Edgar was perplexed. “There doesn’t seem to be a problem here, James. This ‘John Doe’ was seen by the guard, by several employees, and even by you. It would seem that there would be no problem in apprehending him.”
“You would imagine so,” grunted the exasperated captain, “except that each witness described the suspect differently. The guard said an elderly greyhaired man wounded him, the employees saw a youngish blond man at the loading dock, and I saw a balding middle-aged man watching the bank truck. There seem to have been three men involved, yet the actual robbery attempt was made by only one person.”
“Mmmm,” murmured Edgar. He took his meerschaum out of his pocket and loaded it. “Do you mind if I smoke?”
“I would rather you didn’t.”
“I see where a bit of deductive reasoning is needed here,” said Edgar as he lit up and exhaled a blue-grey cloud. “The answer to your problem is quite clear if you can cut through the deceptive haze of the obvious.”
“Yes, cutting through the haze is a problem,” coughed the captain, waving ineffectively at the approaching fog.
“Your John Doe is obviously just one person but one who is a master of disguise,” continued Edgar. “He is cleverly using this ability to appear as what he is not. Therefore, I would suggest that you look for what you did not see.”
“Huh?”
“This criminal went to a great deal of trouble to look like three different men; therefore, it would not surprise me if the next time you see him he will confuse you once again by looking completely different. I suggest, dear brother-in-law, that you look for a woman — a ‘Joan Doe.’ ”
“A woman?”
“Yes. It is the obvious conclusion to the mind trained in deductive reasoning.”
“Edgar, your mind never ceases to amaze me.”
“It takes training, James. And now that I have been of some help to you, I hope you will return the favor by giving me some information. I am looking for a man named Igor Cranston. I have a client who believes he may have stolen a cockatoo.”
“A cockatoo?”
“Yes. It is a white parrotlike bird that...”
“I know what a cockatoo is, Edgar. I was just surprised that you were looking for one. It just so happens that we’ve received a call from the owner of the Florida Feathered Friends pet store. He said that a man had tried to sell him an expensive cockatoo under suspicious circumstances. The man had no papers of ownership and appeared very nervous. He said he had found the bird and knew it was valuable. The pet store owner wouldn’t buy it, of course, and suggested that the man find the owner, possibly receiving some small reward, or perhaps sell it privately.”
Captain LeStreet hated it when he was able to help Edgar. It only meant that now Edgar would feel it was necessary for him to reciprocate.
“Thank you very much for that information, James,” said Edgar as he curled another wreath of blue-grey Turkish smoke around the captain’s rubefacient face. “And I think I may be able to repay you with some useful information of my own. As I pointed out before, you should be looking for a master of disguise who will probably be posing as a woman. At this moment my assistant Thaddeus has been assigned to trail someone who might be the very person you are looking for.”
Captain LeStreet put up a defensive hand. “Thank you for the help, Edgar, but I think my police are capable of developing their own leads.”
“Oh, I’m sure they are, James. In any case I will keep you informed if anything more develops.”
“Thanks heaps, Edgar. Now if I can get back to work...”
The next morning, Edgar heard the typewriter chattering away as he was climbing the stair to his office. Thaddeus was already hard at work typing up his report on the previous night’s activities.
“I’ll be done in a minute, Mr. Snavely,” said the eager Thaddeus.
“Why don’t you come into my office and give me an oral report in the meantime,” suggested Edgar.
Thaddeus stopped typing and followed Edgar. “After Miss La-more left here yesterday, she went shopping at the Publix supermarket. She bought a head of lettuce, a carton of milk — two percent fat—”
“I’m not interested in her shopping list, Thaddeus. Tell me where he, or she, went. Did he contact anyone?”
“I’m sorry to report, Mr. Snavely, that she spotted me in the parking lot of the supermarket. I tried to tell her it was just a coincidence that I was there, that I was on my way home to my mother. Miss Lamore said she lived all alone in this big apartment, and she needed someone big and strong to help her carry her groceries. I really couldn’t say no, so I went with her.”
“Very good, Thaddeus. So you actually got into his, I mean her, apartment. Did you get a chance to look into any of the clothes closets? Was there anything there that was, shall we say, out of the ordinary?”
“I really couldn’t say, Mr. Snavely. You see, just as she invited me into her apartment, her phone rang. She was beginning to make me feel very uncomfortable, so when she went in to answer the phone, I put the groceries down and left.”
Edgar sat down in his swivel chair with a disappointed look. “Ah, Thaddeus,” he sighed. “You have a long way to go before you are able to fill the boots of any great private investigator. You had the perfect opportunity to find out what our client was about, and you muffed it.”
The phone on Edgar’s desk jangled loudly. Edgar picked it up before the reproved Thaddeus could get back to his own desk to answer it and heard the satin voice of Edwina Lamore.
“I’m so glad I caught you, Mr. Snavely. I received the oddest phone call last night. A Miss Snodgrass called to tell me that she had seen one of the circulars I had distributed. She told me that a man she knew had sold her a cockatoo just yesterday for one thousand dollars. From the description in my circular, she believed it to be my Foo-Foo. She said she would return it to me, but I would have to reimburse her for the money she paid for the bird.”
“It is possible that this ‘Miss Snodgrass’ is telling the truth,” said Edgar. “It is also possible that Miss Snodgrass is an accomplice of your friend Cranston, and this is his way of getting money for the bird without showing up himself. He might be afraid that you would have him arrested for birdnapping.”
“You are so clever, Mr. Snavely. But what shall I do? I do want my Foo-Foo back. She is very valuable to me.”
Edgar thought for a moment. “Do you have a telephone number so that you might get in touch with Miss Snodgrass?... Good. Call her and have her bring the bird to my office tomorrow at precisely nine A.M.
“I would like you to be here also, Miss Lamore, with the one thousand dollars. If Miss Snodgrass’s story is true, it will cost you a thousand dollars, but you will have your bird. If her story is not true, with some discreet questioning I should get a lead as to where we can find Igor Cranston.”
“Do you think this Miss Snodgrass has Miss Lamore’s bird?” asked Thaddeus when Edgar had hung up the phone.
“All will be revealed in time,” said Edgar. “Not only will Edwina Lamore and Miss Snodgrass be here tomorrow, but I will also invite a surprise guest, my friend police captain James LeStreet. We should have a very interesting get-together.”
A none-too-happy Captain LeStreet was the first of the guests to arrive at Edgar’s office the next morning.