At One-Thirty by Isabel Ostrander (adult books to read .txt) 📕
Gaunt had approached the body, and was passing his fingers lightly and thoroughly over it.
"No doubt about robbery being the motive?" he asked, as he worked.
"Oh, no," the Inspector put in, easily. "No weapon found, window open, tracks before window in the carpet and on the curtains, and Mr. Appleton's jewelry and money gone."
"I understand." Gaunt bent and sniffed the powder-blackened shirt about the wound. "Looks as if Mr. Appleton might have recognized, or thought he recognized, the thief, doesn't it, when he let him get as near as he did to shoot him, without attempting to get on his feet, or make any outcry?"
'"Maybe he did jump to his feet, and fell back again when he was shot?" suggested the Inspector, thoughtfully.
"Hardly, seeing the way he was clutching the arms of the chair. Even death didn't release that vise-like grip. He might have clutched his breast whe
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“Sorry, to have kept you waiting, Mr. Gaunt; but I was dressing. Terrible thing that about poor Garret. Yates must be completely knocked out.”
Gaunt turned in the direction of the voice, and his foot inadvertently touched the projecting claw foot of the table.
“I don’t see why Parker didn’t turn the rest of the lights on,” his host exclaimed irritably, as he pressed the button in the wall.
“The lights make no difference—to me, Mr. Livingston. I am blind.”
“You—oh, I see! I beg your pardon. Why, I have heard of you, of course. You were the man who worked out those famous Delamater murders. By Jove! Sit down, Mr. Gaunt, and tell me what I can do for you. Will you have a cigar? These are of Porto Rican tobacco, made for me.”
“Thank you. But, Mr. Livingston, your cigarmaker must have been mistaken in his blend. These are the shape and size of Porto Ricos, but the tobacco is Havana.”
“Is it? By Jove! I ordered Porto Ricos.”
“Can’t you tell the difference?” asked the detective, with a smile.
“Not unless they are lighted, and not always then. I thought I was something of a connoisseur of tobacco; but you have me beaten. They’re identical in color.”
“Some growths are; but the odor is unmistakable, if your nose is trained to distinguish the difference. Then, too, feel the shape of the leaf, even as tightly rolled as these are. They are undoubtedly Havana. But I did not come to take up your time by an idle discussion concerning tobacco. I came for some information which only you can give me.”
“You wanted to ask me something about Yates Appleton, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I wanted to know what time he got to your rooms, last night. About one o’clock?”
“Just about—I could not say exactly. I had been to the theater and supper, and was just thinking of turning in when he appeared.”
“Nice state he must have been in, too,” the detective remarked, with studied carelessness; “with one cuflF flying open.”
“Yes!” laughed Mr. Livingston, with the hearty stomach laugh of a fat man. “I had to lend him a pair of cuflF-buttons. He seemed awfully worked up and excited; but then he was a bit—well, you know.”
“Yes,” Gaunt smiled, “I know…. You have known Mr. Yates Appleton long, Mr. Livingston?”
“Known him and his brother all my life,” the other returned. “This shock may pull Yates up and steady him. It’s a frightful affair. Garret Appleton was shot by a burglar during the night, wasn’t he?”
“That is the case as it stands now,” replied the detective. “You cannot give me any more definite information as to the time Mr. Yates Appleton called on you last night, can you?”
“Sorry, I can’t. My man had gone to bed, and I was—well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Gaunt, I was a little foggy myself.”
Gaunt laughed.
“All right, Mr. Livingston; I quite understand. I won’t detain you any longer. Thank you for allowing me to intrude upon you in this way.”
“Oh, it was no intrusion at all, I assure you. ril be only too glad to help in any way I can. Call on me any time you like.”
On the way back to his rooms, in the taxi, Gaunt mused over the information he had just received. Yates Appleton’s friend had, indeed, corroborated the statement, although in so vague a fashion, as to the time of the call upon him; but, on the other hand, he had all unwittingly corroborated the damming evidence of the little link of gold— the link in the disconnected chain of events which proved that some time during the evening Yates had returned to his home, had been in the room where a few hours later his brother was found done to death. If the testimony of the attendants at the club should show that Yates Appleton really left there at about midnight, as he had said, it would leave a rather close margin of time for him to have gone home, held an interview of whatever nature with his brother, and arrived at the rooms of Maurice Livingston by one. A great deal depended now upon Saunders’ success in obtaining information from the Appleton chauflFeur as to where he had driven the car from the time of leaving the club to the arrival at Bryant Chambers.
His simple dinner over, the detective sat in his library, waiting the promised visit of Inspector Hanrahan with ill-concealed impatience. One problem of the morning kept recurring to his mind: Mrs. Finlay Appleton must have thought her younger son guilty of the murder, else she would not have turned from the body of Garret with the cry of, “Cain!” upon her lips. Yet, why, in that case, had she proceeded immediately to obtain the services of a detective of wide repute, to investigate the murder and discover the culprit?
But stay! Had he been retained to discover the truth, or, as Yates had informed him, to prevent as much of the police interference as possible? Would Mrs. Finlay Appleton or her son later approach him in an attempt to influence him by a bribe, or otherwise to cloak the true facts of the case in their interest?
The inspector arrived about nine.
“Mr. Yates Appleton left the club about ten minutes of twelve, Mr. Gaunt. The carriagestarter says so, and the coat-room boy confirms him, because Mr. Appleton particularly asked him the time…. Got anything new, sir? There is nothing in that Louis Lantelme theory. The man’s alibi proved to be complete.”
“Did you get any more out of Dakers, the butler?” the detective asked, after a pause.
“No, sir.”
Something in the detective’s face made the burly Inspector lean forward suddenly, his hands on his knees.
“What do you mean, sir? What do you think?”
“Watch him!”
SAUNDERS, the chauflFeur, presented himself bright and early the following morning; but his ruffled manner was expressive of defeat’
“Sony, sir,” he commenced. “I found your man all right—Mr. Appleton’s chauflFeur. I spent your ten and another five—no man who drinks like that has any right to run a car. But I couldn’t get a thing out of him of much account, except that nothing happened to Mr. Appleton’s hand that he knew anything about. He left the club a little before twelve, drove round town for awhile, and then to Bryant Chambers. There they picked up a friend of Mr. Appleton’s, and went on around town for a couple of hours, stopping at two or three all-night cafes. At about three o’clock in the morning, the chauffeur took both the young gentlemen home. That’s all I could find out, sir; but—”
“But, what Saunders?”
“Well, sir, it looked to me like the fellow wasn’t telling me the truth, altogether. He hemmed and hawed, and had kind of a sly way with him when he was talking, though he talked quick enough. I had a kind of an idea that he was onto me— that he knew I was trying to get something out of him.”
“Very well, Saunders. You have done the best you could.
“Here is the extra money you have spent, and another five for yourself. Got the car waiting outside?”
“Yes, sir—thank you, sir.”
“Then I think I will have you take me up to the Appleton house. There is something I overlooked yesterday—”
But Gaunt got no further. As he turned to press the button in the wall to summon Jenkins, that indefatigable person appeared in the door, and his apologetic cough held a slightly perturbed note.
“Excuse me, Mr. Gaunt. There’s a man downstairs who wants to see you. He’s very—persistent, sir. Says his name’s Dakers.”
“Very well, Jenkins. Hold him below for two or three minutes, until Saunders gets out…. Saunders,” he turned to where the chauflFeur stood fingering his cap, beside the table, “go down and wait in the car. I sha’n’t be long. I’ve changed my mind about going to the Appleton house; but I shall want you to take me somewhere else, inmiediately.”
“Very good, sir. TH, be cranked up, waiting.”
Dakersl The suave, servile butler of the Appletons! The man whom Inspector Hanrahan felt sure had “something up his sleeve.” Had he discovered some facts which he felt to be of im-f portance, in the hours that had elapsed since the detective had interviewed him the previous day; or had he, for some purpose of his own, withheld certain knowledge in his possession, until he felt it to be no longer politic, or even safe, to do so?
In a few moments, Jenkins’ step could be heard approaching, accompanied by the stealthy, catlike tread that Gaunt remembered from the day before, and Dakers stood before him.
The detective did not speak until his man had retired, and then he took a bold lead:
“Well, Dakers,” he said, quietly, “you’ve decided to make a clean breast of it, have you? Sit down, and be sure this time that you tell me the truth.”
“It was the truth that I told you yesterday, sir, I assure you, sir, only—only, it wasn’t all the truth. There was something about the night before, sir, that I—I didn’t mention.”
“I thought not. Well, go on—out with it!”
“It was all just as I told you, sir. I attended to my usual duties, putting away the silver after dinner, serving refreshments to the family during the evening, placing the decanter and glasses in the den, opening the door for Judge Carhart and Miss Carhart when they left, and then locking up the house. I went to bed. But I couldn’t sleep, and I got up after a bit, and came downstairs again to get a—a little something for myself, sir.”
“A drink— whisky?”
“A—a little brandy, sir. I was very much surprised when I came near the den, to hear voices— loud, angry voices. I thought at first Mr, Garret was talking to himself. He does, sometimes, when he’s alone, in the night like that, sir. But then I heard two voices, and I—I recognized the second one.”
The man paused, his voice trembling huskily.
“Who was it?” the detective asked, sternly.
“Mr.—Mr. Yates, sir.”
“What was he saying?”
“I couldn’t repeat the exact words, sir; but they were having an argument—a quarrel. Mr. Yates wanted some money from his brother, quite a lot of money. He kept repearing that he had to have it at once. I think he called it ‘a debt of honor,’ or something like that. He mentioned a card game at the club, I think—but I wasn’t what you might call listening, sir. I wouldn’t so far forget myself. The door of the den was open, and I was just outside in the hall, waiting for a chance to slip past and out to the butler’s pantry. Mr. Garret had begun his night’s drinking, and he was in an extra ugly mood, sir, sneering at Mr. Yates, and taunting him, and working him up, until at last—”
“Go on.”
“There was a snarl from Mr. Yates, and then the—the sound of a blow. I didn’t see it, of course, sir; but it must have been Mr. Yates who struck, because there was a regular bellow of rage from Mr. Garret, and then he ordered his brother out of the house.”
“Did he go at once?”
“I don’t know, sir. I didn’t wait to see; I didn’t want to hear any more. I turned and went back to my room as quick as I could^ for fear they’d come out
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