It was filled with jewels, strung, for the most part, into necklaces.
Chapter V
Zoom Gets in Bad
It was ten o’clock in the morning.
The musty air of police headquarters was filled with that stale odor which comes to rooms which are in use twenty-four hours a day.
Captain Bill Mahoney, a small man in the early fifties, but equipped with a large mind, raised dark, speculative eyes and regarded Sidney Zoom thoughtfully.
“Sergeant Gromley,” he said, “wants to place a charge against you for aiding and abetting a felon.”
“The felon being whom?” asked Sidney Zoom.
“The Raine girl.”
Sidney Zoom tapped a cigarette impatiently upon the table, rasped a match along the sole of his shoe, lit the cigarette, shot out the match with a single swift motion of his arm.
“Sergeant Gromley,” he said, “is a dangerous man. He is dangerous to innocent and guilty alike.”
Captain Mahoney’s voice remained quiet.
“He’s the best questioner in the department.”
“Perhaps.”
“And he tells me you interfered with him in the Raine case.”
“He’s right. I did.”
“That’s serious, Zoom, We’ve orders to allow you to cooperate because you’ve always had a passion for justice, and you’ve helped us clear up some mighty difficult cases, but you’re going to lose your privileges.”
Captain Mahoney was never more quiet than when enraged. Zoom had known him for years in a close friendship which was founded upon mutual respect. Yet Captain Mahoney would have been among the first to have admitted that, despite his long intimacy, he knew virtually nothing of that strange, sardonic creature who made a hobby of patrolling the midnight streets and interesting himself in odd crimes.
Sidney Zoom regarded the smoldering tip of his cigarette.
“I’m afraid, Zoom, I shall have to ask you to surrender your courtesy star and your commission as a special deputy. I’m sorry, but you knew the rules, and you infringed upon them.”
Sidney Zoom took the articles from his pocket, passed them over, heaved a sigh.
“I’d anticipated that, and I’m glad. I can do more fighting the police than cooperating with them.”
He jackknifed his huge form to its full height, strode toward the door. His hand was on the knob when Captain Mahoney’s quiet voice stabbed the tense atmosphere of the room.
“That,” he said, “disposes of my duty as an officer. Now, Zoom, would you mind telling me, as a friend, why you took advantage of the confidence which the department reposed in you?”
“Because,” snapped Zoom, “Gromley was about to outwit an innocent woman and pin a murder upon her.”
“He’s done it anyway.”
“No. That he hasn’t.”
Captain Mahoney fished a cigar from his pocket, slowly bit off the end. His dark, luminous eyes regarded Sidney Zoom with curious speculation.
“Do you know who murdered Harry Raine?” he asked.
“No. I know who didn’t.”
Captain Mahoney lit his cigar.
“I wish I’d been there last night.”
“I wish you had, captain.”
Captain Bill Mahoney’s eyes flashed swiftly above the first puff of blue smoke which came from his cigar.
“Because if I had been, I’d have sensed that your interference was for the primary purpose of getting yourself kicked out. I’d have figured that you wanted most awfully to leave that room without exciting attention, and you took that way of doing it.”
And Sidney Zoom whirled, strode back to his chair, sat down, and laughed.
“Bill,” he said, “it’s a good thing you weren’t there. You’re a little too clever.”
Captain Mahoney had not moved. He twisted the cigar slowly, thoughtfully, flashed his black eyes at Sidney Zoom’s hawk-like face once or twice.
“And I have an idea you wanted to be relieved of your courtesy commission on the force because you’re figuring on a fast one, and don’t want any sense of ethics to stand in your way.”
Zoom said nothing. For a few moments they smoked in silence.
“Bill,” said Sidney Zoom, at length, “you’re human. Do you want to solve that Raine murder?”
Captain Bill Mahoney spoke cautiously when he answered.
“Gromley says it’s a perfect case, but that you and your lawyer have interfered with his proof and he may not be able to turn over enough evidence to get a conviction.”
Sidney Zoom leaned forward.
“If you’ll put your cards on the table, Bill, I’ll try and clear up the case for you.”
“If I put my cards on the table,” asked the police captain, “will you put yours on the table?”
Sidney Zoom’s answer was explosively prompt.
“No!”
“Why not?”
Zoom laughed lightly.
“Because I’m going to play with a marked deck.”
“You think the woman isn’t the guilty party?”
“I’m almost certain of it.”
“It would hurt the police a lot if we should go ahead and try to pin a murder rap on her and then have it turn out it was a mistake,” said Bill Mahoney, slowly.
Sidney Zoom knew when he had won.
“Get your hat, Bill,” he said.
Captain Mahoney reached for his hat.
“Where to?”
“To Harry Raine’s place, out on West Adams. I’ll drive slowly, and you can tell me what the police have found out while we’re driving.”
“Sergeant Gromley would die if he knew I was doing it,” sighed the captain.
But Bill Mahoney had seen Sidney Zoom perform seeming wonders upon many other occasions, and beyond the sighed regret he showed no other signs of hesitancy.
As they purred along in Zoom’s high powered, multi-cylindered car, his police dog crouched in the rumble seat, sniffing the air with curious nostrils, Captain Mahoney gave Zoom a brief summary of the facts the police had discovered.
“It’s a family fight affair. Guess old Raine was a man who had at least one killing coming to him. He had a son, Edward. Edward fell in love with Eva, the girl. Raine kicked the boy out. The boy started in doing some gem business, buying and selling. He was making good. Then, one day, he was killed, suddenly.
“There wasn’t any insurance. The girl found herself widowed, with a stock of gems that had to be sold. She started probating the estate to get good tide to the gems, and old Raine sued the administrator.
“It developed that there was an illegality about the marriage. He’d known it all along, had been saving it as a weapon. Therefore, Eva wasn’t the boy’s widow. Harry Raine was the only surviving relative. There wasn’t a will. Raine claimed the gems. The court gave them to him. He and his lawyer took possession of them yesterday afternoon.
“The girl didn’t have any money to carry on a fight. She let him have them. But she had some of her husband’s old effects. Among these was a key ring with a key to the house. Apparently, the girl sneaked out to the house after every one had gone to bed and stole the jewels.
“She’d have made a good job of it, too, because no one suspected she had the key. But she was just a little clumsy in the get-away and knocked over a chair. That woke old Raine up.
“He dashed after the burglar, but she eluded him and got out into the night. He chased her for a ways in his pyjamas, then came back, got into his clothes, and started to go after her.
“He told his attorney he’d caught a glimpse of her, running into the wind and rain, and had recognized her. He was furious, wanted to catch her red handed and all that.”
Sidney Zoom shot Captain Mahoney a swift glance.
“Told his attorney? What was his attorney doing there at midnight?”