by Ron Finch
“I know,” said the chief. “Almost everybody in this town has the same problems. Save for a handful of people. But most of us don’t go around breaking the law because we know, in the long run, the result is that nobody would have anything.”
“Most people understand that, Chief,” said Cst. Herman. “But they get really angry when that handful of wealthy people won’t pay them enough to feed their families. And that’s what happened with the furniture factory strikes. And I’ll bet you that’s what this thievery is all about.”
“You’re probably right,” said Chief Petrovic. “But if the factories go broke, then all of us will starve. To keep operating the factories, the owners can only pay a certain wage.
“Anyway, we are paid to uphold the law, and that’s what we’ll do. Be back here by 1 o’clock. We will be interviewing these young men all afternoon.”
ONCE WE HAD ALL RETURNED from lunch, Chief Petrovic said, “I’ve decided on the interview assignments. Cst. Smith and Cst. Herman will work with me on interviewing the Smiths. I think this is a good idea because you,” he said pointing to Jake, “are somehow related to the two of them and Herman was the one who arrested them.
“While the three of us are doing that, I want you two to interview Barty Palmer and Calvin Router,” said Chief Petrovic, pointing at me and Jay. “You were in on the arrest of Palmer and Router,” he said, looking at me, “and Jay is familiar with Barty because he lives in his neighbourhood.
“Once we’ve completed those four interviews, we’ll have another meeting to see what we know, and then we’ll decide who’s going to interview the last two thieves.”
JAY AND I TOSSED A coin. I won the toss. I would do the interviewing and he would take the notes. Chief Petrovic was using his office for the interviews he was conducting, so that meant Jay and I were using the storage room around the corner from his office. The storage room already had a table and four chairs in it, so it would work well for the interview.
We decided to start with Barty Palmer.
When the two of us went down and took him out of his cell, he said, “Am I free to go home now?”
Jay and I were momentarily stunned. But our amazement turned into amusement when we realized that Barty apparently really thought we were releasing him. It’s always wise not to laugh out loud at a prisoner; it doesn’t improve the interview atmosphere.
“No, Barty,” I said patiently. “We’re just going to another room for a talk.”
That was the first inkling I had that Barty was playing the game of life without a full deck.
We led him to the storage room, and once we were seated at the table, I said, “Please give us your full name and your address.”
Barty immediately complied. When he’d finished giving his address, he turned and looked at Cst. Jarvis and said, “You live just down the road from me, at the Graysons’. You’re married to Sylvia. You have a little boy.”
“That’s right,” said Jay. “Since you and I are neighbours, it would be good if you could help us out with this investigation.”
“I’ll do what I can,” said Barty. “My mother always told me, if you treat your neighbours right, then they’ll treat you right.”
Once again Jay and I exchanged glances. We had never been involved in an interview like this before.
I tried a tougher question. “Do you know the names of the two guys that operated the boat that you loaded stuff onto?”
Barty laughed and said, “Not really. They told us to call them Tom and Jerry. They said it was better for us if we didn’t know their names. They didn’t seem like very nice people, so we went along with it.”
“How did they pay you?” I said.
“They gave us two dollars each, every night, in cash. A couple of times, they said we didn’t bring enough stuff, and so they only gave us a dollar.”
“Why did you start stealing from the factory, Barty?”
“Calvin’s a good friend of mine,” said Barty. “A lot of people make fun of me, but Calvin doesn’t. Calvin told me that what we were doing was what Robin Hood would do: ‘like robbing from the rich to give to the poor.’ A few years ago, Calvin took me with him to see the Robin Hood movie. It starred Douglas Fairbanks. It’s my favourite story.”
After listening to that, and understanding Barty’s limitations, I knew there was no way I could explain to him that what he did was wrong.
“How did you get into the furniture factory yard?” I said.
“That was easy,” said Barty, chuckling. “Calvin and I both work at the Murphy Furniture factory. So, at the end of the day, instead of going out the front door, we go out the back door and hide in the lot. We built a really nice place in one of the storage crates.”
“There were two of you at each of the furniture factories,” I said. “Are you all friends?”
“Well, sort of. Some of the others pick on me a bit, but Calvin sets them straight. He acts like my big brother.”
I remembered someone – most likely Barty – saying ‘Johnnie’s place’ that Friday night, just before we arrested them.
“Do you meet at Johnnie’s place often?”
“Yeah, it’s almost like our clubhouse,” he said. “We call ourselves the Boat Gang.”
“How many are in your gang?”
“It’s just the eight of us,” said Barty.
“Do you have a leader?”
“Not really. If there’s a problem or a mix-up, Johnnie just tells what to do.”
“So, Johnnie knows the two guys collecting the goods?”
“I’m pretty sure, but he won’t say. If he ever says anything about them, he just calls them Tom or Jerry.”
“Do they send messages to you from Johnnie?”
“Sometimes. One time, Johnnie said Tom told him he needed to get a drop leaf table for a special customer.”
“Just so I don’t forget anyone,” I said, “I want you to tell me the names of all the people who are in your gang.”
Barty listed the names, ticking them off his fingers one at a time. When he’d finished, he said, “I’m pretty sure I got them all, just don’t ask me to spell Alexander.”
I nodded at Jay and said, “Barty’s been very helpful. I think we’re done for now.”
“You’re a really good neighbour,” said Jay. “I remember your mom. She would be proud of you. I’m going to take you back to a different cell now. I can’t put you back in your cell until we’ve completed our interviews. You probably won’t have to wait there long, because we’re going to interview Calvin next.”
The interview with Calvin was more difficult. He certainly wasn’t a hardened criminal, but he wanted to give us as little information as he possibly could. He understood he would be facing criminal charges. Once he realized we knew just about everything, though, he was a little more cooperative. Calvin was genuinely concerned for Barty and told us that, in Barty’s simple view of the world, he didn’t understand that what he was doing was wrong. Calvin had taken Barty under his wing about five years ago, after Barty’s mom had died.
After we’d finished the second interview, Jay and I went back to Chief Petrovic’s office. Even with his office door closed we could hear the chief’s unpleasantly loud voice belabouring the current interviewee.
Jay said, “Here’s an idea: Let’s go down to Mabel’s Diner and get five coffees and an apple pie. That might be the perfect antidote to the chief’s bad mood when he finishes that interview.”
“That’s a wonderful idea, Jay. I wouldn’t mind a piece of pie myself.”
WHEN WE’D RETURNED to the police station, the chief’s office door was wide open. He was sitting on one side of the table by himself, wearing a heavy frown. Constables Smith and Herman were sitting across from him. It was obvious they had been listening and not speaking.
I knocked on the edge of the door and the chief looked up.
“Come in,” he said gruffly.
When he saw what Jay and I were carrying, his glare softened a
nd he said, “The rescue team has arrived just in time.”
As soon as the pie and coffee hit the table, the mood lightened considerably.
“I’m sorry,” said the chief, looking at Jake and Peter, “but that Johnnie Smith really made me angry. You know I’m not upset with you two.”
“We understand that, Chief,” said Cst. Smith, “but you really made us feel uncomfortable. We know you’re frustrated, and we know you didn’t find out everything you wanted to.”
“I want to leave that last interview alone for now,” said the chief, turning to me and Jay. “I want to hear what you two found out.”
“We were very fortunate, sir,” said Jay. “We interviewed one of my neighbours, Barty Palmer, and I think he’s a little simple. He told us quite a bit. He really believes they were robbing from the rich to give to the poor. So, I think the judge should be easy on him.”
“That will be up to the judge,” said the chief. “Okay, tell me: what did you find out?”
“Barty told us the names of everyone that belonged to what he called ‘the Boat Gang’,” said Jay. “We now have everyone’s name.”
This piece of information brought a huge smile to Chief Petrovic’s face.
“Gary Alexander and Jim Pope are the two guys that got away Friday night,” said Jay.
“He told us that the guys operating the smuggling boat call themselves Tom and Jerry,” I added. “Barty knew that was a joke. He said he thinks the only person that might know their real names would be Johnnie Smith. He told us that if there was a special request for a piece of furniture, Johnnie was the guy that had the information.”
Now Chief Petrovic was really smiling. “I’m very pleased that we caught a lucky break with Barty Palmer. And I’m not surprised that Johnnie Smith is the local guy behind this. I met Johnnie today, and I don’t like him one bit. Even if he is a relative of a great guy like Jake Smith.”
Tuesday, November 21st
“ARE YOU SURE YOU CAN see well enough to eat breakfast this morning, Joel?” asked Georgie. “You look groggy.”
“I didn’t sleep well last night, Georgie.”
“Well, you didn’t kick me in your sleep; and I woke up, so I know you didn’t choke me to death.”
“I woke up a few times,” I said. “I just feel really uncomfortable about those nightmares I’ve been having. I think, somehow or other, I need to do something to prevent any more deaths. But I don’t know what.
“I need to talk to that detective in Toronto, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to start the conversation. I certainly can’t tell him that I’m calling because I have dreams about the man who committed the bizarre murder. If I do that, he’ll just write me off as crazy.”
“I have an idea,” said Georgie. “You’ve had four previous nightmares that involve this hooded killer; if the murders were as sensational as the one in Toronto, I’m sure there must be stories in newspapers somewhere across the country that reported on them.”
“That’s a very good idea, Georgie, but I have no clue where to start looking.”
“According to what you and Walter talked about earlier, this demonic killer has been getting closer and closer to Chaseford because the signal from him has been getting stronger and stronger,” said Georgie. “I also think these murders have been happening in big cities, where it’s easier for someone different to be anonymous.”
“Your detective skills are impressive,” said Joel. “Are you suggesting I telephone all the major newspapers across Canada?”
“I guess that’s what you’ll have to do, Joel. As Chief Petrovic would say, ‘you know, all police work isn’t easy.’”
We finished our breakfast and cleared the table. I had to get down to the police station and Georgie was due at the hospital. Her shift today started at 9 o’clock.
As I went out the door, I turned and said, “I’m going to try and work a couple of phone calls in each day at lunchtime. If I can find just one newspaper story about a similar killing, that will give me a good reason to phone the Toronto detective.”
CST. SMITH AND CST. Jarvis had arrested Gary Alexander and Jim Pope, the two thieves we’d missed picking up on Friday night. We now had all eight of the local thieves in custody.
“I want to interview each of these young men again this morning,” said Chief Petrovic. “Since we now have most of the information, we can use it to our advantage in questioning them to make certain we have our facts straight.
“We’ve been fortunate, so far, in keeping the news of these arrests to ourselves. We have to be careful about who we tell, what we say, and when we say it. There is still a lot of underlying animosity about the mayor calling in the Army to keep things under control during the strikes against the furniture factories.
“I don’t think any of the eight young men we have arrested are involved in a life of crime, although Johnnie Smith is a pain in the backside; consequently, we have to handle the situation carefully.
“We will use two interview teams at a time. I want to arrange the interviews so that, where possible, you don’t interview the people you’ve already talked to. A new perspective from a different interview team often leads to new information.
“Peter and Joel will interview Herb Smith, Gary Alexander, and Jim Pope, while Jay and Jake will interview Barty Palmer, Calvin Router, Henry Leibowitz, and George Gustafson.
“I know that Jay and Jake have one more interview, but I want Peter and Joel to help me interview Johnnie Smith once they’ve completed their three interviews.
“Here are the three questions I want you to focus on:
1. What did you do?
2. How did you do it?
3. Why did you do it?”
I think we were all surprised by the questions, because we all looked over at the chief, waiting for an explanation.
“Now I know you’re paying attention, because of the looks you’re giving me,” said the chief. “I know I surprised you with that list of questions.
“You’ve already asked a lot of detailed questions. These are bigger, broader questions. I can take the answers from all the interviews to these three questions and design concise answers for each of those three questions. In that form, the information we obtain will be most easily understood by the factory owners, the newspaper, and the public.”
We all nodded, and I think everyone thought as I did: Chief Petrovic knows what he’s doing.
PETER AND I FINISHED our interviews first. The interviews of Gary Alexander and Jim Pope took a little longer than we anticipated because they hadn’t been interviewed previously. There was only one new nugget of information from their interview.
When I asked Gary Alexander about them rowing away from the company dock to avoid capture, he explained, “We didn’t even see the police. We didn’t know we were about to be arrested. That boat was a small rowboat that the smugglers had tied to the back of their boat. On nights when there was more furniture and supplies than they could easily put in their boat, the extra goods were put in the small boat and pulled behind; on the nights when they didn’t need the boat, they left it with us at the last dock. We made an extra dollar each by rowing the boat to the other side of the river and mooring it there until they needed it again.”
Peter handed our interview notes to the chief and he sat there for a couple of minutes, scanning through them and grunting. Finally, he said, “They’ll do.”
The chief checked his watch and said, “It’s almost noon. You two better go get some lunch. Be back by 1 o’clock. That’s when we’ll do our interview of Johnnie Smith.”
I TOLD CHIEF PETROVIC about the story Georgie and I had read in the Saturday edition of the Toronto Star. He and his wife only get the Chaseford Herald, and the story hadn’t appeared in the local paper yet. He listened to me patiently and said, “Does this story have any connection to our current case?”
“No, sir, it doesn’t; but I’ve been thinking about this story quite a bit because of the discussi
ons I’ve had with Dr. Khryscoff. He and I have talked about the psychological makeup of people who commit crimes like this. I think this man has committed murders like this before in other large cities. It’s just a hunch, but I would really appreciate it if, on my own time during lunch, I could phone from the police station to a couple of big newspapers in other cities to see if they’ve reported a similar crime. If I find something out, it would really help the police in Toronto to solve the case, and it would really enhance our reputation as a police department.”
I think permission to make the calls was in doubt until I mentioned the benefits to the Chaseford Police. Chief Petrovic has always been very proud of the local police force.
“Okay,” he said. “Just keep me informed. I’ll give you the rest of the week at lunch time to do that.”
“Thank you very much, sir,” I said. “I think it will turn out to be a good decision.”
I WASN’T SURE WHICH city to phone first. It didn’t matter; either my plan would work, or it wouldn’t. I decided to call the major cities in western Canada first. So, I jotted down: Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria. I put the city names in alphabetical order. That meant my first call would be to Calgary.
A quick call to the Calgary City Hall provided me with the name of Calgary’s major newspaper and their phone number. I placed my next call to the Calgary Daily Herald. I was fortunate and was quickly put through to the editor-in-chief, Marvin Stokes.
