“That guy has always run around with the girls,” Reg said, a little bitterly. “But why he should be knocking ’em off beats me. What’s the motive?”
“I can’t believe it,” Audrey said. “I’ve known him all my life. Ted isn’t a killer. I’m sure he isn’t.”
I sat brooding, feeling a rising excitement. “Wait a minute,” I said. “Let’s forget Ted for the moment. Tell me something. Suppose you were a murderer and you wanted to get rid of the body of your victim. How would you do it?”
“Bury it some place in lime,” Reg said promptly.
“Somewhere where it wouldn’t be found. Some absolutely safe spot,” I said. “Burying it in lime isn’t safe.”
“There’s a big furnace in the smelting works,” Audrey said with a little shudder. “Although I can’t imagine how anyone could get body from Victoria Drive to the furnace undetected.”
I shook my head. “They couldn’t. That would be too dangerous. I tell you where I’d hide a body if I wanted to be sure it wouldn’t be found — in a graveyard.”
Reg said: “That’s a fine spot, but getting a body to the local graveyard from Victoria Drive would be as dangerous as taking it to the smelting works.”
“Not if it were handled by the local mortician,” I said quietly.
They both stared at me, then Reg leapt to his feet. “That’s it!” he exclaimed. “It fits! Of course it’s Ted Esslinger! He’s killing these dames and the old man is burying them. All he would have to do is put them in the hearse, take it out at night over to the graveyard. If anyone saw the hearse they’d think nothing of it. He’d have the keys to the graveyard and he could plant the body in someone’s grave.”
Audrey had gone very white. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “You don’t know Max Esslinger. He couldn’t do a thing like that.”
“But it fits,” Reg said. “It explains everything.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I pointed out. “It doesn’t explain why Ted’s killing these girls. What’s the motive?”
“There isn’t one,” Audrey said. “You’re letting your imagination run away with you.”
“All right, let’s go over it again. Suppose Ted Esslinger is the killer. Let’s see if we can find a motive. Why should he kill five girls in so many weeks? The obvious answer to that is he is a homicidal lunatic.”
Audrey shook her head. “I’ve known him all my life. We went to school together. He’s as normal as you are.”
“We can’t be sure of that,” I pointed out. “Maybe he has suddenly lost control of himself. What sort of a kid was he? Did he have a temper; was he moody, that kind of thing?”
“He was perfectly normal,” Audrey insisted. “He liked the girls, of course, but that doesn’t make a man a lunatic, does it?”
“No — all right, let’s forget the lunatic angle. Why else should he kill them?”
“You don’t think he got them into trouble and to save his skin—” Reg began, but stopped.
“What, all five of them?” I said. “No, that’s out. Besides, knowing Marian, he wouldn’t have got anywhere with her on those lines.”
We sat and brooded for several minutes, then I said: “How fond is he of his father?”
“They’re great pals,” Audrey said seriously. “They’d do anything for each other. But he doesn’t get along so well with his mother.”
“Does he want his father to become mayor? I mean really want him to get the job?”
“I think so. I couldn’t say for sure.”
“This is a fantastic idea, but it hangs together,” I said excitedly. “Suppose Ted wanted to give his father a break with the election. If he could get Starkey out of the running, his father would stand a swell chance, wouldn’t he?”
Reg said: “So what? You don’t mean he killed the girls so his father could become mayor? That’s just one hell of an idea.”
“I don’t mean that. Suppose Ted has a kink. Maybe he’s a religious fanatic. Maybe he’s a sex maniac. He could be anything. Suppose he sees a way to fix Starkey and at the same time satisfy his crazy repression.”
“But he hasn’t got a crazy repression,” Audrey said. “I know him too well.”
“Listen: if I had a crazy repression I wouldn’t tell you about it. I’d keep it to myself,” I said shortly.
“Have you?” Reg asked, grinning.
“Never mind that. Stick to Esslinger. Suppose he is a nut. You remember the Street-Camera Studio? He could have been the guy who tipped Dixon. Come to that, he could have been the guy who killed Dixon. No, it must have been Jeff, because Starkey wanted those pictures back.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “Hell! This is driving me screwy! But, wait a minute, it was Ted Esslinger who started the theory about the Street-Camera. He got me thinking that way. Suppose he decided to frame Starkey for the murders he was committing. All he has to do is to watch the Street-Camera window, and when an enlarged picture of a girl he knows appears he gets the girl to this empty house, strangles her and takes her to the funeral parlour. He collects the tickets from the girls and gets the photos from the Street-Camera. He tells Dixon that Starkey is using the Street-Camera Studio as a bait to kidnap the girls, putting Wolf and Esslinger out on a limb, as they have guaranteed to find the girls. Dixon doesn’t fall for this, so Ted comes to me and slips me the dope. Or doesn’t that make sense?”
They stared at me blankly.
“No, it’s too fantastic,” Audrey said at last.
I thought about it and decided she was right. “Well, it’s nearly right,” I said doubtfully. “I’ll bet you even money that Esslinger’s funeral parlour is mixed up in these murders.”
“You don’t know the other girls were murdered. Just because Marian was killed, it doesn’t mean—” Reg began.
“Now don’t go spoiling my theory,” I said. “It must work out the way I see it. It clicks. I’m sure it clicks. We’ll start work right now. The only way to get to the bottom of this is to dig and keep digging. I want you to go to the Street-Camera Studio and find out if Ted’s ever been there. Checkup that first. Try and find out who collected those photos of the three girls, Luce McArthur, Vera Dengate and Joy Kunz. Find that out and we’ll be getting places. Off you go.”
Reg said: “Okay, I’ll see what I can turn up.”
When he had gone, I said: “Look, babe, I want you to check up on Ted Esslinger. Find out where he was on the night of each of the disappearances. See if he has an alibi. Get friendly with the guy and stick close to him. See if he’s got any crazy ideas. Unless there’s something we’ve missed, there can only be one explanation: Ted’s crazy. Try and find out if he is.”
Audrey nodded. “I’ll do it,” she said, “and what do you intend doing?”
“It’s time I went along and met Max Esslinger,” I said. “I want to look his funeral parlour over. Maybe I’ll get some ideas.”
She picked up her gloves and bag. “You’ll like Max Esslinger,” she said. “I’ll swear he had nothing to do with this business, and you’ll think so, too, when you meet him.”
I pulled her to me. “You haven’t got my nasty suspicious mind,” I said, and kissed her.
She pushed me away. “We’ve had enough of that to go on with,” she said severely. “Hands off.”
“Just a minute,” I said, taking her in my arms again. “Didn’t I say I was the senior partner? What I say goes.”
“All the time?” she asked, smiling at me.
“All the time,” I returned.
The room was silent for a while.
VII
I stopped my car outside of a two-storey, grey stone building with a large display window, the upper portion of which was decorated with gold lettering, reading Cranville Mortuary. There was an oak coffin on trestles in the window and nearby was a large black and white check bowl containing stiff, wax-like lilies.