“Tell Bob that we’ll be right back,” she said.
As the door closed behind the two women, Lester Leith strolled out into the kitchenette where Lamont was taking ice cubes from a refrigerator.
“Well, Lamont,” said Lester Leith casually, “you pulled that murder pretty cleverly, didn’t you?”
Lamont dropped the ice-cube tray with a clatter, and stared at Leith with bulging eyes. “What the devil are you talking about?”
“Oh, you know well enough, Lamont,” he said. “The police were a little bit slow in catching up with you, that’s all, but the scheme wasn’t really so clever. The guards shut all of the windows and locked the shutters on the inside when they went into Navin’s room, but you were the last one in there. It would have been very easy for you to have moved against one of the windows and unlocked one of the shutters. Then you left the room, went directly to the safe, took out the gem, and went to your conference with the lawyer, which gave you your alibi. In the morning you walked in and locked the shutter again from the inside.
“You’d probably been bribed by the Hindus to leave one of the steel shutters unlocked, and had specified that they must break in and do the job promptly at four o’clock, so that the police would be properly confused.
“Where the police made their mistake was in thinking that whoever had committed the murder had also stolen the gem from the safe. It didn’t occur to them that they could have been independent acts. And apparently, so far, it hasn’t occurred to the Hindus. They thought simply that they failed to find the gem, and that Navin had placed it in some other hiding place.
“But you can’t get away with it long, Lamont. The police will be here inside of half an hour.”
“You’re crazy!” said Lamont.
Lester Leith shook his head.
“No, Lamont,” he said, “you’re the one who’s crazy. You overlooked the fact that, if the Hindus should start to talk, they had you strapped to the electric chair. And that’s exactly what happened. The police got a confession out of one of the Hindus about fifteen minutes ago. My paper telephoned me.”
Lamont’s face was gray. “Who — who are you?” he asked.
“I’m a free-lance reporter,” said Lester Leith, “who works on feature stuff for some of the leading papers. Right now I’m assigned to cover the story of your arrest in the Navin case. The newspaper knew it was going to break sometime within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Now if you would like to pick up a little money that would come in handy when it becomes necessary to retain an attorney to represent you, you can give us an exclusive interview. In fact, the only thing for you to do is to confess and try and get a life sentence. If you want to make your confession through my newspaper, we would bring all the political pressure to bear that we could to see that you got off with life.”
There was an imperative knock on the door of the apartment.
Lester Leith strolled to it casually.
“Probably the police now, Lamont.”
He opened the door.
Harry Vare burst into the room.
“You’re under arrest!” he snapped at Lester Leith.
Lester Leith stepped back and eyed Vare with well-simulated amazement.
“What the devil are you talking about?” he asked.
“Your name’s Lamont,” said Vare, “and you’re under arrest for the murder of George Navin. I’m representing the Indian priests who are trying to recover the gem, and I’m going to take you to police headquarters with me right now.”
Lester Leith said: “You’re crazy. My name’s Leith. I’m not Lamont. That’s Lamont over there, the man you want. I’m working for a newspaper.”
Harry Vare laughed, scornfully.
“I saw you come in here and had the doorman point out the one who lived here. He pointed to you.”
“You fool,” Leith said, “he made a mistake, or rather you did. He pointed to this man here, and you thought he was pointing me out.” Vare snapped a gun into view, and fished for handcuffs with his left hand.
“Hold out your wrist,” he said, “or I’ll blow you apart.”
Lester Leith hesitated a moment, then held out his wrist, reluctantly. Vare snapped one of the handcuffs to Leith’s wrist, locked the other one around his own wrist, and said, “Come on, you slicker, you’re going to headquarters.”
Leith said: “Listen! You’re making the biggest mistake of your life. You’re letting the real murderer—”
Bob Lamont laughed.
He turned to Harry Vare and said: “You’re quite right, officer, that’s Bob Lamont that you’ve got under arrest, but this comes as quite as a shock to me. I’ve known him for two or three years, and thought he was above reproach.”
“No, he wasn’t,” said Vare. “He was the man who murdered Navin.”
Lester Leith groaned.
“Youngster,” he said, “you’re making a mistake that is going to make you the laughing-stock of the city inside of twenty-four hours.”
Vare muttered grimly: “Come along, Lamont.”
Lester Leith sighed and accompanied Vare through the doorway to the elevator, down the elevator, across the lobby of the apartment house, and to the street.
“Well,” said Leith, “that was pretty well done, Vare. You can let me loose now.”
Vare took a key from his pocket and inserted it in the lock of the handcuff only after considerable difficulty. His forehead was beaded with nervous perspiration, and his hand was shaking. He made two attempts to fit the key to the lock. “I can’t seem to get it,” he said.
Leith glanced at him sharply. “Vare,” he said, “what the devil are you trying to do?”
“Nothing.”
“Give me that key.”
Vare didn’t pass over the key but instead looked expectantly back toward the shadows.
The voice of Sergeant Ackley said: “I’ll take charge now.”
There was motion from the deep shadows of the doorway of an adjoining building. Sergeant Ackley, accompanied by a plainclothes officer, stepped forward.
Leith said to Sergeant Ackley: “What’s the meaning of this?”
Ackley said: “You should know more about it than I do, Leith. You’ve delivered yourself to me already handcuffed.”
For a moment there was consternation on Leith’s face, then he masked all expression from his face and eyes.
“Didn’t expect to see me here, did you?” Sergeant Ackley asked gloatingly.
Leith said nothing.
Sergeant Ackley said to Vare: “Give me the key to those handcuffs, young man. I’ll slip one off your wrist, and put it on Leith’s other wrist.”
Vare extended his hand. Sergeant Ackley took the key, clicked the handcuff from Vare’s arm, and snapped it around Leith’s other wrist.
The rapid click-clack click-clack of high heels as two women rounded the corner, walking rapidly, came to Leith’s ears. He turned around so that the light fell full on his face.
“Why, Mr. Leith!” Dixie Dormley exclaimed. “What’s the matter?”
Lester Leith said nothing.
Sergeant Ackley grinned gloatingly. “Mr. Leith,” he said, “is being arrested. You probably didn’t know he was a crook.”
“A crook!” she exclaimed.
From the doorway of the apartment house came a hurrying figure, attired in overcoat, hat, and gloves. He carried a light suitcase in one hand, and crossed the strip of sidewalk with three swift strides. It wasn’t until he started to signal for a taxicab that he became aware of the little group.
Sergeant Ackley said to the plainclothesman: “Get that guy.”
Lamont heard the order, turned to look over his shoulder, then dropped the suitcase, and started to run.
“Help!” yelled Sergeant Ackley.