ALM06 Who Killed the Husband? (20 page)

"I know, I know, I have just left her. She is beside herself."

"I understand that. I was here earlier."

"She told me you were...Mappin, this story given out by the police today has administered a frightful shock to her. She is half out of her mind. Doesn't know what she is doing."

Lee wondered what the man's game was. Perhaps he was actually telling the truth. It's the last thing one suspects of a prominent man nowadays.

"It will be a good thing in the end," Coler continued. "It will cure her of this insane infatuation for Al Yohe. I had hoped to see her get over it gradually. I knew I could trust her good sense in the long run. But to get it like this has completely bowled her over...Just give her a little time to find herself, Map-pin. It is cruel to press a woman in her condition."

"I'm not going to press her," said Lee. "Just what is it that you are afraid of?"

"She appears to be determined to tell her story to the newspapers, to the police, to publish it to the world! It would ruin her whole life. In mercy, Mappin..."

"I'm not going to allow her to do anything like that," said Lee, "not if I can prevent it."

Coler stared. "You mean that?"

"Surely. I am no believer in the sensationalism of the press. It not only feeds the public's worst appetites, but sometimes obstructs justice as well."

"And the police?" asked Coler anxiously.

"I have no intention of passing on her story to the police at this juncture."

Coler picked up Lee's hand and pumped it up and down. "Thank God!" he exclaimed. "I knew you were a good fellow, Mappin! We had some hasty words in my office that I am sorry for; I knew you were sound at heart!"

"Well, thanks!" said Lee.

"I couldn't do a thing with Agnes!"

"It may not be as bad as you think. I have often noticed that a woman is most obstinate when she is at the point of giving in."

Coler laughed heartily. "That's good!" he said. "I must remember it. You don't mind if I bring it out as my own, do you? We can't all be as witty as you are."

"Not at all," said Lee.

"Call me up after you have talked to her," said Coler with a glint of ugly eagerness in his eyes.

"I can't promise to do that," said Lee coolly. "Not if she talks to me in confidence, you know."

Coler gave him a hard look and strode on out of the building.

Upstairs Lee was once more shown into the pink boudoir by young Denman. The servant's face was as smooth and waxen as ever. Agnes received Lee with an air of deprecating wistfulness. She had changed the torn negligee for a sober black and white robe, and her face had been made up anew. When the servant left the room, she reassumed her heartbroken air and made play with a lace handkerchief.

Lee cut short her self-reproaches. "Please," he said, "I have forgotten what happened here earlier. I made all allowances for the shock you received. Let's begin over."

"You are so good," she murmured, touching the handkerchief to her eyes. "Have you telephoned what I told you to the police?"

"No!" said Lee.

"To the newspapers?"

"Certainly not!"

Agnes lowered her head to hide the look of satisfaction in her face. "I am suffering cruelly," she murmured in a piteous voice. "No man could ever understand what I am going through!...Long practice has made Al Yohe expert in deceiving women. I didn't realize that. His air of frankness and honesty was perfect! Day after day he came here to pour out his pretended passion for me. I laughed at him, then I listened, then I weakened. I led such a loveless life, you see. And all the time he had murder in his heart! He was just using me as a means of reaching my husband! Could a woman suffer a more awful humiliation!"

Lee thought: Your story does not hang together very well, my lady.

"I am only a woman," she continued, "with all a woman's faults and weaknesses. The only way I can heal the frightful wound he has given me is by helping the law to punish him. I want to see him suffer. Do you blame me for that?"

"Not in the least," said Lee briskly.

"He no doubt still believes that he can do anything he likes with me and I don't want him to be warned that I have turned against him. The only dangerous witness against him, as he thinks, has been removed by death and he may give himself up now, thinking that he can brazen out his crime with my help. I want my pitiful story to remain a secret until after Al Yohe is lodged in jail. I will then tell the whole truth as a warning to other women."

"That is exactly what I would advise," said Lee. "Then I can depend on you to say nothing?"

"Absolutely!" Lee, delicately probing like a surgeon, asked casually: "Why didn't you say this to George Coler just now and put him out of his anxiety?"

Agnes looked at him sharply. "What about George Coler?"

"I met him downstairs. He was half sick with anxiety because you had told him you were going to publish the whole story. He begged me to reason with you."

She shrugged pettishly. "George irritates me so that I say things to him I don't mean. I suppose he's the best friend I've got, but he's in love with me."

"So I gathered," said Lee.

"It's horrible to me to be reminded of that now. I'm done with men forever! I hate love!"

Lee thought: I wonder!

"However," she went on, "I promise you I will make it up to him. George is really a good fellow."

"Quite," said Lee. "Can we depend on Eliza to keep her mouth shut?"

"Absolutely...You wanted to talk to Eliza, didn't you? I'll call her." She went to the door of the dressing room and opened it. "Eliza, come in, please. Mr. Mappin wants to talk to you."

Lee thought: Not much use now since they've had their heads together.

Eliza entered self-consciously. Her large, pale face wore an expression of lugubriousness fashioned after that of her mistress. She, too, had a handkerchief. She was perspiring and the pince-nez kept slipping down.

"Sit down," said Lee. "I don't like to see you standing when you're in such distress."

"Oh, sir!" moaned the lady's maid, seating herself on the extreme edge of a chair.

"Tell me precisely what happened on that tragic Monday afternoon."

Eliza wiped her eyes. "Sir, I said what wasn't true when I told you that I had let Mr. Yohe out of the apartment before the shot was fired. He was still here. He was sitting in this room while I dressed Mrs. Gar-trey. At first, the door was open and they talked back and forth, but before I disrobed her I closed the door."

Lee thought: So far, this is true. He asked with a casual air: "Was the door from the dressing room into the corridor open?"

The question took Eliza off her guard. "Yes...no...I don't remember, sir."

"It was closed," put in Agnes sharply. "All the doors are closed while I am dressing."

"Naturally," said Lee. "Please go on, Miss Eliza."

"I had almost finished dressing Mrs. Gartrey when we heard the shot. Mrs. Gartrey jumped up and ran in here."

"What did you do?"

"Me? I was paralyzed with fright, sir. For a moment or two I couldn't move. Then I thought of my mistress. My mistress came first with me. I ran in here after her. The room was empty. I ran on into the music room and she was there. I was in time to see Mr. Yohe disappearing through the rear door in the foyer. He didn't see us. After a little, Mr. Hawkins, the butler, came into the foyer and kneeled down beside Mr. Gartrey's body."

Lee looked questioningly at Agnes.

"I must make a correction in my statement there," she said quickly. "Eliza is right. Eliza and I remained clinging to each other in the music room until after Hawkins came out into the foyer."

"I see," said Lee. He turned to the maid. "In your former statement you said you ran through the corridor into the foyer."

Eliza hung her head. "I was not telling the truth, sir."

"But what reason did you have for saying that?"

"No particular reason, sir."

"Hawkins stated that you came out of the corridor door."

"Hawkins was a liar," said Agnes sharply. "What difference does it make, anyhow?"

"You are right," said Lee soothingly. "It makes no difference. But this is important. Miss Eliza stated to me that you had left the dressing room before the shot was fired; that she was alone in there when she heard the shot."

Agnes looked daggers at the maid. Eliza was terrified. Her nose glasses fell off. "No, sir! No, sir! You have that wrong, sir. We was together!"

"I made a note of it at the time."

"No, sir! I never said such a thing, sir. I couldn't have said it, it's not true! We was together!"

"Think what you are saying, Eliza," put in Agnes acidly. "Mr. Mappin mustn't get the impression that we have anything to hide."

The maid adjusted her glasses with shaking fingers. "No, Madam, I know that. You and me was together. Please believe me, sir."

Agnes said harshly: "Sooner or later you will have to go on the witness stand, Eliza. Will you be able to swear to what you say?"

"I will swear it before any judge in the land!" cried Eliza. "We was together in the dressing room when we heard the shot. And you said: 'What's that?'"

"That's all, Miss Eliza," said Lee. "And thank you very much."

Eliza went back into the dressing room holding her handkerchief to her face.

"So you see," said Agnes, "there cannot be the slightest doubt that Al Yohe is guilty."

"I have no doubt," said Lee.

"Will you have a drink?"

"No, thank you. I mustn't wait for that."

Lee walked home. The act of walking supplies a gentle stimulus to the brain, and he saw things in a clearer light. He had spoken truly when he told Agnes he had no doubt. He believed that he at last knew what had happened. When a liar repudiates his lie and tells another, he gives away more than he is aware of. His successive lies point the way to the truth. But Lee had not a scintilla of evidence to take into court. I must have evidence! he said to himself.

Chapter 17

Meanwhile Inspector Loasby was working hard on the Robert Hawkins' murder and on the following afternoon, Friday, he telephoned gleefully to Lee that he had built up a complete case against Jocker Stacey. Lee went down to Headquarters to hear his report.

"The Philadelphia waitress has recovered her nerve," Loasby said to Lee. "Today she picked out Stacey from among six men three times running without any hesitation. That in itself is enough to send him to the chair. But I have also been confronting him with different trainmen and conductors of the Pennsylvania Railroad as they came into New York on their runs, and he has been positively identified by two men as having been on the 2:30 train from New York on Tuesday afternoon. Another trainman swears that he was aboard the 9:38 from West Philadelphia to New York Tuesday night. It's lucky for us that the Jocker is a striking looking fellow. A clerk at the Information Desk in the West Philadelphia Station has identified him as the man who asked how to get to Frankford Tuesday afternoon. It all fits together, you see."

"Does he know you have secured this evidence against him?"

"Sure! I told him that he might as well come clean now, but he only laughs. He has engaged Harry Brummel for his attorney."

"Hm!" said Lee. "Stacey must have been handsomely paid for this murder."

"You said it, Mr. Mappin. Brummel comes high. The most conspicuous criminal lawyer in New York, and the most unscrupulous. A sinister figure, if you ask me; I hope I may live to see him disbarred. He has the reputation of never having lost a homicide case. The crooks of this city look on him as a superman. But I don't see how even Brummel can get this killer off."

"The District Attorney had better watch his jury," said Lee dryly. "There are millions available to beat this case."

Loasby was presently called on the telephone by the celebrated Harry Brummel. The Inspector first looked pleased as he listened to his communication, and afterwards suspicious. He said to him on the wire:

"All right, I'll have him brought here, Mr. Brummel. You may be present while he makes his statement, but I must warn you not to prompt him nor communicate with him in any way, or I'll have to call the proceedings off."

When he hung up, Loasby gave an order for Dominick Stacey to be brought from the Tombs to his office. Loasby said to Lee with a scowl: "Brummel says that after consulting with his client and learning the extent of the evidence against him, he has advised him to come clean, and Stacey has agreed...I don't much like the look of it, Mr. Mappin. Brummel is too slick. I suspect there's a trick in it."

"I am perfectly sure there is a trick in it," said Lee coolly. "Some of the most powerful interests in New York are out to get this man off."

"How can they hope to get him off?" said Loasby, spreading out his hands, "a cold-blooded, premeditated murder and six witnesses ready to swear that Stacey is the man!"

"They're working for a verdict of manslaughter," said Lee dryly. "Stacey would be glad to take a sentence of ten years, wouldn't he, with a third off for good behavior, and a million, say, waiting for him when he came out?"