Now maybe I haven’t got anything else that’d make me a good detective, but I do have curiosity, and here’s where I saw a way to satisfy it. I spoke to all of them and I said, “I’d better take down some information while we’re waiting for the Lieutenant.” I started on Donald Duck. “Name?”
“Daniel Wappingham.” The voice was English. I could tell that much. I don’t have such a good ear for stuff like that, but I thought maybe it wasn’t the best English.
“Occupation?”
“Actor.”
And I took down the address and the rest of it. Then I turned to the drunk and shook him. He woke up part way but he didn’t hear what I was saying. He just threw his head back and said loudly, “Waltzes! Ha!” and went under again. His voice was gutteral — some kind of German, I guessed. I let it go at that and went over to the three.
Dopey’s name was Harvey Madison; occupation, actor’s representative — tenpercenter to you. Mickey Mouse was Philip Newton; occupation, photographer. (That was the guy Beverly Benson mentioned, the one she sounded thataway about.) And Snow White was Jane Newton.
“Any relation?” I asked.
“Yes and no,” she said, so soft I could hardly hear her.
“Mrs. Newton,” Mickey Mouse stated, “was once my wife.” And the silence was so strong you could taste it.
I got it then. The two of them sitting there, remembering all the little things of their life together, being close to each other and yet somehow held apart. And on Christmas, too, when you remember things. There was still something between them even if they didn’t admit it themselves. But Beverly Benson seemed to have a piece of the man, and where did Dopey fit in?
It sort of worried me. They looked like swell people — people that belonged together. But it was my job to worry about the necklace and not about people’s troubles. I was glad Michaels came in just then.
He was being polite at the moment, explaining to Beverly Benson how Ferguson hadn’t got anywheres with the prints and how the jewels were probably miles away by now. “But we’ll do what we can,” he said. “We’ll talk to these people and find out what’s possible. I doubt, however, if you’ll ever see that necklace again. It was insured, of course, Miss Benson?”
“Of course. So were the other things, and with them I don’t mind. But this necklace I couldn’t conceivably duplicate, Lieutenant.”
Just then Michael’s eye lit on Donald Duck, and the eyebrow did tricks worth putting in a cartoon. “We’ll take you one by one,” he said. “You with the tail-feathers, we’ll start with you. Come along, Smith.”
Donald Duck grabbed a fresh cigarette, thought a minute, then reached out again for a handful. He whistled off key and followed us into the library.
“I gave all the material to your stooge here, Lieutenant,” he began. “Name, Wappingham. Occupation, actor. Address—”
Michaels was getting so polite it had me bothered. “You won’t mind, sir,” he purred, “if I suggest a few corrections in your statement?”
Donald looked worried. “Don’t you think I know my own name?”
“Possibly. But would you mind if I altered the statement to read: Name, Alfred Higgins. Occupation, jewel thief — conceivably reformed?”
The Duck wasn’t so bad hit as you might have thought. He let out a pretty fair laugh and said, “So the fat’s in the fire at last. But I’m glad you concede the possibility of my having reformed.”
“The possibility, yes.” Michaels underlined the word. “You admit you’re Higgins?”
“Why not? You can’t blame me for not telling you right off; it wouldn’t look good when somebody had just been up to my old tricks. But now that you know— And by the way, Lieutenant, just how do you know?”
“Some bright boy at Scotland Yard spotted you in an American picture. Sent your description and record out to us just in case you ever took up your career again.”
“Considerate of him, wasn’t it?”
But Michaels wasn’t in a mood for bright chatter any longer. We got down to work. We stripped that duck costume off the actor and left him shivering while we went over it inch by inch. He didn’t like it much.
At last Michaels let him get dressed again. “You came in your car?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going home in a taxi. We could hold you on suspicion, but I’d sooner play it this way.”
“Now I understand,” Donald said, “what they mean by the high-handed American police procedure.” And he went back into the other room with us.
All the same that was a smart move of Michaels’. It meant that Wappingham-Higgins-Duck would either have to give up all hope of the jewels (he certainly didn’t have them on him) or lead us straight to them, because of course I knew a tail would follow that taxi and camp on his doorstep all next week if need be.
Donald Duck said goodnight to his hostess and nodded to the other guests. Then he picked up his mask.
“Just a minute,” Michaels said. “Let’s have a look at that.”
“At this?” he asked innocent-like and backed toward the French window. Then he was standing there with an automatic in his hand. It was little but damned nasty-looking. I never thought what a good holster that long bill would make.
“Stay where you are, gentlemen,” he said calmly. “I’m leaving undisturbed, if you don’t mind.”
The room was frozen still. Beverly Benson and Snow White let out little gasps of terror. The drunk was still dead to the world. The other two men looked at us and did nothing. It was Donald’s round.
Or would’ve been if I hadn’t played football in high school. It was a crazy chance, but I took it. I was the closest to him, only his eyes were on Michaels. It was a good flying tackle and it brought him to the ground in a heap consisting mostly of me. The mask smashed as we rolled over on it and I saw bright glitters pouring out.
Ferguson and O’Hara were there by now. One of them picked up his gun and the other snapped on the handcuffs. I got to my feet and turned to Michaels and Beverly Benson. They began to say things both at once about what a swell thing I’d done and then I keeled over.
When I came to I was on a couch in a little dark room. I learned later it was the dressing room where the necklace had been stolen. Somebody was bathing my arm and sobbing.
I sort of half sat up and said, “Where am I?” I always thought it was just in stories people said that, but it was the first thing popped into my mind.
“You’re all right,” a cool voice told me. “It’s only a flesh wound.”
“And I didn’t feel a thing… You mean he winged me?”
“I guess that’s what you call it. When I told the Lieutenant I was a nurse he said I could fix you up and they wouldn’t need the ambulance. You’re all right now.” Her voice was shaky in the dark, but I knew it was Snow White.
“Well, anyways, that broke the case pretty quick.”
“But it didn’t.” And she explained: Donald had been up to his old tricks, all right; but what he had hidden in his bill was the diamonds and the sapphire and the pearl earrings, only no emerald and ruby necklace. Beverly Benson was wild, and Michaels and our men were combing the house from top to bottom to see where he’d stashed it.
“There,” she said. She finished the story and the bandaging at the same time. “Can you stand up all right now?”
I was still kind of punchy. Nothing else could excuse me for what I said next. But she was so sweet and tender and good I wanted to say something nice, so like a dumb jerk I up and said, “You’d make some man a grand wife.”
That was what got her. She just went to pieces — dissolved, you might say. I’m not used to tears on the shoulder of my uniform, but what could I do? I didn’t try to say anything — just patted her back and let her talk. And I learned all about it.