The Canary Murder Case

by S. S. Van Dine

  “No.” Miss La Fosse shook her head. “Margy didn’t know many men intimately. She didn’t change often, if you know what I mean. There wasn’t anybody else outside of those you’ve mentioned, except, of course, Mr. Spotswoode. He cut Pop out—several months ago. She went to dinner with him Monday night, too. I wanted her to go to the ‘Scandals’ with me—that’s how I know.”

  Vance rose and held out his hand.

  “You’ve been very kind. And you have nothing whatever to fear. No one shall ever know of our little visit this morning.”

  “Who do you think killed Margy?” There was genuine emotion in the girl’s voice. “Louey says it was probably some burglar who wanted her jewels.”

  “I’m too wise to sow discord in this happy ménage by even questioning Mr. Mannix’s opinion,” said Vance half banteringly. “No one knows who’s guilty; but the police agree with Mr. Mannix.”

  For a moment the girl’s doubts returned, and she gave Vance a searching look.

  “Why are you so interested? You didn’t know Margy, did you? She never mentioned you.”

  Vance laughed.

  “My dear child! I only wish I knew why I am so deuced concerned in this affair. ’Pon my word, I can’t give you even the sketchiest explanation... No, I never met Miss Odell. But it would offend my sense of proportion if Mr. Skeel were punished and the real culprit went free. Maybe I’m getting sentimental. A sad fate, what?”

  “I guess I’m getting soft, too.” She nodded her head, still looking Vance square in the eyes. “I risked my happy home to tell you what I did, because somehow I believed you... Say, you weren’t stringing me, by any chance?”

  Vance put his hand to his heart, and became serious.

  “My dear Miss La Fosse, when I leave here it will be as though I had never entered. Dismiss me and Mr. Van Dine here from your mind.”

  Something in his manner banished her misgivings, and she bade us a kittenish farewell.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Checking an Alibi

  (Thursday, September 13; afternoon)

  “MY SLEUTHING GOES better,” exulted Vance, when we were again in the street. “Fair Alys was a veritable mine of information—eh, what? Only, you should have controlled yourself better when she mentioned her beloved’s name—really, you should, Van old thing. I saw you jump and heard you heave. Such emotion is unbecoming in a lawyer.”

  From a booth in a drug-store near the hotel he telephoned Markham: “I am taking you to lunch. I have numerous confidences I would pour into your ear.” A debate ensued, but in the end Vance emerged triumphant; and a moment later a taxicab was driving us down-town.

  “Alys is clever—there are brains in that fluffy head,” he ruminated. “She’s much smarter than Heath; she knew at once that Skeel wasn’t guilty. Her characterization of the immaculate Tony was inelegant but how accurate—oh, how accurate! And you noticed, of course, how she trusted me. Touchin’, wasn’t it?... It’s a knotty problem, Van. Something’s amiss somewhere.”

  He was silent, smoking, for several blocks. “Mannix... Curious he should crop up again. And he issued orders to Alys to keep mum. Now, why? Maybe the reason he gave her was the real one. Who knows?—On the other hand, was he with his chère amie from half past ten till early morning? Well, well. Again, who knows? Something queer about that business discussion... Then Cleaver. He called up just ten minutes before midnight—oh, yes, he called up. That wasn’t a fairy-tale. But how could he telephone from a speeding car? He couldn’t. Maybe he really wanted to have a party with his recalcitrant Canary, don’t y’ know. But, then, why the brummagem alibi? Funk? Maybe. But why the circuitousness?—why didn’t he call his lost love direct? Ah, perhaps he did! Some one certainly called her by phone at twenty minutes to twelve. We must look into that, Van... Yes, he may have called her, and then when a man answered—who the deuce was that man, anyway?—he may have appealed to Alys. Quite natural, y’ know. Anyway, he wasn’t in Boonton.—Poor Markham! How upset he’ll be when he finds out!... But what really worries me is that story of the doctor. Jealous mania: it squares with Ambroise’s character perfectly. He’s the kind that does go off his head. I knew his confession of paternalism was a red herring. My word! So the doctor was making threats and flourishing pistols, eh? Bad, bad. I don’t like it. With those ears of his, he wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Paranoia—that’s it. Delusions of persecution. Probably thought the girl and Pop—or maybe the girl and Spotswoode—were plotting his misery and laughing at him. You can’t tell about those chaps. They’re deep—and they’re dangerous. The canny Alys had him sized up—warned the Canary against him... Taken by and large, it’s a devilish tangle. Anyway, I feel rather bucked. We’re moving—oh, undoubtedly we’re moving—though in what direction I can’t even guess. It’s beastly annoyin’.”

  Markham was waiting for us at the Bankers’ Club. He greeted Vance irritably.

  “What have you got to tell me that’s so damned important?”

  “Now, don’t get ratty.” Vance was beaming. “How’s your lode-star, Skeel, behaving?”

  “So far he’s done everything that’s pure and refined except join the Christian Endeavor Society.”

  “Sunday’s coming. Give him time... So you’re not happy, Markham dear?”

  “Was I dragged away from another engagement to report on my state of mind?”

  “No need. Your state of mind’s execrable... Cheerio! I’ve brought you something to think about.”

  “Damn it! I’ve got too much to think about now.”

  “Here, have some brioche.” Vance gave the order for lunch without consulting either of us. “And now for my revelations. Imprimis: Pop Cleaver wasn’t in Boonton last Monday night. He was very much in the midst of our modern Gomorrah, trying to arrange a midnight party.”

  “Wonderful!” snorted Markham. “I lave in the font of your wisdom. His alter ego, I take it, was on the road to Hopatcong. The supernatural leaves me cold.”

  “You may be as pancosmic as you choose. Cleaver was in New York at midnight Monday, craving excitement.”

  “What about the summons for speeding?”

  “That’s for you to explain. But if you’ll take my advice, you’ll send for this Boonton catchpole, and let him have a look at Pop. If he says Cleaver is the man he ticketed, I’ll humbly do away with myself.”

  “Well! That makes it worth trying. I’ll have the officer at the Stuyvesant Club this afternoon and I’ll point out Cleaver to him... What other staggering revelations have you in store?”

  “Mannix will bear looking into.”

  Markham put down his knife and fork and leaned back.

  “I’m overcome! Such Himalayan sagacity! With that evidence against him, he should be arrested at once... Vance, my dear old friend, are you feeling quite normal? No dizzy spells lately? No shooting pains in the head? Knee-jerks all right?”

  “Furthermore, Doctor Lindquist was wildly infatuated with the Canary, and insanely jealous. Recently threatened to take a pistol and hold a little pogrom of his own.”

  “That’s better.” Markham sat up. “Where did you get this information?”

  “Ah! That’s my secret.”

  Markham was annoyed.

  “Why so mysterious?”

  “Needs must, old chap. Gave my word and all that sort of thing. And I’m a bit quixotic, don’t y’ know—too much Cervantes in my youth.” He spoke lightly, but Markham knew him too well to push the question.

  In less than five minutes after we had returned to the District Attorney’s office, Heath came in.

  “I got something else on Mannix, sir; thought you might want to add it to the report I turned in yesterday. Burke secured a picture of him and showed it to the phone operators at Odell’s house. Both of ’em recognized it. He’s been there several times, but it wasn’t the Canary he called on. It was the woman in Apartment 2. She’s named Frisbee, and used to be one of Mannix’s fur models. He’s been to see her several times during the past six
months and has taken her out once or twice; but he hasn’t called on her for a month or more... Any good?”

  “Can’t tell.” Markham shot Vance an inquisitive look. “But thanks for the information, Sergeant.”

  “By the bye,” said Vance dulcetly, when Heath had left us, “I’m feeling tophole. No pains in the head; no dizzy spells. Knee-jerks perfect.”

  “Delighted. Still, I can’t charge a man with murder because he calls on his fur model.”

  “You’re so hasty! Why should you charge him with murder?” Vance rose and yawned. “Come, Van. I’d rather like to gaze on Perneb’s tomb at the Metropolitan this afternoon. Could you bear it?” At the door he paused. “I say, Markham, what about the Boonton bailiff?”

  Markham rang for Swacker.

  “I’ll see to it at once. Drop in at the club around five, if you feel like it. I’ll have the officer there then, as Cleaver is sure to come in before dinner.”

  When Vance and I returned to the club late that afternoon, Markham was stationed in the lounge-room facing the main door of the rotunda; and beside him sat a tall, heavy-set, bronzed man of about forty, alert but ill at ease.

  “Traffic Officer Phipps arrived from Boonton a little while ago,” said Markham, by way of introduction. “Cleaver is expected at any moment now. He has an appointment here at half past five.”

  Vance drew up a chair.

  “I do hope he’s a punctual beggar.”

  “So do I,” returned Markham viciously. “I’m looking forward to your felo-de-se.”

  “‘Our hap is loss, our hope but sad despair,’” murmured Vance.

  Less than ten minutes later Cleaver entered the rotunda from the street, paused at the desk, and sauntered into the lounge-room. There was no escaping the observation point Markham had chosen; and as he walked by us he paused and exchanged greetings. Markham detained him a moment with a few casual questions; and then Cleaver passed on.

  “That the man you ticketed, Officer?” asked Markham, turning to Phipps.

  Phipps was scowling perplexedly.

  “It looks something like him, sir; there’s a kind of resemblance. But it ain’t him.” He shook his head. “No, sir; it ain’t him. The fellow I hung a summons on was stouter than this gent and wasn’t as tall.”

  “You’re positive?”

  “Yes, sir—no mistake. The guy I tagged tried to argue with me and then he tried to slip me a fiver to forget it. I had my headlight on him full.”

  Phipps was dismissed with a substantial pourboire.

  “Væ misero mihi!” sighed Vance. “My worthless existence is to be prolonged. Sad. But you must try to bear it... I say, Markham, what does Pop Cleaver’s brother look like?”

  “That’s it,” nodded Markham. “I’ve met his brother; he’s shorter and stouter... This thing is getting beyond me. I think I’ll have it out with Cleaver now.”

  He started to rise, but Vance forced him back into his seat.

  “Don’t be impetuous. Cultivate patience. Cleaver’s not going to do a bunk; and there are one or two prelimin’ry steps strongly indicated. Mannix and Lindquist still seduce my curiosity.”

  Markham clung to his point.

  “Neither Mannix nor Lindquist is here now, and Cleaver is. And I want to know why he lied to me about that summons.”

  “I can tell you that,” said Vance. “He wanted you to think he was in the wilds of New Jersey at midnight Monday.—Simple, what?”

  “The inference is a credit to your intelligence! But I hope you don’t seriously think that Cleaver is guilty. It’s possible he knows something; but I certainly cannot picture him as a strangler.”

  “And why?”

  “He’s not the type. It’s inconceivable—even if there were evidence against him.”

  “Ah! The psychological judgment! You eliminate Cleaver because you don’t think his nature harmonizes with the situation. I say, doesn’t that come perilously near being an esoteric hypothesis?—or a metaphysical deduction?... However, I don’t entirely agree with you in your application of the theory to Cleaver. That fish-eyed gambler has unsuspected potentialities for evil. But with the theory itself I am wholly in accord. And behold, my dear Markham: you yourself apply psychology in its abecedarian implications, yet ridicule my application of it in its higher developments. Consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, y’ know, but it’s nonetheless a priceless jewel... How about a cup of tea?”

  We sought the Palm Room, and sat down at a table near the entrance. Vance ordered oolong tea, but Markham and I took black coffee. A very capable four-piece orchestra was playing Tchaikovsky’s Casse-Noisette Suite, and we sat restfully in the comfortable chairs without speaking. Markham was tired and dispirited, and Vance was busy with the problem that had absorbed him continuously since Tuesday morning. Never before had I seen him so preoccupied.

  We had been there perhaps half an hour when Spotswoode strolled in. He stopped and spoke, and Markham asked him to join us. He, too, appeared depressed, and his eyes showed signs of worry.

  “I hardly dare ask you, Mr. Markham,” he said diffidently, after he had ordered a ginger ale, “but how do my chances stand now of being called as a witness?”

  “That fate is certainly no nearer than when I last saw you,” Markham replied. “In fact, nothing has happened to change the situation materially.”

  “And the man you had under suspicion?”

  “He’s still under suspicion, but no arrest has been made. We’re hoping, however, that something will break before long.”

  “And I suppose you still want me to remain in the city?”

  “If you can arrange it—yes.”

  Spotswoode was silent for a time; then he said:

  “I don’t want to appear to shirk any responsibility—and perhaps it may seem wholly selfish for me even to suggest it—but, in any event, wouldn’t the testimony of the telephone operator as to the hour of Miss Odell’s return and her calls for help be sufficient to establish the facts, without my corroboration?”

  “I have thought of that, of course; and if it is at all possible to prepare the case for the prosecution without summoning you to appear, I assure you it will be done. At the moment, I can see no necessity of your being called as a witness. But one never knows what may turn up. If the defense hinges on a question of exact time, and the operator’s testimony is questioned or disqualified for any reason, you may be required to come forward. Otherwise not.”

  Spotswoode sipped his ginger ale. A little of his depression seemed to have departed.

  “You’re very generous, Mr. Markham. I wish there was some adequate way of thanking you.” He looked up hesitantly. “I presume you are still opposed to my visiting the apartment... I know you think me unreasonable and perhaps sentimental; but the girl represented something in my life that I find very difficult to tear out. I don’t expect you to understand it—I hardly understand it myself.”

  “I think it’s easily understandable, don’t y’ know,” remarked Vance, with a sympathy I had rarely seen him manifest. “Your attitude needs no apology. History and fable are filled with the same situation, and the protagonists have always exhibited sentiments similar to yours. Your most famous prototype, of course, was Odysseus on the citron-scented isle of Ogygia with the fascinatin’ Calypso. The soft arms of sirens have gone snaking round men’s necks ever since the red-haired Lilith worked her devastatin’ wiles on the impressionable Adam. We’re all sons of that racy old boy.”

  Spotswoode smiled.

  “You at least give me an historic background,” he said. Then he turned to Markham. “What will become of Miss Odell’s possessions—her furniture and so forth?”

  “Sergeant Heath heard from an aunt of hers in Seattle,” Markham told him. “She’s on her way to New York, I believe, to take over what there is of the estate.”

  “And everything will be kept intact until then?”

  “Probably longer, unless something unexpected happens. Anyway, until the
n.”

  “There are one or two little trinkets I’d like to keep,” Spotswoode confessed, a bit shamefacedly, I thought.

  After a few more minutes of desultory talk he rose and, pleading an engagement, bade us good afternoon.

  “I hope I can keep his name clear of the case,” said Markham, when he had gone.

  “Yes; his situation is not an enviable one,” concurred Vance. “It’s always sad to be found out. The moralist would set it down to retribution.”

  “In this instance chance was certainly on the side of righteousness. If he hadn’t chosen Monday night for the Winter Garden, he might now be in the bosom of his family, with nothing more troublesome to bother him than a guilty conscience.”

  “It certainly looks that way.” Vance glanced at his watch. “And your mention of the Winter Garden reminds me. Do you mind if we dine early? Frivolity beckons me to-night. I’m going to the ‘Scandals.’”

  We both looked at him as though he had taken leave of his senses.

  “Don’t be so horrified, my Markham. Why should I not indulge an impulse?... And, incidentally, I hope to have glad tidings for you by lunch-time to-morrow.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Trap

  (Friday, September 14; noon)

  VANCE SLEPT LATE the following day. I had accompanied him to the “Scandals” the night before, utterly at a loss to understand his strange desire to attend a type of entertainment which I knew he detested. At noon he ordered his car, and instructed the chauffeur to drive to the Belafield Hotel.

  “We are about to call again on the allurin’ Alys,” he said. “I’d bring posies to lay at her shrine, but I fear dear Mannix might question her unduly about them.”

  Miss La Fosse received us with an air of crestfallen resentment.

  “I might’ve known it!” She nodded her head with sneering perception. “I suppose you’ve come to tell me the cops found out about me without the slightest assistance from you.” Her disdain was almost magnificent. “Did you bring ’em with you?... A swell guy you are! But it’s my own fault for being a damn fool.”