THE DETECTIVE'S STRANGE STORY
Detective Bob Rack and his prisoner, with Phil to drive, went to Griffin
in the Torpedo while Paul, Billy, Dave and Mr. Peek rode in the Six. For
Mr. Rack would hardly consent to the old gentleman spending the
remainder of the night alone. So, in due time, was he given a room at
the American House. Mr. Pickem, otherwise Smith, otherwise Kull, was
assigned to very narrow and also strong, quarters in the village prison
with Chief Fobes personally mounting guard over both him and Coster. Two
big revolvers the officer had and there was no sign of sleep in his
usually languid eyes.
The capture of the chief's prisoner was, vastly to his satisfaction,
effected by himself and the village night watchman. On the advice of Bob
Rack they had watched the railroad yards closely. Coster was seized just
as he darted from some hiding-place and tried to board an out-bound
freight.
Deeply interested in the exciting occurrences of the evening, Landlord
Wagg had not gone to bed, as proved quite fortunate for the Auto Boys
and the detective. When Mr. Peek had been given every attention, he
announced that a little supper for five was ready to serve whenever
wanted.
"I rarely venture an opinion without having facts to support it," said
Mr. Rack, smiling, "but on this occasion I will say that I think all of
us are ready to show our appreciation of such an invitation in a very
thorough manner, provided you will join us, Mr. Wagg. Also I've promised
the boys a little history of the case that brought us together. Perhaps
you may be interested."
A large part of the story told by Mr. Bob Rack as the party sat long
over a supper of cold meats, bread and butter, coffee and fruit, is
familiar to the reader. Without quoting his language then,--and the
pleasing modulations of his voice could not be shown in print, in any
event,--the narrative was substantially as follows:
When the theft of Adam Kull's car, at Harkville, was reported to the
authorities two months earlier, Mr. Rack had been asked by the insurance
company, in which a policy covering theft was held, to assist in the
search.
Not a trace of the car was found. There seemed to be no clue to go upon.
An odd circumstance which, though it apparently had no connection with
the case, yet which Mr. Rack was unwilling to dismiss wholly from his
mind, was the fact that a few days earlier Mr. Kull had purchased from a
neighbor and shipped to a middle western city a fine Scotch collie. The
dog was greatly attached to the automobile, and had sometimes been
allowed to ride. This simple fact in itself was not important; but the
purchase of the dog, apparently for the mere purpose of giving the
animal away, was not in keeping with Mr. Kull's usual disposition.
From so trifling a cause for suspicion the detective was unwilling to
make even a hint as to what was in his mind. All he could do, and the
thing he did do, was to place a watch upon Adam Kull while secretly he
made a thorough search of the man's record.
Among other things it was found that, as a young man, Kull had been a
party to a transaction by which he and his mother obtained a strange
hold upon a wealthy farmer near Griffin, Henry Peek by name. The woman
married Mr. Peek but they soon separated. To be free of the woman and
her son, Mr. Peek had entered into a written contract involving the
payment of a large sum of money at once, and the further stipulation
that, should the wife survive the husband, she should receive the entire
Peek estate. If, on the other hand, Mr. Peek survived his one-time wife,
the estate should ultimately go to his heirs alone, and no heir of hers
should be considered as having any claim whatever upon the property. The
bargain seemed a very good one for the woman as she was much younger
than Mr. Peek.
Years passed. Mrs. Peek, who had resumed her former name, Kull, lived
with her only son and they had eventually settled in Harkville. Here the
man was engaged in real estate, a number of shady deals being credited
to him in that connection.
Within a few months of the present time, the mother, though but little
past middle age, had been stricken by an incurable disease. The son
could not have failed to remember that, unless she survived his former
step-father, the rich Peek estate would not descend to him.
Matters were at this pass when Detective Rack obtained his first
extended knowledge of Kull, following his investigation of the
disappearance of the automobile the latter had owned. Several weeks
slipped by and, as the man under scrutiny had made no movement which
would in any way strengthen suspicion against him, the watching of his
going and his coming was relaxed.
One day, nearly two months after the theft of Kull's car, a strange man
called on the real estate dealer, later left his office, and was not
seen afterward. Mr. Rack's men discovered the fellow to be a worthless,
discharged employe of a motor concern in Rochester. His name was Coster.
It was but a day or two later that Kull suddenly left home. Later it was
learned he was in Griffin, registered at the American hotel under an
assumed name.
"And it was at that time, undoubtedly," said Mr. Rack, "that, having
taken the Torpedo from wherever it was concealed, Coster was on the way
west with it. Kull was in Griffin to meet him. He visited the old farm
where he had once lived for a short time. He carried the planks over the
hill to the icehouse, that his friend might readily run the Torpedo down
the embankment and so into that building. There are some links missing
as to this assertion but it will be found substantially correct when the
details are known. For it was certainly the intention that the Torpedo
should be placed in this new and more distant hiding-place. Kull had
purchased a supply of Fielderson's automobile and carriage paint. He
mentioned to a clerk in the store that he was going to use the material
on an old surrey he had. He owned no such vehicle. Hence my conclusion,
at this time, that the paint was to be used in a further concealment of
the identity of the Torpedo.
"Again I heard from Harkville that Kull, after a brief stay at home,
following his having been in Griffin, was once more out of town. I was
busy with other matters and did not immediately take up the threads of
the case again. I was about to do so yesterday," and here Mr. Rack
smiled toward Mr. Wagg, who sat with eyes and mouth open, his glasses
perched on the very top of his bald head,--"when Mr. Phil and Mr. David,
here, came in upon me, introduced by one of our best young lawyers. They
were in possession of so much information that, dovetailing their
statements with my own previous knowledge, I had a fairly perfect fabric
of fact. From this it was simply a little study to deduce practically
certain probabilities. However, I spent a few hours piecing out and
verifying my threads of information. I found that Kull's poor mother
could probably live but a few days or weeks, at most. I found a man
named Coster had been locked up for intoxication here in Griffin, that
he was first seen in town on Saturday and his clothing was splashed with
mud. Friday was a rainy day, you will remember. By the merest chance my
Harkville representative also learned yesterday that Kull had purchased
some saws for cutting steel before leaving town on Tuesday. He had
bought a ticket for Batavia, but that was no certain sign that he would
not stop off in Griffin.
"To see through the man's entire plan now is, of course, like reading it
in print. All that we do not know is just how Coster happened to lose
the Torpedo, then pick up the car of our friends here, which certainly
he did. That we will learn later. The point I would bring to your notice
now is that Kull, whatever his first plan may have been, changed
somewhat his course of action as he found circumstances favoring him. He
had learned of Coster reaching Griffin in an intoxicated condition and
being locked up. He enabled him to escape by passing saws in to him by
means of a long stick put between the bars of the rear corridor window,
which was open. This he did last night, Mr. Fobes believes, and he
probably is correct.
"It is an interesting fact, but not a strange one, for usually it is the
small thing that trips the criminal up,--an interesting fact, observe,
that the dog Kull had been at such pains to be rid of in Harkville, lest
it innocently betray the spot where his car had been concealed, had
appeared here in Griffin to trouble him. To regain possession of the
Torpedo (after having failed to get it placed in a barn where he could
more easily get at it) Kull found it necessary to kill the Scotch
collie. This he did on Sunday night. It was also desirable that Mr.
Creek be placed beyond power to hinder. An anonymous telephone call from
Port Greeley, summoning him there, did the work nicely.
"Now we come to the circumstance that Kull believed so especially
favored him--Coster breaking jail, the Torpedo disappearing, poor old
Mr. Peek assaulted and killed--all this in one night. Where would
suspicion naturally point? To Coster, certainly."
Mr. Rack smiled and paused.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Mr. Wagg.
"Not at all. The boys deserve more credit than I. And we found so much
additional information the moment we reached Griffin to-night, that the
veriest novice could hardly go wrong. Billy had Coster's measure from
boots up. Fobes knew nothing except that he was able to tell me that
Creek telephoned to him from Port Greeley, stating that there was
deception in his being summoned to that town, and asking him to watch
the garage, which, by the way, he did not do. The time was short and the
only particle of credit we deserve is for having moved at once and
quickly.
"The time was short for Kull to act if he was to take advantage of
favoring circumstances,--that is apparent now and it was before. It
required no great mental power to see that at a glance. Where Kull would
be found was thus easily determined. And, fortunately, we arrived in
time. On my first survey of the Peek place I found nothing but the
Torpedo, partially concealed behind some trees by the roadside and every
light extinguished. Kull could not be far away but I hesitated lest it
should prove that, having not yet entered the house, he should discover
that he was watched. The facts were, he was in the house when we reached
the place. He was waiting to be sure his victim slept. I flashed a light
upon him as he was in the act of striking his first blow and possibly
that was why he struck to one side of the temple and only a flesh wound
resulted. I seized his arms but he escaped me. I fear I might have been
obliged to shoot to frighten him, if nothing more, but for Phil's very
able and timely help."
"But what is _your_ idea as to the reason this fellow Coster left one
car in the road and hid another in the icehouse in place of it?" Mr.
Wagg inquired.
"One of two things--Coster left the car to look about the Peek place,
either knowing or suspecting Kull's ultimate plan of making away with
the old gentleman, and in his absence the machine was in some manner
started forward. Or, and I think more probably, Coster was drunk and
fell from the Torpedo as he saw another car approaching on that
unfrequented road where he did not expect to see, and had no wish to
see, any other traveler. And now, perhaps, we would better bid one
another goodnight," Mr. Rack concluded.
"Might as well make it good-morning," grinned Paul Jones, stepping to a
window, "it's nearly daylight."
The following day Coster made a complete confession to Mr. Rack. The
latter's idea of the entire plans of Kull were substantially correct.
About the abandonment of the Torpedo, Coster said he had been drinking a
great deal and, contrary to his usual experience, the more he drank the
more he feared for his own safety in the car he knew police and
detectives had made prolonged search to find. Seeing a large,
six-cylinder machine come rapidly over a hill toward him, and on that
lonely road where he had been assured he would see no one whomsoever, he
suddenly lost his head. He leaped headlong from the Torpedo into the
bushes at the roadside. Later he had crept forward and, from the
hillside, watched all that the Auto Boys did until they went away in the
empty car. Then he put their machine in the icehouse, guided no doubt by
the drunken notion that he was very considerably the gainer. But instead
of sobering up and meeting Kull at the American House, as had been
agreed he should do, he spent the night in a barn and proceeded to get
drunk again the moment he reached the town in the morning.
"It appears," said Bob Rack, telling the boys, Chief Fobes (who was
still in a perfect fever of wonder and excitement) and Willie Creek the
substance of Coster's confession, the day following Kull's capture,--"It
appears that our Harkville friend concealed his car several days before
he pried the padlock off his garage and reported the machine to have
been stolen. He had hidden the machine in an unused garage attached to a
summer hotel a few miles from the town. Coster obtained it there.
Knowing the case as I do now, I would venture to believe that it was the
apparent success of his first crime, in defrauding the insurance people,
that nerved Kull to carry out his plan further, and so led to the
attempt on the life of old Mr. Peek. His plans were clever, after a
crude fashion, but he made the mistake every criminal makes sooner or
later, in the belief he apparently entertained that deception could be
covered up. In the long run there is no such thing. Even Coster may be
truthful when he declares he did not know Kull had defrauded the
insurance company."