ALM06 Who Killed the Husband? (14 page)

The words echoed in Lee's breast and all his feeling of triumph faded.

Loasby was for clambering out of the car to follow Charlotte, but Lee detained him with a hand on his arm. "Better wait a minute. It is possible that Al may be following her, watching to see if the coast is clear."

They waited. Al did not appear. "He's inside the house," said Loasby excitedly. "He wouldn't dare show himself in the street by day. By God, we have him!"

"What are you going to do?" asked Lee.

"I'll telephone for assistance and wait here until my men come."

Lee sat in the car while Loasby disappeared in a cigar store close at hand. In five minutes he returned, saying: "I made a few discreet inquiries in the store. She calls herself Mrs. Matthews and she lives on the top floor. There's only one apartment on a floor. Her husband is not known in the store, but she buys cigars for him."

Lee was profoundly depressed. "Well, I'll be leaving you," he said. "There's nothing more that I can do."

Loasby was glad to see him go. Naturally he didn't want to share the glory of this capture.

Lee, not caring to show himself at the office under the circumstances, went home. He tried to do some work on his big book, but found himself unable to shape a coherent sentence. The expressionless Jermyn, who took in a good deal more than he seemed to, tried to distract his master with a galantine and a half bottle of Pouilly that he had in from the Colony, but Lee had small appetite. With an unusual burst of confidence he said:

"It's that damned Gartrey case, Jermyn! It's got under my skin."

Jermyn said: "I quite understand, sir. For myself, I cannot believe that Al Yohe is guilty."

"What reason have you for saying that?" Lee asked sharply.

"Oh, I wouldn't go to set up my opinion against yours, sir. But I'm all for the little mother and the baby."

"So am I," said Lee. "That's what makes the situation so hellish!"

After lunch there was a telephone call. Jermyn presently came to Lee, saying doubtfully: "It's a gentleman, sir. I do not know the voice. Won't give his name, but says it's very important. Do you care to take it?"

Lee eagerly picked up the instrument. He heard a fresh young voice, strained with anxiety. "Mr. Map-pin? Do you know who this is?"

"Yes, I know you," said Lee grimly.

"I'm in a jam, sir. I had to go out to attend to a piece of business this morning. Before coming back to the house I always call up Charlotte from a block or two away to make sure the coast is clear. I called her up and she didn't answer, though I was sure she was there because it was the baby's lunch time. After a few minutes I called again and somebody took down the receiver but said nothing. It makes me think the police must have stumbled on our hide-out careful as I have been. They must be cleverer than I gave them credit for."

Lee was conscious of a feeling of relief. After all, the police had not yet taken Al. He said nothing about his own knowledge of the situation. "What can I do?" he asked noncommittally.

"If the police are there, poor little Charlotte must be nearly out of her mind with fright and anxiety. She has nobody to turn to. Tell her from me that..."

"Wait a minute!" Lee grimly interrupted. "If you give me a message for Charlotte I must turn it over to the police."

There was a silence while Al presumably mastered his disappointment and anger. He uttered no reproaches. "Well, that's that!" he said. "But please tell Charlotte this for me--and I don't care if the police overhear it; tell her that I have a safe hide-out and I'm all right. Tell her to keep up a good heart and carry on until I can find a safe way to communicate with her."

"Yes, I can tell her that," said Lee.

A pleading note came into Al's voice. "And will you be Charlotte's friend, Mr. Mappin? That won't commit you to anything. God knows she's not to blame for what has happened."

"I will be her friend so far as I am able," said Lee gravely. "I wish to be your friend, too. You can't keep this up, Yohe. You must face the situation."

"Not yet!" he said with the incorrigible break of laughter in his voice. "Thanks for everything, Mr. Mappin." He hung up.

Soon afterwards there was a call from Loasby. In a grumbling voice like a schoolboy's, he said: "He gave us the slip, Mr. Mappin."

"I know it," said Lee dryly.

"Hey?" cried Loasby startled. "How did you know it?"

"He just called me up."

"The hell you say! What for?"

"To ask me to tell Charlotte that he was all right and not to worry."

"Damned cheek!" growled Loasby. "By God, what pleasure it will give me to attend the death chamber when he burns!"

Lee said nothing.

"I went to the apartment myself," Loasby resumed. "He was not in it. Charlotte was frightened but I couldn't get a thing out of her. You know the type. You could kill her by inches and she wouldn't speak."

"I know," said Lee.

"I left a man there to wait for his return. The house is watched front, rear and from the roof. My man has reported that the telephone rang twice, but Charlotte refused to answer it. He heard Al's voice on the wire. So I take it he's warned now, and won't be back."

"Too bad!" Loasby couldn't see him grin.

"However," said Loasby, "at that we have separated him from his hide-out; he is certain to be picked up within twenty-four hours."

Lee's grin widened. "Surely!" he said.

"I want to talk things over with you," said Loasby.

"Why not stop at my place on your way uptown?" suggested Lee. "I had better not be seen around Headquarters too much or the newspaper boys will have a rag baby."

"Right. I have to go to a banquet at the Ambassador. Expect me about ten o'clock."

"Very well. And look, Inspector; I recommend that you don't let out a word about the flat on Park Avenue."

"Not a word! Not a word!" said Loasby fervently; and Lee knew that he could depend upon it, since the story showed up the handsome Inspector in a ludicrous light.

After these conversations, Lee felt a little better. He paced up and down his living room smiling at his own discomfiture. Duty points one way and inclination another, he thought. I have got to break this case or it will break me!

>Chapter 11

Lee called up the Gartrey apartment. A manservant answered. "I would like to speak to Miss Eliza Young," said Lee.

"What name, please?"

"Never mind my name. It's a personal matter." The voice hesitated. "The servants do not use the phone for personal calls, sir. Mrs. Gartrey's orders."

"It is rather important," said Lee.

"Hold the wire a moment, please. I will find out." After a considerable wait Lee heard Agnes Gartrey's cold, crisp voice on the wire. "What is it?" Smiling to himself, he quietly hung up. She was always on guard!

At eight o'clock he called again. He figured that at this hour Mrs. Gartrey would certainly be at dinner, and the manservant presumably waiting on the table. Though he had obeyed orders, the man had probably told Eliza of the call for her and she would be on the 
qui vive
 for another. A female voice answered on the wire.

"I would like to speak to Miss Eliza Young, please."

"This is she."

Lee smiled at his success. "This is Amos Lee Mappin speaking,"

"Oh, yes," she answered eagerly.

"Can you speak freely, Eliza?"

She lowered her voice to a whisper. Evidently her lips were close to the transmitter. "I'm speaking at the switchboard, sir. So you can say what you like. But the other servants are in and out of the pantry, here."

"I understand. I think you and I ought to have a talk, Eliza, 
privately
. There has been too much publicity."

"Indeed you're right, sir."

"Would you be willing to come to my home to discuss the case?"

"Yes, sir, I would be glad to."

"When will you have time off?"

"I could make it about nine o'clock tonight, sir, if convenient to you."

"Very good. I'll be looking for you." He gave her the address.

When Jermyn brought her in to him, Lee was sitting by the fire with a whisky and soda before him. Eliza was a comely woman with a tall, matronly figure and white hair. Her clothes, while of good material, were soberly made without any concessions to the style of the moment. She was of a type unusual in America and seen on the street it would have been hard to place her. Thirty years' service had rendered her face smooth and expressionless. She wore a pince-nez that she was continually adjusting and readjusting.

"Sit down, Miss Eliza," said Lee in friendly fashion. "You see I am having a little refreshment. Will you join me?"

Eliza bridled a little. "I take that kind of you, Mr. Mappin. I don't mind if I do, seeing it's after working hours." Her voice was unexpectedly small and flat, conveying the impression that her soul was too small for its ample frame. She sat stiffly on the edge of the sofa facing Lee. Lee looked at Jermyn over her head, and Jermyn, comprehending, mixed her a stiff highball at a table behind her. Lee perceived that the offer of a drink had stiffened her guard. He thought: That's all right, my lady; it wouldn't be the first time that good liquor had loosened a woman's tongue in spite of her. He started a general conversation.

"I take it you are English, Miss Eliza."

"Yes, Mr. Mappin."

"How long have you been in this country?"

"Twenty years."

"Really! Then you are quite one of us by this time. What brought you to America in the first place?"

"I came with an American family, Mr. Mappin, who had been living in England. And the wages was so much higher in this country that I stayed."

They chatted on about life in America and in England. Eliza, who set a good value on herself, was not at all put about by Lee's condescension. At first, she took dainty little sips of her drink, but as it warmed her, the sips became larger and in the end it was finished as soon as Lee's. Getting up, Lee took both glasses to the little table behind her.

"No more for me, thank you, Mr. Mappin," she said primly.

Nevertheless he mixed her a good one. When he put it before her, her expression suggested that she did not intend to touch it. However, she did.

"Miss Eliza," said Lee, "do you believe that Al Yohe killed Mr. Gartrey?"

"No, Mr. Mappin!" she said positively. "On the contrary, I know that he could not have done it!" She emphasized it so vigorously that the pince-nez slipped down her nose and had to be shoved back. "I let him out of the apartment myself a good five minutes before the shot was fired."

Lee held up his glass and looked through it. "Perhaps he came back," he said casually. "Did he have a key?"

Eliza was shocked. "No, Mr. Mappin! That would have been impossible!...Matters had not gone as far as that," she added.

This was not what Lee had expected. 
Matters had not gone as far as that!
 He took a swallow and turned it over in his mind.

"If Mr. Yohe would only come back!" sighed Eliza. Lee said: "He says he won't until he sees a chance of clearing himself."

"My evidence would clear him, Mr. Mappin!"

"But, don't you see, Miss Eliza, your evidence is canceled out by that of Hawkins."

"It is supported by Mr. Alan Barry Deane," said Eliza sharply, "and he's a gentleman of position."

"I'm afraid Deane wouldn't make a very good witness."

"Hawkins is a liar!" said Eliza viciously. "If he would only fall dead it would simplify matters."

Lee wondered if Eliza was echoing her mistress. Agnes Gartrey had men to do her bidding and unlimited money. Hawkins must be warned.

"Even if Hawkins should testify," Eliza went on, "there would be a conflict of evidence and they wouldn't dare convict Mr. Yohe."

Lee thought: Somebody has been coaching her in the legal aspects of the case. He said: "We can't be sure of clearing Mr. Yohe until we find the real murderer. What is your opinion, Miss. Eliza?"

She stiffened. "Find the liar in the case and you'll have the murderer, Mr. Mappin."

"Obviously," said Lee.

He took her over the whole ground of Monday afternoon. Eliza told precisely the same story as her mistress and Lee felt that he was getting nowhere. Every question he put reminded Eliza that she must be on her guard. He was working to get her to the point where she would talk on without prompting, but it was a slow business. He thought he had her when she said in answer to one of his questions:

"Every time he came Mr. Yohe would have a highball."

"He was a frequent visitor, then," put in Lee casually.

"Why, Mrs. Gartrey told you he was," said Eliza.

Lee, taken aback, applied himself to his drink. This innocent-sounding answer opened up a vista. Agnes Gartrey had foreseen that Lee would question her maid and had drilled her in all the answers. That explained why Eliza not only told the same story but told it in Agnes' very words. Lee took another line.