“Is this a puzzle?” said Justis. “I tell you I’m a busy man.”
“It’s a puzzle to everyone in this room but me,” said Sackler. “After the holdup, I called Miss Grattan to have payment stopped, to have a new check issued. I couldn’t get her on Friday. I couldn’t get her on Saturday until the afternoon. Where were you then, Miss Grattan?”
Alice Grattan stared at him in complete bewilderment. For that matter, so did I.
“Why, I told you that on the phone, Mr. Sackler. On Friday, Mr. Justis sent word for me to come to his office. He was detained for some time. I waited a long while for him to return. I remained with him all day. Had dinner with him and his wife and stayed overnight at their place. Saturday morning, I also spent in his office going over some of my father’s papers.”
Sackler waved his hand like a magician who has just pulled a dragon out of a child’s hat.
“There,” he said. “See?”
We looked at each other. It was evident that we all saw with the clarity of a blind man in London at midnight during a blackout. I realized that at least a third of my salary was paid for playing straight man for Sackler, so I came in.
“Could you make it a trifle clearer?” I asked him.
“Ah,” said Sackler grandly, “excuse me. There are times when I forget the mentality of my auditors. Justis makes an appointment with Miss Grattan for Friday, during a period when he knows he will be out of the office. He keeps her waiting. He keeps her out of her own house until Saturday afternoon after the banks have closed. Now do you get it?”
“No,” I said.
Sackler’s sigh held compassion for all the deficient mentalities of the world.
“When I was first given that check there wasn’t sufficient money in the bank to clear it.”
Alice Grattan frowned. “That’s a little-used account, Mr. Sackler,” she said. “There’s usually a considerable balance in it.”
“So you thought,” said Sackler. “So Justis intended you to think. He tried his best to talk Bellows out of retaining me. Failing that, he sent a thug — Hymie over there — to get the check back by force. He kept Miss Grattan out of the way so I wouldn’t receive another check from her until Monday when the account would once more have money in it.”
Justis slammed his fist down on the table. “That’s absolutely ridiculous,” he thundered. “What have I to do with it? And if there’s no money in the account on Saturday, how would there be any Monday?”
“You put it in Monday morning,” said Sackler sweetly. “As soon as the bank opened.”
“My God,” said Wooley. “Assuming he did it, why couldn’t he deposit the cash Friday? Why Monday?”
“He didn’t have it Friday,” said Sackler. “He didn’t get it until Sunday night.”
A little light filtered into my brain. “Where did he get it on Sunday?”
“From the wall safe in this room. You recall it was broken into on Sunday night. He cashed in a fortune in diamonds and replenished the account he had been looting.”
“You accuse me of embezzlement,” said Justis. “You accuse me of robbery. Are you going to accuse me of murder next?”
“Precisely.” Sackler beamed. “Thank God someone gets it at last.”
Wooley wiped his forehead with his hand. Sackler’s circuitous method of expatiation invariably exasperated him.
“Keep talking,” he said. “If you’re accusing Justis of killing Grattan, the police department would like to know about it. The motive and the method particularly.”
“Sure,” said Sackler. “I shall use the simpler fragments of my vocabulary, so you will understand it. Justis was Grattan’s lawyer and confidant. He also held his power of attorney, looked after his bank accounts and business. Moreover, he was named executor of Grattan’s estate. These things I was told by the Second Federated Bank on which that check was drawn. They also told me that a check for fifteen hundred bucks on Miss Grattan’s account could not have cleared on Friday.”
“All right,” said Wooley. “You’ve already told us most of this.”
“Justis,” continued Sackler, “had been rocking Grattan for years. Then came a crisis. I don’t know whether Grattan got on to it, or whether Justis’ stock market losses were so big he had to do something about it. Anyway, he hired Big Joe Angers to kill Grattan.
“He knew just when Grattan would have a fortune in diamonds in that wall safe. So did one of the wholesale dealers from whom I got my information. Moreover, he had a made-to-order suspect in Bellows. He framed that phone call to Bellows, to lure him to a poolroom frequented by thugs. That sort of an alibi would be no good whatever. During that time he had Angers kill Grattan.”
“Then,” I said, “why didn’t Big Joe force the safe that night? Why wait so many days after the murder?”
“Justis isn’t fool enough to tell Big Joe about that safe. Joe could’ve kept all the swag that way. No, with Grattan out of the way, Justis could take his time about the safe. He had the freedom of the house, was a constant visitor. His hand, however, was forced by two things.”
“You mean the check?” I asked. “He couldn’t permit it to bounce because it would arouse Miss Grattan’s suspicion?”
“Right. Undoubtedly he had visited the house often since the murder, awaiting his chance to open the safe which Miss Grattan didn’t even know existed. He never had the chance. Possibly she was in the room with him all the time. However, he had plenty of time. So he thought. He knew he didn’t have plenty of time after she wrote that check for me.”
Elmer Justis laughed. Not too heartily, I thought. “And I suppose I had this Angers kill Barker also?”
“Is this a confession?” asked Sackler. “You and I know just how right you are.”
“Motive?” snapped Wooley.
“Obvious,” said Sackler. “He knew how anxious you mugs were to convict Bellows. He knew you’d do it without Barker’s testimony. He was already in for one murder, why not two? With Bellows already burnt, it’d take an awful lot of evidence before the D. A. would open the case again, admit he burned an innocent man, even if Justis’ peculations ever came out.”
Wooley scratched his head. “It sounds logical to me,” he admitted reluctantly. “And examination of Grattan’s accounts, of Justis’ books, ought to prove it pretty well.”
“Wait a minute,” said Justis. “You forget that I’m a lawyer.”
“You seem to have forgotten it once or twice yourself,” said the Grattan girl bitterly.
“I’m a lawyer,” said Justis again, “and I don’t see that you have any case. Bellows’ motive is as strong as mine. The case against him is as good. The whole theory is pretty conjectural from a legal point of view.”
Wooley looked inquiringly at Sackler. There was an unpleasant degree of truth in what Justis had said. Sackler, I observed, appeared very calm. He looked as if he had at least one more rabbit in the hat.
“Big Joe Angers is cold on Barker’s murder,” he said. “Joey’s testimony will burn him. He has a better chance if he comes clean in a courtroom. I have no doubt he’ll drag Justis down with him.”
Justis’ face was pale. Wooley nodded slowly. He strode across the room to the telephone. “I’ll see if they’ve picked up Big Joe yet.”
He put the call through, spoke for a moment, then hung up slowly. “Rex,” he said, “there goes our case.”
“My God,” exploded Sackler, “I solve a case for you. Do you mean to tell me your coppers are so dumb they can’t get a known crook like Big Joe Angers?”