WANTED: A MOTIVE.
The case against Grantley and his confederates had furnished one of the
greatest newspaper sensations of recent years, and the attitude of the
public toward the vivisectionists was bitter in the extreme.
Their trials were delayed for some months, during which time Nick and
his assistants collected all the evidence they could obtain. The girl
recovered, and, as there had been no law at the time to forbid such
unnecessary operations, the detective was compelled to furnish another
basis for prosecution.
It was that or nothing.
After a great deal of probing, Nick had brought to light an instance of
actual death as a result of a previous experiment in vivisection, which
had been carried out by Doctor Grantley and the same set of assistants.
It was that of a little boy, also from the East Side, and the son of
poor parents. He had been lame, and Grantley had carried him to the
private hospital in the Bronx, after promising a cure by means of an
operation on his hip.
The operation that had actually been performed, however, had borne
absolutely no relation to the child’s lameness, and he had died from the
effects of it.
It seemed a clear case of manslaughter, and the prosecution put all its
strength into it. But Grantley still had means, despite the fact that
his practice had fallen off to an alarming extent in recent years.
Moreover, he was exceptionally clever and had retained a number of
powerful friends among the more radical and unscrupulous surgeons in the
State.
As a consequence, his defense was an unexpectedly strong one. He and his
lawyers brought forward expert witness after witness to testify in his
behalf, all of whom insisted that there was, or might have been,
abundant justification for the operation performed.
The experts for the prosecution denied this, of course, and between them
they managed to bewilder the jury to such an extent that the long trial
resulted finally in a disagreement.
To cap the climax, the district attorney had decided to release the
prisoners, rather than hold them for a new trial. He did not believe it
possible to convict them, and desired to save the county needless
expense.
This decision was a great disappointment to Nick and his assistants, as
well as to the public generally.
Nevertheless, the agitation had resulted in placing on the statute books
a new law, which made it a crime for any surgeon to perform an operation
of any kind without the consent of the patient or some relative or
responsible friend. Furthermore, any unnecessary operation, or any
surgical or other experiment having no bearing on the patient’s ailment,
was at last prohibited, under penalty of a heavy fine and imprisonment.
Therefore, if Grantley should return to his old practices, it would be a
comparatively easy matter to convict him.
Nick and his assistants made it their business to keep a close but
unobtrusive watch over the liberated surgeons. Grantley and his
lieutenant, young Doctor Siebold, accompanied by the nurse, Miss
Rawlinson, returned to the former’s house immediately after their
release. Most of the others scattered, some of them going so far as to
change their names.
The detectives kept track of them all, but did not attempt to interfere
with them in any way. Nick was willing to give them the benefit of the
doubt. If they had learned their lesson they did not need to fear any
further action. If, on the other hand, they should attempt to resume
their questionable or criminal methods, it would then be time enough to
act.
For some weeks nothing had developed to indicate that Grantley was doing
anything at all. He seemed to have no patients, and to be seeking none.
At the end of that interval, Nick Carter had been surprised by the visit
of Doctor Vanderpool. After the eminent physician’s departure, the
detective remained buried in thought for half an hour or more.
The situation was unique.
Grantley’s action in approaching such a commanding figure as J. Hackley
Baldwin, at such a time and under such circumstances, was little short
of staggering, and Nick could easily understand Doctor Vanderpool’s
anxiety.
The Fifth Avenue practitioner had hit upon what seemed to be the two
alternative explanations, at least the two most likely ones. Either one
was quite possible.
There was no doubt about Hiram Grantley’s daring or his confidence in
himself. His great ability was unquestioned, and his release had
probably convinced him that he was safe enough in going to almost any
lengths.
Therefore, the truth seemed to lie close to either one of two
suppositions--one of them harmless, the other freighted with direful
possibilities.
The harmless one, as Doctor Vanderpool had pointed out, had to do with a
possible and very natural desire on Grantley’s part to regain the
confidence and prestige which he had forfeited.
It was not difficult to understand that he might really believe himself
capable of restoring the blind financier’s sight, and if he could get a
chance to do that it would mean a great deal of money in his pocket, an
immense amount of free advertising, and a resultant modification of
public opinion.
So far, all was plain sailing. Baldwin had been blind for many years, to
be sure, without previously receiving any such offer from Grantley; but
the fact could be explained away without much difficulty. The surgeon
had never been in such a predicament before, had never been so badly in
need of such a boost as this would give him if he could make good.
On the other hand, there loomed the sinister possibility that Grantley
had something worse up his sleeve. In other words, his intentions might
be criminal, and he might be plotting harm to the multimillionaire.
But in what way, and for what reason?
Surely, if he intended to go back to the methods which had been so
unsparingly exposed and condemned, he did not need to choose so shining
a mark for his unlawful experiments. On the contrary, it would seem to
be to his interest to aim low, and to continue to pick out victims who
were comparatively unimportant to the world at large.
Besides, he must have known that a man of Baldwin’s wealth and standing
would not place himself in the hands of any one without instituting the
most rigid inquiries. His offer could not fail to be discussed by those
close to the great financier, and it would be sure to cause a sensation.
Why had he braved all the dangers involved and defied all of the many
obstacles which lay between a notorious and discredited surgeon and one
of the most carefully guarded of Wall Street’s money kings?
Was it merely because he longed to “come back,” to reëstablish himself
by means of one brilliant coup, or did his motive lie far deeper than
that, in some dark corner of his cruel nature?
And if the latter was the case, what could that motive possibly be? Was
it financial or personal in character?
It was difficult to see how Grantley could hope to benefit, in a
financial way, by harming Baldwin. The crooked surgeon might have larger
interests in the money world than any one knew of, but to strike at one
of the big magnates was to precipitate widespread shrinkage in values,
perhaps a panic on the floor of the Stock Exchange.
On the whole, therefore, if Grantley’s motive was an evil one, the
chances were that it involved revenge of one kind or another.
It might be private revenge, a desire on Grantley’s part to retaliate
for some real or fancied wrong done to him; or it was conceivable that
one or more of Baldwin’s rivals in the game of high finance had hired
the rascally surgeon to put him out of commission.
As a matter of fact, though, Nick was not inclined to put much faith in
the latter theory. If Grantley’s object had to do with revenge of some
kind, the chances were that strictly private reasons were involved.
A painstaking examination of Grantley’s record might reveal those
reasons, but the detective was not hopeful on that score. The time at
his disposal was too short, for one thing. For another, since it was
obvious that Baldwin did not know of any particular reason for
distrusting the surgeon--aside from his tendency to cut up his East Side
patients--the cause of any enmity which might exist seemed to be an
obscure one, the whys and wherefores of which were locked in Grantley’s
own breast.
If that was the case, an investigation would only result in a waste of
precious time. Consequently, Nick decided to take the bull by the horns.
First, he would call on Grantley himself and put him through a rigid
cross-examination, in an effort to worm his secret out of him, if
possible.
Second, no matter whether he was successful in this first interview or
not, he intended to see the financier and add his influence to Doctor
Vanderpool’s, in a final attempt to dissuade Baldwin from submitting to
the proposed operation.