“I deny it,” Trenton said, “specifically and categorically.”
The sheriff jerked a thumb. “Okay,” he said to one of the deputies. “Lock him up. We’ll file murder charges.”
Chapter 20
Colonel Miller C Stepney of the State Police surveyed the charred wreckage of the fire-swept houseboat.
“I don’t give a hang where the murder was committed,” he said. “The boat is within our jurisdiction. The body was within our jurisdiction. We’re going to see that the evidence is preserved. Then at least we’ll know what we’ve found and what we didn’t find.”
Captain Stanway Harmon said, “We’re going to have some trouble with the folks on the other side. The coroner wants to get the body put in a coffin and sent to the relations. He says there’s no use performing an autopsy because the X-ray showed the presence of two bullets in the body. Their doctor dug the bullets out and is prepared to state that either one of the bullets would have been instantaneously fatal. One of them went through the heart and the other was just above the heart.”
“Neither bullet went all the way through the body?” Colonel Stepney asked.
“No, they were .32-caliber and they were lodged inside the body.”
“How did they happen to do such quick work with the X-ray? It’s a wonder they didn’t claim the death was due to burning simply because they found a charred body.”
“They found the two ejected cartridge cases and the owner of the houseboat told this story of the gun fight. So they X-rayed the charred body, found the bullets, and the doctor is willing to testify death was instantaneous and that’s that.”
Colonel Stepney stroked his jaw thoughtfully. “Makes it look pretty bad for that Trenton chap.”
“I’ll say it does.”
“Well, Dr. Dixon wants to check up on the cause of death. Harvey Richmond was not only a friend of his, but it seems that Narcotics had a tip-off a load of dope was to come over on that ship, and Richmond went along in an undercover capacity. He became acquainted with Trenton on the ship. Richmond seemed to think Trenton was just a fall guy who was apt to be on the receiving end. He felt he was being used as a cat’s-paw.
“Well, Richmond’s dead now,” Colonel Stepney went on, “and Dr. Dixon wants to perform an autopsy. I’ve told the sheriff they’ll either have to hold the body until Dixon gets here or that we’ll demand its return. After all, it was removed from our jurisdiction.”
“They’re touchy about that,” Captain Harmon said.
“I’m touchy about it myself,” Colonel Stepney snapped. “It’s surprising that a chap like Trenton could have fooled a veteran investigator such as Harvey Richmond.”
“You think he did?”
“Sure he did. Remember we have the goods on Rob Trenton because of the work that Trooper Wallington did in checking on the location where Trenton had a blow-out.
“Rob Trenton pulled off to the side of the road and buried the shipment of heroin. He intended to dig it up later. Trooper Wallington was on patrol duty, stopped him and checked his license. Trenton told him he’d stopped to change a tire. He showed a blown-out tire on the rear of the car. It just happened, however, that Wallington in handling the tire remembered later that it wasn’t warm. The cold tire showed Trenton had given a false story. Later on Wallington checked up on it and found where something had been buried and found a cache of heroin.”
Captain Harmon nodded thoughtfully.
“All that ties Trenton right into the dope smuggling,” Colonel Stepney went on, “and if Ballistics ties those two bullets up with the gun we recovered in the desk at Linda Mae Carroll’s place, it’s the electric chair for Trenton. A perfect case.”
“I’ll say it’s a perfect case,” Captain Harmon agreed fervently.
“But,” Colonel Stepney went on, “I don’t like the way they’re jumping at conclusions over there and getting the cart all in front of the horse. I want to go about the thing methodically and I want to have this evidence preserved so that we’ll know just what we have and what we don’t have.”
Captain Harmon pointed up the river to where a speed launch was clipping through the water at a fast rate, spreading a bow wave on each side of the prow in a huge, curling V of sheeted water. “This looks like Dr. Dixon now,” he said.
The two officers stood waiting until the launch veered and slowed down, then crept alongside and Dr. Herbert Dixon climbed aboard.
One look at the doctor’s face and Captain Harmon said, “He’s mad.”
Dr. Dixon nodded a curt greeting, said, “We seem to be up against a question of jurisdiction here. What’s the answer?”
“We don’t want to make any trouble,” Colonel Stepney said. “The thing isn’t worth it. We need the co-operation of those folks across the river from time to time, just as they need ours. We can get all worked up over this thing and there’ll be repercussions that will impair our joint efficiency for the next ten years. Let’s keep our heads.”
“Well,” Dr. Dixon said, “it looks like an open-and-shut case. This man Trenton certainly fooled me, but they’re acting on the assumption that they know everything that is to be known. The coroner is satisfied he knows the cause of death, and he probably does. But I want a complete necropsy performed and I either want to do it or I want to be there when it’s done.”
“You do it,” Colonel Stepney said. “That much we’re entitled to.”
“The coroner’s been in touch with the relatives. He’s a mortician, you know, and he’s more concerned right now with the type of casket he’s going to sell and the type of funeral service, than he is with anything else.”
Colonel Stepney said, “You go and make a post-mortem on that body. If you want to make an issue of it, go make an issue of it.”
“I want to make an issue of it.”
“All right, go ahead.”
“I can tell you one thing,” Captain Harmon said. “It won’t make a darned bit of difference what you find out. They’re going ahead with a murder prosecution against Robert Trenton. The prosecutor wants to be a judge and this looks like a good stepping stone.”
“Well, it probably is,” Dr. Dixon said. “It bothers me that Trenton was able to pull the wool over my eyes the way he did. It’s too bad the fire consumed so much of the evidence. What do you make of it, Colonel?”
Colonel Stepney said, “Captain Harmon has made a rather complete examination. Suppose you tell him, Captain.”
Harmon said, “Well, the situation is a little peculiar. We aren’t dealing with anything stationary like a house. We have to take into consideration the fact that a drifting boat will swing around in the river and the wind might blow the flames from several different directions, but the fact remains that from my examination of the boat my conclusion is this fire started up in the bow in what evidently was a locker room.”
“In the bow?” Dr. Dixon said. “But the engine is in the stern and the gasoline tanks are in the stern.”
Captain Harmon nodded.
“Yet the fire started in the bow?”
“That’s my best belief.”
“What caused it?”
“The theory of the sheriff it that is was a short circuit between two wires. I asked him what caused the short circuit and he just looked at me. My own theory is that it was a fire of incendiary origin that started near the bow and I’m going to take photographs that’ll prove my point. There’s an unequal area of charring, and quite evidently parts of the structure there in the bow were subjected to greatly varying degrees of heat. It’s as though there had been some inflammable liquid used in starting the fire. Then the flames swept back towards the stern.”