"I think you'd better tell us the whole story, Mr. Mannix." His voice held a quality which made the request an imperative.
Mannix, too, settled back in his chair.
"Oh, I'm going to tell it--believe me, I'm going to tell it. You had the right idea. I spent the evening with Miss Frisbee. No harm in that, though."
"What time did you go there?"
"After office hours--half past five, quarter to six. Came up in the subway, got off at 72d, and walked over."
"And you entered the house through the front door?"
"No. I walked down the alleyway and went in the side door--like I generally do. It's nobody's business who I call on, and what the telephone operator in the front hall don't know don't hurt him."
"That's all right so far," observed Heath. "The janitor didn't bolt the side door until after six."
"And did you stay the entire evening, Mr. Mannix?" asked Markham.
"Sure--till just before midnight. Miss Frisbee cooked the dinner, and I'd brought along a bottle of wine. Social little party--just the two of us. And I didn't go outside the apartment, understand, until five minutes to twelve. You can get the lady down here and ask her. I'll call her up now and tell her to explain the exact situation about Monday night. I'm not asking you to take my word for it--positively not."
Markham made a gesture dismissing the suggestion.
"What took place at five minutes to twelve?"
Mannix hesitated, as if loath to come to the point.
"I'm a good fellow, y' understand. And a friend's a friend. But--I ask you--is that any reason why I should get in wrong for something I didn't have absolutely nothing to do with?"
He waited for an answer, but receiving none, continued.
"Sure, I'm right. Anyway, here's what happened. As I said, I was calling on the lady. But I had another date for later that night; so a few minutes before midnight I said good-bye and started to go. Just as I opened the door I saw someone sneaking away from the Canary's apartment down the little back hall to the side door. There was a light in the hall, and the door of Apartment 2 faces that side door. I saw the fellow as plain as I see you--positively as plain."
"Who was it?"
"Well, if you got to know, it was Pop Cleaver."
Markham's head jerked slightly.
"What did you do then?"
"Nothing, Mr. Markham--nothing at all. I didn't think much about it, y' understand. I knew Pop was chasing after the Canary, and I just supposed he'd been calling on her. But I didn't want Pop to see me--none of his business where I spend my time. So I waited quietly till he went out--"
"By the side door?"
"Sure. Then I went out the same way. I was going to leave by the front door, because I knew the side door was always locked at night. But when I saw Pop go out that way, I said to myself I'd do the same. No sense giving your business away to a telephone operator if you haven't got to--no sense at all. So I went out the same way I came in. Picked up a taxi on Broadway, and went--"
"That's enough!" Again Vance's command cut him short.
"Oh, all right--all right." Mannix seemed content to end his statement at this point. "Only, y' understand, I don't want you to think--"
"We don't."
Markham was puzzled at these interruptions, but made no comment.
"When you read of Miss Odell's death," he said, "why didn't you come to the police with this highly important information?"
"I should get mixed up in it!" exclaimed Mannix in surprise. "I got enough trouble without looking for it--plenty."
"An exigent course," commented Markham with open disgust. "But you nevertheless suggested to me, after you knew of the murder, that Cleaver was being blackmailed by Miss Odell."
"Sure I did. Don't that go to show I wanted to do the right thing by you--giving you a valuable tip?"
"Did you see anyone else that night in the halls or alleyway?"
"Nobody--absolutely nobody."
"Did you hear anyone in the Odell apartment--anyone speaking or moving about, perhaps?"
"Didn't hear a thing." Mannix shook his head emphatically.
"And you're certain of the time you saw Cleaver go out--five minutes to twelve?"
"Positively. I looked at my watch, and I said to the lady: 'I'm leaving the same day I came; it won't be tomorrow for five minutes yet.'"
Markham went over his story point by point, attempting by various means to make him admit more than he had already told. But Mannix neither added to his statement nor modified it in any detail; and after half an hour's cross-examination he was permitted to go.
"We've found one missing piece of the puzzle, at any rate," commented Vance. "I don't see now just how it fits into the complete pattern, but it's helpful and suggestive. And, I say, how beautifully my intuition about Mannix was verified, don't y' know!"
"Yes, of course--your precious intuition." Markham looked at him sceptically. "Why did you shut him up twice when he was trying to tell me something?"
"O, tu ne sauras jamais," recited Vance. "I simply can't tell you, old dear. Awfully sorry, and all that."
His manner was whimsical, but Markham knew that at such times Vance was at heart most serious, and he did not press the question. I could not help wondering if Miss La Fosse realized just how secure she had been in putting her faith in Vance's integrity.
Heath had been considerably shaken by Mannix's story.
"I don't savvy that side door being unlocked," he complained. "How the hell did it get bolted again on the inside after Mannix went out? And who unbolted it after six o'clock?"
"In God's good time, my sergeant, all things will be revealed," said Vance.
"Maybe--and maybe not. But if we do find out, you can take it from me that the answer'll be Skeel. He's the bird we gotta get the goods on. Cleaver is no expert jimmy artist; and neither is Mannix."
"Just the same, there was a very capable technician on hand that night, and it wasn't your friend the Dude, though he was probably the Donatello who sculptured open the jewel case."
"A pair of 'em, was there? That's your theory, is it, Mr. Vance? You said that once before; and I'm not saying you're wrong. But if we can hang any part of it on Skeel, we'll make him come across as to who his pal was."
"It wasn't a pal, Sergeant. It was more likely a stranger."
Markham sat glowering into space.
"I don't at all like the Cleaver end of this affair," he said. "There's been something damned wrong about him ever since Monday."
"And I say," put in Vance, "doesn't the gentleman's false alibi take on a certain shady significance now, what? You apprehend, I trust, why I restrained you from questioning him about it at the club yesterday. I rather fancied that if you could get Mannix to pour out his heart to you, you'd be in a stronger position to draw a few admissions from Cleaver. And behold? Again the triumph of intuition! With what you now know about him, you can chivvy him most unconscionably--eh, what?"
"And that's precisely what I'm going to do." Markham rang for Swacker. "Get hold of Charles Cleaver," he ordered irritably. "Phone him at the Stuyvesant Club and also his home--he lives round the corner from the club in West 27th Street. And tell him I want him to be here in half an hour, or I'll send a couple of detectives to bring him in handcuffs."
For five minutes Markham stood before the window, smoking agitatedly, while Vance, with a smile of amusement, busied himself with The Wall Street Journal. Heath got himself a drink of water, and took a turn up and down the room. Presently Swacker reentered.
"Sorry, Chief, but there's nothing doing. Cleaver's gone into the country somewhere. Won't be back till late tonight."
"Hell! . . . All right--that'll do." Markham turned to Heath. "You have Cleaver rounded up tonight, Sergeant, and bring him in here tomorrow morning at nine."
"He'll be here, sir!" Heath paused in his pacing and faced Markham. "I've been thinking, sir; and there's one thing that keeps coming up in my mind, so to speak. You remember that black do
cument box that was setting on the living room table? It was empty; and what a woman generally keeps in that kind of a box is letters and things like that. Well, now, here's what's been bothering me: that box wasn't jimmied open--it was unlocked with a key. And, anyway, a professional crook don't take letters and documents. . . . You see what I mean, sir?"
"Sergeant of mine!" exclaimed Vance. "I abase myself before you! I sit at your feet! . . . The document box--the tidily opened, empty document box! Of course. Skeel didn't open it--never in this world! That was the other chap's handiwork."
"What was in your mind about that box, Sergeant?" asked Markham.
"Just this, sir. As Mr. Vance has insisted right along, there mighta been someone besides Skeel in that apartment during the night. And you told me that Cleaver admitted to you he'd paid Odell a lot of money last June to get back his letters. But suppose he never paid that money; suppose he went there Monday night and took those letters. Wouldn't he have told you just the story he did about buying 'em back? Maybe that's how Mannix happened to see him there."
"That's not unreasonable," Markham acknowledged. "But where does it lead us?"
"Well, sir, if Cleaver did take 'em Monday night, he mighta held on to 'em. And if any of those letters were dated later than last June, when he says he bought 'em back, then we'd have the goods on him."
"Well?"
"As I say, sir, I've been thinking. . . . Now, Cleaver is outa town today; and if we could get hold of those letters. . . ."
"It might prove helpful, of course," said Markham coolly, looking the sergeant straight in the eye. "But such a thing is quite out of the question."
"Still and all," mumbled Heath. "Cleaver's been pulling a lot of raw stuff on you, sir."
21
A CONTRADICTION IN DATES
(Saturday, September 15; 9 A.M.)
The next morning Markham and Vance and I breakfasted together at the Prince George, and arrived at the district attorney's office a few minutes past nine. Heath, with Cleaver in tow, was waiting in the reception room.
To judge by Cleaver's manner as he entered, the sergeant had been none too considerate of him. He strode belligerently to the district attorney's desk and fixed a cold, resentful eye on Markham.
"Am I, by any chance, under arrest?" he demanded softly, but it was the rasping, suppressed softness of wrathful indignation.
"Not yet," said Markham curtly. "But if you were, you'd have only yourself to blame. Sit down."
Cleaver hesitated, and took the nearest chair.
"Why was I routed out of bed at seven thirty by this detective of yours"--he jerked his thumb toward Heath--"and threatened with patrol wagons and warrants because I objected to such high-handed and illegal methods?"
"You were merely threatened with legal procedure if you refused to accept my invitation voluntarily. This is my short day at the office; and there was some explaining I wanted from you without delay."
"I'm damned if I'll explain anything to you under these conditions!" For all his nerveless poise, Cleaver was finding it difficult to control himself. "I'm no pickpocket that you can drag in here when it suits your convenience and put through a third degree."
"That's eminently satisfactory to me." Markham spoke ominously. "But since you refuse to do your explaining as a free citizen, I have no other course than to alter your present status." He turned to Heath. "Sergeant, go across the hall and have Ben swear out a warrant for Charles Cleaver. Then lock this gentleman up."
Cleaver gave a start and caught his breath sibilantly. "On what charge?" he demanded.
"The murder of Margaret Odell."
The man sprang to his feet. The color had gone from his face, and the muscles of his jowls worked spasmodically. "Wait! You're giving me a raw deal. And you'll lose out, too. You couldn't make that charge stick in a thousand years."
"Maybe not. But if you don't want to talk here, I'll make you talk in court."
"I'll talk here," Cleaver sat down again. "What do you want to know?"
Markham took out a cigar and lit it with deliberation. "First: why did you tell me you were in Boonton Monday night?"
Cleaver apparently had expected the question. "When I read of the Canary's death, I wanted an alibi; and my brother had just given me the summons he'd been handed in Boonton. It was a ready-made alibi right in my hand. So I used it."
"Why did you need an alibi?"
"I didn't need it; but I thought it might save me trouble. People knew I'd been running round with the Odell girl; and some of them knew she'd been blackmailing me--I'd told 'em, like a damn fool. I told Mannix, for instance. We'd both been stung."
"Is that your only reason for concocting this alibi?" Markham was watching him sharply.
"Wasn't it reason enough? Blackmail would have constituted a motive, wouldn't it?"
"It takes more than a motive to arouse unpleasant suspicion."
"Maybe so. Only I didn't want to be drawn into it. You can't blame me for trying to keep clear of it."
Markham leaned over with a threatening smile. "The fact that Miss Odell had blackmailed you wasn't your only reason for lying about the summons. It wasn't even your main reason."
Cleaver's eyes narrowed, but otherwise he was like a graven image. "You evidently know more about it than I do." He managed to make his words sound casual.
"Not more, Mr. Cleaver," Markham corrected him, "but nearly as much. Where were you between eleven o'clock and midnight Monday?"
"Perhaps that's one of the things you know."
"You're right. You were in Miss Odell's apartment."
Cleaver sneered, but he did not succeed in disguising the shock that Markham's accusation caused him.
"If that's what you think, then it happens you don't know, after all. I haven't put foot in her apartment for two weeks."
"I have the testimony of reliable witnesses to the contrary."
"Witnesses!" The word seemed to force itself from Cleaver's compressed lips.
Markham nodded. "You were seen coming out of Miss Odell's apartment and leaving the house by the side door at five minutes to twelve on Monday night."
Cleaver's jaw sagged slightly, and his labored breathing was quite audible.
"And between half past eleven and twelve o'clock," pursued Markham's relentless voice, "Miss Odell was strangled and robbed. What do you say to that?"
For a long time there was tense silence. Then Cleaver spoke.
"I've got to think this thing out."
Markham waited patiently. After several minutes Cleaver drew himself together and squared his shoulders.
"I'm going to tell you what I did that night, and you can take it or leave it." Again he was the cold, self-contained gambler. "I don't care how many witnesses you've got; it's the only story you'll ever get out of me. I should have told you in the first place, but I didn't see any sense of stepping into hot water if I wasn't pushed in. You might have believed me last Tuesday, but now you've got something in your head, and you want to make an arrest to shut up the newspapers--"
"Tell your story," ordered Markham. "If it's straight, you needn't worry about the newspapers."
Cleaver knew in his heart that this was true. No one, not even his bitterest political enemies, had ever accused Markham of buying kudos with any act of injustice, however small.
"There's not much to tell, as a matter of fact," the man began. "I went to Miss Odell's house a little before midnight, but I didn't enter her apartment; I didn't even ring her bell."
"Is that your customary way of paying visits?"
"Sounds fishy, doesn't it? But it's the truth, nevertheless. I intended to see her--that is, I wanted to--but when I reached her door, something made me change my mind--"
"Just a moment. How did you enter the house?"
"By the side door, the one off the alleyway. I always used it when it was open. Miss Odell requested me to, so that the telephone operator wouldn't see me coming in so often."
"And the door was unlocked
at that time Monday night?"
"How else could I have got in by it? A key wouldn't have done me any good, even if I'd had one, for the door locks by a bolt on the inside. I'll say this, though: that's the first time I ever remember finding the door unlocked at night."
"All right. You went in the side entrance. Then what?"
"I walked down the rear hall and listened at the door of Miss Odell's apartment for a minute. I thought there might be someone else with her, and I didn't want to ring unless she was alone. . . ."
"Pardon my interrupting, Mr. Cleaver," interposed Vance. "But what made you think someone else was there?"
The man hesitated.
"Was it," prompted Vance, "because you had telephoned to Miss Odell a little while before, and had been answered by a man's voice?"
Cleaver nodded slowly. "I can't see any particular point in denying it. . . . Yes, that's the reason."
"What did this man say to you?"
"Damn little. He said 'Hello,' and when I asked to speak to Miss Odell, he informed me she wasn't in, and hung up."
Vance addressed himself to Markham. "That, I think, explains Jessup's report of the brief phone call to the Odell apartment at twenty minutes to twelve."
"Probably." Markham spoke without interest. He was intent on Cleaver's account of what happened later and he took up the interrogation at the point where Vance had interrupted.
"You say you listened at the apartment door. What caused you to refrain from ringing?"
"I heard a man's voice inside."
Markham straightened up.
"A man's voice? You're sure?"
"That's what I said." Cleaver was matter of fact about it. "A man's voice. Otherwise I'd have rung the bell."
"Could you identify the voice?"
"Hardly. It was very indistinct; and it sounded a little hoarse. It wasn't anyone's voice I was familiar with; but I'd be inclined to say it was the same one that answered me over the phone."
"Could you make out anything that was said?"
Cleaver frowned and looked past Markham through the open window. "I know what the words sounded like," he said slowly. "I didn't think anything of them at the time. But after reading the papers the next day, those words came back to me--"
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