A TELEGRAM FROM MEXICO
"Your deductions seem natural," said Mr. Mountjoy, at length. "But
this unknown woman? Is there any one in the city to whom you could
ascribe a motive? Will you have to go into the past record of Señor
de Sanchez? And Fairchild--Heaven knows there can't be anything
between him and such a mysterious, blood-thirsty female. How are we
to account for his participation in the crime? I think it well to
secure such a record; also De Sanchez's association with General
Westbrook in Mexico. There is no telling how the darkness may be
illuminated from some unexpected quarter. At present, John, to me it
is completely baffling."
But Mr. Converse had neglected nothing that his experience suggested
as being a likely means of casting light upon the crime.
"Yes, sir," he rejoined, in his steady manner. "Yes, sir; I admit
the case offers many puzzling phases, and apparently contradictory
circumstances; but you must remember that we have been at work on it
less than twenty-four hours; the woman's identity may be shown in a
manner we cannot now imagine, and any hour may bring the news of
Fairchild's apprehension.
"Besides, I have been beforehand in looking up the deceased's past.
I should receive a telegram from Mexico to-day. The net is well
spread, I think. A man is watching Fairchild's house--in fact, the
whole department are keeping a look-out for him; and the other actors
are being shadowed by capable men."
"But from all the facts in your possession," interrupted Mr.
Mountjoy, "have you considered the possibility--aside from the
statements of the witnesses, I mean, and simply upon what you know to
be the facts--of either Doctor Westbrook or Howard Lynden being the
assassin?"
"Yes, sir, I have," was the reply. "But for the present we may
dismiss them shortly, though I shall not cease to consider every
development in this case in the light of its possible application to
all the parties.
"Could the Doctor, then, have delivered the fatal thrust? From the
present facts we must give him the benefit of the doubt, and abide
the results of further investigation. It is very fortunate for him
that his friend Howe happened to be present just when he was; and it
is strange, his coming all the way from Georgia to be a piece in this
puzzling game. But here he is.
"Howe's importance arises from the peculiar acoustics of that portion
of the Nettleton Building about Doctor Westbrook's office." Converse
then told of his experience with Lynden in the Doctor's laboratory,
concluding: "It is not at all surprising that Howe could not hear a
struggle in the hall, while, at the same time, he could hear such
faint sounds as the scratching of a pen and the rustling of paper
while the Doctor was writing in the reception-room.
"As for Lynden, we have to show he so quickened his pace that he
overtook De Sanchez at Doctor Westbrook's door. He shared with all
the frequenters of the Doctor's office a knowledge of the dagger and
where it usually reposed. Under such a theory, however, Lynden's
actions would have displayed a carelessness and a reckless disregard
for consequences which I don't think the man capable of. He did not
know who had or had not gone home from the other offices that line
the hall, and the deceased was not surprised by the sudden onrush of
a determined murderer. Had such been the case, how about Doctor
Westbrook's statement that De Sanchez came on steadily to the
reception-room door?--for, singularly enough, in the reception-room
one can hear quite distinctly sounds arising in the hall. Besides,
the Doctor does not remember having heard Lynden at all until the
young man grasped his arm."
"Well, now, tell us of the cigarette stubs." This from the District
Attorney.
Converse picked them both up, one in each hand, and contemplated them
with uplifted brow and puckered lips.
"Gentlemen," he began at length, "these two snipes have caused me
more mental worry--I have had more trouble in fitting them into any
place where they could belong--than anything else concerning this
case.
"You will observe that both of them are but half consumed, and that
when rolled neither was moistened by the tongue to hold it together.
Any one who has travelled in Mexico or the extreme Southwest will
recognize this as a national and local characteristic. The paper of
both is identical--coarse and a dark brown; and the tobacco is from a
black Mexican growth. I suppose, outside the Mexican quarter you
could not find a man in the city who smokes such a
cigarette--excepting Vargas. It is just such a cigarette as nine out
of ten of the lower class of Mexicans--men, women, and
children--smoke. Yet the tastes of neither De Sanchez nor Vargas
were too fastidious for them; the papers and tobacco are identical
with those found in the deceased's pocket, and they are just like
those Mr. Vargas smokes.
"The first I picked up near the top of the Nettleton Building
stairway, while I was accompanying Lynden to Doctor Westbrook's
offices; the second I found on the skylight at the bottom of the
light-well. The ends that had been held in the mouth were still
moist when I found them, so they had not been long discarded. De
Sanchez, of course, is responsible for the first; but how about the
other? Could he, after throwing one cigarette away at the point
where I found the first, roll and light another and smoke it half up
as he walked down the hall, then flip the second out the hall window
into the light-well just before turning toward the Doctor's door? I
believe not.
"The second could have come from any window abutting upon the
light-well, of either the Field or the Nettleton Buildings. But who
threw it, and why was he there at that particular time? Well, it
took two men more than an hour this morning to eliminate all except
five windows out of a possible twenty; and those five told nothing.
I examined them myself. Yet it might be possible that the second
stub came from the unknown woman.
"Did she steady her nerves and beguile the time until her victim's
approach, with a cigarette? It may be--"
Here, for the first time, Mr. Merkel interrupted.
"A Mexican woman!" he fairly shouted; "some dark-eyed señorita--"
His enthusiasm suddenly cooled as Mr. Mountjoy's look of surprise at
his outburst rapidly changed to one of much meaning.
At this juncture the door opened, and a clerk appeared from the outer
office, holding a telegram in his hand.
"For you, Captain," said he, handing him the message.
Neither of the other two could conceal his impatience, as, with
annoying deliberation, Converse opened the yellow envelope.
"Well," said he, presently, "it is indeed from Mexico--the reply to
my inquiry. Here it is." He read aloud:
A. de S. has no police record, but have obtained following facts:
Age, 38; family, old, aristocratic, and very wealthy; A. educated in
Paris; returned here when twenty-one. Was in banking and broking
business several years ago with P. Westbrook, but severed partnership
about four years ago. Reason not known. A. always prominent in
society; rather wild when young; but nearest approach to woman
entanglements are following: Engagement broken with Señorita Aurora
de Pacheco. Understood to have been by reason of disagreement in
marriage settlements. She has since married into prominent family,
and now on best of terms with De S. family. A rumored liaison with a
circus performer, supposed to have committed suicide, but unable to
ascertain details; liaison with a Mme. Claude Le Tellier, now
residing Nice, France, on pension from De S. family. For last twelve
years A. de S. known as unusually steady. Rumored he fell in love
with Miss Westbrook when she visited here about four years ago, and
that he has followed her for purpose of marrying. GRINNELL.
"Well!" said the District Attorney, "this is not promising: Señorita
Somebody"--with a sidewise look at Mr. Merkel--"now a matron and
probably the mother of other señoritas; a circus performer--"
"It's the madame that interests me," Converse quietly broke in.
"Grinnell would not, of course, know whether she is in Nice at the
present time. I will go to headquarters, ascertain who our
correspondent at that place is, and send him the lady's name. That
should bring us what we want to know about her.
"That is about all now," he concluded. "I have gone over these
different phases of the case in order that you might formulate a line
of inquiry to be followed at the inquest. In the meantime, I will
work out one or two little ideas of my own, laying the results before
you as soon as they mature. Good morning."
That day Mr. Converse received two more messages, one of them a cable
despatch. The first read:
Rumor connecting A. de S. with circus performer very vague. Seems to
have occurred in Paris 17 or 18 years ago. No trace of her identity
here. GRINNELL.
The cablegram contained the following:
Mme. C. Le T. died Oct. 28. GAILLARD.
He tossed the cable message to one side; but for several minutes he
pondered over the second message from Mexico. He then prepared, with
much care, a long despatch, which was sent immediately to Paris.
Away from the presence of his superiors and those whose concern it
was to be put in possession of everything bearing upon the case, John
Converse was the last man to advance any theory to account for
Alberto de Sanchez's untoward end.
His seemingly unerring judgment and his uniform success in
dissipating the clouds of mystery in which his associates sometimes
lost themselves were governed by an extreme caution, and based upon a
vast knowledge of humanity. His had been an unusually eventful life.
Of New England parentage, he had early run away to sea; and to
portray the stirring experiences of this period of his life would
require a whole volume for itself.
But those experiences had given him wonderful powers of observation,
which were able to grasp and contemplate every detail in its just
proportions to the whole, a trait that was simply the complement to
his unemotional and methodical temperament.
If he hesitated, however, in advancing theories, the papers did
not,--either probable or improbable; and as it was one of his maxims
never to ignore a suggestion coming from the outside, he followed
these reports with the same intensity of eagerness that characterized
all his proceedings.
The murder, owing not only to the prominence of every one concerned
therein, but also to the suggestive veil of mystery which surrounded
it, had been "featured" every day since the tragedy, and he was
impressed by the unanimity with which the press hit upon Robert
Nettleton's offices as the probable lurking-place of the murderer.
None of the papers, of course, was in as full possession of all the
known facts as the Captain was; but a certain evening sheet, after
theorizing at length on Fairchild's unaccountable disappearance,
concluded with the assertion that the end would show the controlling
factor of the mysterious murder to have been a woman.
"I believe that gentleman is eminently correct," was the Captain's
comment, as he laid the paper aside. "If his insight had been only a
little clearer, if he had looked only a little farther, and seen who
that woman is, it would save a deal of trouble and worry."
He left his private office and walked to the mail repository at the
police clerk's desk. He found several letters addressed to himself;
but one, the writing of which was very like copper-plate engraving,
caught his instant attention by the peculiarity of its address. It
read:
For Detective on De Sanchez Case,
Police Headquarters,
City.
After the Captain had returned to his desk he turned his attention to
this letter. The mark of the cancelling-machine showed that it had
been mailed at the main post-office that morning. What the envelope
contained made him suddenly sit upright.
The writer knows that C. Fairchild had no hand in the murder of the
man De Sanchez. When you discover the female who was in the second
story of the Nettleton on Wed. P.M., Nov. 4, at the hour of 5, you
will know why C. F. has vanished.
Again--the unknown woman!
There was no address to this brief epistle, no date, no
signature--nothing else; yet there was an added light in Mr.
Converse's gray eyes, as he laid the missive on the desk before him,
that lent something like an expression of satisfaction to his almost
illegible countenance. He scrutinized the single sheet of paper long
and attentively before finally folding and returning it to the
envelope.
"Who in the city can write such a hand?" he mused.
After he had placed the anonymous missive in his pocket-book, he drew
toward himself a number of bound typewritten sheets--the record of
the De Sanchez case. Turning until he found the paragraphs he
sought, he read the following:
Besides the front entrance, opening into Court Street, the Nettleton
has but one other outside doorway or means of exit. Opening into a
high-walled court in the rear is a single door, used only for the
purpose of admitting fuel in the winter; during the summer it is open
not more than once or twice, when the trash-bin accumulations are
removed. During the interim it is locked by a bolt, a No. 4 Yale
compound spring lock, and a common padlock passed through staples.
Inspection of this door revealed beyond doubt that it had not been
disturbed for weeks.
The reader turned back to the statements of the different persons in
the second story at the fatal moment, and his glance passed them all
over until it fell upon the following:
William Slade, 62; bachelor; abstracter of titles for the Guaranty
Trust Co. Is very deaf; was engaged in his regular duties in Room 6
on the evening of Nov. 4, at 5 o'clock, yet it cannot be shown that
he knew anything of the murder. His statement is to the effect that
he first learned of it at about 8:30 o'clock that night.
He closed the volume, placed it in a drawer of his desk, and after
securing his hat, left department headquarters, and made his way to
Court Street.
Here he consumed the better part of the day by interrogating closely
every individual whose place of business had an outlook toward the
Nettleton entrance, a quest the results of which were purely
negative. He called at all the newspaper offices; and the next
morning, again in the evening, and for a week thereafter, every local
paper contained the following advertisement:
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| $25--REWARD--$25. |
| |
| The above sum will be paid any person who saw |
| a lady leave the Nettleton Building at or about 5 |
| o'clock on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4th. |
| Apply in person at No. 18 Ash Lane. |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
The address given was that of the house where Mr. Converse had his
lodgings; and whatever else he might think of the De Sanchez case, it
was evident he had become convinced that there was "a woman at the
bottom of it"--and one very hard to find.
Late in the afternoon, after he had returned to his private office,
he found the reply to the cable message sent his Paris correspondent
awaiting him. He opened it and read:
Nothing ascertainable of A. de S. here further than that his name
appears on the roster of College of St. Ignatius for three years,
inclusive, September, 1883, to September, 1886. Examination of
records of women suicides during period fails to connect him with any
of them. No one during that time or near it could be circus
performer. Might glean something if I had name. NOIZET.
Unfortunately, he had no name to send.