The League Of Frightened Men Part 16

"Who else has come?"

"Only a couple of radios and some more precinct guys." i "Cramer or the D. A. office?"

"Not yet. h.e.l.l, they don't need to bother. A package like that, they could just have it sent parcel post."

"Yeah. You go to Thirty-fifth Street and tell Fritz to feed you. As soon as Wolfe has finished his dinner, tell him about it. He may want you to get Saul and Orrie he'll tell you." 'Til have to phone my wife -" "Wetl, you got a nickel? Beat it." He v^ent downtown, towards Eightyninth, and I went around the corner and east ag.ain. I approached the entrance; I didn't s'ee any reason why I couldn't crash it, though I didn't know anyone up there.

Just as I was under the canopy a big car came allong and stopped quick, and two men gott out. I took a look, then I got in the way of one of them. I grinned at him: "Inspector Cramer! This is luck." I started tto walk along in with him.

He stcopped. "Oh! You. Nothing doing.

Beat it.'"

I starrted to hand him a line, but he got sharrp. "Beat it, Goodwin. If there's anythingg up there that belongs to you I'll save it ffor you. Nothing doing."

I fell tback. People were gathering, there w^ already quite a crowd, and a cop was ^ere herrding them. In the confusion I was P^tty ssure he hadn't heard the little Pa.s.sage 1 between Cramer and me. I faded ^ay, annd went to where I had parked the g^dster.. I opened up the back and got out a black bag I kept a few things in for emergencies; it didn't look just right, but good enough. I went back to the entrance and pushed through the line while the cop was busy on the other side, and got through the door. Inside was the doorman and another cop. I stepped up to them and said, "Medical Examiner. What apartment is it?" The cop looked me over and took me to the elevator and said to the boy, "Take this gent to the fifth floor." Inside, going up, I gave the black bag a pat. w I breezed into the apartment. As Durkin had said, the party was right there, the first room you entered, a big reception hall. There was a mob there, mostly flatfeet and d.i.c.ks standing around looking bored. Inspector Cramer was by the table listening to one of the latter. I walked over to him and said his name.

He looked around, and seemed surprised. "Well, in the name of -"

"Now listen, inspector. Just a second.

Forget it. I'm not going to steal the prisoner or the evidence or anything else.

You know d.a.m.n well I've got a right to curiosity and that's all I expect to satisfy.

Have a heart. My G.o.d, we've all got mothers."

"What have you got in that bag?"

"s.h.i.+rts and socks. I used it to bring me up. I'd just as soon have one of your men take it down to my car for me."

He grunted. "Leave it here on the table, and if you get in the way -"

"I won't. Much obliged."

Being careful not to b.u.mp anyone, I got back against the wall. I took a look. It was a room 17 x 20, on a guess, nearly square. One end was mostly windows, curtained. At the other end was the entrance door. One long wall, the one I was standing against, had pictures and a couple of stands with vases of flowers. In the other wall, nearly to the corner, was a double door, closed, leading of course to the apartment proper. The rest of that wall, about ten feet of it, had curtains to "latch those at the end, but there couldn't have been windows. I figured it was ^osets for wraps. The light was from the ceiling, indirect, with switches at the double door and the entrance door. There was one large rug, and a good-sized table in the middle. Near where I stood was a stand with a telephone and a chair.

There were only four chairs altogether.

In one of them, at the end of the table, Paul Chapin was sitting. I couldn't see his face, he was turned wrong. At the other end of the table Doc Burton was on the floor. He just looked dead and fairly comfortable; either he had landed straight when he fell or someone had stretched him out, and his arms were neatly along his sides. His head was at a funny angle, but they always are until they're propped up.

Looking at him,41 thought to myself that Wolfe had had him down for seven thousand bucks, and now he'd never have that to worry about again along with a lot of other things. From where I was I couldn't see much blood.

A few details had happened since I arrived. There had been phone calls. One of the d.i.c.ks had gone out and come back in a couple of minutes with an a.s.sistant Medical Examiner; apparently there had been difficulty downstairs. I hoped he wouldn't take my bag by mistake when he went. They buzzed around. Inspector Cramer had left the room by the double door, to see the women I supposed. A young woman came in from outside and made a scene, but all in all she did pretty well with it, since it appeared that it was her father that had been croaked. She had been out somewhere, and she took it hard.

I've often observed that the only thing that makes it a real hards.h.i.+p to have dealings with stiffs is the people that are still living. This girl was the kind that makes your throat clog up because you see how she's straining to fight it back in and you know she's licked. I was glad when a d.i.c.k took her away, in to her mother.

I moseyed around to get a slant at the cripple. I went around the table and got in front of him. He looked at me, but there wasn't any sign of his being aware he had ever seen me before. His stick was on the table beside him, and his hat. He had on a brown overcoat, unb.u.t.toned, and tan doves. He was slouched over; his hands ^re resting on his good knee, fastened ^ith the bracelets. There was nothing in his face, just nothing; he looked more like a pa.s.senger in the subway than anything else. His light-colored eyes looked straight at me. I thought to myself that this was the first piece of real hundred per cent bad luck I had ever known Nero Wolfe to have. He had had his share of bad breaks all right, but this wasn't a break, it was an avalanche.

Then I remembered what I was there for, and I said to myself that I had gone around for two days pretending to hunt Andrew Hibbard knowing all the time it was hopeless, and Hibbard was at that moment eating scallops and arguing psychology with Wolfe. And until Wolfe himself said finish for that case one way or the other, hopeless was out. It was up to me to dig up a little hope.

I got against the wall again and surveyed the field. The medical guy was done.

There was no telling how long Cramer would be with the women, but unless their tale was more complicated than it seemed likely to be there was no reason why it should be very long. When he returned. there would probably be no delay in removing the stiff and the cripple, and then there would be nothing to keep anybody else. Cramer wouldn't be apt to go off and leave me behind, he'd want me for company. Nor could I see any reason why he would leave anyone behind, except j a d.i.c.k out in the hall maybe and possibly one downstairs, to keep annoyance away from the family.

I That was the way it looked. I couldn't go back to Wolfe with nothing but a sob story about a poor cripple and a dead man and a grief-stricken daughter. I wandered around again to the other side of the table, to the other wall where the curtains were. I stood with my back to the curtains. Then I saw my bag on the table.

That wouldn't do, so I went over and got it, casually, and went back against the curtains again. I figured the chances were about fifty to one against me, but the worst I could get was an escort to the elevator. Keeping my eyes carelessly on the ^ray of d.i.c.ks and flatfeet scattered around, I felt behind me with my foot and found that back of the curtains the floor J ^continued flush, with no sill. If it was acloset it was built into the wall and I hadno idea how deep it was or what was in there. I kept my eyes busy; I had to pick an instant when every guy there had his face turned; at least not right on me. I was waiting for something, and luck came that time; it happened. The phone rang, on the stand by the other wall. Having nothing to occupy them, they all turned involuntarily. I had my hand behind me ready to pull the curtain aside, and back I went, and let the curtain fall again, with me behind. 111 had ducked going in, in case there happened to be a hat shelf at the usual height, but the shelf was further back; the closet was all of three feet deep and I had plenty of room. I held my breath for a few seconds, but heard none of the bloodhounds baying. I eased the black bag onto the floor in a corner and got behind what felt like a woman's fur coat. One thing there had been no help for: the cripple had seen me. His light-colored eyes had been right at me as I backed in. If he should decide to open his trap I hoped he would find something else to talk about.

I stood there in the dark, and after a while wished I had remembered to bring an oxygen tank. To amuse me I had the voices of the d.i.c.ks outside, but they were low and I couldn't pick out many words.

Somebody came in, some woman, and a little later a man. It was all of half an hour before Cramer returned. I heard the double door opening, close to my curtain, and then Cramer handing out orders. He sounded snappy and satisfied. A d.i.c.k with a hoa.r.s.e voice told another one, right in front of me, to carry Chapin's stick and he'd help him walk; they were taking him away. There were noises; and directions from Cramer, about removing the corpse, and in a couple of minutes heavy feet as they carried it out. I was hoping to G.o.d that Cramer or someone else hadn't happened to hang his coat in my closet, but that wasn't likely; there had been three or four piled on the table. I heard a voice telling someone to go ask for a rug ^ put over the soiled place where Burton had been, and Cramer and others shoving tf. It sounded like there were only two ^ft, after the guy came back with the rug; they were kidding each other about somekind of a girl. I began to be afraid Cramer had spotted them to stay for some reason or other, but pretty soon I heard them going to the door, and it opened and closed.

I'd been in the closet long enough as far I as my lungs were concerned, but I thought it was just possible one was still inside the I main apartment, and I waited five minutes, counting. Then I pulled the edge of the curtain a little and took a slant. I opened it up and stepped out. Empty. All B gone; -The double doors were closed. 'I went over and turned the k.n.o.b and pushed, and walked through. I was in a room about five times the size of the reception hall, dimly lighted, furnished up to the hilt. There was a door at the far end and a wide open arch halfway down one side. I heard voices from somewhere.

I went on in a ways and called: "h.e.l.lo! Mrs. Burton!" The voices stopped, and there were footsteps coming. A guy appeared in the arch, trying to look important. I grinned inside. He was just a kid, around twentytwo, nice and handsome and dressed up.

He said, "We thought you had all gone."

"Yeah. All but me. I have to see Mrs.

Burton.", "But he said... the Inspector said she wouldn't be bothered.",, , "I'm sorry, I have to see her."

"She's lying down."

"Tell her just a few questions."

He opened his mouth and shut it, looked as if he thought he ought to do something, and turned and beat it. In a minute he came back and nodded me along. I followed.-, We went through a room and a sort of a hall and into another room. This was not so big, but was better lit and not so dolled up. A maid in uniform was going out another door with a tray. A woman was sitting on a couch, another woman in a chair, and the daughter I had seen in the reception hall was standing behind the couch. I walked over there.

I suppose Mrs. Loring A. Burton wasn't at her best that evening, but she could have slipped a few more notches and still have been in the money. A glance was enough ^ show you she was quite a person. She had a straight thin nose, a warm mouth, fine dark eyes. Her hair was piled in braids at the back, pulled back just right for you to see her temples and brow, which maybe made most of the effect; that and the way she held her head. Her neck knew some artist's trick that I've seen many a movie star try to copy without quite getting it. It had been born in her spine. c With her head up like that I could see it would take more than a murdered husband to overwhelm her into leaving decisions to daughters and so on, so I disregarded the others. I told her I had a few confidential questions to ask and I'd like to see her alone. The woman in the chair muttered something about cruel and unnecessary.

The daughter stared at me with red eyes.

Mrs. Burton asked: ^ r "Confidential to whom?" 2 "To Paul Chapin. I'd rather not..."

I looked around.

She looked around too. I saw that the kid wasn't the son and heir after all, it was the daughter he was interested in, probably had it signed up. Mrs. Burton said, "What does it matter? Go to my room you don't mind, Alice?" The woman in the chair said she didn't, and got up. The kid took hold of the daughter's arm to steer her, by golly he wasn't going to let her fall and hurt herself. They went on out., 01,, Mrs. Burton said, "Well?"

I said, "The confidential part is really about me. Do you know who Nero Wolfe is?" ^ -. . ,..., "Nero Wolfe? Yes." ^ "Dr. Burton and his friends entered into an agreement -" fc She interrupted me. "I know all about it. My husband..." She stopped. The I way she suddenly clasped her fingers tight _ and tried to keep her lips from moving showed that a bust-up was nearer to coming through than I had supposed. But she soon got it shoved under again. "My husband told me all about it."

I nodded. "That saves time. I'm not a Gity detective, I'm private. I work for Nero Wolfe, my name's Goodwin. If you ask me what I'm here for there's lots of ways to answer you, but you'd have to help me pick the right one. It depends on how you feel." I had the innocence turned on, the candid eye. I was talking fast. "Of course you feel terrible, certainly, but no matter how bad it is inside of you right now, you'll go on living. I've got some questions to ask for Nero Wolfe, and I can't be polite and wait for a week until your nerves have had a chance to grow some new skin, I've got to ask them now or never. I'm here now, just tell me this and get rid of me. Did you see Paul Chapin shoot your husband?" ' "No. But I've already -" ^ "Sure. Let's get it done. Did anybody see him?"

"No." f ' ' *

I took a breath. At least, then, we weren't floating with our bellies up. I said, "All right. Then it's a question of how you feel. How you feel about this, for instance, that Paul Chapin didn't shoot your husband at all."

She stared at me. "What do you mean I saw him -" 1^ I "You didn't see him shoot. Here's what'

I'm getting at, Mrs. Burton. I know your husband didn't hate Paul Chapin. I know he felt sorry for him and was willing to go with the crowd because he saw no help for it. How about you, did you hate him?

Disregard what happened tonight, how much did you hate him?"

For a second I thought I had carried her along; then I saw a change coming in her eyes and her lips beginning to tighten up. She was going to ritz me out. I rushed in ahead of it:?

"Listen, Mrs. Burton, I'm not just a smart pup nosing around somebody's back yard seeing what I can smell.'I really know all about this, maybe even some things you don't know. Right now, in a cabinet down in Nero Wolfe's office, there is a leather box. I put it there. This big.

It's beautiful tan leather, with fine gold tooling on it, and it's locked, and it's full nearly to the top with your gloves and stockings. Some you've worn. Now wait a minute, give me a chance. It belongs to Paul Chapin. Dora Ritter hooked them and gave them to him. It's his treasure. Nero Wolfe says his soul is in that box. I wouldn't know about that, I'm ^, no expert on souls. I'm just telling you.

The reason I want to know whether you hate Paul Chapin, regardless of his killing your husband, is this: what if he didn't kill him? Would you like to see them hang it on him anyway?" I She was looking at me, with the idea of ritzing me out put aside for the moment.

She said, "I don't know what you're driving at. I saw him dead. I don't know what you mean." i "^ "Neither do I. That's what I'm here to find outr" I'm trying to make you understand that I'm not annoying you just for curiosity, I'm here on business, and it may turn out to be your business as well as mine. I'm interested in seeing that Paul Chapin gets no more than is coming to * him. Right now I don't suppose you're interested in anything. You've had a shock that would lay most women flat. Well, you're not flat, and you might as well talk to me as sit and try not to think about it.

I'd like to sit here and ask you a few things. If you look like you are going to faint I'll call the family and get up and go."

She unclasped her hands. She said, "I don't faint. You may sit down."

"Okay." I used the chair Alice had left.

"Now tell me how it happened. The shooting. Who was here?"

"My husband and I, and the cook and the maid. One of the maids was out."

"No one else? What about the woman you called Alice?" 1 "That is my oldest friend. She came to... just a little while ago. There was no one else here." t*x ^ u, "And?" *. ^ -..^'

"I was in my room dressing. We were dining out, my daughter was out somewhere. My husband came to my room for a cigarette; he always... he never remembered to have any, and the door between our rooms is always open.

The maid came and said Paul Chapin was there. My husband left to go to the foyer to see him, but he didn't go direct; he went back through his room and his study. I mention that because I stood and ^stened. The last time Paul had come my husband had told the maid to keep him in -he foyer, and before he went there he had gone to his study and got a revolver out of the drawer. I had thought it was childish. This time I listened to see if he did it again, and he did, I heard the drawer opening. Then he called to me, called my name, and I answered what is it, and he called back, nothing, never mind, he would tell me after he had speeded his guest. That was the last... those were his last words I heard. I heard him walking through the apartment I listened, I suppose, because I was wondering what Paul could want. Then I heard noises not loud, the foyer is so far away from my room, and then shots. I ran. The maid came out of the dining-room and followed me. We ran to the foyer. It was dark, and the light in the drawing-room was dim and we couldn't see anything. I heard a noise, someone falling, and Paul's voice saying my name. I turned on the light switch, and Paul was there on his knee trying to get up. He said my name again, and said he was trying to hop to the switch. Then I saw Lome, on the floor at the end of the table. I ran to him, and when I saw him I called to the maid to go for Dr. Foster, who lives a floor below us. I don't know what Paul did then, I didn't pay any attention to him, the first I knew some men came -" (alright, hold it.".,, She stopped. I looked at her a minute, getting it. She had clasped her hands again and was doing some extra breathing, but not obtrusively. I quit worrying about her. I took out a pad and pencil, and said, "This thing, the way you tell it, needs a lot of fixing. The worst item, of course, is the light being out. That's plain silly. Now wait a minute, I'm just talking about what Nero Wolfe calls a feeling for phenomena, I'm trying to enjoy one. Let's go back to the beginning. On his way to see Paul Chapin, your husband called to you from the study, and then said never mind. Have you any idea what he was going to say?".; r 5 "No, how could I -" * *.

"Okay. The way you told it, he called to you after he opened the drawer. Was that the way it was?"

I She nodded. "I'm sure it was after I .heard the drawer open. I was listening."

"Yeah. Then you heard him walking to the foyer, and then you heard noises.

What kind of noises?"

"I don't know. Just noises, movements.

It is far away, and doors were closed. The noises were faint." 4* ^ "Voices?" ^ "No. I didn't hear any."

"Did you hear your husband closing the foyer door after he got there?"

"No. I wouldn't hear that unless it banged."

"Then we'll try this. Since you were listening to his footsteps, even if you couldn't hear them any more after he got into the drawing-room, there was a moment when you figured that he had reached the foyer. You know what I J mean, the feeling that he was there. When * I saw Now, that will mean that he has just reached the foyer, and you begin feeling the time, the pa.s.sing of time. Feel it as near the same as you can, and when it's time for the first shot to go off, you say Now. Get it? Now.

I looked at the second hand of my watch; it went crawling up from the 30.

She said, "Now." i I stared at her. "My G.o.d, that was only six seconds.", She nodded. "It was as short as that, Pm sure it was." ^. "In that case... all right. Then you ran to the foyer, and there was no light there. Of course you couldn't be wrong about that." ^ "No. The light was off." "And you switched it on and saw Chapin kneeling, getting up. Did he have a gun in his hand?" ^ "No. He had his coat and gloves on. I didn't see a gun... anywhere."

"Did Inspector Cramer tell you about the gun?" ^. ^ She nodded. "It was my husband's. He shot... it had been fired four times.

They found it on the floor.", ^ * "Cramer showed it to you."

"Yes." ** **

"And it's gone from the drawer in the study."

"Of course."

"When you turned on the light Chapin was saying something."

"He was saying my name. After the light was on he said I can tell you exactly what he said. Anne, a cripple in the dark, my dear Anne, I was trying to hop to the switch. He had fallen."

"Yeah. Naturally." I finished scratching ^ on the pad, and looked up at her. She was sitting tight. I said, "Now to go back again. Were you at home all afternoon?"

"No. I was at a gallery looking at prints, and then at a tea. I got home around six." Kv! ^ I "Was your husband here when you got here?" ' f "Yes, he comes early... on Sat.u.r.day.

He was in his study with Ferdinand Bowen.

I went in to say h.e.l.lo. We always... said h.e.l.lo, no matter who was here." "So Mr. Bowen was here. Do you know I what for?" " * "No. That is... no."

"Now come, Mrs. Burton. You've decided to put up with this and it's pretty swell of you, so come ahead. What was Bowen here for?"

"He was asking a favor. That's all I know."

"A financial favor?" I suppose so, yes."

"Did he get it?"

"No. But this has no connection... no more of this."* ^ "Okay. When did Bowen leave?"

"Soon after I arrived, I should say a quarter past six. Perhaps twenty after; it was about ten minutes before Dora came, and she was punctual at six-thirty."

"You don't say so." I looked at her.

"You mean Dora Chapin." '. '^ "Yes." -' -;^ n "She came to do your hair."

"Yes.":i ^. ^-': "I'll be d.a.m.ned. Excuse me. Nero Wolfe doesn't permit me to swear in front of ladies. And Dora Chapin got here at six-thirty. Well. When did she leave?"

"It always takes her three-quarters of an hour, so she left at a quarter past seven." She paused to calculate. "Yes, that would be right. A few minutes later, Perhaps. I figured that I had fifteen "Mutes to finish dressing."

I "So Dora Chapin left here at seveni twenty and Paul Chapin arrived at half past. That's interesting; they almost collided. Who else was here after six o'clock?", "No one. That's all. My daughter left around half past six, a little before Dora came. Of course I don't understand -what is it, Alice?", 4, A door had opened behind me, and I turned to see. It was the woman, the old friend. She said: A; ^ "Nick Cabot is on the phone they notified him. He wants to know if you want to talk to him."

Mrs. Burton's dark eyes flashed aside for an instant, at me. I let my head go sideways enough for her to see it. She spoke to her friend, "No, there is nothing to say. I won't talk to anyone. Are you folks finding something to eat?"

"We'll make out. Really, Anne, I think -"