“They’ve inventoried the loss. It’s more than twenty thousand dollars. They’ve got the man that did it. They’re bringing him out here. Going to confront him with the watchman and the scene of the crime. He had the combination of the safe. They say he worked here. He had an accomplice, and the accomplice got away with all the loot. Tough when a guy has to stick a place up and then gets stuck up himself.”
Sidney Zoom heard that rumor, also. He waited, standing there gaunt and grim, six feet odd of unsmiling efficiency, staring with eyes that took in every single detail.
A police car came shrieking from the boulevard. It skidded to the curb. Men jumped out. A white-faced young man with slumped shoulders was in the car. His wrists were handcuffed. They pulled him to the pavement and hustled him into the store. The crowd surged and swayed as its members sought to obtain a glimpse of the man.
A taxicab honked its horn persistently, crawled through the tangle of vehicles, discharged a lone passenger.
She was white-haired. Her eyes were blue. Her face gave indications of serene age. The lips smiled placidly. But the depths of the blue eyes contained a trace of panic. She spoke in a throaty voice.
“Has my boy come yet? Have they brought Harry? They said they were bringing the boy here.”
No one answered her. They stared with heartless, expressionless curiosity, Sidney Zoom inched his way toward her and lifted his hat.
“You mean Harry Dupree?” he asked. “Yes, they have taken him inside.”
She sighed. “I’m his mother. I wonder if they’d let me in?”
Sidney Zoom saw that those nearest him were taking in the conversation. He took the woman by the arm.
“Perhaps,” he said, “it would be wise to talk matters over first. They might make things a little disagreeable for you.”
“But it’s all a mistake. He didn’t do it. He couldn’t have done it. They wouldn’t have charged him with it if it hadn’t been that they didn’t understand!”
Zoom soothed her, led her to his car, sat her in the cushioned seat beside him.
“Do you know how your son happened to be out tonight?” he asked.
“He had a date,” she said. “I don’t inquire too closely into his dates. I don’t think mothers should pry into their sons’ affairs. He’s a good boy. Some day he’ll marry and leave me. I don’t know who he was going to see tonight. It was a girl. I heard her voice over the telephone. I heard him say he was to wait for her somewhere.”
Sidney Zoom nodded thoughtfully.
“Would you mind waiting here?” he asked.
“You’re going to see Harry?”
“I don’t know. I want to talk with the officers for a moment. If you’ll just wait here, I may be able to get you some good news. Do you drive a car?”
“I can,” she said.
Zoom nodded, said crisply: “Then wait right here. I won’t be long.”
He left the car and strode toward the store. With the advent of the gray-haired woman upon the scene, his manner had undergone a change. He was no longer the bystander, but an aggressive individual, moving purposefully.
The uniformed officer barred his path. Zoom spoke briefly and to the point “I’ve got to see Huntley,” he said. “If I see him I may be able to help in solving this case. If I don’t, the police may lose a clew.”
The officer beckoned to one of the detectives.
“This guy wants to see Hundey,” he said.
The detective glared at Sidney Zoom.
“About what?” he asked.
“Important business,” said Sidney Zoom.
The detective stared again, grunted: “Okay. C’mon in. I’ll see if he wants to see you. What’d you want to see him about?”
Sidney Zoom strode into the store. He passed a knot of detectives chatting, smoking, came to a huge safe where a fingerprint man was dusting white powder over the black steel surface. Then he saw Huntley, slumped down in a chair.
He walked to the jeweler.
“Can you sell me a diamond bracelet with your price mark still on it?” he asked. Huntley looked at him, moistened his flabby lips and said, vacantly, “Huh?”
The officer tugged at Zoom’s arm.
“That ain’t what you said you wanted to see him about,” he complained.
“Because,” said Zoom, “if you will, I think I can clear this case up.”
Huntley got to his feet.
“What’s that?” he asked. “How can you clear it up? What are you talking about?”
Zoom shrugged his shoulders, took out a well filled wallet.
“I am only asking,” he said, “that you sell me a bracelet or some rather expensive bit of jewelry that has your price mark on it.”
Huntley growled.
“The store ain’t open.”
Zoom said: “I think I can get you your property back if you give me some cooperation.”
The detective stared at him. Huntley moved toward the safe. “Gimme that tray,” he said. “The one with the bracelets on it.” He selected a bracelet at random and said: “Four fifty.”
Sidney Zoom passed over the money.
He took the bracelet, started for the door. One of the detectives gripped his arm. Zoom shook him free. He walked out of the store. The detective hesitated, started to follow, then turned back. Zoom went out of the door, to his car. The detective went back into the store.
Zoom started the motor. He was smiling, but it was the grim smile of a fighter who is about to encounter some welcome conflict. The white-haired woman watched him speculatively.
“Are you a friend of Harry’s?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. The name is Zoom.”
She frowned and said: “I don’t believe he’s ever spoken of you. Are you a dose friend?”
Zoom said: “I’m a friend now that he’s in need. That makes me a friend indeed.”
She smiled at him, a warm, maternal smile.
“Do you know,” she said, “I believe you are going to get Harry out of this trouble. I have a hunch. Do you believe in hunches?”
“Certainly,” said Zoom.
She nodded and settled back.
“You can look very stem when you want to,” she remarked, “but I think you’ve got a kind heart. Go right ahead, young man. If I can help you, let me know.”
Sidney Zoom piloted the car to the apartment house where he had seen the man with the red necktie go on up the stairs.
“I’m going,” he said, “to run a bluff, and a big one. It may work. It may not. If it works everything will be fine. If it doesn’t you may have to take this car and call the police. Tell them I went into that apartment house with my dog. Give me fifteen minutes. If I’m not out then, give the alarm to the police.”
He left the car, motioned to the dog.
“I’ve got a hunch it’ll be all right,” said the woman, as Zoom strode up the steps of the apartment house.
The manager was a woman, not young, not good looking, and not good natured. She pulled a scanty robe about her ample figure and glowered at Sidney Zoom. In the end she gave him the information that he was after. The man who answered the description of the one Zoom had picked up on the street had the apartment on the top floor, well to the back. The number was fifteen.
Zoom went up, and the dog went at his side, tail waving proudly.
Zoom indicated the door of the apartment to the dog. Then he placed the article of jewelry he had purchased from Huntley in the dog’s mouth. He bent forward and made a gesture with his hand, as though scratching on the door.
The dog watered him with ears cocked rigidly upright. Zoom made another motion with his hand. “Bark,” he whispered. The dog barked. The bracelet fell to the floor. Zoom motioned toward it and the dog picked it up. Zoom scratched on the door. He repeated this operation until he heard some one stirring on the inside of the room.
When he heard bare feet hit the floor, Zoom whispered a word of command to the dog, ran down the hall. The dog, obedient to that whispered command, remained at the door. As the bolt clicked back and the door opened, Sidney Zoom came running up the steps, as though he had been exerting himself to the limit of his endurance. He was puffing and blowing, and the sound of his breathing filled the hall.