IV
Almost anything was apt to be behind the closed door of apartment 81. I had to open the door to find out. Of course, I was taking chances. Cedric L. Boniface was running no risks by wrapping himself in a cloak of professional ethics and staying in the best suite at the hotel, while he enjoyed himself looking up legal points in the law books. But I had to be out on the firing line.
I found the outer door of the apartment house open just as Edith Forbes had said it would be. I climbed the stairs, and walked noiselessly down the corridor. For thirty seconds I stood at the door of 81, listening.
Then I knocked twice, pushed the door open, and moved backwards a few steps just as a precautionary measure, in case I didn’t like what I saw.
Lights were on in the apartment. Edith Forbes was seated facing the door. Near her, holding a glass of whiskey in his hand, was a thin guy with a dome-shaped forehead, bat ears and a scrawny neck.
“Come in, Pete,” Edith Forbes said.
I walked on in, grinning sheepishly. “One never knows what’s on the other side of a door in a strange house,” I said.
Edith said, “This is Carl Gail about whom I told you.” Her voice sounded dispirited.
The skinny guy put down the glass, strode across to the middle of the room, and wrapped cold, bony fingers around my hand.
I pumped his arm up and down for a second, walked to the couch, seated myself, and looked meaningly at the whiskey glass by the side of Gail’s chair.
“Drink?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said.
He went out to the kitchenette, and after a moment, called out, “Do you want a chaser, Wennick?”
“Just a whiskey on the rocks,” I said.
I looked across at Edith Forbes. She wouldn’t meet my eyes. I could see she’d been crying.
Gail came back with the drink. “Don’t you want one, Edith?” he asked.
I motioned a salute to them over the rim of the glass, and tossed it off. Gail sat down. No one seemed inclined to say very much. I took a package of cigarettes from my pocket, picked one out, and said, “Who does the talking?”
No one said anything for a second. Then Edith Forbes started to say something, and when she did, Gail interrupted her to say hastily, “I do the talking — what there is of it.”
I lit the cigarette and settled back against the cushions.
“Your idea,” Gail said to me, “is lousy.”
I raised my eyebrows. “My idea?”
“Yes. Trying to get Edith to plant a gun out there at Mayor Spred’s place. I’m surprised you’d make a suggestion like that. Planting evidence in a murder case is a damned serious offense—”
“Now wait a minute,” I interrupted. “Somebody’s got the cart before the horse, and the buggy turned backwards. What the hell are you talking about?”
“You know,” he said. “What you told Edith to do.”
“I didn’t tell her to do anything.”
“Didn’t you tell her to get a gun, fire two shots from it, and plant it?”
“I certainly did nothing of the sort,” I said indignantly. “What the hell do you think I am? I mentioned to Edith that if the police hadn’t searched the place closely they should do so because they might find a gun with two exploded chambers. She said she knew Mr. Spred was incapable of telling a lie, and I was inclined to take her word for it. Therefore, I think there’s a gun out there.”
“And you didn’t want her to plant one?” he asked.
“Good Lord, no! Of course not!”
Edith Forbes looked up, and started to say something. Then she seemed to think better of it, and lowered her tear-swollen eyes.
I warmed to my subject. “I can’t look any farther into a brick wall than the next man,” I said. “But if Spred is telling the truth there’s bound to be a gun like that out there somewhere. Neighbors heard three shots. They heard them distinctly. It was a calm, still night. There isn’t any chance they could be mistaken about the number.
“Spred says someone fired two shots at him. Now, of course, it might be that someone was lying in wait for him out in the shrubbery and that Dalton didn’t fire at all. I’d say the chances were about one in a thousand it happened that way.”
“Make it one in a million,” Gail said.
“Okay, we’ll make it one in a million. Now then, if Spred’s telling the truth and Dalton shot at him, the gun must have been dropped by Dalton about the time he was shot, or he might have flung it away after he fired the two shots and turned to run.”
Gail said slowly, “Spred isn’t telling the truth.”
Edith Forbes looked up indignantly. “He is! He is, Carl, and you know it.”
Gail didn’t say anything to her. He kept his eyes on me, large, brown, thoughtful eyes. “Edith,” he said, “is crazy about Layton Spred. She’s worked for him ever since she got out of school. She doesn’t realize that no matter how square a shooter a man may be to those who are working with him, he has to protect himself and his friends when it comes to a murder rap.”
“You know him well?” I asked.
“Of course I know him well. I’ve been at his house for dinner with Edith half a dozen times.”
“Pardon me for getting personal,” I asked, “but as Edith’s boy friend?”
“Naturally. Oh, don’t look at me like that. Hell, there’s nothing between Edith and her boss. She’s just a hero worshipper. He’s old enough to be her grandfather, and everything’s on the up and up.”
“I see,” I said.
“I had dinner there three nights ago,” Gail said, “and he was very friendly and went out of his way to make me feel he was glad to see me, and so did Millicent, his daughter. Edith doesn’t like her, but for the life of me I can’t see why.”
Edith Forbes said, vindictively, “She’s a scheming little witch. Of course, she was nice to you, Carl, because she hopes you’ll marry me. She’s afraid I’ll marry her father.”
Gail’s laugh was scornful. “Don’t be such a fool,” he said. “She tries her best to be nice to you, but you snap her head off every time she opens her mouth.”
I saw color mounting Edith Forbe’s cheeks, so I said, “Well, I just dropped in to say ‘hello’ and meet you. I still think it would be a good idea to have the police search the place pretty thoroughly. But don’t get any ideas through your head about me wanting to have Edith plant a gun.”
“Well,” he said dubiously, “I’m glad you feel that way about it, because it would have put Edith in a hell of a spot.”
I got up and shook hands with him.
“That’s the last thing I’d want to do,” I said.
Edith Forbes waited until I was almost at the door before she asked:
“What are you going to do now?”
“Just look the city over a bit,” I said. “I’ll probably be turning in another hour or so.”
“You’re going to do some investigating?”
“Oh, I’ll drift around and keep my eyes and ears open,” I said.
She gravely handed me a leather key container. “That’s what I thought,” she said. “You’re going to need a car. Take mine.”
“No, thanks,” I said. “I wouldn’t think of it. I’ll get along all right. You’ll need to get home and—”
“I am home,” she said.
I didn’t want to make a bum guess on what she seemed to be implying. Carl Gail saw the look on my face, and laughed. “She means she has an apartment in this same building,” he said, “down on the lower floor. Her car stays out front. So you don’t need to worry about using it.
“Go ahead and take it, drive around as much as you want to, and bring it back here by eight o’clock in the morning. Edith won’t even miss it.”