Mrs. Meredith stiffened. “Albert’s induction had nothing to do with it,” she burst out. “We decided on a divorce, that’s all.”
“But you wouldn’t expect a man to be too happy about his wife deserting him just when he was to be drafted,” Shayne pointed out. “Yet Hawley seems to have approved your action. So much so, in fact, that he made a new will leaving everything to you in case of death, even though you remarried after your divorce. That’s something that has stuck in my craw all along.” Shayne lit a cigarette and puffed on it rapidly.
“Albert loved me devotedly,” Mrs. Meredith said acidly, her chin high. “He willed me everything because he wanted me to have it rather than his devil of a mother and that—” She caught herself up quickly and ended, “That no-good married to Beatrice.”
Gerald Meany said meekly, “That’s a falsehood. Albert and I were friends.”
Shayne glanced at Gerald through half-closed eyes. He was relaxed in his swivel chair. He said impatiently, “Someone furnished Leon Wallace ten thousand dollars in cash for his wife to prevent her from going to the police about his disappearance. Who? Wallace didn’t have any such sum. He worked as a gardener to earn money for his wife to keep their farm going. What service did Leon Wallace perform that was worth ten grand to someone — and two thousand a year thereafter as long as she kept quiet?”
“I’m sure I don’t know anything about it,” Mrs. Meredith said. “I scarcely remember the man.”
Shayne opened his eyes wide. “Do you know, Meany?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Meany muttered wearily. He was still standing. “I don’t know anybody named Leon Wallace. I don’t know the name of any of the servants except the butler.”
Shayne said slowly, “There’s only one answer that makes any sense and adds up to an explanation of Wallace’s disappearance, Albert’s willing his money to his ex-wife, and the secret that weighed on Jasper Groat’s conscience.”
He turned to Cunningham and said, “Come over here.” He pointed to the picture of Albert Hawley in the newspaper. “Have you ever seen this man before?”
Thick silence gripped the office. Cunningham licked his thick, cracked lips as he studied the photograph. He glanced at Mrs. Meredith before saying, “Sure. That’s Albert Hawley. Can’t you read what it says?”
“It’s a picture of Albert Hawley!” Shayne said grimly. “But I don’t think you ever saw him. How could you, when he’s living in Chicago under the name of Theodore Meredith?”
Shayne disregarded the loud gasp from Mrs. Meredith. He pulled out a drawer and laid the photograph of Theodore Meredith which Ben Ames had sent him beside the picture of Albert Hawley. “This was taken in Chicago last night,” he explained casually.
Quinlan stepped quickly behind Shayne and stared at the two pictures. The silence grew thick again. After a little while the Inspector fixed his cold eyes on Cunningham and asked, “How could the same guy have died in a lifeboat and still be in Chicago?”
“I— don’t know,” Cunningham stammered. “That picture in the paper looks like the soldier named Albert Hawley.”
Mrs. Meredith jumped up and started for the door. Quinlan made a gesture and his plain-clothes man blocked the way. Quinlan said, “We’ll all stick around until this thing is cleared up.” He circled the desk and asked Shayne, “Are you suggesting that Hawley never entered the army? That he went to Chicago, took the name of Meredith, and remarried his wife after she got a Reno divorce?”
“It’s the only answer that fits. Here’s a picture of the man who died in the lifeboat, Cunningham.” He brought out the picture of Mr. and Mrs. Leon Wallace. “Leon Wallace, for ten grand and promise of ample support of his wife and children, impersonated Albert Hawley in the draft and entered the army under a false name.”
Quinlan cleared his throat loudly, started to say something.
Shayne went on inexorably to Cunningham, “You knew the truth all the time. You crept up close that night while Leon Wallace was dying and heard his confession to Groat. It was a beautiful opportunity to blackmail Mrs. Hawley because you thought she was rich — and Albert, if you could persuade Groat to go along with you. But Groat wasn’t a blackmailer. He was sincerely religious. He decided to come clean and called Mrs. Wallace in to see him. Then he called Beatrice Meany and told her he was coming out.
“But he made the mistake of calling you immediately afterward and telling you what he had decided to do. You couldn’t have that. It would have upset your plans. You hurried out there and lurked in the shadows until the taxi was gone, and killed him. You were upset when you didn’t find the diary on him. You didn’t know exactly what he had written in it and you feared publication, even though at that time you didn’t realize the importance of the date of Albert’s supposed death.”
Cunningham growled, “Nuts,” through bared teeth. “You can’t prove a word of it. I’ve got an alibi.”
“If Beatrice were alive we could prove it,” Shayne told him quietly. “But you took care of that, too. When you heard me say, in Mrs. Meredith’s apartment, that she was waiting for me, you had to get there before I did and kill her. I made the mistake of killing time after I left Mrs. Meredith’s room. I talked for a few minutes with Kurt Davis and stopped by at the telegraph office. You were the only person involved who knew my home address and knew Beatrice was there, and had the opportunity. Don’t expect Mrs. Meredith to alibi you for that. I know you hurried back to her room after killing Beatrice, and together you planned to say you’d been there all the time. That was when she thought she was in the clear. She knows better now.”
Cunningham whirled to look at Mrs. Meredith standing near the door. The expression on her face was enough to tell him that Shayne had spoken the truth. His hand darted into his coat pocket for a gun, but Quinlan grabbed him first. The plain-clothes man dived in, and came up with a frothing sailor handcuffed to his wrist.
“Take him along,” Quinlan said irritably. “All we need is Mrs. Meredith’s testimony that he was gone from her room long enough to have committed the murder. You’ll give us that!” It was a command.
“Of course.” She smiled with cold mockery. “I don’t want to do anything illegal.”
“Illegal?” sputtered Quinlan. “After divorcing Albert Hawley and remarrying him under a different name?”
“I didn’t break any law by doing that. He’s still alive as Mr. Shayne has proven. His uncle’s estate will come to us.”
“A hell of a lot of good that will do him,” Quinlan raged. “He’ll spend twenty years in jail for evading the draft.”
“But I won’t. I didn’t evade the draft.”
“You’re as guilty as he is,” Quinlan barked. “Come along.” He took her by the arm, said, “Okay, Shayne,” and went out.
Lawyer Hastings lingered. When he was alone with Shayne he said in a troubled voice, “A very clever series of deductions, Mr. Shayne. I have been most unhappy in the realization that something of this sort took place two years ago. I confess I was at a loss to understand Albert’s action in leaving everything to his ex-wife, but I assure you I didn’t know — I really didn’t know about the substitution of the gardener to take Albert’s place in the army.”
“The old lady was the key to the whole thing,” Shayne told him. “Her domineering personality and her idea that Albert was too good to serve as a common soldier. That, and the rundown condition of her estate. You assured me that Ezra Hawley had furnished them with plenty of money to get along on, but it certainly hadn’t been spent on the home. That explained where the money came from to pay Mrs. Wallace — and the added income Albert received in Chicago.”