Tragg said, "Why should Warrenhave conveniently left the gun for Gideon to pick up? He – Now wait a minute,Gideon was putting the bite on everybody he could."
Tragg's eyes narrowed. "Iwonder if by any chance Mrs Warren was included in his list of victims. Iwonder if she went down there with a gun and then Warren came in later. Hefound Gideon dead with the gun nearby and Warren picked up the gun, so as toprotect his wife, pocketed it and was trying to make his escape when he heardsirens tearing down the street and assumed it was the police."
Mason met Tragg's eyes."Those," he said, "are the things I wish you wouldn't try tospeculate about, Tragg. The accomplice will state that he killed Gideon inself-defense and I think perhaps he's right. Gideon shot at him with the Warrengun. The accomplice retaliated with the gun they had been using in theirholdups – the gun Gideon had had on the night the supermarket was heldup."
Tragg was thoughtfully silent.
"That's all you need,"Mason said. "The federal boys can recover the forty-seven thousand dollarsand there's nothing left for you to worry about."
"But you want to keep yourclients out of this?"
Mason met his eyes, "I want tokeep my clients out of it."
Silently, Tragg extended his handand shook hands. "You've been a big help, Perry," he said. "Idon't suppose you could go a step farther and give us some clue as to theidentity of the accomplice, could you?"
"Why not?" Mason asked.
Tragg raised his eyebrows.
"Think it over," Masonsaid. "I had a sketch made of Collister Gideon. We know now that he wasconnected with that hold-up and shooting at the supermarket.
"The night watchman who waswounded unhesitatingly identified the Gideon sketch as having a resemblance tothe man who had done the shooting.
"The other witness was positivethat the sketch didn't look like the man who had run out of the door. Yet itwas the man who ran out of the door who had the gun."
Tragg said thoughtfully, "Therecould have been two men connected with the hold-up."
Mason grinned. "And the policefound a man running down the street. If the man had tried to hide, they'd havegrabbed him and charged him with being the accomplice, but because the man hadenough presence of mind to run out in the middle of the street and start wavinghis arms at the police car trying to flag it down, the police fell for thestrategy and -"
"Good God!" Tragginterpolated. "Do you mean Drew Kearny was the accomplice?"
"Of course he was theaccomplice," Mason said. "That's why he wouldn't identify Gideon. Hedidn't dare to. He didn't want Gideon to have any connection with thatsupermarket. He was hoping that the police would never find the gun he had leftin the old warehouse after the shooting.
"Kearny is clever as hell and aconsummate actor. Take his fingerprints. Shake him down and you'll find he hasa criminal record, that he was in federal prison for a while when CollisterGideon was there, that Gideon confided in him, that Kearny came to this town,established a small business which gave him a legitimate front. From time totime he made deposits on the forty-seven-thousand-dollar account Gideon hadestablished. He was waiting for the time when Gideon would be released andcould draw cheques on the account without having the authorities censoring hismail.
"Kearny is probably responsiblefor a whole chain of burglaries that the police would like to clear up. He wassmart enough, however, to know that he had to keep his criminal activities entirelydivorced from his legitimate activities therefore he had a hideout he hadestablished in this old deserted building which was tied up in litigation. Hewould stay there when he wanted to pull a job. Probably his jobs were pulled,for the most part, on weekends. Of course I'm going on guesswork andprobabilities, Lieutenant, but there's no other explanation for that hold-upgun being the fatal gun which killed Gideon, and Kearny just had to be theaccomplice on that supermarket job. That's why he was running down the street,not toward the telephone, but away from the scene of the crime."
Tragg heaved a deep sigh."Where would you have been if Kearny had got back to that warehouse andremoved that gun before we found it?" Tragg asked.
Mason looked at his watch."Probably being sentenced for contempt of court right now," he said.
"Then you weren't influencingthe witness at all," Tragg said. "The witness was drawing redherrings across the trail just as fast as he could."
"And because the watchman saidthe sketch of Gideon did look like the man he had surprised in the supermarket,the district attorney and the police were blaming me for having influenced theother guy's testimony," Mason said.
Abruptly Tragg threw back his head,laughed, and said, "Well, I guess we'll get busy on a round-up,Perry."
"Going to take Hamilton Burgerin on it?" Mason asked.
Tragg said, "I think I'll keepout of Burger's office for a few hours, if you don't mind, Perry"
"I don't mind in theleast," Mason told him.
The End.