"She remembers that Granworth has tried to commit suicide two years before - the time when he drove his car over the wharf. OK. Well, nobody much knows about Rudy. He ain't known in New York an' anyhow he was just plannin' to scram down to Mexico. So nobody is goin' to miss him. So she suggests to Granworth an' Burdell that they take the clothes off Rudy, put Granworth's clothes on him, stick him in the car an' drive him over the edge of the wharf. Everybody will think that Granworth has committed suicide, an' Granworth can scram off with Paulette an' clear down to Mexico an' pretend that he's her husband Rudy.
"The only thing they have gotta be careful about is the police identification. But they know that Henrietta has gone back to Hartford. If they can keep her outa New York till Rudy's body is buried an' if Langdon Burdell fixes so that he is the guy who identifies Rudy's corpse as bein' that of Granworth then everything is hunky dory. Do you get it?
"Granworth thinks the idea is a jewel. It lets him out. All he has gotta do is to scram with Paulette an' get outa New York to some place where nobody won't know him an' he is safe as the bank. Also he gets rid of Henrietta which is another idea he likes, an' anyhow he is a lousy dog who will do anything that Paulette tells him to. So he takes his clothes off an' they put them on Benito who is about the same size. Then they smash Benito's face in some more; then Granworth writes a suicide note an' they put it, with Granworth's lettercase, in Benito's pocket.
"Then they have a meetin' as to how they are goin' to get the body down to the wharf an' Paulette has another big idea. She says that she will get in the car an' drive Benito's body down, because as Granworth was meetin' his wife Henrietta that night, if anybody sees her they will think it is Henrietta.
"So Granworth an' Burdell pick up the body an' they take it down by the service lift at the back of the block. Paulette' is waitin' there in the car. They stick Benito in the passenger seat an' Paulette, drivin' round the back streets, gets down to Cotton's Wharf. Once there she gets out, leans in the car, puts her hand down on the clutch an' pushes the gear lever in, an' steps back an' slams the door. The car starts off an' after hittin' a wood-pile goes over the edge.
"But just as Paulette is scrammin' off she sees the night watchman Fargal. She goes back an' tells Granworth an' Burdell, an' Burdell say that don't matter a cuss because he can square the night watchman if he has seen anything.
"OK. Paulette an' Granworth scram off. They have got the two hundred grand in dollar bonds an' before they go they pay off Burdell an' leave a cut for Fernandez, the maid an' the butler.
"When they get down to Mexico they begin to feel better, but Paulette still thinks that there is a chance of Granworth bein' recognised sometime. So she gets another swell idea. They get hold of the doctor - Madrales - an' they pay him plenty to take Granworth into his house at Zoni an' do a face operation on him that is goin' to change his face so that nobody will ever know he was Granworth.
"OK. Well now let's go back to Burdell. Granworth an' Paulette have scrammed outa it. Early next mornin' he gets down to Cotton's Wharf an' sees the watchman. He gives this guy a thousand bucks to keep his trap shut about havin' seen a woman gettin' outa the car the night before. The watchman says OK. "Then the police get the car up an' the suicide is reported. Burdell scrams along to the morgue an' identifies Benito's body as bein' that of Granworth Aymes. In the pocket is the suicide note in Granworth's handwritin'. The police accept the identification an' when the coroner has an inquest he brings in suicide. Ain't it natural? Granworth tried to commit suicide two years before, didn't he?"
I move over an' stand with my back to Metts' desk an' look around. Paulette is huddled up. Her face has gone grey. Maloney is lookin' at me with his eyes poppin' an' Henrietta is claspin' an' unclaspin' her hands. Metts is gettin' so worked up that he is tryin' to light his pipe with a match that's gone out. I go on talkin':
"Swell. Everythin' is goin' accordin' to plan. Burdell is wise. He waits two days before he phones through to Henrietta in Connecticut to tell her that Granworth has committed suicide. He does this so as to give time for the body to be buried before she can see it.
"Then he tells the maid, the butler an' Fernandez not to say anythin' about Henrietta bein' in New York that night, not because he wants to keep Henrietta outa trouble but just because he don't want anybody knowin' anything about any woman bein' around. He is thinkin' of Paulette.
"Well, the whole scheme works out swell, an' if they had been prepared to have left it alone there everything woulda been all right, an' we none of us woulda known anything about it now.
"But Burdell ain't satisfied. He ain't satisfied even although he is runnin' Granworth's old business an' makin' money. One day he is kickin' around in his office an' be finds two things. He finds first the insurance policy that Granworth took out that says that two hundred thousand dollars will be paid on his death providin' he ain't committed suicide, an' he finds the three letters from Henrietta that Granworth has left in his desk, the letters accusin' him of gettin' around with some other woman, the third one sayin' that she is comm' to New York to have a showdown with him.
"Then this Burdell gets an idea. He gets the rottenest, lousiest idea that a guy ever got. He gets the idea that if it can be proved that Granworth Aymes was murdered by his wife Henrietta then the Insurance Company are goin' to pay.
The money will go to the Aymes estate an' the Aymes estate is mortgaged to Periera - so the Insurance money will go to Periera because the Insurance Company have contracted to pay on anythin' except suicide!
"Have you got it? Was it a swell idea or was it?
"So Burdell gets busy. He sends Fernandez out to the Hacienda Altmira to wise up Periera about the new scheme. An' after this he waits around an' persuades Henrietta to go out to the Hacienda to have a nice quiet time. She is glad to do this because she is upset about Granworth's supposed suicide. She even thinks that maybe she was responsible for it an' that if she hadn't been so tough with him he mighta not done it.
"OK. Then Burdell sticks around an' waits. I'll tell you why he waits. He knows that Henrietta ain't got very much money. He knows that when that is spent she is goin' to start usin' the two hundred thousand in fake dollar bonds that she has got - the ones they switched on her, an' he knows that directly she tries to change this phoney stuff the Federal Government will step in an' start investigatin'. He knows that they will send an agent to him to ask questions about Granworth an' that they will investigate the circumstances surroundin' the Aymes suicide.
"So he grabs the three letters from Henrietta outa the desk an' he sends 'em down to Fernandez an' he tells him to be ready to plant 'em where this Federal agent will find 'em.
"Sure as a gun it comes off. I get assigned to the job an' I go to New York an' see Burdell.
"While I am stayin' there he sends me an unsigned letter sayin' that if I will go down here to Palm Springs I will find some letters that may tell me a lot.
"I fall for it an' I come down here an' find the letters an' I begin to think that Henrietta here bumped Aymes, that he didn't commit suicide at all.
"Burdell knows that I will probably think that he has written this letter, an' that I will talk to him about it so he has a story all ready - a story that makes things look even worse for Henrietta. He 'tells me that he told the others to say that she wasn't in New York on that night just so's her name would be kept outa the business.
"But like all the other crooks these guys haveta make mistakes. An' that is a thing I am always waitin' for. I checked up on Fernandez an' found that he had been the Aymes chauffeur an' that got me thinkin'. The worst thing they did was to kill Sagers because that got me annoyed, but the durndest silliest thing they did was to be so keen on hangin' this thing on Henrietta. They was all so hot to prove that she had done it after they had tried to keep her outa it in the first place that I reckoned that there was something screwy goin' on.