10
Back in the squad room once again, I rolled the original Complaint Report form into my typewriter and added some of the data from my notebook. When I had finished with the Complaint Report, I made up a folder for it, entered Barbara Lawson’s name and the necessary coding on the file tab, and placed the folder in the section of the files reserved for homicides.
Her file would begin to build rapidly now. There would be supplemental reports, prepared on DD-5 forms, coming in from everyone working on the case, including the laboratory technicians, photographer, detectives on the D.A.’s staff, and others, as well as the ones which Walt and I would prepare from time to time. I hoped that we would soon be able to prepare a DD-14, the Résumé of Homicide Case form, which is filled out when a case is closed.
Headquarters called at six o’clock to say that they’d been unable to contact Barbara’s brother in Kansas City. The Kansas City police had checked at both his home and at the office where he worked, but it had been Alan Lawson’s day off and none of his acquaintances knew his whereabouts. The Kansas City police would stay on it, of course, and notify us as soon as the brother was located.
Walt Logan came in, carrying two cardboard containers of coffee.
“You look a little down in the mouth, Steve,” he said. “Anything happen while I was at the morgue?”
“Headquarters just called. Kansas City hasn’t found Barbara Law-son’s brother yet. That’s bad, because until they do find him we won’t be able to get a line on this guy Carl.”
“The Tyner girl didn’t have any idea of his last name at all?”
“She couldn’t remember.”
“My own memory isn’t so good sometimes. I got them to put sugar in your coffee again.”
“I’ll drink it anyhow.”
“That super was one sad guy when I took him over there. You’d think it was his own daughter.”
“A lot of people were fond of her, it seems.”
The lab called at six-twenty to report that the stains on the knife were blood, and that the blood was type ‘O’ — which was the same type as Barbara Lawson’s. There had been no prints. I asked them to return the knife to me.
“It was blood, all right,” I told Walt. “And it could be Barbara Lawson’s. But ‘O’ is the most common type, and it doesn’t really prove anything, except that somebody with type ‘O’ was cut with it. Wouldn’t mean anything in court.”
“I’m sold,” Walt said.
“Sure. So am I. But we won’t be prosecuting the case.”
The coffee Walt had brought back was none too hot, and I drank steadily. I’d crossed the room to drop the carton in a wastebasket when two patrolmen came in, escorting a very short, very thin, hawk-faced man of about forty-five.
“This is Benjamin Thomas,” one of the patrolmen said. “We spotted him coming out of a bar on Amsterdam.” He grinned down at Thomas and then winked at Walt and me. “He put up one hell of a fight, but we finally subdued him.”
Benjamin Thomas smiled. He had a pleasant, bland face, faded gray eyes with a heavy tracery of laugh lines around them, and was dressed in a fresh white shirt, dark tie, and sharply creased brown suit. “I would have been able to handle these two easily,” he said. “I just didn’t want to embarrass them.” He opened the gate in the wooden railing, came in inside, and sat down on the straight chair beside my desk. “It’s good to be in a squad room again. Just like old times.”
I glanced at the patrolmen. “Better stick around a few minutes, boys.” They sat down on the bench near the hall door, watching Benny Thomas.
“Now, Mr. Thomas,” I said.
“Yes?”
“You know why we want to talk to you, don’t you?”
“Well, I do look at a newspaper now and then.”
“You knew the Lawson girl?”
“Yes, of course. To speak to, that is. A lovely girl.”
“Your record goes back to 1937, Benny.”
“Yes, and it stops — and stops dead — in 1951.”
“You did a bit for assault. What weapon did you use?”
“A fifth of whiskey. That is, it was a fifth of whiskey, until after I’d hit the man once or twice. Then it was just an empty bottle with no bottom to speak of. Unfortunately, I kept right on using it... Lost my head in the heat of battle, you know.”
“Next thing to a knife, wasn’t it, Benny?”
“Even better, I’d say.”
“We understand you moved out of your room this morning.”
“That’s right. Bag and baggage.”
“Why?”
“I found a much nicer place, and I needed more room.”
“That a new suit?”
“Just bought it. Haven’t had it on more than three or four hours.”
“You ruin the other one, Benny? Get stains on it, or anything?”
His smile widened. “I’m enjoying this more than you are. But if you grow tired of sparring around with me, let me know.”
“All right. Tell us where you were this morning, between midnight and three o’clock, and how you can prove it.”
“I can do a little better than that,” he said. “I can tell you where I was between ten last night and eight o’clock this morning.” He adjusted his chair so that he could face Walt as well as me.
“Suppose you do that,” I said.
“Well, if you’ll go to 873 West Eightieth Street, apartment 4-B, you’ll meet a very charming woman.”
“And?”
“And you’ll discover she’s my wife. But that isn’t all. You’ll also meet two very nice young ladies — teen-agers, but quite nice. They’re my daughters. We were together last night. All four of us. From ten o’clock, right on through till this morning. We hadn’t seen one another in some years, you know, and so we had an all night reunion.” He paused long enough to turn a friendly smile toward the two officers who’d apprehended him. “I haven’t even been to bed yet, which is why I stopped in the bar for a bracer.”
I stared at him a long moment.
“Would you like to hear more?” Benny asked.
“A great deal more, Benny.”
“Good. I like talking about my family. You see, I’ve been trying to get my wife and daughters back for a very long time now. Ever since I left the walls, in fact. She — my wife — finally agreed. I think my daughters must have worked on her until she gave in. They think the world of me, those girls. Anyway, when my wife gave me the good news, I rented this apartment on Eightieth Street. I’d been hoping and planning for this so long, you know, and I’d saved every dime I could. I’ve held at least two jobs at a time ever since I came out of the walls. That switchboard job, for instance. I worked a double shift there. And I did all that so I’d have enough cash on hand to set my family up properly — if and when.”
I looked at Walt a moment. Neither of us said anything.
“They arrived at the apartment at a quarter of ten last night,” Benny Thomas said. “I’d given my wife the key, and she called me as soon as they got there. And I... well, I simply got up from the switchboard and went home. I knew I would be fired for it, but I didn’t care at all. And that, naturally, is why I didn’t show up for work this morning.”
“You left at a quarter of ten?”
“Yes. And it so happens I know the cab driver who took me over to the apartment. His name’s Johnny Webber, and he works for Pyramid Cabs. You can check with him, which will show the time I left the switchboard. And I know you’ll enjoy meeting my wife and daughters when you ask them about my whereabouts for the rest of the evening.”