“You mean you knew who it was all along?” Drake asked.
“Of course not,” Mason said, “but as soon as I knew that Argyle’s car hadn’t hit Finchley, I wondered why it was that Argyle would so willingly part with cold, hard cash to settle a claim for which he wasn’t responsible. Then I began to wonder if he wasn’t buying an alibi.”
“Well, of course, it’s plain enough now,” Drake said, “but I’m darned if I see how you got it at the start.”
Mason said, “Here’s a pretty good reconstruction of what happened, Paul. Argyle, Hollister and Gates were associated in some oil deals. Hollister furnished most of the capital and took the largest share of the profits. Argyle and Gates started double-crossing Hollister. Hollister either caught them at it, or smelled a rat. He called a conference to take place at his home in Santa del Barra on Monday the third. Argyle and Gates very reluctantly drove up there.”
“Did Pitkin drive them up?” Drake asked.
Mason grinned. “No, Pitkin was in San Francisco.”
“I don’t get it,” Drake said.
“Gates and Argyle were in such a spot that they could have been sent to jail for embezzlement. Hollister finally had the goods on them. Gates knew it. Argyle only suspected it. Gates had decided that if it came to a showdown, he’d shoot his way out, if he had half a chance.
“So he’d purchased a plane ticket to Honolulu in his name. Then he paid Pitkin to travel the first leg of the journey under his name.
“That gave Gates an alibi in case he had to use one. And he put a .45 automatic in his pocket so he’d be prepared.
“It was as bad as he thought. Hollister served his ultimatum, probably calling on the men to strip themselves of everything. It called for quick decision. Gates made it with his automatic.
“Argyle was almost crazy. Gates had had things all planned for what had to be done in case he killed Hollister. He whipped Argyle into line. They brought in waterproof canvas from the trunk of Gates’ car, swiftly rolled the body into a bundle, carried it to the side door and slipped it into the trunk of Hollister’s car.
“Then they drove both Argyle’s car and Hollister’s car up the canyon road. Gates outlined his alibi to Argyle, but Argyle realized he was left without an alibi. Gates told him to rush back to his club and report his car as having been stolen. That was to protect them in case anyone had seen them on the grade. They then smashed Hollister’s wrist watch with the hands registering 5:55, and the car clock with the hands at 6:21. Then they parked Argyle’s car, drove up to where they could turn Hollister’s car around, rolled the body over the bank, shoved earth over it, then sent Hollister’s car over a steep ledge and dashed back to Santa del Barra.
“Gates put his alibi into effect by using Hollister’s name and calling for Gates at the San Francisco airport from Hollister’s phone. Pitkin answered in the name of Gates. That clinched Gates’ alibi.
“When Hollister was shot, the body fell on a thick, expensive but small Oriental rug. The two murderers had no time to clean the rug and replace it. So they removed the rug so the bloodstains wouldn’t betray them when the housekeeper came to work the next morning. She knew Hollister was intending to take a business trip so she thought nothing of his absence, but she did wonder what had happened to the rug. The day previous, Hollister had mentioned something about giving a rug to Lucille for her apartment. The housekeeper wired Lucille, asking if Hollister had given her the Oriental rug. Lucille became angry, replied that she had the rug Hollister had intended she should have. The housekeeper didn’t think much about it until after Hollister’s body was found.
“Argyle rushed back here. Pitkin returned by plane. Gates flew to San Francisco, picked up the ticket Pitkin had left for him and went on to Honolulu. Pitkin was smart enough to know he hadn’t been paid a large chunk of money to build an alibi for nothing. From that moment he decided to find out why and collect blackmail — and Argyle decided to kill Pitkin.
“Argyle went to his club, reported his car as having been stolen and tried to bribe an alibi. As soon as he calmed down he knew that was a poor way to do it.
“Then Argyle saw our ad in the Blade and conceived the idea of buying himself a real alibi by pretending he’d been the hit-and-run driver. He felt he could square that rap and make the insurance company stand most of the expense.
“In searching Hollister’s body, Argyle had found keys to Lucille Barton’s apartment and garage. He must have known Hollister was going to marry her and what the whole relationship was.
“When Argyle saw your ad in the Blade he realized that if he could pose as the driver of the hit-and-run car, he could pay off the claims, mostly with money furnished by the insurance company, and have a perfectly swell alibi. Obviously, if he had been at the intersection of Hickman Avenue and Vermesillo Drive at five P.M. on the evening of the third, he couldn’t have been in Santa del Barra at the time the murder was committed. Remember that he did have a good alibi for the rest of the evening. He saw to that. Hollister’s housekeeper had left at four-thirty on the afternoon of the third. Hollister was alive then and had told the housekeeper he was going to have a short conference and then leave on a business trip.
“Argyle went about killing Pitkin with calm deliberation and considerable shrewdness. He sent a letter to you, enclosing a key to Lucille’s apartment. He felt certain that would send someone out to talk with him. He had a new right rear wheel put on his automobile; he dented the fender and had it covered with paint. Then he did the thing which was diabolically clever, the thing by which he intended to give himself an ironclad alibi for Pitkin’s murder.”
“What?” Drake asked. “If you ask me, he had an ironclad alibi. Hell, Perry, he was sitting in your office at the time the minder was committed.”
Mason said, “He went to an employment agency sometime on the fifth, hired a chauffeur, and arranged to pick him up, to have him start work shortly before five o’clock in the afternoon. He explained that this chauffeur would have to go to Detroit by bus in order to pick up a new automobile and drive it down to Mexico to meet him. In that way, the chauffeur would never read any of the papers about Pitkin’s death.
“Argyle was smart enough to know that if a man wearing a chauffeur’s cap and an overcoat should be seen sitting in his car, witnesses would naturally assume that the chauffeur was Pitkin. At least people who didn’t know Pitkin.
“From the attitude Pitkin had toward Argyle, I am assuming Pitkin may have been trying to blackmail Argyle even before Hollister’s murder. At any rate, Pitkin had become suspicious of the alibi he’d been building for Gates and wondered if Argyle wasn’t in on it too. Argyle evidently had been investigating Pitkin. He’d found out that Pitkin was Lucille’s first husband, that she was planning to marry Hollister and that she was out of the apartment from two to five each afternoon. As soon as he got the keys to Lucille’s apartment he started planning the murder of Pitkin. My ad in the paper gave him what he doubtless felt was the opportunity of a lifetime. He started prowling in Lucille’s apartment and when he found there was a gun in the desk he had everything just the way he wanted it.
“He got Pitkin down to Lucille’s garage. Now, the interesting thing is that Pitkin didn’t know where Lucille lived. When they went to the garage at 719 South Gondola, it probably meant nothing in the world to Pitkin. He had seen Lucille, knew she was in the city somewhere, and was trying to find her, but he didn’t know where she lived.