“Probably.”
“Sure, you would. You’d take ’em off, an’ put ’em down some place where you could pick ’em up afterwards. If you was gettin’ in a fight with somebody on a yacht, you’d take your glasses off an’ put ’em on the rail. It’d be a darn poor place to put ’em, but it would be a place just the same... Then you’d have a fight, an’ your glasses would get knocked overboard, like as not. In that case, they’d drop right down to the bottom of the ocean, just about underneath where they was dropped, wouldn’t they?”
Duryea nodded.
“Now then, you take a gun,” Gramps said. “You could throw a gun a long ways, but if it was daylight an’ people were watchin’ on the shore, you wouldn’t dare to throw it at all. It’d go whirlin’ through the air an’ reflect in sunlight, an’ people would see it.”
Again, Duryea nodded.
“So,” Gramps went on, “if you was tryin’ to ditch a gun that had been used in a murder, an’ there was people on the shore, you’d take the gun out to the deck of the yacht, walk around on the side that was away from the shore, an’ just quietly drop it over the side, wouldn’t you?”
The smile faded from Duryea’s face now. His eyes began to show interest. “Yes,” he said, “I believe you would, Gramps.”
“Sure, you would,” Gramps shrilled. “Don’t you see what happened? Look at the distance between where those glasses was found an’ where the gun was found. You get what I mean? Whenever the fight took place that knocked those glasses over-board, the tide was runnin’ out. The yacht was pointin’ out to sea. Now that gun was dropped when the yacht had swung way around so the stern was facin’ the land. In other words, son, that gun was dropped when the tide was runnin’ in, an’ them murders took place when the tide was runnin’ out. Had to be like that.”
Duryea was frowning now. “You mean then that the gun wasn’t dropped at the time the murder was committed?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. That gun was dropped a whole lot later, probably three or four hours anyhow, but more like to be longer. Don’t you get it? Everything indicates that this here widow of Right is tellin’ the absolute truth. You remember Mrs. Rodman says she left the yacht a little after four o’clock, an’ there was kinda a tension between the two men. Something had happened. This here Stearne was in good humor when he started dictatin’ the letters. When she brought ’em back to have ’em signed, he was curt an’ short with her. Well, she went ashore with the letters, an’ Right an’ Stearne went out toward the stern o’ the yacht, an’ got in an argument. There’s a deck there on the stern that’s covered with an awning, an’ at low tide, with the stern pointed out toward the breakwater, people sittin’ on the beach couldn’t see what was goin’ on. Well, they had a fight. One o’ the men took off his glasses, an’ the glasses got knocked overboard. Then the fight was over, but the hard feelin’s weren’t. There was a shootin’. I wouldn’t doubt a bit if when you check the numbers on that gun, you find it’s Right’s gun. I’m tellin’ you it’s a murder an’ a suicide just the way that woman claimed. An’ what you got to do is find the missin’ will, and that there statement.”
Duryea, keenly interested now, said, with respect in his voice, “You’ve got something there, Gramps.”
“You’re gol-dinged right I got somethin’! Some time the next mornin’ that Moline girl came aboard. She found the bodies sprawled out down there in the cabin, an’ the gun was lyin’ on the floor, an’ probably a long-winded statement that Right had made and signed. Something he’d written on the typewriter, judgin’ from the position it was in. An’ there was somethin’ in that statement she didn’t like, somethin’ she wouldn’t want spread out in the papers, so she ditched that statement. Then she decided she’d better ditch the gun, too. She was afraid to come on deck an’ drop it, because someone might see the glint of the sun on the gun barrel as it went overboard. That fainting business was a frame-up. She had that gun stuck in her blouse, an’ when she pitched overboard, she just let it slip to the bottom.”
“That’s making a lot of deduction from just a slender clue,” Duryea objected.
“Slender clue, hell!” Gramps shrilled. “It’s a natural! You can’t get away from it. You take a pencil an’ paper an’ start figgerin’ the position of that yacht, an’ you’ll find out that the gun was dropped with the tide comin’ in, an’ the glasses was dropped when the tide was goin’ out. An’ the murder was committed when the tide was goin’ out. Now, tides vary, but you’ll find that around Saturday an’ Sunday the periods between high water and low water was just about six hours even. So there was quite an interval between the time the glasses were knocked overboard, an’...”
“You’re pinning a lot of faith on those glasses,” Duryea said. “They may have been dropped overboard from someone’s pocket. In fact, they might be glasses that have been in the water for a month or so.”
“Not glasses,” Gramps said. “The way glasses are shaped they’d keep workin’ their way down in the sand. But you can find out pretty darn soon. You can get the prescription of glasses worn by those two fellows an’ check up on the glasses an’...”
Duryea said, “Come on, Gramps. I’ll get up to the office and get started on that stuff.”
Duryea walked rapidly along the macadamized walk. Gramps, tagging along, his short legs taking almost two steps to the district attorney’s one, had at times to break into a half-trot in order to keep up. However, despite the tax on his wind and strength, he managed to interpose occasional bits of advice.
“That Moline girl,” he said. “I noticed... when you was lookin’ at Tucker... Tucker didn’t get your signal right away... But she did... She was lookin’... at him. An’ she was worried... Now listen, why don’t you... Hey, gol-ding it, stop a minute! I got me an idea, an’ I can’t... tell it to you while the wind’s bein’ jolted outa me... Stop a minute.”
Duryea looked at his watch, then slowed his pace. “I’m sorry, Gramps. What is it?”
“You let me... catch my wind,” Gramps puffed.
Duryea stopped and lit a cigarette. Gramps quickly regained his breath. “I got an idea that might work,” he said. “I was watchin’ that Moline girl’s face when Tucker an’ his wife came into the room. She ain’t dumb, that girl. She knew you was bringin’ those people in because they was witnesses to somethin’. She kept watchin’ your face, an’ you kept signalin’ Tucker by raisin’ your eyebrows an’ jerkin’ your head over toward the Moline girl. I could see she was havin’ kittens, so darned afraid Tucker was actually goin’ to identify her.”
“Well,” Duryea said, “we can’t change any of that now.”
“Then Tucker shook his head, an’ she got smart right away. You could just see the way a load rolled off her shoulders.”
“All right,” Duryea said, “that’s finished. Tucker can’t change his testimony.”
Gramps rushed on, “This here scheme of mine is a peach of a scheme. I read it once in a detective book, where an officer pulled it on a person he couldn’t break no other way. He...”
“What is it?” Duryea interrupted.
“Well,” Gramps said, “just pick up another couple. It don’t make no difference who they are, just so the Moline girl ain’t seen ’em before. You just put on an act in pantomime. You get her in the office, an’ this couple comes in. You go through all this business of raisin’ the eyebrows all over again, but this time just have the man an’ the woman nod their heads vigorously. Then you smile as though you’d just cut yourself a nice piece of cake, an’ tell ’em that’ll be all, to wait outside. Then you start talkin’ to that Moline woman, an’ see what happens.”