heart that would conk out. What’s worrying you?”
“Well you see, I’ve never actually examined him. He was never ill that I know of. I’ve only attended Mrs. Rook.”
“Pity. Must be an inquest, of course. But why the question?”
“Oh well - - - ” Dodd hesitated. “Nobody likes an inquest on one of his patients. And then there’s the family. Mrs. Rook’s not too strong, and the death itself has shaken her badly.” He looked uncomfortably at Reggie. “What I was thinking was, would you do the post mortem, sir?”
Reggie’s eyelids drooped. “Are you bein’ quite frank, my boy? Do you expect me to find something?”
“No, not at all, not in the least,” said Dodd in a hurry. “I only want to get it absolutely above suspicion.”
“Oh, all right. I’ll do it.” Reggie stood up. “Said anything to the coroner yet? No? I’ll talk to him. He’ll do as he’s told. Good - bye.”
Two days afterwards, Golly Dodd sat uncomfortably in Reggie’s consulting - room. “Well, young man, here you are.” Reggie looked down a half - sheet of notes. “Endocarditis, in advanced stage. Valves on the left side of the heart much affected. Must have been symptoms for some time - breathlessness, faintness, and so on. Heart liable to fail at any moment under strain. Adequate cause for death as found. No other cause present. Satisfied?”
“Oh, absolutely, sir.” Dodd’s big face flushed in a broad smile. “That’s conclusive, from you.”
“Yes. I think so,” Reggie murmured. “But there never was any doubt. Why did you doubt?”
“I don’t know. These sudden deaths - and I’d never had Rook through my hands, you see. There might have been something.”
“You mean shock or worry?”
“I couldn’t say. He did take things hard, I believe.”
“Any particular worry? “Reggie drawled. “Family - daughter - what’s her name - Fanny, alias Faustine?”
“I’m not aware of anything,” said Dodd quickly.
“Well, well.” Reggie looked at him with closing eyes. “So that’s that. Medically speakin’ - death from natural causes.”
“Quite - er - thanks very much, sir. Poor old fellow. Not a bad sort of death, though.”
“No. Easy way - as the ways go,” Reggie said; and, still returning thanks, Dodd went off.
Reggie watched him stride largely down the street, a certain exuberance, a certain violence, in the progress of his bulk. “Well, well,” Reggie murmured. …
He met the case again on a night in June, beneath a thunderstorm.
A police car carried him to the corner of a back street in Bloomsbury. A half - circle of the black mackintosh capes of policemen gleamed in the lightning flashes. At its centre, against the wall, there was a cluster of umbrellas.
One of these came to the door of the car, and between lightning and lamplight, the square face of Superintendent Bell was revealed. “Sorry to bring you out in this, Mr. Fortune. But you’d want to come.” A crash of thunder roared and rumbled away.
“Exaggeratin’ my virtue,” Reggie complained. “I didn’t want. I don’t want. What’s the matter with your tiresome corpse?”
“Come and see, sir,” Bell invited, and, holding the umbrella over Reggie assiduously, conducted him to the other umbrellas.
Beneath them a man lay on his face; a flash of light showed that one hand was flung out, the other at his throat, and by the throat a puddle. Then he was a dark shape in the darkness.
“Hasn’t been moved since the constable found him,” Bell explained. “He was dead then. About two hours ago.”
“I want a torch,” Reggie mumbled. It was given him, and he turned the beam on the dead man’s face. He bent closer… . Crushed against the pavement he saw the large features of Golly Dodd, dabbled red. The hand at the throat was red too. Blood oozed still from the wound on which the hand was pressed.
Reggie turned the body over carefully. The wound in the throat gaped wide. He gave the torch to Bell, and in its light worked on….
“Yes. Take him away now,” he said slowly. “Poor chap.” He stood frowning at the body. He took the torch from Bell and swept it about the pavement and the wall. “Nothing, what? Nothing but that puddle of blood.”
