Fourth Deadly Sin

by Lawrence Sanders

  The doctor greeted him at the office door with a tentative smile. The little man was wearing his holey wool cardigan and worn carpet slippers. He seemed staggered by the weight of Delaney’s overcoat, but he hung it away manfully and offered a cup of black coffee from a desk thermos. Delaney accepted gratefully.

  “Doctor Samuelson,” Delaney began, keeping his voice low-pitched and conversational, “thank you for giving me your valuable time. I wouldn’t have bothered you, but some things have come up in the investigation of Simon Ellerbee’s death that puzzle us, and I hoped you might be able to help.”

  The doctor made a gesture. “Whatever I can do,” he said.

  “First of all, we have discovered that for the past year or so, Doctor Simon had been having an affair with Joan Yesell, one of his patients.”

  Samuelson stared at him through the thick curved lens of his wire-rimmed glasses. “You are certain of this?”

  “Absolutely, sir. Not only from a statement by the lady concerned, but from the testimony of corroborating witnesses. You were probably the Ellerbees’ best friend, doctor—saw them frequently in town, visited their Brewster home on weekends—yet in our first meeting you stated that Doctor Simon was faithful to his wife, and theirs was a happy marriage. You had no inkling of Simon’s infidelity?”

  “Well—ah—I might have had a suspicion. But you cannot condemn a man because of suspicion, can you? Besides, poor Simon is dead, and what good would it do to tarnish his reputation? Is this important to your investigation?”

  “Very important.”

  “You mean the patient involved, this Joan Yesell, may have killed him?”

  “She is being watched.”

  Samuelson shook his head dolefully. “What a dreadful thing. And what a fool he was to get involved with a patient. Not only a horrendous breach of professional ethics, but a despicable insult to his wife. Do you think she was aware of his philandering?”

  “She says no. Do you think she was?”

  “Mr. Delaney, how can I possibly answer a question like that? I don’t know what Diane thinks.”

  “Don’t you, doctor? I noticed some unusual facts in your personal history. First, you were acquainted with both Ellerbees for some time prior to their marriage. Second, you suffered a breakdown two weeks after their marriage. Third, you continue to maintain a close relationship with Diane. I don’t wish to embarrass you or cause you pain, but whatever you tell me will be of tremendous help in convicting Simon’s killer. And will, of course, be held in strictest confidence. Doctor Samuelson, are you in love with Diane Ellerbee?”

  The diminutive man looked like he had been struck a blow. His narrow shoulders sagged. The large head on a stalky neck fell to one side as if he hadn’t the strength to support it. His grayish complexion took on an even unhealthier pallor.

  “Is it that obvious?” he asked with a failed smile.

  Delaney nodded.

  “Well, then—yes, I love her. Have since the first time I met her. She was studying with Simon then. My wife had died years before that. I suppose I was a lonely widower. Still am, for that matter. I thought Diane was the most beautiful woman I had ever met. Had ever seen. Her beauty simply took my breath away.”

  “Yes, she’s lovely.”

  “Every man who has met her feels the same way. I have always felt there is something unearthly about her beauty. She seems to be of a different race than human. There! You see the extent of my hopeless passion?”

  That line was spoken with wry self-mockery.

  “Why hopeless?” Delaney asked.

  “Look at me,” Samuelson said. “A shrimp of a man. Twenty years older than Diane. And not much to look at. Besides, there was Simon: a big, handsome, brilliant fellow closer to her own age. I could see the way she looked at him, and knew I had no chance. Is all this making me a prime suspect in the murder?”

  “No,” Delaney said, smiling, “it’s not doing that.”

  “Well, I didn’t do it, of course. I could never do anything like that. I abhor violence. Besides, I loved Simon almost as much as I did Diane—in a different way.”

  “You’ve spent a lot of time with her, doctor. Especially since her husband’s death. Would you say she’s a proud woman?”

  “Proud? Not particularly. Confident, certainly.”

  “Very sure of herself?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Obstinate?”

  “She can be stubborn on occasion.”

  “What you’re saying is that she likes her own way?”

  Samuelson thought that over for a few seconds. “Yes,” he said finally. “I think that’s a fair assessment: She likes her own way. That’s hardly a fault, Mr. Delaney.”

  “You’re right, sir, it isn’t; we all like to get our own way. Prior to Simon’s death, did Diane give any indication at all that she was aware of her husband’s unfaithfulness? Please think carefully before you answer, doctor; it’s very important.”

  Samuelson poured them both more coffee, emptying the desk thermos. Then he sat back, patting the waves of his heavy russet hair. Delaney wondered again if it might be a rug.

  “I honestly cannot give you a definite answer,” the psychiatrist said. “Certain things, the way people talk and act, can seem perfectly normal, innocuous. Then someone like you comes along and asks, can you interpret that talk and those actions in this manner—is the person in question suspicious, jealous, paranoid, depressive, or whatever? And almost invariably the speech and actions can be so interpreted. Do you understand what I am saying, Mr. Delaney? Human emotions are extremely difficult to analyze. They can mean almost anything you want them to mean: open and above board or devious and contrived.”

  “I do understand that, doctor, and agree with you. But even with that disclaimer, can you state definitely that Diane was not aware of her husband’s infidelity?”

  “No, I cannot say that.”

  “Then, from your observations of her during the past year, can you say she may have been aware?”

  “Possibly,” Dr. Samuelson said cautiously.

  Delaney sighed, knowing he was not going to get any more than that.

  “Doctor, Diane strikes me as being a very controlled woman, always in command of herself. Do you agree?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Did you ever see her when she was not in control?”

  “Only once,” Samuelson said with a rueful smile. “And then it was over such a stupid thing. It happened last year. I was out at their Brewster home for the weekend. It was in the fall, and quite cool. Simon liked to have dinner on the patio, and planned to grill steaks on the barbecue. Diane insisted it was too cold to eat out-of-doors, and wanted us to stay inside. A furious argument erupted. I stayed out of it, of course. They really went at it, hammer and tongs, and said a lot of things I’m sure they were sorry for later. Finally Diane grabbed the package of steaks—they were beautiful sirloins—ran out of the house, and threw them in the stream. That was the end of our steak dinner. But at least it had the effect of clearing the air, and after a while we were laughing about it. We opened two cans of tuna and had a salad and baked potatoes.”

  “Indoors?” Delaney said.

  “Indoors,” Samuelson said. “That was the only time I ever saw Diane lose her temper. But I admit her anger was frightening.”

  “I recall,” Delaney said, “that when I was speaking to her of the possibility of patients assaulting their psychiatrists, I asked her if she had ever been attacked. She said most of her patients were children, but when they struck her, she hit back. Is this the usual treatment in situations like that?”

  Dr. Samuelson shrugged. “It is not a technique that I myself would use, but whatever works … Psychotherapy is not an exact science.”

  “So I have learned. One final question, doctor—a very personal one: Have you asked Diane Ellerbee to marry you?”

  Samuelson looked at him strangely. “I think you are in the wrong business, Mr. Delaney. Perhaps you should be
sitting behind this desk.”

  “You haven’t answered my question.”

  “The answer is yes, I asked Diane to marry me. She said no.”

  “A very independent woman,” Delaney remarked.

  Samuelson nodded.

  Schlepping home in the cold, Delaney pondered the interview and what it had yielded. Not a hell of a lot. He liked that story about Diane throwing the sirloins in the stream. Last year, steaks; this year, a ball peen hammer.

  The one question he hadn’t been able to ask still gnawed at him: Doctor Samuelson, do you think Diane Ellerbee murdered her husband? Samuelson would have been outraged, and, considering his infatuation, would have been on the phone, warning her, the moment Delaney left his office. Better that Diane should believe herself unsuspected and safe. The shock would be that much greater.

  He suddenly acknowledged they had all they were going to get. It was time for him to make his move. Not because of Thorsen’s end-of-the-year deadline, although that was a consideration, but because the investigation had come up against a blank wall.

  There was not going to be a sudden, neat denouement, the killer nabbed and proven guilty. He would have to settle for a half-loaf. But it would not be the first time that had happened to him, he reflected grimly, and he could live with it. All was best, but something was better than nothing.

  He worked out the way he was going to handle it, manipulating people by appealing to their self-interest. It wouldn’t be perfect justice—but when had justice ever been perfect?

  He stopped at a couple of shops on the way home, and when he entered his empty brownstone—the women out shopping again, he supposed—he headed directly for the kitchen. There he made himself two toasted bagel sandwiches layered with cream cheese, sliced red onion, and capers. One sandwich got a thick slab of lox, the other smoked sturgeon.

  He spent almost an hour on the phone, tracking down Thorsen and Suarez. He finally got everything coordinated, and both men promised to be at the brownstone at 9:30 P.M. Then he tried calling Dr. Diane Ellerbee at her office and at her Brewster home, but got no answer.

  He worked all afternoon putting his files in order, holding out only those documents he might need. He then made notes of the presentation he intended to deliver to Thorsen and Suarez. He was confident he would succeed; he couldn’t see that they had any choice but to go along with him.

  He leaned back in his swivel chair, realizing it was all winding down. End of the trail. There was a certain satisfaction in that, and a certain sadness, too. It had been a nice chase, an excitement, but now it was done.

  He reviewed the way he had handled it and couldn’t see how he might have worked it differently with better results. If he had made any error, it was in looking for complexities in a homicide that was essentially simple: The Case of the Betrayed Wife. A detective couldn’t go far wrong if he stuck to the obvious.

  That night Delaney began by throwing them a curveball. “Chief,” he said to Suarez, “I want you to arrest Doctor Diane Ellerbee for the murder of her husband.”

  Thorsen was the first to recover. “My God, Edward,” he said, “the last time we spoke, you said you thought it was the patient—what’s her name?”

  “Joan Yesell. No, she’s clean. She was there on the night Ellerbee was killed, but she didn’t do it.”

  “So it was the wife?” Suarez said wonderingly. “All the time it was the wife while we were chasing the patients?”

  “That’s right,” Delaney said. “This is a long story, so bear with me.”

  He stood and began pacing back and forth behind his desk, occasionally glancing at the notes he had prepared.

  He started with the affair between Simon and Joan Yesell, and how it had gone on for almost a year. Diane had probably been aware of it soon after it started, but it was only three weeks prior to his death that Simon had asked for a divorce.

  “There’s motive enough for you,” Delaney said. “The scorned woman.”

  He analyzed the personality of Diane: a beautiful woman who had lived a fortunate and sheltered life and never suffered a disappointment. Then her husband says he wants to leave her for a Plain Jane and her whole world collapses.

  He described Joan Yesell, a woman energized by love for the first time in her life. She would, Delaney said, have been willing to let the affair continue indefinitely, but he promised her marriage.

  “So,” Delaney said, “that’s our triangle: three passionate and very flummoxed people.”

  Then Delaney reviewed the murder night, starting with the victim’s announced intention of seeing a late patient: Diane’s unproven statement that she had left Manhattan for Brewster; Joan Yesell’s inability to get a cab, and her late arrival at the townhouse to find Dr. Simon dead.

  “Diane had the motive,” Delaney argued. “She had the opportunity, and here’s how she got the means …”

  He told them about the ball peen hammer stolen from the Brewster garage where the Ellerbees’ cars were serviced. He described the stream running through the Ellerbees’ property, and stated firmly that he believed the hammer had been thrown into that stream.

  He began to pile on supporting evidence: the clause in Simon’s will canceling his patients’ outstanding bills, Joan Yesell’s debt of nearly ten thousand dollars, Diane’s erroneous statement that suicide-prone patients often become homicidal….

  “All right,” Delaney said at last, “let’s have your questions. I’m sure you’ve got them.”

  “In the absence of the billing ledger,” Suarez said, “how do you know Joan Yesell would benefit most from the doctor’s canceling of patients’ debts?”

  Delaney explained that Simon’s receptionist, Carol Judd, had provided that information.

  Thorsen asked why Delaney was so certain of the intensity of the Ellerbee–Joan Yesell affair.

  Delaney told them about the last interrogation of Yesell, her mother’s attempt to alibi her, and Samuelson’s acknowledgment that he had suspected for some time that Simon was involved with another woman. Delaney did not mention the flower that Simon wore in his lapel; he doubted they would consider that firm evidence of a romantic passion.

  “Why would Ellerbee want to start an affair with such a dull woman,” the Chief asked, “if his wife is as lovely as you say?”

  Delaney repeated what he had told Boone and Jason—that Simon wanted to improve his women and had tired of being married to a paragon, with his friends constantly telling him how lucky he was.

  “Maybe,” Delaney added, “he wanted a relationship in which he was the paragon. It must be difficult being married to a work of art.”

  “Let’s get back to that missing billing ledger,” the Deputy said. “Who do you figure took it—Diane or Joan Yesell?”

  “Diane,” Delaney said promptly. “Look, Diane wants to implicate Yesell. That’s why she gave us Joan’s name in the first place. But at the same time, she doesn’t want us to find out about Simon’s affair. Diane is a very complex woman, torn between a need for vengeance and a need to protect her own self-esteem.”

  “Why did she put out his eyes?” Ivar asked—and with that question Delaney knew he had convinced them.

  Again he repeated what he had told Boone and Jason—that Simon had persuaded Diane that her beauty meant little, but then had begun to look at another woman. She couldn’t stand that.

  There was silence.

  “That’s all?” Delaney said. “No more questions?”

  Then, thinking it might be discreet to leave them alone for a few moments, he went into the kitchen and mixed himself a tall rye highball. He drank half of it off immediately, standing at the sink, then brought the remainder back into the study along with drinks for the others.

  “All right,” he said. “Did she or didn’t she? Chief, what do you think?”

  “I think she did it,” Suarez said mournfully, his sad face sagging. “A beautiful woman like that—it is a true tragedy.”

  “Ivar?”

 
“Oh, she’s guilty as hell,” the Admiral said. “No doubt about it. But you know what you’ve got, Edward. Zero, zip, and zilch.”

  “Hard evidence, you mean?” Delaney said. “Of course I know that. And we’re not going to get it. Continuing this investigation would be just spinning our wheels. But I want Diane Ellerbee charged for the murder of her husband.”

  “What good would that do?” Thorsen demanded, looking at him narrowly. “She’d be out in two hours, and that would be the end of that. And the DA will call us assholes for arresting her.”

  “I’ll tell you what it’ll do for me,” Delaney said coldly. “It’ll ruin her. The arrest will be headlined in every newspaper in town, and featured on every TV news program. She’s going to walk anyway, isn’t she? You know it and I know it. But we can drag her through the mud first. Even when she goes free, everyone will be saying, ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.’ You think her reputation can take that? Or her career? I know we’ll never get a conviction on what I’ve got—probably not even an indictment—but by God, we can make her suffer. That’s what I want.

  “As for you two, what you get out of this hyped-up circus is what you want: headlines of an important arrest, with statements by you, Chief, that you’re convinced the Ellerbee homicide is cleared. Statements by you, Ivar, congratulating Suarez on his exceptional detective work in solving this extremely difficult case. Don’t you think the PC is going to read the papers and watch TV?”

  The two men turned and stared at each other.

  “I do not know …” Suarez said hesitantly. “I am not sure … The law …”

  Delaney whirled oh him. “The law?” he said, snorting. “What the hell has the law got to do with this? We’re talking about justice here. She’s got to be made to pay. But this can’t be decided on the basis of either law or justice. This is strictly a political decision.”

  “Welcome to the club,” Thorsen said with a small smile. “But what if she sues for false arrest?”