ALM06 Who Killed the Husband? (19 page)

That was all. She was turning the dials on the radio. It was overdone. More natural if she had shown some elation at the death of one she looked on as her enemy, and a little curiosity in respect to his killer.

Again Lee heard the merest breath of a sound in the corridor. "Do you know," he said softly, "I think somebody is listening at that door?"

Agnes strode silently to the door and threw it open. The servant Denman was standing there. "The latest newspaper, Madam," he said coolly. "You asked me to bring it to you at once."

She took the newspaper, staring at him hard. The man's face was smooth and obsequious. He bowed and retired. Agnes watched him until he had disappeared into the foyer. Closing the door, she tossed the newspaper on a chair. Out of the tail of his eye, Lee saw that the story of Charlotte had not yet broken. Agnes said:

"I don't know if he's a spy or not. I suppose I'd better discharge him just to be on the safe side."

"Don't," said Lee. "If he is a spy, let us do a little spying on him and we may learn something to our advantage."

"Perhaps you are right," she said, returning to the radio.

The small incident made Lee thoughtful. He knew that Denman was a spy. But now that his original employer was dead, whom was he spying for?

Agnes said: "Do you mind if I turn on the news broadcast? I have noticed that when the police have anything to give out it usually comes at this hour."

"Go ahead." Lee braced himself.

They listened to war news, to a stock-market report, to a well-known movie star's endorsement of a brand of beer.

"What a lot of tripe you have to endure before you get what you want," drawled Agnes.

From the radio the pleasant male voice continued:

"Inspector Loasby, head of the New York City detective force, issued an important statement concerning the Al Yohe case at Headquarters this afternoon. Inspector Loasby said, quote:

"'The police have known for some days past that Al Yohe is married and has a baby, Alastair, Junior, about nine months old...'"

Lee was looking blandly at Agnes. Her face showed no change of expression, but under her make-up her color subtly changed, making her face suddenly look like a badly painted waxwork. Lee turned his head away. The voice continued:

"'For more than a year past Mrs. Yohe has been occupying a walk-up apartment at number ---- Park Avenue under the name of Mrs. Matthews, and Al has spent as much time there as he could spare from his duties as host and publicity agent of La Sourabaya night club. He is described as a very affectionate husband and father. This information was withheld from the public while the house was kept under police surveillance in the expectation that Al might steal home to see his little family, but he has not done so. On the contrary, this afternoon Mrs. Yohe took the baby and succeeded in evading the police guard at the house, and it is assumed that she has gone to join her husband. She was last seen at 4 P.M. on an unfrequented walk in Central Park in the neighborhood of the East Drive near Ninetieth Street. She was then carrying the baby. A general alarm for them has been issued.'"

Agnes Gartrey rose suddenly--and dropped limply back on her chair. Her eyes were devoid of all sense. She had forgotten Lee.

"'Mrs. Yohe's first name is Charlotte. She is twenty-three years old, five feet four inches in height, weight 118 pounds; has a graceful, well-formed figure. Her skin is very white and she has a faint natural color in her cheeks; blue eyes, light brown hair. Has a sweet and gentle expression except when roused to defend her husband. When last seen she was wearing a black cloth skirt and black pumps; a finger-length coat of beaver fur cut very full; a small hat of beaver with a touch of red velvet. All her clothes are of expensive materials.

"'The baby is nine months old, weight eighteen pounds, blue eyes, fine, soft hair just beginning to come in. A sturdy child. Is at the age where he likes to pull himself to his feet. Will soon be walking. Wore an oyster-white beret, pleated coat and leggings, all of a soft material resembling velours. As his motherleft his gocart behind, she will have to carry him until such time as she can procure another. A small, pretty, expensively dressed girl carrying a child that is really too heavy for her, ought to be a conspicuous object wherever seen. The nearest policeman should be notified.'"

The speaker passed to another subject and Agnes switched off the radio. Unable to bear Lee's bland, steady gaze, she turned away from him. After a moment she murmured hoarsely:

"You have known this from the first?"

Lee said: "I have known it for a few days past."

"Why didn't you warn me?"

"I was forbidden by the police."

"Surely 
I
 had a right to know!"

"They gave me no latitude."

After a silence she said in an uncertain voice: "You had better leave me."

Lee sat still. He could imagine the hell of bitterness that filled the woman, supposing that she had had a man murdered for nothing--possibly two men, but he was unable to feel much pity for her. He kept his mouth shut, knowing that a passionate woman cannot endure a silence.

Her voice scaled up hysterically. "Did you just come here to gloat over me?"

"No," said Lee.

"You lie! You're enjoying this!"

"Far from it," said Lee soberly.

She whirled around. Her beautiful face seemed to have disintegrated. She looked awful. Her voice rose almost to a scream. "Then what did you come nosing here for? What are you after? What are you after?"

"The truth," said Lee.

She laughed in an ugly fashion. "The truth: A fat lot you care for the truth! You came here to see me suffer! You're just an idler, a sadist! It gives you pleasure to humiliate people and watch them suffer!"

Lee took a pinch of snuff.

Her voice rose higher. "Well, I'll tell you the truth! Nothing can be hidden now! I'll pay him off, at any rate. I don't care if it destroys me, too. The truth is I have ruined myself for a liar and a murderer! It was Al Yohe who shot my husband! He hadn't left the house when Jules came home. He was sitting here in this room while I dressed. I lied and I forced my maid to lie in order to save him! Al was sitting here; the door into the corridor was open; he could hear the elevator door slide back; he ran out into the foyer and shot Jules. He had threatened to do it!"

"Why?" asked Lee mildly.

The little question pulled her up short. "Why? Why?" she repeated, staring wildly.

"He couldn't have planned to marry you if he had a wife to whom he was devoted."

She sneered. "How do you know he was 'devoted' to her?"

"He arranged to have her join him today, though it would double the risk for both of them. Apparently he can't do without her."

A spasm of pain passed over Agnes' face. With a frantic gesture, she tore part of the lace at the bosom of her negligee and let it hang. Even in her abandon, there was something theatrical in her aspect. "Oh, God!" she cried, "and this is the man I lied to save!"

"You haven't answered my question," Lee reminded her.

"I don't have to answer your questions!"

Lee faced her down. "What reason could Al have had for shooting your husband ?"

With an effort she obtained control over herself. "I'll tell you...I'll tell you. Al owed Jules two hundred thousand dollars for the decorations in La Sourabaya, and he couldn't pay it! Two hundred thousand dollars! That's what he killed him for!"

"He'll have to pay his estate," suggested Lee.

"He'll gain time."

"Did you see Al shoot Gartrey?" asked Lee.

"I almost did. I almost did. When I heard the shot I ran into this room. Al was gone. I ran into the music room. Through the opening I could see Jules lying on the floor in the foyer and Al standing over him with the gun in his hand, staring down with an expression of fiendish rage. The gun was smoking! Al didn't see me. He dropped the gun, snatched his coat and hat out of the closet and ran back into the service corridor. And I...I went to my poor husband."

She put a hand to her eyes in a heartbroken gesture. Lee was not impressed. "Where was Eliza?" he asked dryly.

"She joined me in the foyer."

"Let us have Eliza in here," said Lee.

Agnes dropped the sorrow-stricken pretense. "I'll do nothing of the sort!" she said furiously.

Lee was standing near the fireplace. He put out his hand and pushed the bell button. Agnes ran to intercept him but was too late. She was panting like a runner, almost speechless with rage.

"How dare you...how dare you presume to give orders in my house!"

"This is hardly the time for good manners," said Lee. "I want to see the woman before you have time to rehearse her in a new story."

Denman entered. His black eyes were as bright and soulless as shoe buttons. Agnes, walking quickly away to a window, kept her back turned to them.

"Is Miss Eliza about?" asked Lee mildly.

"Why...why, I believe so, sir."

"Please ask her to step here for a moment."

Agnes, without turning around, spoke from the window. "Do no such thing! I forbid it!"

The man looked sharply from one to the other. Lee, when it suited him, had a powerful eye. He said quietly: "You heard me. Fetch Miss Eliza here."

The man went out like an automaton, closing the door after him.

As it turned out, Eliza was in the adjoining room, the dressing room. Lee heard a rush of feet in the corridor. Hastening to the door, he flung it open, but was only in time to see Eliza disappearing through the door into the foyer. She slammed it after her.

The manservant was standing openmouthed in the corridor. His expression of innocent confusion was overdone. "I...I told her, sir," he stammered, "but she ran away."

Lee could not very well chase the lady's maid through the apartment. He turned back into the boudoir, closing the door and helping himself to another pinch of snuff as an aid in recovering his poise.

"Now you get out!" snarled Agnes.

Lee's eyebrows ran up. "Shouldn't we have a little further talk?" he mildly suggested.

"Get out! Get out!" she screamed. "I want no further talk with you! Oh, how I hate you, nasty, sneering little man! Making believe to be my friend! Pretending that you knew nothing and all the time leading me on! I see now what your game is. That was just a cock-and-bull story you told the police about Al Yohe forcing his way into your place. You know where he is! Al is your favorite, isn't he, and you are bent on getting him off at my expense! Not if I know it! Not if I know it! I'll tell all now. I don't care who is hurt by it. Eliza and I together will convict him! I'll see him burn!"

"You had better sleep on it first," said Lee.

"Get out!" she screamed. "I know what I've got to do! You're a liar and a cheat! You're a traitor to your own class..."

Lee thought: She has seen George Coler.

Agnes flung at him what was to her the final insult: "Communist!"

Lee couldn't help himself; he laughed. "Good afternoon," he said bowing. On his way out he had a sense that somebody was keeping out of sight in the music room, but he did not investigate.

Chapter 16

When Lee let himself into his own apartment, Jermyn was in the gallery. He said: "Mrs. Gartrey just called you up, sir."

Lee smiled grimly. "Already?"

"Wanted you to call her up the moment you came in, sir. Said it was vitally important."

Lee went to a telephone. Agnes had changed her tune. "Oh, Mr. Mappin, what must you be thinking of me!" she wailed. "I lost control of myself. Will you believe me when I say I didn't mean a word of what I said! It was due to the shock of what I learned over the radio."

"I quite understand," said Lee soothingly. "And can you ever forgive me?"

"Certainly!" said Lee. "I am not at all a sensitive person. You are freely forgiven."

"Oh, how good of you!"

She went on protesting her remorse, while Lee waited, smiling, for the real object of her call. Finally it came.

"I hardly dare ask it after what has happened, but will you please, 
please
, come back to me right away? We must, as you said, talk things over. You are the only one who is in my confidence, the only one who can help me to do what is right."

Lee's smile became broader. "Surely, I'll come right back."

"Don't take action of any sort until you have seen me!"

"Certainly not, Mrs. Gartrey."

"Oh, 
thank
 you!"

In the magnificent entrance hall of the Gartrey apartment house, Lee found George Coler pacing up and down, biting his lip. His face still had a mottled look. He slipped his hand under Lee's arm as if they had been intimate friends and led him away out of hearing of the hall attendants.

"Mappin, I am so thankful I was able to intercept you," he said. "Don't go up to Mrs. Gartrey now."

"But why not?" said Lee. "She sent for me."