“But no one knew it. Bradshaw insisted on that. Here he moved in across the hall from you and you thought everything would be hunky-dory. Except he didn’t want to be seen with you. He wanted your relationship to be a secret. You accepted it. You bought the reason he gave you-that if your relationship was known it would ruin some scam or other.
“But after a while that wore thin. You demanded to know the real reason. And after a while you found out why.
“He was two-timing you, wasn’t he? He had another woman on the side. And that wasn’t all. He was also cutting you out. He was two-timing you as a woman, and cutting you out as a partner. He was raking in money he wasn’t telling you about, and spending it on another woman. When you found out you were furious, and for good reason.”
Steve broke off the attack. He stood there looking at the witness for a moment. Then he shrugged his shoulders and said gently, “And that’s why you killed him.”
Margaret Millburn sat stunned. Steve’s casual, flat statement was harder to deal with than a shouted accusation would have been. Then she could have shouted her denial back. But what he’d said wasn’t even a question. It was just a simple statement of an assumed fact. She was like a batter expecting a fast ball and getting a change-up. Suddenly off-stride, she had to supply all the power, put all the force into her denial. “No!” she said. “I didn’t!”
Steve immediately jumped back on the attack. “Yes, you did, and I can prove it. I’ll tell you how you did it.
“You knew he was shaking down Marilyn Harding. That was one of the things you managed to find out, but you didn’t know for how much. But you knew she was calling on him. And you knew she was being followed by detectives-Bradshaw had spotted them when she came to his apartment, and he’d told you that much, probably as another reason why you shouldn’t be seen with him. So you knew Bradshaw had the goods on her, and you knew he was still shaking her down, and so you waited for your chance.
“Which brings us to the day of the murder. From the window of your apartment you saw Marilyn Harding enter the building. You even spotted the detectives she had on her tail. You listened at your door while she called on Bradshaw. You heard her go in. And you heard her go out. And that’s when you knew you had the perfect frame. Marilyn Harding was being blackmailed-she called on the blackmailer and she killed him.
“It was too good to pass up. As soon as Marilyn Harding left, you knocked on Bradshaw’s door. He let you in, of course. You made some excuse about wanting a drink, went in the kitchen, got the knife, and killed him.
“Then you searched the body. You knew he’d been shaking Marilyn down, and you knew he’d been holding out on you. You wanted your share.
“You found ten thousand dollars in one thousand dollar bills. You wanted that money, but you were scared. You knew the cops would be coming. And you knew the numbers on those bills could be traced. You didn’t dare keep those bills on you.
“So you took a chance. You hid them in the upstairs hallway, hoping they wouldn’t be found. If the cops didn’t find them, you were going to retrieve them later. If they did, well it was just too bad, but at least the bills could be traced to Marilyn, and that would clinch the case.
“And that’s when you pulled your masterstroke. That’s when you did the one thing you thought would frame Marilyn Harding and exonerate you of the crime.
“You called the police. You called up and reported an altercation in Bradshaw’s apartment. That would get the police there right away and fix the time of death as just about the time the detectives would have to testify Marilyn Harding had gone to the apartment. And you, having reported the altercation, would be the last person the police would suspect. It was brilliant.
“But then things started going wrong. First, the police found the ten grand you’d hidden in the hallway. All right, it cost you the money, but it would crucify her. Only it didn’t. Bradshaw had pulled a fiddle, and that money wasn’t Marilyn Harding’s ten grand at all. Marilyn Harding’s ten grand was found in a money belt on the body. The money found in the hallway was money Bradshaw had withdrawn from the bank himself.
“Of course, that didn’t make any sense. Not in terms of your frame-up. Marilyn might have killed Bradshaw, then panicked and ditched the bills in the hallway because she was afraid to have them on her. But why would she have paid Bradshaw, killed him, and then left her ten grand in his money belt? And if she had, who left the ten grand in the hall? It didn’t add up, despite what the cops might think.
“It was getting complicated. You’d thought the case against Marilyn Harding would be open and shut. Suddenly it wasn’t. Nonetheless, the police took the evidence at face value and arrested Marilyn Harding for the crime.
“That’s when you started getting cold feet. You didn’t want to go on the stand. You didn’t want to submit to the cross-examination you’re submitting to now. You knew you couldn’t stand up to it, just as you’re not standing up to it now.
“And that’s when you did a smart thing. Or so you thought. You wanted the prosecution to play down your testimony. In fact, if possible, you wanted them not to call you at all. You knew they were trying to make a case against Marilyn Harding. So when they asked you about the altercation, you told them it was a man’s voice you heard in the apartment. You figured if you said you heard a man, it would damage the prosecution’s case, so they’d try to keep you out of it.
“And it might have worked, except for one thing-Douglas Kemper. The police theory, as it turned out, was that Marilyn Harding and Douglas Kemper were acting in concert. Therefore, your hearing a man’s voice didn’t bother them at all. And therefore they put you on the stand.
“But you didn’t hear a man’s voice, did you? You didn’t hear any voice at all. You testified to a totally spurious altercation. It never happened. You made it up. You killed Bradshaw, and then you tipped over some furniture so it would look like there’d been an altercation. Then you dashed back to your apartment and you called the police. That’s what you did, isn’t it, Miss Millburn?”
“No. It’s a lie. I didn’t.”
“Yes you did, and I can prove it. Miss Millburn, do you have a safe deposit box?”
The change of subject was so abrupt the witness said, “What?”
“A safe deposit box. Do you have one? Perhaps one you rented within the last month?”
Margaret Millburn looked at him. Her eyes were wide.
Dirkson came to her rescue. “Objection, Your Honor. Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.”
Judge Graves, observing the witness’s manner, rather reluctantly said, “Objection sustained.”
“Miss Millburn,” Steve said, “I can lay the foundation and ask that question again. But I don’t have to. I’m just going to tell you how I can prove you killed Donald Blake. You see, when you killed him, you searched the body, and you found the ten thousand dollars, but you found something else too. Bradshaw had a lot of irons in the fire, and he’d pulled another scam. You didn’t know about it, and the police still don’t know about it, but I know about it. And I can prove it.
“You know what you found? You found twelve thousand dollars in small bills.”
Margaret Millburn reacted.
“That’s right, Miss Millburn. You found it, and you took it, and you kept it. You didn’t dare keep the ten grand. That was in big bills that could be traced. But the twelve grand was in small bills. You figured no one would have the numbers. So you took a chance. You hid it in your apartment. It was right there in your apartment when you called the cops. You figured they wouldn’t search your apartment, and you figured right.
“But you didn’t want to leave it there, not after the case broke open, not after things started going wrong. See why I asked about a safe deposit box? Either your bank account will show a twelve thousand dollar cash deposit, or you’ve got a safe deposit box somewhere with twelve thousand dollars in it. And if you do, after the showing I’m going to be able to make, a court order will open that box.”