Both senior partners were wearing earth-coloured vested suits, with shirts and ties of no particular style or distinction. But there the resemblance ended. Tabatchnick, with his brooding simian posture, towered over Teitelbaum, who appeared especially frail and shrunken in comparison.
I realized with a shock that these two men had lived a total of almost a century and a half, and shared a century of legal experience. It was a daunting perception, and it took me a few seconds to gather my courage and plunge ahead.
'Mr Tabatchnick,' I said, 'I believe you've already met Detective Percy Stilton of the New York Police Department. Detective Stilton was involved in the initial inquiry into the death of Solomon Kipper.'
Tabatchnick gave Percy a cold nod and me an angry glare as he realized I had disobeyed his injunction against sharing the results of my investigation with the police.
I introduced Percy to Mr Teitelbaum. Again, there was an exchange of frosty nods. Neither of the partners had made any effort to sit down. My longed-for conference was getting off to a rocky start.
'Detective Stilton,' Mr Tabatchnick said in his most orotund voice, 'are we to understand that you are present in an official capacity?'
'No, sir, I am not,' the detective said steadily. 'I am here as an interested observer, and perhaps to contribute what I can to the solution of a dilemma confronting you gentlemen.'
I could have kissed him. Their eyebrows went up; they glanced at each other. Obviously they hadn't been aware they were confronted by a dilemma, and just as obviously wanted to hear more about it. They drew up chairs opposite us. I waited until everyone was seated and still.
'Gentlemen,' I started, 'it would save us all a great deal of time if you could tell me if each of you is aware of my investigation into the other's case. That is, Mr Teitelbaum, have you been informed of the circumstances surrounding the death of Sol Kipper? And, Mr Tabatchnick, are you — '
'Get on with it,' Tabatchnick interrupted testily. 'We're both aware of what's been going on.'
'As of your last reports,' Mr Teitelbaum added, his leather hands lying motionless on the table before him. 'I presume you have something to add?'
'A great deal, sir,' I said, and I began, using short declarative sentences and speaking as briskly as possible without garbling my words.
I was gratified to discover that I could speak extemporaneously and forcefully without consulting my notes. So I was able to meet the eyes of both men as I spoke, shifting my gaze from one to the other; depending on whether I was discussing matters relating to Kipper or Stonehouse.
It was like addressing two stone monoliths, as brooding and inexplicable as the Easter Island heads. Never once did they stir or change expression. Mr Teitelbaum sat back in his chair, seemingly propped erect with stiff, spindly arms thrust out, splayed hands flat on the tabletop. Mr Tabatchnick leaned forward, looming, his hunched shoulders over the table, heavy head half-lowered, the usual fierce 330
scowl on his rubbery lips.
Up through my account of recognizing one of Knurr's street Arabs among my attackers, neither of the attorneys had asked any questions or indeed shown any great interest in my recital. But my telling of the meeting I had seen at the 66th Street garage changed all that.
First of all, both men switched positions suddenly: Tabatchnick leaned back, almost fell back into his chair as if with disbelief, and Teitelbaum suddenly jerked forward, leaning over the table.
'You're certain of that, Mr Bigg?' he barked sharply.
'The Reverend Godfrey Knurr met Glynis Stonehouse? No doubt about it at all?'
'None whatsoever, sir,' I said decisively.
I explained that I had then requested a meeting with Detective Percy Stilton and told him everything that had occurred.
'It was necessary, gentlemen,' I said earnestly, 'because I needed Detective Stilton's co-operation to determine if anyone involved had prior criminal records. Detective Stilton will tell you the results of that investigation. To get back to your question, Mr Teitelbaum — was I certain that Knurr met Glynis Stonehouse? Yes, I am certain, because I saw them together again two nights ago.'
I then told them how I had shadowed Glynis Stonehouse to a rendezvous with Knurr and had tailed both of them to a houseboat at the 79th Street boat basin.
'Perce,' I said, 'will you take it from here?'
His recital was much shorter than mine, and delivered in toneless police officialese: 'the alleged perpetrator' and
'the suspect' and so forth. It was courtroom testimony, and both lawyers seemed completely familiar with the phrases and impressed by them.
He told them that he had never been completely satisfied with the suicide verdict in the Kipper case, and gave his reasons why. So, he explained, he had welcomed my in-331
dependent inquiry and co-operated every way he could, especially since he was impressed by the thoroughness and imaginative skill of my investigation.
I ducked my head to stare at the table as he continued.
He said his hope was that I would uncover enough evidence so that the NYPD would be justified in reopening the Kipper case. To that end, he had run the names of Godfrey Knurr and Tippi Kipper through the computer and discovered Tippi's arrest record. He told them about our interview with Bishop Harley Oxman and the revelation of Knurr's prior offence in Chicago.
He had also, he said, after I had furnished the lead, determined what was probably the source of the arsenic used to poison Professor Stonehouse: a medical research laboratory where Glynis Stonehouse had been employed less than a year ago.
Finally, he had discovered that Godfrey Knurr owned a houseboat moored at the 79th Street boat basin.
Then Stilton turned to me and I told them that a cabdriver had come forward that morning who remembered driving Professor Stonehouse to the boat basin on the night he disappeared.
I slid Baum's statement across the table to the senior partners, but neither reached for it. Both men were staring at Percy.
'Detective Stilton,' Mr Tabatchnick boomed in his magisterial voice, 'as a police officer with many years'
experience, do you believe that Godfrey Knurr murdered Solomon Kipper?'
'Yes, sir, I do. With premeditation.'
'But how?' Mr Teitelbaum asked in a mild, dreamy tone.
'I'll let Josh tell you that,' Percy said.
So I told them.
Mr Tabatchnick was the first to turn back to me.
'And the suicide note?' he asked.
'No, sir,' I said regretfully. 'I haven't yet accounted for that. But I'm sure you'll admit, sir, that the wording of the note is subject to several interpretations. It is not necessarily a suicide note.'
'And assuming the homicide occurred in the manner you suggest, you further assume that Tippi Kipper and the Reverend Godfrey Knurr were joined in criminal conspiracy? You assume that they planned and carried out the murder of Solomon Kipper because he had discovered, through the employment of Martin Reape, that his wife had been unfaithful to him with Godfrey Knurr and had decided to change his will to disinherit her to the extent allowed by law? You assume all that?'
'Yes, sir,' I said finally.
But now it was Mr Teitelbaum's turn.
'Do you further assume,' he said in a silky voice, 'that Professor Stonehouse, having discovered that his daughter had attempted to poison him, futhermore discovered that she was having an affair with Godfrey Knurr. And you assume that Stonehouse learned of the existence of Knurr's houseboat, by what means we know not, and resolved to confront his daughter and her paramour on the night he disappeared. And you suspect, with no evidence, that he may very well have been killed on that night. Is that your assumption?'
'Yes, sir,' I said, fainter than before. 'It is.'