101 Mystery Stories

21 The Reindeer Clue Ellery Queen

“Ellery!” Inspector Queen shouted over the heads of the waiting children. “Over here!”

Ellery managed to work his way through the crowd to the entrance of the Children’s Zoo. The weather was unusually warm for two days before Christmas and the children didn’t mind waiting.

If the presence of a half-dozen police cars stirred any curiosity, it was not enough for anyone to question Ellery as he edged his way forward.

“What is it, dad?” he asked, as the Inspector closed the wooden gate behind him.

“Murder, Ellery. And unless we can wind it up fast there are going to be a lot of disappointed kids out there.”

“Are they waiting for Santa Claus?” Ellery asked with a grin.

“The next best thing — Santa’s reindeer. It’s a Christmas tradition here to deck the place with tinsel and toys and pass one of the reindeer off as Rudolph.”

Ellery could see the police technicians working over the body of a man sprawled inside the fence of the reindeer pen. Off to one side a white-coated man kept a firm grip on the reindeer itself as the police flashbulbs popped. Another white-coated man and a woman were standing nearby.

“Who’s the dead man?” Ellery asked. “Anyone I know?”

“Matter of fact, yes. It’s Casey Sturgess, the ex-columnist.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Ellery exclaimed. “Sturgess murdered in a children’s zoo?”

The old man shrugged. “Looks like he was up to his old tricks.” Sturgess had been the gossip columnist on a now defunct New York tabloid.

When the paper folded he’d continued with his gossipy trade, selling information in a manner that often approached blackmail.

Ellery glanced toward the woman and two men. “Blackmailing one of these?”

“Why else would he come here at eight in the morning except to meet one of them? Come on — I’ll introduce you.”

The woman was Dr. Ella Manners, staff veterinarian. She wore straight blond hair and no makeup. “This is a terrible thing, simply terrible!” she cried out. “We’ve got a hundred children and their mothers out there waiting to see the reindeer. Can’t you get this body out of here?”

“We’re working as fast as we can,” Inspector Queen assured her, motioning Ellery toward the two men.

One, who walked with a noticeable limp, was the zoo’s director, Bernard White. The other man, younger than White and grossly overweight, was Mike Hailey— “Captain Mike to the kids,” he explained. “I’m the animal handler, except today it’s more of a people handler.

“Our reindeer is tame, but it’s still a big animal. We don’t let the kids get too close to it.”

The Inspector motioned toward the body. “Any of you know the dead man?”

“No, sir,” Bernard White answered for the others. “We didn’t know him and we have no idea how he got in here with the reindeer. We found him when we arrived just after eight o’clock.”

“You all arrived at once?” Ellery asked him.

“I was just getting out of my car when Captain Mike drove up. Ella followed right behind him.”

“Anyone else work here?”

“We have a night crew to clean up, but in the morning there’s only the three of us.”

Ellery nodded. “So one of you could have met Casey Sturgess here earlier, killed him, and then driven around the park till you saw the others coming.”

“Why would one of us kill him?” Ella Manners asked. “We didn’t even know him.”

“Sturgess had sunk to some third-rate blackmailing lately. You all work for the city in a job that puts you in contact with children. The least hint of drugs or a morals charge would have been enough to lose you your jobs. Right, dad?”

Inspector Queen nodded. “Damn right! Sturgess was shot in the chest with a .22 automatic. We found the weapon over in the straw. One of you met him here to pay blackmail, but shot him instead. It has to be one of you — he wouldn’t possibly have come into the reindeer pen before the place opened to meet anybody else.”

Ellery motioned his father aside. “Any fingerprints on the gun, dad?”

“It was wiped clean, Ellery. But the victim did manage to leave us something — a dying message of sorts.”

Ellery’s face lit up. “What, dad?”

“Come over here by the body.”

Ellery passed a bucket that held red-and-green giveaway buttons inscribed, “I saw Santa’s Reindeer!” He ducked his head under a hanging fringe of holly and joined his father by the body. For the first time he noticed that the rear fence of the reindeer pen was decorated with seven weathered wooden placards, each carrying eight lines of Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”

“Casey Sturgess had died under the third placard, his arm outstretched toward it. He could only have lived a minute or so with that wound,” the old man said. “But look at the blood on his right forefinger. He used it to mark the sign.”

Ellery leaned closer, examining two lines of the Moore poem. Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

“Dad — he smeared each of the eight reindeer’s names with a dab of blood!”

“Right, Ellery. Now you tell me what it means.”

Ellery remained stooped, studying the defaced poem for some minutes. All the smears were similar.

None seemed to have been given more emphasis than any other. Finally he straightened up and walked over to the reindeer that was drinking water from its trough, oblivious of the commotion.

“What’s its name?” he asked the overweight Captain Mike.

“Sparky — but for Christmas we call him Rudolph. The kids like it.”

Ellery put out a gentle hand and touched the ungainly animal’s oversized antlers, wishing that it could speak and tell him what it had seen in the pen.

But it was as silent as the llama and donkey and cow that he could see standing in the adjoining pens.

“How much longer is this going on?” White was demanding from the Inspector.

“As long as it takes. We’ve got a murder on our hands, Mr. White.”

He turned his back on the zoo director and looked at his son. “What do you make of it, Ellery?”

“Not much. Found anyone who heard the shot?”

Ellery went back for one more look at the bloody marks on the Moore poem.

Then he asked Ella Manners. “Would you by any chance be a particularly good dancer, Doctor?”

“Hardly! Veterinary medicine and dancing don’t mix.”

“I thought not,” Ellery said, suddenly pleased.

“You got something?” his father asked.

“Yes, dad. I know who murdered Casey Sturgess.”

Sparky the reindeer looked up from its trough, as if listening to Ellery’s words. “You see, dad, there’s always a danger with dying messages — a danger that the killer will see his victim leave the message, or return and find it later. Premeditated murderers like to make certain they’ve finished the job without leaving a clue. You told me Sturgess could only have lived a minute or so with that wound.”

“That’s right, Ellery.”

“Then the killer was probably still here to see him jab that sign with his blood finger. And are we to believe that in a minute’s time the dying Sturgess managed to smear all eight names with his blood, and each in the same way? No, dad — Sturgess only marked one name! The killer, unable to wipe the blood off without leaving a mark, smeared the other seven names himself in the same manner. He obliterated the dying man’s message by adding to it!”

“But. Ellery — which reindeer’s name did Sturgess mark?”

“Dad, it had to be one that would connect instantly with his killer. Now look at those eight names. Could it have been Donder or Blitzen? Hardly — they tell us nothing. Likewise Dasher and Prancer have no connection with any of the suspects. Dr. Manners might be a Vixen and White could be a Cupid, but Sturgess couldn’t expect the police to spot such a nebulous thing. No, dad, the reindeer clue had to be something so obvious the killer was forced to alter it.”

“That’s why you asked Dr. Manners if she was a dancer!”

“Exactly. It’s doubtful that the limping Bernard White or the overweight Captain Mike are notable as dancers, and once I ruled Dr. Manners out as well, that left only one name on the list.”

“Comet!”

“Yes, dad. The most famous reindeer of all might be Rudolph, but the most famous comet of all is surely Hailey’s Comet.”

“Captain Mike Hailey! Somebody grab him!”

Moments later as the struggling Hailey was being led away, Bernard White said, “But he was our only handler! We’re ready to open the gates and who’s going to look after the children?”

Ellery glanced at his father and smiled broadly. “Maybe I can help out. After all, it’s Christmas,” he said.