"I'd give a good deal to know which of those two suggested that it would
be a good idea to get married the first thing this morning," Dundee
mused aloud, as he put down the second extra which _The Hamilton Morning
News_ had had occasion to issue that Thursday.
It was two o'clock, and the district attorney's "special investigator"
sat across the desk from Captain Strawn, in his former chief's office at
Police Headquarters.
The first extra had screamed in its biggest head type: SECOND BRIDGE
DUMMY MURDER! and had carried, in detail, Captain Strawn's comforting
theory that Dexter Sprague's erstwhile friends had again been made the
victims of a New York gunman's fiendish cleverness in committing his
murders under circumstances which would inevitably involve Hamilton's
most highly respected and socially prominent citizens in the police
investigation.
But the second extra had a more romantic streamer headline: HAMMOND
WEDDING DELAYS MURDER QUIZ.
The story beneath a series of smaller headlines began:
"At the very moment--9:05 o'clock this morning--when Celia Hunt, maid in
the Tracey Miles home in the Brentwood district of Hamilton, was
screaming the news of her discovery of the dead body of Dexter Sprague,
New York motion picture director, in what is known as the 'trophy room,'
Miss Polly Beale and Mr. Clive Hammond were applying for a marriage
license in the Municipal Building.
"At 9:30, when Miss Beale and Mr. Hammond were exchanging their vows in
the rectory of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of which both bride and
groom have been members since childhood, Captain John Strawn of the
Homicide Squad was listening to Tracey Miles' account of the strange
disappearance of Dexter Sprague last night from an impromptu bridge
game, after he had announced his intention of taking advantage of the
fact that he was 'dummy' to telephone for a taxi.
"And at 10 o'clock, when the new Mrs. Hammond called her home to break
the news of her marriage to her aunt, Mrs. Amelia Beale, the bride was
in turn acquainted with the news of Sprague's murder and the fact that
both she and her husband were wanted at the Miles home for questioning
by the police, since both had been guests of Mr. and Mrs. Miles last
night, although Mr. Hammond did not arrive until about 11 o'clock."
There followed a revision of the murder story as it had appeared in the
first extra, with additional details supplied by Strawn, and with a line
drawing of the scene of the crime--the trophy room itself and the forked
driveway with its tall yew hedges. A dotted line illustrated Strawn's
theory of Sprague's plan to elude the murderer who had followed him to
the Miles home. Because of the curved sweep of the driveway toward the
main entrance of the house, the tall hedge was less than two feet from
the window with the partly opened screen.
"Captain Strawn's theory," read the text below the large drawing, "is
that Sprague had good cause to fear he was being followed on his way to
the Miles home; that he telephoned for a taxi to wait for him at the
foot of the hill, and that he planned to leave the Miles house by way of
the trophy room window, so that his lurking pursuer might have no
knowledge of his departure. The drawing shows that his proposed flight
would have been protected by hedges until he reached the wooded slope of
the hill, provided his Nemesis was lurking in the opposite hedge across
the driveway, where he could observe every departure from the Miles
home."
"You've sure got a single-track mind, boy," Strawn chuckled. "So you
think those two got married in such a hurry this morning because the law
says a husband or a wife can't be made to testify against the other?"
"Possibly." Dundee grinned, unruffled. "But there is another
possibility--which is why I should like to know who suggested this
sudden wedding. I mean that we can't overlook the possibility that these
two murders made either the bride or the groom feel perfectly safe in
going on with the marriage. Polly Beale and Clive Hammond had been
engaged for more than a year, you know, with no apparent reason for a
long engagement.... As for my having a single-track mind, Captain, what
about you? I have six possible suspects, all of whose names I know, and
you have only one--whose name you do not know, and whose motive you can
only guess at, while _I_ have a perfectly good motive that might fit any
one of my six--blackmail!"
"Is that so?" Strawn growled. "I'm not telling the papers everything,
and if they are satisfied to call these murders '_crimes passionnels_,'
it's all right with me. But I'm not forgetting that Nita Selim banked
ten thousand dollars cash after she got to Hamilton. My real theory now
that Sprague has been killed is that Nita and Sprague had cooked up some
sort of racket between them, and that when Nita got the chance to come
to Hamilton with Mrs. Dunlap, she jumped at it, and she and Sprague
sprung their racket, whatever it was, either just before or just after
Nita left New York. Probably it was Nita's tip-off and Sprague did the
actual dirty work himself, which explains that telegram that Nita sent
him April 24, just three days after she got to Hamilton. Let's see again
just what it says," and Strawn reached for a copy of the night letter
which Dundee himself had unearthed the day before. "See: '_Everything
Jake so far, but would feel safer you here_--'"
"Yes, I remember the wording quite well," Dundee interrupted. "But you
did not take it so seriously when I showed it to you yesterday. If you
had--"
"All right! Rub it in!" Strawn snapped, flushing darkly. "If I had
assigned a man to 'tail' Sprague, as you suggested, he wouldn't have
been murdered--"
"He probably would have been murdered just the same," Dundee comforted
the older man, "but we might have been lucky enough to have had an
eye-witness."
"Oh, you and your theory!" Strawn growled. "But let me go on.... Nita
meant she would feel safer about Sprague if he was here in Hamilton,
too. But the guy they double-crossed in New York, or worked the badger
game on, or something like that, got on their trail. But it took him
weeks to do it, and Sprague followed Nita's advice. He got here on
Sunday April 27, and on Monday the 28th Nita banked the first $5,000!
Don't you see it, boy? Sprague brought with him the dough they'd got for
their stunt, and thought it was safer for Nita to bank it in her name,
since it wasn't the name she was known by in New York anyway. We've
checked up on Sprague pretty thoroughly. He didn't have a bank book,
either on his body or in his room, and every bank in town denies he had
an account with them."
"If that theory is correct, it makes Nita Selim a pretty low character,"
Dundee mused aloud. "Not only did she kick him out as a lover, but she
double-crossed him as her partner in crime, by willing the whole wad to
Lydia Carr. Sprague must have received quite a shock when he heard
Nita's will read at the inquest."
"Yeah," Strawn agreed. "It looks like Mrs. Dunlap picked a sweet
specimen to make a friend out of.... Well, that's my theory, and I think
it explains everything. Their victim in New York simply hired a gunman,
or come down here himself, when he got on their tracks. Of course it was
a good stunt to make it look like a local crime--figured he'd fool _me_
just as he fooled _you_! So the murderer simply trailed Nita around, and
saw that whole bunch of society people shooting at a target at Judge
Marshall's place, with a gun equipped with a Maxim silencer. Too good an
opportunity to be missed, so he bides his chance to swipe the gun and
silencer. To make sure it will look like a local crime, he pops off Nita
when that same bunch is at her house, but it takes a few days longer
before he has the same opportunity to get Sprague. But it come last
night and he grabbed it."
"A very plausible theory, and one which, in general, the whole city of
Hamilton has been familiar with since the night Nita was murdered,"
Dundee remarked significantly.
"What do you mean?" Strawn demanded. "It's waterproof, ain't it? Doc
Price says the bullet--and a .32 caliber one at that--entered Sprague's
body just below the breastbone and traveled an upward course till it
struck the extreme right side of the heart. The bullet entered exactly
where it would have to, if the murderer was crouching under that window
while Sprague was raising the screen. And we have Carraway's report that
it was Sprague's fingerprints on those nickleplated things you have to
press together to make the screen roll up or down. Furthermore, I
haven't a doubt in the world that the ballistics expert in Chicago will
report that the bullet was fired from the same gun that killed Nita
Selim."
"Neither have I," Dundee agreed. "But what I meant was that you had
obligingly furnished the murderer who fits _my_ theory with a theory
he--or she--would not have upset for the world!... Listen!" and he bent
forward very earnestly: "I'm willing to grant that Sprague was shot from
the outside, through the window, when Sprague raised the screen. But
there our theories part company. I believe that the murderer was a guest
in the Selim home last night, that he or she had made an appointment to
meet Sprague there, on the promise of paying the hush money he had
demanded, in spite of my warning to him not to carry on with the
blackmail scheme. Naturally he or she--and I'll say 'he' from now on,
for the sake of convenience--had no intention of being seen entering
that room. The bridge game was suggested by Judge Marshall at noon.
There was plenty of time for the rendezvous to be made with Sprague. As
I see it, the murderer told Sprague to excuse himself from the game when
he became dummy, and to go to the trophy room and wait there until the
murderer had a chance to slip away and appear beneath the window.
Sprague had been promised that, when he raised the screen at a tap or a
whispered request, a roll of bills would be handed to him, but--he
received a bullet instead."
"And which one of your six suspects have you picked on?" Strawn asked
sarcastically.
"That's just the trouble. There are still six," Dundee acknowledged with
a wry grin. "After Sprague's disappearance, every one of the six was
absent from the porch at one time or another.... No, by George! There
are _seven_ suspects now! I was about to forget Peter Dunlap, who admits
he was alone on a fishing trip when Nita was murdered and who left the
porch last night to go to the library, as soon as Sprague arrived!... As
for the movements of the original six after Sprague disappeared: Polly
Beale took a walk about the grounds; Flora Miles went upstairs to hunt
for Karen Marshall, and was gone more than ten minutes; Drake went to
the dining room to get the refreshments, and no one can say exactly how
long he was gone; Judge Marshall went up to get his wife, and had time
to make a little trip on the side; Janet Raymond walked over from her
home, and passed that very window, arriving after Sprague had
disappeared; and, finally, Clive Hammond arrived alone in his car, which
he parked within a few feet of that window. This morning he gets
married----"
"A telegram, sir!" interrupted a plainclothesman, who had entered
without knocking.
Strawn snatched at it, read it, then exulted: "Read this, boy! I guess
_this_ settles the business!"
The telegram had been filed half an hour before and was from the city
editor of _The New York Evening Press_:
"WORKING ON YOUR THEORY OF NEW YORK GUNMAN RESPONSIBLE MURDERS OF
JUANITA LEIGH SELIM AND DEXTER SPRAGUE THIS PAPER HAS DISCOVERED
THAT SELIM WOMAN WAS SEEN AT NIGHT CLUBS SEVERAL TIMES DURING
JANUARY FEBRUARY WITH QUOTE SWALLOW TAIL SAMMY END QUOTE UNDERWORLD
NAME FOR SAM SAVELLI STOP SAVELLI TAKEN FOR RIDE TUESDAY APRIL
TWENTY SECOND TWO DAYS AFTER SELIM WOMAN LEFT NEW YORK STOP POLICE
HERE WORKING ON THEORY SAVELLI SLAIN BY OWN GANG AFTER THEY WERE
TIPPED OFF SAVELLI WAS DOUBLE CROSSING THEM STOP IN EXCHANGE FOR
THIS TIP CAN YOU GIVE US ANY SUPPRESSED INFORMATION YOUR POSSESSION
STOP SAVELLI HAD BROTHER WHO IS KNOWN TO US TO HAVE PROMISED
REVENGE SWALLOW TAIL SAMMYS MURDER STOP BE A SPORT CAPTAIN."
"Well, that puts the lid on it, don't it?" Strawn crowed. "I'll send
Sergeant Turner to New York on the five o'clock train.... Pretty decent
of that city editor to wire me this tip, I'll say!"
"And are you going to reciprocate by wiring him about the $10,000 Nita
banked here?" Dundee asked.
"Sure! Why not? There's no use that I can see to keep it back any
longer, now that no one can have any excuse to think as you've been
doing--that it was blackmail paid by a Hamiltonian."
"Then," Dundee began very slowly, "if you really think your case is
solved, I'll make one suggestion: take charge of Lydia Carr and put her
in a very safe place."
"Why?" Strawn looked puzzled.
"Because, when you publish the fact that Nita and Sprague got $10,000
for tipping off Savelli's gang that he was double-crossing them, and
that Nita willed the money to Lydia, the avenger's next and last job
would be to 'get' Lydia, since his natural conclusion would be that
Lydia had been in on the scheme from the beginning," Dundee explained.
"God, boy! You're right!" Strawn exclaimed, and his heavy old face was
very pale as he reached for the telephone, and called the number of the
Miles residence. "I'm going to put it up to her that it will be best for
her to be locked up as a material witness, for her own protection."
Five minutes later Strawn restored the receiver to the hook with a bang.
"Says she won't budge!" he explained unnecessarily. "Says she ain't
afraid and the Miles kids need her.... Well, it's her own funeral! But I
guess _you_ are convinced at last?"