BRISTOW SOLVES A PROBLEM
Mr. Beale and Mr. Jones were, so far as their exteriors showed, nearly
back to the normal iciness of their every-day appearance when Braceway
found them in the president's office a few minutes after half-past five.
He did not have to ask what they had discovered; their faces were frank
confessions. He dropped into a chair and smiled.
"How much?"
Mr. Beale cleared his throat and moved his lips deliberately one against
the other.
"Before I say anything else, Mr.--er--Braceway, I want to express to you
not only my own gratitude but that of all the officers and directors of
the Anderson National. You have, it seems, saved us from great trouble.
As things are, they are bad enough. But you have enabled us to put our
fingers on the--ah--situation almost in time."
He glanced at Jones.
"Briefly," the vice-president took up the statement, "it has been
established, thus far, that Morley has stolen from the Anderson National
the--"
Mr. Beale's composure broke down at this. He interrupted the
subordinate's calm explanation:
"Stolen from the Anderson National! Think of that, sir! Of all the
outrageous things, of all the unqualifiedly and absolutely incredible
things! We have in our bank, on our payrolls, a thief, an unmitigated
scoundrel!" He pushed back his chair and drummed on his knees. "We find
that one of his thefts was seven hundred dollars, and another five
hundred. We--I--trusted him, trusted him! And with what result?"
He slid his chair forward and bruised his fist by striking the desk with
all his strength.
"And the crudity of his methods! Preposterous! The old trick of entries
in pass-books and no entries in the records! He chose, for his own
safety, depositors who carried large balances and were not apt to draw
out anywhere near their total balance. It's the most abominable----"
Between the outbursts of the president and the cold, lifeless words of
the vice-president, Braceway managed to elicit these facts: they expected
to uncover more than the $1,200 shortage already established; when they
could examine all the pass-books now out of the bank, the total would
undoubtedly be found much larger; they demanded Morley's arrest at once;
in fact, if the law had allowed it, they would have sent him to the
scaffold within the next hour.
"Now," the detective reminded them, "he's also under suspicion of
murder."
"My God!" spluttered Beale. "What do we care about murder? Hasn't he
tried to murder this bank? Hasn't he assassinated, so far as he could,
its good name? Get him! Put him behind the bars!"
At last they agreed to Braceway's plan: Morley was to be arrested by one
of Major Ross' plain-clothes men when he stepped off the train from
Baltimore. It was to be done quietly, so that the news of it would not
be in the morning's papers.
He was then to be taken to one of the outlying police stations for the
sake of privacy, was to be told that he was charged with embezzlement;
and then, having been frightened by the arrest, he would be compelled to
undergo the cross-examination of Braceway and Bristow, who wanted to
prove or disprove his connection with the murder in Furmville.
Braceway returned to the hotel to await a report from either Major Ross
or Delaney.
Delaney came into the lobby and joined him. They went straight to
Braceway's room.
"We caught the five o'clock in Baltimore and got here a little before
six," the big man started his story. "One of the men from headquarters
stepped up to him and arrested him. I figured you had arranged for it, so
I beat it up here."
"What happened in Baltimore?" asked Braceway in a tone so friendly that
it dissipated much of the other's embarrassment.
"I declare, Mr. Braceway," he said humbly, "I don't know how it happened.
I never had such a thing hit me before. But I lost him slick as a
whistle. I was in the bar of the hotel, and he was sitting in the lobby.
I had my eye right on him, and he had no idea I was following him. Then,
all at once, after I'd turned to the barkeeper just long enough to order
a soft drink, I looked around, and he was gone. I combed the house from
top to bottom, but it was no use. He had ducked me clean."
"What time was that?"
"Twelve-forty-five."
"And then what?"
"The chief gave me your message, and I went back to keep a look on
Eidstein's place. I didn't think he'd show there again, but he did--at
four o'clock and stayed there almost half an hour. After that, he went to
the station, me right after him. We both caught the five o'clock for
Washington."
"Did you talk with Eidstein?"
"No, sir; had no orders. But he's no loan-shark, and no fence. Eidstein's
on the level. We know all about him."
"How did Morley look when he showed up there the second time?"
"Done up, sir, fagged out. That's what makes me uneasy. He'd been up to
something that shook him, something that rattled his teeth. He looked
it."
"Pawning something, perhaps?"
"That's just it--just the way I figured it--something he knew was
risky--something that made him sweat blood."
"Well, it's all right," Braceway concluded. "There's nothing for you to
worry about. It may be that losing him was the best thing you ever did.
I'm not sure, but it may turn out so."
Delaney, greatly relieved, thanked him and left.
Braceway hurried to the sick man's room and, having been ushered in by
Miss Martin, found him, fully dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed. He
was still pale and looked tired, but his voice was strong. He was setting
down a half-empty glass of water on a tray near the bed, and his hand,
although it wavered a little, had lost the helpless tremulousness
Braceway had noticed at noon.
"Hello!" said the visitor. "You're a wonder! I expected to find you
prostrated."
"Oh, no," Bristow answered quietly. "I knew the rest and sleep would
bring me around all right, and Miss Martin has given me a twentieth of a
grain of strychnine. What's the news?"
"I'll sketch it to you. But how about dinner?"
"I've arranged for us to have it up here, if you don't mind?"
Braceway agreed, and Miss Martin straightened up the other room, where
the meal was served.
Bristow, restricting himself to clam broth, crackers, and coffee, heard
the story of the day's developments with profound interest. Except for
the little tremor in his fingers, there was no sign that he had been ill
a few hours earlier. Not a detail escaped him. The whole thing was
photographed on his mind, even the hours and minutes of the time at which
this or that had occurred.
"So," concluded Braceway, "you can see why I feel pretty fine! Morley's
a thief, as I'd believed all along. The motive for the murder is
established, particularly when you remember that Miss Fulton, who had
been advancing him money, was prevented by her sister from doing so any
further."
"No; I can't see that," objected Bristow. "A motive? Yes; but not a
motive for murder. So far as I can size it up, he wanted to steal more
money, and that's all. It's a far cry between theft and murder."
"You stick to your old theory, the negro's guilt?"
"Naturally. There you have the motive and the murder--the proof that he
said he would rob, and the indisputable evidence that he did rob and
kill. Why, he brought away with him particles of the victim's body! What
more do you want?"
For a long moment their glances interlocked and held. In a sharp,
intuitive way Braceway felt that Bristow suspected his concern about
George Withers. He did not know why he suspected it, but he did. He was
convinced that the other, with his darting, analytical mind, had gone to
the secret unerringly.
"Oh, well," he laughed, rising from the table, "if you're so fond of your
own ideas, Bristow, you won't be of much use to me in questioning Morley
tonight."
"On the contrary," the other returned quickly, "I'm just as anxious as
you are to get the truth out of him. As long as one man's story is left
vague and indefinite, just that long you run the risk of somebody's
coming forward with facts or conjectures to overthrow the theory you've
advanced. It applies to my idea as well as to yours."
"No doubt."
"You know as well as I do," the lame man continued, "that, if Perry
Carpenter isn't guilty, the next one to suspect logically is Withers."
"What makes you say that?" The question was put sharply.
"I've two reasons. In the first place, the facts and Withers' own story;
in the second, common sense."
The telephone rang. When Bristow answered it, a man's voice asked for
Braceway. Major Ross himself was on the wire.
"I had the man in Baltimore interviewed," he reported. "Here is his story
in a few words: some years ago Morley's father bought from his shop a
pair of earrings, each one set with an unusually valuable pigeon's-blood
ruby, and gave them to Mrs. Morley. Young Morley, now in trouble, took
him this morning the two stones and asked him to buy them back. He
explained that it must be done secretly because he might be suspected of
having been implicated in a murder.
"He denied any guilt, but said it would embarrass him if the deal became
known. The owner of the shop--you understand who--could not buy them
back, but promised to raise money on them, something he'd never done
before. He was greatly affected by Morley's grief and despair. He says
the rubies are the ones he sold years ago."
"Did he raise the money?"
"He tried, but couldn't get the sum Morley wanted, seven hundred dollars.
Finally, he did advance it from his own pocket."
"And the stones? How do they compare with those on the list of Withers'
stuff?"
"Identical."
"All right; thanks. We'll see you at eight."
Braceway repeated the report to Bristow, eliciting the comment:
"Is somebody trying to make fun of us--or what is it? If those rubies
belonged to Mrs. Withers, one thing at least is certain: Morley was in
the bungalow the night of the murder, and after the murder had been
committed. Miss Fulton distinctly told me the only jewelry that had ever
passed between her and Morley was the ring found in his room in the
Brevord that morning."
Braceway laughed aloud.
"At last," he said, "You're beginning to see the light--or to appreciate
the jungle we're running around in."
He had arranged for them to meet Major Ross at the station house of
No. 7 police precinct. Since it was off the principal beats of police
reporters, Morley was detained there.
Bristow went into his bedroom, where Miss Martin gave him another dose of
strychnine. He asked her to await his return--not that he expected to be
in need of her, he said, but just to be on the safe side. He waved aside
Braceway's solicitousness about his strength.
As they stepped into the corridor, a boy handed Braceway a telegram. He
read it, and, without a word, handed it to Bristow. It said:
"Two diamonds and two emeralds, unset, apparently part of Withers
jewelry, pawned here about two-thirty this afternoon by medium-sized
man; a little slim; black moustache; high, straight nose; bushy
eyebrows; very thin lips; gray eyes; age between thirty and forty;
weight 140 pounds. Two pawnshops used. No trace of him yet."
It was signed by the chief of the Baltimore plain-clothes force.
"What do you think of that?" asked Braceway, his voice hard.
"This Morley," answered Bristow, his voice equally hard, "must have lost
his mind."
They went down and took a cab.
"That description," the lame man was thinking, as they rolled through the
streets toward the northwest part of the city, "fits Withers perfectly,
except for the moustache and the colour of the eyes. But that's absurd.
I'd like to----"
He began again to wonder what, in addition to the capture of the guilty
man, had brought Braceway to Washington. With his highly sensitized
brain, he had received the impression that there was joined to the case
some event or interest of which he had not the slightest inkling. How was
Morley hooked up with the hidden phase of the affair? He intended to know
all they knew about the whole business.
If Morley knew the secret--there was Maria Fulton! Incredulous for a
moment, he considered an entirely new idea. His incredulity vanished--and
he knew!
He lay back against the cab cushion and laughed, silently. His mirth
grew. His laughter was almost beyond control. This was the thing that had
bothered him, the "hidden angle" that had escaped him. He laughed until
he shook. He had to put his hand to his mouth to prevent bursting into
prolonged, riotous guffaws.
That was it--Withers and Fulton, and Braceway of course, were afraid of
Morley, afraid of what he might say; not about events of the night of
the murder, but what he might reveal concerning----
He struggled again with his consuming mirth. He saw now that he had
handled everything exactly as it should have been handled.
Now, more than ever before, he was interested in what the embezzler would
say under their examination and cross-questioning. It was like a game in
which he, Bristow, was the assured winner before even the first move was
made. He knew already the very thing they were so intent on concealing.