Leeds said, “I left there at nine-forty-five.”
“Guess again,” Mason said. “Private detectives were keeping the place under surveillance. You were clocked in at five minutes past ten and out at ten-sixteen.”
Emily Milicant, wiping tears from her eyes, said, quietly, “That’s right, Alden, it was ten-twenty-five when he called me and told me that you’d just left.”
Mason’s eyes bored steadily into hers. “He called you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“On the telephone?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Where?”
“At my... at a number I’d given him where he could call me.”
“Not at your apartment?” Mason asked.
“No.”
Alden Leeds said slowly, “Until yesterday afternoon, I had no idea L. C. Conway and John Milicant were one and the same. I thought John Milicant was acting as my friend. He told me that he knew Conway, that Conway was a crook, but that he could handle him.
“I gave John Milicant a check for twenty thousand. The check was payable to Conway, and endorsed so Conway would accept it. John said Conway wouldn’t go to the bank himself.”
Emily Milicant said confidently, “And then last night, John gave you back the money, didn’t he, Alden?”
“Gave me back the money!” Leeds said in surprise. “I should say not. Last night, he wanted more money.”
“Wanted more money!” Emily exclaimed. “Why, he promised me that he was going to return the money to you.”
Alden Leeds said dryly, “He gave me an ultimatum last night, told me I had to have another twenty thousand within twenty-four hours. I gave him fifteen more in cash.”
Emily Milicant sat staring at him with wide, surprised eyes. “Why, he called me last night, just after you’d left, and told me everything had been fixed up, and that he’d returned all but two thousand dollars to you.”
Leeds said nothing.
“Look here,” Mason interrupted, “if you’re absolutely certain your brother telephoned you at ten-twenty-five, it puts Alden Leeds in the clear.”
“Of course, he did.”
“You’re certain it was your brother?”
“Of course. I guess I know my own brother’s voice.”
Mason said thoughtfully, “And how about your watch? Was it right?”
“It was right to the second,” she said. “Alden and I were taking the midnight plane.”
Mason said, “If that’s the truth, Alden Leeds is in the clear.”
“Of course, it’s the truth. Why should I lie?”
“To help Alden Leeds, of course,” Mason said. “Surely you don’t expect the district attorney’s going to quit cold simply on your say-so.”
“Look here, Mr. Mason, I think Marcia was going to see John. I think she was... was planning on spending the night with him.”
“Who’s Marcia?” Alden Leeds asked.
“A girl John was going to marry,” Emily Milicant said. “I opposed the match, not because I thought she wasn’t good enough for John, but because I knew John wasn’t good enough for her. I knew it was a passing infatuation with John, and that he’d break her heart. I couldn’t tell Marcia all I knew about John, so I had to pretend that I was opposing the match because I was prejudiced against her. Why, John would have broken her heart inside two months. He’d have dragged her down and down and down. That’s what he’s done to all of his women.”
“He’s dead,” Mason pointed out.
“I don’t care whether he’s dead or not,” she blazed indignantly. “John Milicant was a mental defective. He couldn’t differentiate between right and wrong, and he didn’t even try.”
“Ever been in prison?” Mason asked.
“Of course, he’s been in prison. He served five years in the penitentiary at Waupun, Wisconsin. That was years ago.”
“Then they’ll have his fingerprint record,” Mason said.
She shook her head. “He became a trusty in the prison office and was shrewd enough to get hold of his own fingerprints and substitute them,” she said. “He got ten convicts to each donate a fingerprint. That confused his record so nothing could be done about it. It was before the days of a central fingerprint filing system...”
Mason frowned thoughtfully. “Before he’d lost his toes?” he asked.
“He lost his toes at Waupun,” she said “Blood poisoning set in from an infected blister. They had to amputate four toes on his right foot.”
Mason, studying her thoughtfully, said, “He was really your brother?”
“Of course, he was my brother.”
“You’re certain you hadn’t assumed the relationship for the purpose of — traveling together?”
She flushed. “Certainly not,” she snapped.
Mason turned to Alden Leeds. “Okay,” he said, “Conway and John Milicant were one and the same. He was blackmailing you. What was the hold he had on you?”
“We won’t go into that,” Leeds said.
“I think we will,” Mason told him. “What’s going to happen when the police find those papers in Conway’s apartment?”
“What papers?”
Mason said, “I’m not going to show my hand until you’ve shown yours. I have enough to know whether you’re telling me the truth. Suppose you start.”
Leeds said, “I have no further statement to make.”
Mason said, “Suppose I make one then. You’re not Alden Leeds. You’re really Bill Hogarty, who assumed Leeds’ identity back in 1907.”
Emily Milicant said, “Go ahead and tell him, Alden. Can’t you see? Its the only way.”
“We haven’t got all night, you know,” Mason prodded.
Leeds tamped tobacco down in his pipe. “I’ll tell him about me, and leave you out of it, Emily,” he said.
“Don’t be silly,” Emily Milicant retorted. “Tell him the whole thing.”
He shook his head.
“All right. I’ll tell him about me,” she said. She turned to Perry Mason. “I was a dance hall girl,” she went on. “I went up into the Klondike as a dancer for the ‘M and N.’ That was before the days of taxi dancers as we know them nowadays. Dance hall girls were all kinds, straight and crooked. I was filled with the spirit of adventure, and wanted to go places and do things. Well, I went places, and I did things, and I’m not ashamed of anything I ever did.
“They told me when I left Seattle, I could work in the dance hall and be straight. I could, but I couldn’t make any money at it. I’m no angel, but I never in my life gave myself to a man just for money. I was nineteen when I went up to the Klondike in 1906. That makes me fifty-two years old now. Now then, Alden, you go on from there.”
Alden Leeds said, “I went into the Yukon in 1906. I picked up a partner by the name of Hogarty. We went up in the Tanana district, and made a pretty good strike. Hogarty had got acquainted with Emily coming in on the boat. He fell for her hard, and kept writing to her.
“Emily went into the dance hall, and didn’t like it. She decided to quit and buy an interest in a claim. Bill wrote her to come on up, and he thought he could get my consent to selling her a third interest in our claim.
“She came up. I’ll never forget how Emily looked when I first saw her in our cabin. I looked at her, and fell head over heels in love with her.
“We’d been working hard. Our nerves were raw. I cussed Bill for bringing a good girl into the rough mining country. Bill told me to mind my own business. One word led to another, and, after two days, we weren’t speaking. Emily tried to patch things up. The more she tried, the worse things got.