“Is he in custody?”
“No. He appeared to be a witness who voluntarily came forward, so our men weren’t watching him as closely as they perhaps should have. I’m afraid he slipped away. I have people looking for him now. Did he know Mason?”
“I can’t say for sure. It may be Schuler came to Buffalo after Mason left town.”
Livingston pulled out his watch. “Well, I think that’s enough for tonight. Let’s save the rest for morning.”
“One thing that shouldn’t wait, Colonel. I believe Mason was meeting a woman who goes by the name of Sadie Parker. But she may be traveling as Becky, or Rebecca, Sharp, or possibly Sadie Collins. She received a message from him yesterday proposing a rendezvous, I believe at the Queen’s Hotel here.”
I gave him a thorough description of Sadie. Then he had a carriage take us back to the hotel.
“Emmie, remember when we were with Whitner earlier?” I asked as we went in. “What was that about the Rossin?”
“The Rossin House. I saw it on the map. I was trying to mislead Whitner.”
“How so?”
“Well, remember our conversation on the boat about how the odds were against us catching Mason?”
“I’d put it out of my mind.”
“I took the opposite tack—I formulated a plan. If we found Whitner waiting here, I would lead him to believe that I somehow found out Sadie and Mason were at another hotel. The Rossin House was on your map.”
“I see. You are a woman of action.”
Emmie had gotten us two rooms on the second floor and we sat down in mine to discuss the new developments.
“You don’t think Whitey killed Mason, do you?” she asked.
“Well, it’s a possibility. Maybe Boss Conners was involved in one of Mason’s schemes and thought it was best if the matter were laid to rest. But I wouldn’t think Whitey would allow himself to get caught with the body. Maybe he went to warn Mason I was on my way, and someone else had gotten there first.”
“But who else would have wanted to kill Mason?”
“I’m not sure. Whitner probably didn’t know who Mason was, but if he had, he would have been planning to milk him. It could be Sadie wasn’t meeting Mason because she’s still keen on him. Maybe Mason found out something about your uncle’s disappearance and was planning to blackmail her for a share of the insurance. That leaves two other possibilities I’m aware of, but it could have been someone else entirely. There’s no reason to think Mason had given up scheming since he left Buffalo, and I imagine he left a string of victims in his wake.”
“What other two possibilities are you aware of? My uncle?”
“Yes, he’s one. Assuming he isn’t dead and marinating in the canal. Mason may have discovered his whereabouts and tried to milk him. Your uncle knew him well enough to realize Mason would see this as a lifetime annuity.”
“And the other?”
“Your cousin Charlie. You see, he seems to have taken up with Sadie. Maybe he fell hard enough to be jealous of Mason.”
“Is that true? That Charlie has been seeing Miss Parker?”
“Yes. But I don’t know how seriously he takes it. I wouldn’t have entertained him as a possibility, but you said he left in a hurry to catch a train earlier today. And I suspect he also was given the contents of that postcard Sadie received. The clerk at the Tifft more or less confirmed it.”
“Still, I can’t see Charlie killing someone over a woman. He just has never treated those things as very important.”
“Then why was he interested in her mail?”
“I can’t answer that,” she conceded. “Why didn’t you mention Charlie to the Colonel when you brought up Sadie?”
“I didn’t want to impugn your family in front of a police detective. At least not before I can be sure there’s something to it.”
“There’s something I haven’t told you yet. The reason I took these rooms on the second floor.”
“You don’t like climbing stairs?”
“Don’t be a gink. I saw the register and who do you think is in Room 212?”
“Let’s see, was that Cedray?”
“No, nothing that absurd. A Robert Day.”
“I see—R. Day. But what happened to the C and the E?”
“Maybe they’re middle initials, or perhaps the abbreviation for an honorary title that follows the name.”
“So, Mr. R. Day, E.C.?” I suggested. “At this point, Sherlock Holmes would instruct Doctor Watson to consult Burke’s Peerage to determine the meaning of “E.C.” Maybe if I ask at the desk they’ll have one handy?”
“Don’t play horse with me, Harrison.”
I didn’t like Emmie’s expression. I thought to divert her by feeding her imagination. I told her all about Keegan and how he and Whitner seemed to recognize each other.
“I had assumed Keegan knew him from the rogues’ gallery he keeps of insurance grafters,” I said. “But I couldn’t figure out why Whitner would recognize Keegan. Tonight, when we were alone in the barroom, I asked him about it and he said, ‘Of course, why wouldn’t I recognize him?’”
“That’s very curious, isn’t it? Does it mean Whitner could be working for Keegan?”
“Or maybe he did sometime in the past. That might be why he knows so much about your uncle, from seeing Keegan’s files.”
“But why wouldn’t Keegan have just told you that?”
“Well, he has a lot of people working for him. If Whitner was working as a clerk in the file room, Keegan might have seen him only rarely. But, of course, he would know Keegan. And a job in Keegan’s file room would provide a lot of grist for someone with a penchant for blackmail.”
“Yes, that would explain it, I suppose.”
We said good night and Emmie went off to her room in a much improved mood.
14
When we came down the next morning, there was a message from the Colonel at the desk asking us to be at his office at ten o’clock. That left time for a leisurely breakfast in the dining room.
“Tell me, Harry, doesn’t the fact that Mason is dead mean you’ll be unable to collect on that reward?”
“Yes, I’m afraid it does.”
“I’m sorry. But there’s still the policy on my uncle.”
“Yes, I’ll need to concentrate on that now.”
“But what if it turns out my uncle did die in an accident? Then you won’t be able to collect on that either. Your whole trip will have been for nothing.”
“You have a rather dispiriting way of putting things, Emmie.”
“I’m sorry, Harry. Yes, we should hope for the best.”
“Besides, I have reason to believe I’ll succeed in the case of your uncle.”
“Does that mean you think my theory of my uncle being killed for his involvement in the smuggling scheme is correct? Or maybe it was the stock scheme?”
“Well, not exactly. You see, I have reason to believe your uncle had been building assets elsewhere for the last several years.”
This revelation necessitated my recounting the second burglarizing of her uncle’s office and the results of my search. She didn’t seem at all upset about the burglary. But she did grasp immediately that my success might make things awkward at home.
“So you expect to prove my uncle is alive and thereby collect the reward from the company’s insurer. And render my aunt destitute.”
“She must have some assets. There’s the house. And Charlie must be doing well. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“Possibly, but it’s unlikely she and Charlie will appreciate that when they learn that I’ve accompanied you on this effort. I’ll need to move out of the house, certainly.”
“Well, with your nest egg, you can set up on your own now.”
“My nest egg?”
“The four hundred dollars in four different banks.”
“Oh, yes,” she acknowledged. “But don’t forget the fifty dollars of mine you’re carrying.”
“No, I
haven’t forgotten about that.”
We had a pleasant walk to the police station and Colonel Livingston was waiting for us.
“I have another name for your Robert Mason. It seems a Mrs. Redstone reported her husband missing late last night, but it was some time before our men made the connection. Mason has been living here as Lester Redstone.”
“Are you sure?”
“His wife just identified the body.”
“His wife?”
“That’s right. He left a wife and two children.”
“Did she know he was Mason?”
“She says she didn’t, but who knows. You seem surprised. Didn’t you expect something like this? You said he’d been on the run. And he used aliases.”
“Yes. I just had a completely different picture of him. What about Mike Schuler?”
“We haven’t turned him up, but it looks like his story is probably true—at least most of it. Mrs. Redstone told us someone matching Schuler’s description stopped by the house last evening shortly after dinner and asked for her husband. She told him he had gone to meet someone about renting an office. He said he was that man, but had misplaced the address and hoped to catch him at home. She gave him the address and he went on his way. What’s more, we have a witness who heard the shots and then saw Schuler go inside. And then there’s the fact that he’s the one who showed our men the body. If he murdered Redstone, he would have had to have been either angry to the point of insanity, or completely witless. He didn’t strike our detectives as either.”
“No, Mr. Schuler isn’t a fool, and I doubt he had a personal stake in the matter,” I agreed. “The shooting occurred at this office?”
“Yes, an office in a building Redstone, or Mason, owned. Are you sure Robert Mason was his real name?”
“Fairly sure. I saw his Princeton diploma,” I said. “You mentioned shots fired just now. Was he shot more than once?”
“One hit, one miss. Do you want to see the place? It’s right over on Queen Street.”
“Yes, if it’s all right.”
“Maybe it was on Queen Street, and not at the Queen’s,” Emmie interjected.
“I beg your pardon?” Livingston replied.
“That message to Sadie Parker,” Emmie explained. “Mr. Reese never saw it. He was told by one clerk what another clerk had transcribed. Perhaps the penmanship wasn’t clear and what the clerk read as ‘at the Queen’s’ was really something about this building on Queen Street.”
“That makes sense,” the Colonel agreed. “Information heard third-hand is almost always garbled. Does that sound plausible to you, Mr. Reese?”
“Yes. Mason may have still been carrying on with Sadie. From what I know about him, he didn’t seem the type to be content as a simple landlord with a wife and children at home. Perhaps he asked her here to end their relationship. And if that’s the case, Sadie Parker would be the chief suspect.”
“I have men out looking for her,” Colonel Livingston said. “The hotels have been checked and the station and steamship docks are covered. But so far, there’s been no trace of her.”
We walked the five or six blocks to a small commercial building with a grocer on the street and several offices above. The small office where Mason had been found was furnished, but otherwise empty.
“Redstone was sitting here,” the Colonel said from behind the desk. “The bullet hit him in the chest and would seem to have been fired from the direction of the door. The doctor thought it either a 32- or 38-caliber pistol ball.”
“And the shot that missed?”
“Right over here.” The Colonel stepped over to a window sill about eight feet from the desk. “We tried to check the path on this, but the wood splintered. My guess is it also was fired from near the door. We have the bullet, and it also was a 32- or 38-caliber pistol ball.”
“Kind of wide of the mark, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and there’s something else a little queer.” He bent down and pointed to a patch of dark red on the floor in front of the window. “This looks like blood. I have someone testing it. But I don’t see how Redstone’s blood got over here. The coroner insists there was just one wound and that shot definitely hit him while he was seated.”
“So maybe there was a third person here who was shot as well?”
“Possibly. Or maybe the blood has been there for six months. Or maybe it’s paint the janitor spilled.”
“That witness you have, who heard the shots and saw Schuler enter the building—did he see anyone leave after the shots were fired?”
“No, he came out onto the street from a shop next door after hearing the shots. He said it might have been a full minute before he got to the street. This building was empty at the time. The offices and the shop downstairs were closed as it was Saturday evening. A number of other people heard the noise, but they either didn’t realize it was gunfire, or simply couldn’t tell where it had come from. On our receiving a report of gunshots, a couple detectives were sent over. They were down on the street when Schuler came out and led them to the body.”
“And no one saw anyone matching Sadie Parker’s description?” I asked.
“Not seen entering or leaving this building, but that doesn’t mean much. There’s quite a parade of strollers out on Saturday evening. And someone of her description wouldn’t stand out. I’ve sent to Buffalo to see if I can have a photograph sent here, but who knows how long that will take, or if there’s even one available.”
I suggested to Emmie that we should leave the Colonel to his work and head back to the hotel. She protested briefly, but it was clear this was the Colonel’s preference as well, so we said good-bye and I wished him luck.
We started out toward the Queen’s, but Emmie refused to be hurried.
“If we get back and pack quickly, we can check out by noon,” I said.
“Check out?”
“Yes, we can catch an afternoon train and be back in Buffalo for dinner.”
“I have no intention of leaving until the case is solved.”
“The case is solved? Why do you care who killed Robert Mason?”
“I don’t care who it is, exactly. But after investing so much time, I simply want to know who killed him and why.”
“Do you realize it could be months before they solve this? Or, they might not solve it, ever.”
“Not if we helped.”
“You’ve been reading too many dime novels.”
“I don’t read dime novels. You may do as you wish, of course. But if you’re leaving, please return my fifty dollars.”
Well, that decided that. I could settle my bill at the hotel and buy a ticket back to Buffalo. Or I could return her fifty dollars. But I couldn’t do both. I was hoping to get back to Buffalo and get a loan from Keegan before I needed to return Emmie’s stash.
“All right,” I generously conceded. “Suppose we agree to stay until tomorrow. If there’s progress in the case, with or without our help, we may stay further. But if the Colonel is stymied, we head back.”
“Only if both the Colonel and we ourselves are stymied.”
I agreed, but I didn’t like being driven deeper into debt this way. It seemed a little selfish of Emmie not to consider my position. No man enjoys having to borrow from a woman. Though to be fair, she was unaware of her role as my banker.
“Given that the Colonel didn’t seem to feel in need of our help, how do you propose we proceed?” I asked.
“We should check the other hotels, of course. Sadie could be registered under any name at all. And you’re the only one certain to recognize her. Do you have your map?”
“I left it in my room.”
“Then we should stop there for it.”
“It will give us a chance to check on Mr. R. Day, E.C., as well.”
That put an abrupt end to the conversation. Emmie was not someone who could share a laugh at her own expense. I brought the map down from my room and then suggested we have lunch.
“It’s rath
er early, isn’t it?” she correctly pointed out. “We shouldn’t waste time.”
“But we’re paying for it, Emmie. This hotel operates on the American plan.”
“Oh, for goodness sakes. Is it the fifty cents lunch would cost? They’ll deduct it if we haven’t eaten here.”
“They’ll deduct two bits, and we’re likely to spend double that someplace else.”
“You are a skinflint, Harry. All right, there’s no sense wasting time arguing.”
We had a fine, but hurried, luncheon. Emmie was anxious to resume investigations and she threatened to force-feed me whenever I paused. When we had finished we went to the lobby so Emmie could send another wire to her mother, but the desk clerk stopped her.
“Excuse me. Are you Miss McGinnis?”
“Yes. Is there a message?”
“This came for you a little while ago.” He handed Emmie a large envelope. It contained the photograph she had given the police and a note from Livingston. It read:
Miss McGinnis,
I hope this arrives before you leave for home. We won’t be needing it any longer, as we’ve made several copies.
Have a pleasant trip.
Col. Livingston
Emmie pulled out the photograph and stared at it for a few seconds, and then handed it to me. Someone had used a grease pencil to circle one of the four faces and had written the name “Mason” under it. It was the wrong face.
“It’s Uncle Charles!” she cried. Her reaction was equal parts surprise and elation. No doubt that would strike many people as unbecoming in a niece who has just learned that her uncle had been shot through the heart. I took a more charitable view.
“Yes. Quite a mix up. Well, the Colonel will have to suffer our company again.”
I used a phone in the lobby to call the Colonel’s office. He had gone home for Sunday dinner so I telephoned him there.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your dinner, Colonel. But there seems to have been some confusion.”
“About what, Mr. Reese?”
“In the photo you returned, one man’s face is circled. Is that the man in the morgue?”
Always a Cold Deck (A Harry Reese Mystery Book 1) Page 12
