The Crime of the French Café and Other Stories

by Nicholas Carter

  CHAPTER VIII.

  TRACING THE TRUNKS.

  Corbut's body had been cut in two. Only half was in the trunk which Nickhad opened.

  The other half was not, however, far away. It was in the other trunk.

  Both trunks contained considerable blood, but they had been neatly linedwith rubber cloth, apparently taken from a rubber blanket and a man'sheavy waterproof coat.

  It was so fitted that the trunks, when closed, were water-tight.

  "The neatest job I ever saw," said Nick. "Come, Gaspard, tell thestory."

  "I swear to you," cried Gaspard, "that I know nothing about it."

  At this moment Patsy rapped on the door. He had brought back Harrigan.

  "Come in!" said Nick; and they both entered.

  "Holy mother!" shrieked Harrigan, when he saw the open trunks. "So helpme, gentlemen, I don't know nothing about this business. I ain't in it.I'm tellin' yer straight. Youse don't believe I had anything to do widthis, do yer?"

  "You brought the trunks here," said Nick.

  "Lemme tell youse all about it," cried Harrigan, who was so anxious totell that he couldn't talk fast enough. "De French leddy struck me on meold place. You know. Where I was de odder night.

  "She talked a kind o' dago, but I tumbled to what she was a-givin' me.This was about half-past seven o'clock.

  "'Meet me,' says she, 'in an hour.' An' she give me street an' number.

  "It was West Fifty-seventh street; but dere ain't no such number. Dere'snuttin' but a high board fence.

  "But that didn't make no difference, 'cause when I got dere, her jibletswas a-standing on der sidewalk, waitin' for me.

  "'Drive over ter de corner,' says she, 'and' turn round an' come back.'

  "I did it, an' when I got dare, she showed me dese two trunks. I hadn'tseen 'em before.

  "Den she give me dis mug's address, an' two bones for me fare, an' toleme ter come down here, which I did, an' I wish ter ---- I hadn't; see?"

  "That's a pretty good story, Harrigan," said Nick. "Patsy, get apoliceman to stay here with Gaspard."

  Patsy brought the blue-coat in a few minutes.

  "Now, we'll go up to Fifty-seventh street," said Nick.

  Half an hour later they had found the place where, as Harrigan claimed,"de French leddy" had delivered the trunks to him.

  "I t'ought o' course she'd been fired out o' some boardin'-house," saidHarrigan. "Dere's a hash-mill dere on der right. I had an idea she'dbeen trun out o' dere."

  Nick meanwhile had been examining the sidewalk with the aid of his darklantern.

  "Clever work," he said. "There are no marks on the sidewalk. The trunkswere not dragged. That woman must be pretty strong. You say you didn'tsee the trunks when you first drove up?"

  "No."

  "Then they couldn't have been here. Where were they? Not in any of thesehouses. She couldn't have got them out quick enough. Then they must havebeen behind that fence."

  There was a little gate in the fence, which Nick opened as he spoke.

  "Ah, here we have tracks," he said. "It's all clear enough now. Thetrunks were brought across this vacant lot from one of the houses facingthe other street."

  The lot is the width of three flat houses, which stand behind it. Thereare no gates in the fence between the yards of the houses and the lot,but Nick found a wide board that could be pulled off and replacedwithout much trouble.

  Passing through the opening made by taking away this board, he foundhimself in the yard of the middle house.

  "The trunks came from here," he said. "They were lowered down in thedumb waiter to the cellar and then carried through the lot toFifty-seventh street.

  "I'll leave the rest of this job to you, Patsy. Find out all you can andhave as many witnesses as you can get together, at the superintendent'soffice to-morrow afternoon, at three o'clock. We're going to have aspecial examination into this case."

  The special examination began promptly at the hour named by Nick.

  All the persons hitherto mentioned in connection with the case--except,of course, the two victims--were present. There were also severalwitnesses whom Patsy had secured.

  "The case which I have made out," said Nick, "is perfectly clear. Itbegins with Gaspard's identification of the prisoner, Jones.

  "We know that he was at the restaurant when the crime was committed. Hisname is on the books.

  "In some way, which I am not now prepared to fully explain, the waiter,Corbut, obtained a knowledge of the crime. It was necessary for thecriminal to get Corbut out of the way.

  "I saw Corbut get into a cab at the door of the restaurant. The driver,Harrigan, testified to taking him and another man to a point on WestFifty-seventh street. He was not sure of the exact spot, but he fixedthe locality in a general way.

  "From that point all trace of Corbut was lost for a time. At last hisbody was found.

  "I succeeded in tracing the body back to a place near the spot whereHarrigan last saw Corbut alive.

  "I discovered that the body had been removed from a flat house on WestFifty-eighth street.

  "My assistant, Patsy, questioned the people in that house. He learnedthat the third flat had been occupied by a couple who lived veryquietly.

  "The man was often away. I now desire to ask the witness, Eliza Harris,who lives in that house, when she last saw the man in question--the manwho rented that third flat."

  A bright-eyed little woman arose at this, and said:

  "I see him now. There he is!"

  She pointed to John Jones.

  "He wore a false beard," she continued, "but I know him. And there's thewoman."

  She stretched out her hand toward Mrs. Jones.

  "To their flat," Nick continued, "as I have every reason to believe,Corbut was taken by Jones on that night, and there he was murdered andhis body cut in two.

  "It was placed in the trunks. Jones intended, probably, to remove itnext day, but his arrest prevented.

  "Of course it was necessary to get the body out of the way very soon.But Jones was too closely watched. That work had to be done by thewoman, and she did it exceedingly well."

  Nick told how Musgrave had been duped.

  "Now," he continued, "nothing remains but to clear up the details ofthe crime in the restaurant. I shall proceed to state exactly how it wasdone."

  At this moment Jones, who had previously remained perfectly calm,uttered a horrible groan, and half arose to his feet. He sank backfainting.

  And then came a surprising incident, for which even the shrewdsuperintendent of police had been wholly unprepared.

  A pale-faced man, who had been sitting beside Nick, arose and cried, ina voice that trembled with emotion:

  "Stop! Stop! I can bear this no longer!"

  It was Hammond, the man who begged Nick to save Jones.

  While Nick had been speaking, Hammond's eyes had been fixed upon Jones'face. He had watched the agony of fear growing upon the wretched man andgradually overcoming him.

  And when the burden became too great for the accused to bear, Hammondalso reached the limit of his endurance.

  "I can't stand it," he cried. "You shall not torture this innocent manany longer."

  "What do you mean?" asked the superintendent.

  "This is what I mean. The fear of disgrace has kept me silent too long.Now I will confess everything. Do you think I will sit here and let aninnocent man be condemned and his wife put to torture to save me fromthe just punishment of my fault?

  "Never! Listen to me. It was I who took that unhappy woman to the placewhere she met her death. It was I who wrote that name in the register.

  "I! I, and not that innocent man, was her companion. The waiter,Gaspard, is mistaken.

  "I am the man who was in room B!"