Short Story Fiction - Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #17

# 17: Two inspectors go in, but only one comes out?
A new, classic-style fiction detective is solving crimes in only 1000 words,
Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000

INSPECTOR PASCAL MYSTERIES 1000
#17 No Exit, © 2016-2023 by T.K. Naliaka

“Yes, Sergeant Braque?”

“Inspector Joplin, I am looking for Inspector Pascal.  You were conferring with him in the study.”

Joplin glanced up from his notes at the big, broad-shouldered uniformed policeman. “He’s still there.”

Braque sharply shook his head. “No, sir; he’s not!”

“I can’t help you then.”

Braque insisted. “Sir, I can’t find him!”

“He’s probably just walking about.”

“Sir!  We don’t work like that!  I was posted in the hallway.  You came out.  I waited.  Inspector Pascal didn’t come out.  I called, then I checked.  He’s not there.  Where is he?”

A bit more wary then Joplin offered, “Perhaps he went out another door.”

“No sir! If he intended to go out by another exit, he would have informed me, but there is no other door. Yet, he’s not there!”

Joplin leaned over the staircase railing to the foyer below. “Mr. Darcy!  Have you seen Inspector Pascal?”

The step-brother of the deceased owner of the mansion, paused at the foot of the staircase.  He turned slightly and pointed towards the lawns outside. “I just passed him on his way to the stable.”

Braque considered him stonily, then Inspector Joplin.  He colored, then pushed past Joplin, descended the stairs and slammed Darcy against the wall.

Darcy gasped as Braque handcuffed him. “What are you doing??”

Ignoring Darcy’s protests, Braque hauled him up the stairs and down the hallway.  He threw open the study door.  “You’re lying!  Where’s Inspector Pascal??”

Joplin, followed by two of his men crowded in. “Sergeant Braque! You have overstepped your authority!”

Braque turned on him and growled. “I was posted outside right there! Prove to me how Inspector Pascal left this room without me seeing him! He never came out!”

They all hesitated, then Officer Blake went out to the hallway as Officer Haskell quickly walked the perimeter of the entire room. A moment later, Blake came back in. “Sir, from that position, there’s complete visual control of the hallway.”

Haskell rejoined them and told them what they could plainly see for themselves. “There is no other exit.”

They turned to look at Darcy.  He said nothing.

Furious, Braque turned around and stared at the spacious, empty study – two opposing sides of windows that overlooked the rear garden and the front driveway, a half-height book shelf along the corridor wall, a pair of sofas with two upholstered club chairs in the center on a red Persian rug and a long wall of ornate, floor-to-ceiling built-in mahogany wood shelves displaying thousands of books.  Braque strode to the bookshelves and began tugging and testing the woodwork.  Haskell left Blake to guard Darcy and joined Braque.  Inspector Joplin frowned, then he stepped forward and pointed. “Try that section.”

Braque quickly shifted over.  A moment later he pulled out his torch and shone it into the joint between two shelf sections.  He stepped back and looked at the section, then he reached out and began clearing it of books, then he used his nightstick to punch through the backing of the shelf.  He peered through the hole, then reached his hand inside and felt around.  There was a ‘click,’ the shelf disengaged, shifted forward and swung out slightly on hinges.

Joplin exclaimed, “An elevator!”

Braque pressed the call button.  A few moments later, the car rose up from below.  The door slid open.  It was just big enough for three persons, but it was a tight squeeze with big, broad-shouldered Braque, so Joplin got inside with him and they descended to the ground floor.  The door opened on the opposite side, into the four-bay garage. They turned to look at how the elevator was concealed behind another façade of storage shelving, then to consider the four sedans parked inside the garage.  After checking them all, they both returned quickly to the one locked vehicle.  Joplin called Haskell. A minute later the elevator rose up then descended.

Haskell stepped out. “We searched him. Darcy had two sets of car keys.”

Joplin indicated the silver sedan. “See if either of them can open that car.”

All of a sudden, bright light and a cool swash of fresh air swept inside the stuffy trunk as the rear hatch was thrown open.  Bound hand and foot, with a wide piece of tape over his mouth, Pascal blearily opened his eyes to look up at three stern men looking down at him.

A half-hour later, Pascal, freed, with a new white bandage covering a cut and bruise on his temple, hiked stiffly up the grand staircase, protectively shadowed by a scowling Sergeant Braque.  A stone-faced Inspector Joplin with his men followed them.

Pascal explained as he climbed. “None of the guests recalled seeing the victim after dinner.  Darcy invited - we would say lured - his step-brother away from the dining room to the study to help set up a nice selection of digestives after dinner for their guests.”

They followed him into the room.  Pascal indicated the sitting area. “The trick was to fool the other guests that the victim had left.  Darcy struck him down here.” Pascal considered Braque’s handiwork, then indicated the opened shelf concealment door and elevator. “He carried him downstairs via the elevator and dumped the body into his vehicle in the garage. Darcy re-entered via the elevator to invite the other guests up to this study; all accomplished under three minutes.  Not a soul was aware that Darcy had left and returned via a secret exit.”

He gingerly touched the bandage on his forehead ruefully. “Neither was I…” Pascal crossed to the bookshelves to pick up a small black, slim object.  “… until I discovered this remote on the shelf… a very odd thing to keep in a room with absolutely no electronics.”  He pressed a button.

There was a barely audible click-click as the concealment door latch engaged and disengaged. “I tried it; the door opened and I was unexpectedly face-to-face with Darcy who was in the elevator where he’d been eavesdropping on Inspector Joplin and me.”
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