“She’s in it now.”
“How?”
“Possible murderess, accomplice, or both.”
“Boy, oh boy, J. P., is that one on Keyes?”
“It’s thrown Keyes back on his heels, but good, because of course if she did this Delavan job we pay. But I don’t mind telling you Keyes is under my skin a little just now, and any little thing that gave him his come-uppance would come under the head of good news, even if it did cost us $100,000.”
“Yeah, but say something. About this Converse.”
“Delavan gave her the air.”
“That’s what brought her here.”
“Keyes found out all about that as soon as he got Delavan’s family on the telephone, to see what they knew, or maybe thought. They knew a little and they thought plenty, and most of it centered on this girl—”
“Known also as Penny.”
“That’s it. So he’s been trying to get in touch with her. But after he called the gas company about the turn-on slips, and I helped out with some comsha so the little turn-on girl would forget the rules and let him have a look, he stepped over to the police department to see the reports on the sale of firearms. The stores turn them in, and he’s found that generally, on a real hideout, the party of the first part likes a gun around the house, just in case. So he didn’t find anything that looked like it might be Harriet Jenkins in blackface, but he did find Faith Converse.”
“She bought a gun?”
“A nice little .38 automatic.”
“What do you make out of it?”
“Nothing, but I wish I’d never heard of Thomas Delavan.”
“That I can understand.”
He began walking up and down my apartment, poured himself a spoonful of Scotch, walked up and down some more. The phone rang. I answered, and my heart skipped a beat when I heard the same old Cockney voice drop the H off my name. “Yes, Jenkins, what is it?”
“I’d call a doctor if I was you, sir, accant Mr. Keyes. ’E acts very ill. ’E acts seriously ill, sir.”
“What’s happened?”
“Nothing, sir, but ’e’s not ’imself.”
“Where are you?”
“At ’is office, sir.”
“You mean my office?”
“ ’E said ’is office.”
“I’ll be over.”
Norton was there beside me, close enough to hear all of it, I hung up and started to call a doctor, but he stopped me. “Let’s see what it is, first.” That made sense, and in about two seconds flat we had on our hats and coats and were on our way over there.
14
It was Jenkins, all right, but I don’t think her own mother would have known her. Instead of the bombazine uniform and run-over shoes she used to wear she had on a mink coat, a good-looking black dress, green shoes, green alligator bag, and green hat, and her face was washed and had nice make-up on it, and even her hands were clean. I’ve told you about the shape. Now, for the first time, she looked like a really pretty girl, and about five years younger than I had taken her for. She was in the ante-room, where Linda sits, when we got there, but she took us back in the private office, where Keyes was stretched out on the couch, with his coat off and only the desk light lit. But he said he didn’t want any doctor, and would be all right if we’d just let him alone a few minutes. We went out in the ante-room again and I closed the private office door and asked Jenkins what went on. “As I told you, sir, nothing.”
“What are you doing here?”
“ ’E brought me ’ere.”
“What for?”
“To tell what I knew about the death of Mr. Delavan.”
“So you do know something about it?”
“Indeed I do, sir.”
Norton began questioning her, and pretty soon she got pretty gabby. “It was around seven, I should say, when Mr. Keyes came to the little ’ouse I had rented on the edge of town, and I’d noticed ’im at the inquest over Mr. Richard, but ’adn’t known ’im and supposed ’im an officer. Then ’e said ’oo ’e was, and when ’e said ’e was interested to go into the exact manner of Mr. Delavan’s death, accant ’e was suspicious of it, I was quite willing to speak about it, as I’d about made up my mind already I was going to end my silence and tell what I knew. So ’e remained outside in a respectful and gentlemanly way while I dressed, brought me ’ere in the cab ’e had waiting, then took me to the room inside there and asked me a few questions, not many. Then in a most friendly and understanding way ’e said ’e never ’eckled a willing witness, and why didn’t I sit down to the recording machine and tell my story on the record while ’e went out and had some coffee. So I did, only taking five records to do it as I made it very brief and clear. Then ’e came back and put the records on the machine and listened to what I ’ad said. And then ’e began looking bad. I did what I could. I got ’im water and ’elped ’im to the couch so ’e could lie down and then I rang you. I think it ’ad something to do with what ’e was ’earing, if I may say what I think.”
“Please do.”
“Yes, feel perfectly free.”
She sat down in Linda’s chair and told it all over again, then noticed Norton doing some more marching around and offered him her place and he took it. He said afterwards he didn’t often accept a seat from a lady, but she seemed to have the kind of legs that made it advisable she got perpendicular for a while. Keyes came out and she asked if she’d be needed any more that night. He said she would. The four of us went in the private office and he switched on the dictation machine.
The first of it was a lot of stuff about how lousy Mrs. Sperry had treated her in Bermuda, and she wasn’t quite as brief and clear as she seemed to think. Then there was some stuff about how Jane had taken pity on her and brought her here, ’aht of the goodness of ’er ’eart, and the trouble over the annulment. Then she told about how Delavan took her to court to put her under bail, and then here it began coming, the part that Jane and I could never figure out. It was all full of ahts and hins and hopens and shahts and ’earts and flahs, and Linda didn’t do anything about them, but anyway, here it is, the way it was transcribed with pothooks from the records early the next morning. Anyway, if it’s not what she said it’s what she thought she was saying:
“I was quite frightened in court, until I saw Mr. Delavan looking at me, and I knew he liked me, as I certainly did him. So a day or so later I thought I would see if I could play a little trick on him. So I went to a shop and called him by phone and asked him if I couldn’t pay him a visit and talk to him about it. And as I expected, he said: ‘Good God, girl, no. If this place is watched it Would ruin me. I’d be forever blocked from bringing suit myself, and she could have anything she asked in court.’
“‘Then,’ I said, ‘why not visit me?’
“‘That would be worse,’ he said.
“‘Perhaps not. If a young man came up on the Washoe-Truckee roof tonight, just to take the air, and he happened to find a young lady there with the same idea in mind, who could criticize him? It’s a fine, open, respectable place so far as the law is concerned, and it has the additional advantage that it’s quite deserted from ten o’clock on.’
“‘I couldn’t dare risk it.’
“‘Wouldn’t you like to risk it, though?’
“‘Shut up, limey, shut up.’
“‘Ah, come on.’
“‘No.’
“But I went up there, just the same, thinking he might change his mind. I waited a long time, in one of the big rocking seats with canvas sides and back, and he didn’t come. But as I had just come to the conclusion I would be disappointed, the iron door that leads below slowly opened, and there he was, at first paying no attention to me, but walking cautiously around to make sure nobody else was there. Then he came over beside me, and I told him if he compelled me to be his witness, I would of course tell the truth about Mr. Sperry, that there had been no infidelity on his part with me, but I would also tell the truth about this night on the roof, that there had been infidelity on his own part to his own wife with me. And he looked at me sharply and asked what I meant by inventing such a falsehood. And I looked at him just as sharply, as I hope, and asked him what he meant by inventing such a falsehood himself, for he perfectly well knew he had overpowered me and torn off my clothes and used the badminton shuttlecock for a gag and worked his wicked will on me. And as I spoke I tore my dress and scratched my arm with one fingernail and showed him the badminton shuttlecock which I had in the pocket of my apron and had wet some time before at the hose tap in the corner. ‘It is the truth, and you know it, my young and handsome friend,’ I told him, ‘and if you don’t admit it I shall go right over to the phone there and call the hotel staff and you won’t be able to get away before they nab you and my cuts and bruises will substantiate my tale. My very shocking tale, I may say.’