Figure it Out For Yourself

'It does,' I said, enjoying his consternation. 'Do you want me to begin at the beginning or do you want to ask questions?

He picked up the cigar again, pierced it savagely with the end of a match.

'Does Mrs. Dedrick — Serena Marshland know about this?'

'She does now.'

He drew down the corners of his mouth, lifted his fat shoulders in a shrug of resignation and waved his hand.

'Go ahead, but don't expect me to believe it'

'A lot of this is guess-work,' I said, shifting forward to the edge of my chair. 'Some of it can be proved; most of it can't. We do know for certain that Barratt was the boss of a smuggling ring. Lee Dedrick and Lute Ferris were his aides. Dedrick took care of the Paris end and Ferris smuggled the stuff in from Mexico. We have proof of that. We also know Dedrick was married to this girl here' — I waved to Mary Jerome — 'who had no ides what his racket was. He deserted her, married Serena Marshland and returned to New York. All he wanted was Serena's money. Now this is where I start guessing. Souki found out who Dedrick was. Maybe be tried to blackmail. I don't know. It seems possible he threatened Dedrick who saw his plans to get hold of Serena's fortune blowing up in his face. He murdered Souki to shut his mouth. To cover the murder and to get as much money out of Serena as he could, he faked his own kidnapping. The idea worked. No one suspected he had killed Souki, and no one suspected he hadn't been kidnapped. Barratt helped him. He kept under cover in Barratt's apartment while Barratt collected the ransom and framed Perelli for the kidnapping. It was easy enough. Perelli had an apartment opposite Barratt's. Barratt hated Perelli. He hid the fishing-rod, some of the ransom money and the gun in Perrelli's room and tipped the police. They moved in grabbed Perelli.

Brandon glanced over at Muffin and snorted.

'Know what this sounds like to me?' He thumped the desk as he glared at me. 'A typical Malloy pipe-dream. You're thing to get Perelli out of a jam. Nothing you've said yet convince me he didn't snatch Dedrick. What else have you got?'

'A reception clerk named Grace Lehmann who work at Barratt's apartment house saw him with the fishing-rod. tried to blackmail him. Dedrick went to see her and murdered her.'

Brandon gave a scoffing laugh.

'Who did you say killed her?'

'Dedrick, the man in the fawn suit. The man Joy Dreadon saw with Grace Lehrnann.'

'That's a pretty tale. The Lehmann woman committed suicide. Your only witness is a streetwalker. Do you think I'd take her word? None of your witnesses are worth a damn, anyway.'

I lifted my shoulders.

'How do you know the man in the fawn suit is Dedrick?' he demanded.

'I recognized his voice. He spoke to me over the phone, if you remember, when he staged the faked kidnapping. He has a voice you don't forget.'

'Tell that to the jury and see where you get,' Brandon sneered. 'All you've got is that Barratt ran a smuggling ring. I'll give you that, but nothing else. The rest of the stuff is a pipe-dream.'

I looked across at Francon, who shook his head.

'Well, all right, then I guess we can all go to bed,' I said to Brandon. 'I didn't ask to come here, and if you don't want to believe the story, it's okay with me.'

'We'll go over it again,' Brandon said, beginning to enjoy himself, 'and we'll have it down in writing.' He nodded to Mifflin, who opened the door and bawled for Sergeant MacGraw.

After a while MacGraw came in, a placid expression on his white, flabby face. He sat down at a table, a pad of paper in front of him and waited.

I went through the story again, covering everything that had happened to date. It took some time. Then Brandon tried to shake me, tried to shale Mary Jerome, and even Paula. He got nowhere.

'There's not a scrap of evidence in any of this,' he said at last. 'Bring that yarn into court and see what the D.A. does to it.' He turned to Francon. 'So far as I'm concerned, Perelli Snatched Dedrick. Nothing this parlour detective has found out makes any difference to me. Any witness he claims to have is either dead or unreliable. If you think Perelli's alibi with this Lola woman will stand up in court, you're crazy. Now, get out, the lot of you! You've wasted enough of my time already. Bring Dedrick here, and I might believe you, and that's my final word!'

Outside in the passage the four of us looked at each other.

'That's the way it is,' Francon said. 'He's right, Vic. It makes a nice story, but it gets us exactly nowhere in court. We've got to find Dedrick.'

Muffin joined us at the end of the passage.

'Well, come on,' he growled. 'Haven't you people got any beds?'

'Are you looking for Dedrick?' I asked.

'We're looking for this guy in the fawn suit,' Muffin carefully. We've been looking for him since Lehmann's killing. You don't have to pay any attention to Brandon. He knows Grace Lehmann was murdered. He was just sounding off.'

'If you're looking for him, why haven't you found him?'

Muffin's red face turned purple.