“Overbrook was a little suspicious. He looked me over pretty carefully. Finally he said he just had a bachelor’s place there, that there was a spare room that had a cot in it, that it was just a cot and there were blankets on it but there were no sheets. He said that if I wanted to stay there that night, I could. I told him that would be fine, that I thought I’d have my memory back in the morning. I went into the bedroom and waited until he’d gone back to bed again. I had an idea of slipping out and listening to see when Allred regained consciousness and drove the car away. But I reckoned without the dog. Evidently Overbrook had told the dog to watch me, because when I tried to open the door a crack, the dog was standing right in front of it with his lips curled back, and he gave a low growl.
“I went back and sat on the edge of the cot and I must have been there for about half an hour before I could hear the sound of a motor starting, and then the car drove away.”
“What time did Allred get out to the Snug-Rest?” Mason asked.
“You’ve got me,” Fleetwood said. “Allred had previously taken, not only my watch, but everything I owned except my money. When I pretended that I was suffering from amnesia, Allred had been smart enough to see that I didn’t have anything that would prove my identity in case I appealed to some stranger. I didn’t have a watch. He’d even taken my handkerchief because it had a laundry mark on it, cleaned me out slick as a whistle.”
“But he didn’t take your money?”
“Not only did he not take my money, but I think he must have put at least a couple of hundred dollars more in the roll of bills I was carrying in my trouser pocket. He wanted me to have lots of money and nothing else.”
Mason looked at Tragg.
Tragg shrugged his shoulders.
“How about Mrs. Allred’s suitcase?” Mason asked.
“What about it?”
“When she packed up at her husband’s request, she put this suitcase in the car?”
“Yes.”
“And,” the lawyer said sarcastically, “when she jumped out of that luggage compartment she was lugging this suitcase?”
“No, she wasn’t, Mr. Mason. She was carrying a jack handle, or some metal rod; that’s all. I could see that jack handle in her hand. The light from the tail light showed me that.”
The lawyer smiled triumphantly. “When the car was found, her suitcase wasn’t in it.”
Fleetwood’s face showed dismay. “The hell it wasn’t! Of course, I couldn’t see her too clearly.”
Mason said scornfully, “It’s a hell of a story. She’s in danger of her life, yet she comes back for her suitcase.”
“Wait a minute,” Fleetwood said. “I’ll tell you what must have happened. Mrs. Allred was trying to hitchhike back to town. Allred recovered consciousness, knew I’d given him the slip. He started to drive back to town. He met his wife on the road. She may even have tried to thumb a ride, not knowing who was back of the headlights. When he stopped the car and tried to force her to get in, she hit him with the jack handle. It was then she got her suitcase out of the car and drove it over the grade. He must have overtaken her right about at the place where the car went over the grade.”
“Bosh!” Mason said.
“Believe me,” Fleetwood said fervently, “Allred got what was coming to him, and if Mrs. Allred ran that car over a bluff, she certainly was acting in self-defense. I’ll bet if you get her to tell the truth, you’ll find that her husband picked her up, that he tried to manhandle her and she cracked him over the head with a jack handle. She...”
The phone on Tragg’s desk rang.
Tragg hesitated a moment, then picked up the receiver, said, “Yes... who? Oh, yes, hello, sheriff... that’s right. I’ve just got a new angle on it... okay, go ahead...”
Tragg held the phone to his ear for some twenty seconds, listening attentively. He frowned thoughtfully at Fleetwood while he was listening. Then he said into the mouthpiece, “I wish you’d take a look at them yourself, sheriff, and I want to go along. It may be important... I can start in ten minutes... I think we’ve got something there. I think this business is all beginning to fit into the component parts of a perfect picture... Okay, I’ll be over. I want to ask a few questions and then I’ll get in touch with you. You be all ready to go, will you... Okay, good-by.”
Tragg hung up the phone, regarded Fleetwood thoughtfully for a few seconds.
“Where did you stop this car?” he asked.
“I told you, about a quarter of a mile from Overbrook’s house.”
“I know, but what sort of a place was it?”
“Well,” Fleetwood said, “it was not too good a place. It looked all right from all I could see driving along with the headlights. It was a nice level place off the road. But when I got into it I found the going pretty soft. It wasn’t so bad at first, but up where I left the car, it was fairly soft.”
Tragg said, “Now look, Fleetwood, you’ve played tag with us long enough. This is the second or third time you’ve changed your story. Now, if you try to cut any corners on me, I’m going to throw the book at you.”
“I’m clean now,” Fleetwood said. “This is it, Lieutenant.”
“I hope it is. Now you say Mrs. Allred jumped out of the car and ran?”
“That’s right.”
“Did she come back?”
“Come back!” Fleetwood said, and laughed. “You couldn’t have dragged her back to that car with a block and tackle.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes, of course. She was afraid of her husband, and she had reason to be.”
“Did she know her husband was unconscious when she was running away?”
“I called to her,” Fleetwood said, “but she kept on running.”
“What did you say?”
“I don’t know. I told her to come on back. And then I yelled and said, ‘I’ve got his gun and he’s lying unconscious here in the car.’ ”
“What did she do?”
“I think she kept on running. But by that time, she’d gone far enough so I couldn’t see. Remember, she was running from the rear of the car, away from the illumination of the headlights.”
“Where were you?”
“I’d just started to walk around the car. I was standing right close to the headlights.”
“Then she could see you in the illumination of the headlights?”
Fleetwood thought a minute, then said, “Yes. Certainly, of course she could. I was standing right in front of the headlights. From where she was standing, she could see me clearly.”
“So you don’t know that she kept on running after you called to her?”
“No, to tell you the truth, I don’t. The night was dark. There was a cold drizzle falling and you couldn’t much more than see your hand in front of your face. I had quite a time stumbling along getting to Overbrook’s house. I couldn’t see a thing. All I could do was walk toward the sound of the barking dog.”
Tragg nodded. “I have a hunch you’re doing all right for yourself, Fleetwood. But you’re going to have to remain in custody for two or three hours.”
“It suits me,” Fleetwood said. “I’m clean now. And believe me, Lieutenant, it’s a load off my mind.”
“You’re sure you threw that gun away?”
“You’re damn right I threw it away. You can check on my story if you want, Lieutenant. You can find the place where I left the car, and you certainly should be able to find the gun. I threw it ahead of the car and to the left, and it must have gone about — well, a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet. That ground was soft and I must have left tracks there.”