Carmichael looked at her and smiled wanly. “They told me when he was a boy that he had a vicious streak in him. I... I thought he’d outgrown it. I would have made him my heir...”
“He counted on that,” Johnny said soberly. “He hired me last night to find Lester Smithson. He knew very well that I wouldn’t be able to do that, but he figured it was a good thing, to throw suspicion in another direction. Blame Lester Smithson. Lester had reason to kill Jess, he figured. If he could make you believe that Lester had come back and killed Jess he was all right.”
Lieutenant Madigan moved forward. He snapped a pair of handcuffs on Sutton’s wrists and said, “We’ll get a statement from him down at Headquarters.”
The phone rang suddenly, shrilly. Everyone in the room looked at it, but no one moved toward it. Johnny finally stepped across the room and picked it up. “Yes? Who?” He winced. “Yes, he’s here.” He covered the mouthpiece. “Mr. Carmichael, it’s Alice Cummings. She wants to talk to you.”
“I have nothing to say to her.”
Johnny said into the phone, “Sorry, babe, Mr. Carmichael has nothing to say to you... Yes, it’s me, your old friend, Johnny Fletcher...” He winced again. “You’ve cut your price to ten thousand? For what... Oh, the pennies and dimes, eh?”
“Let me talk to her,” Hertha said suddenly.
“She wants to sell seven dollars’ worth of change for ten thousand,” chuckled Johnny. He handed the phone to Hertha Colston.
Hertha told Alice Cummings what to do with the coins.
24
Johnny and Sam shook hands with the lawyer outside the courthouse in Peekskill. “A tremendous victory, gentlemen,” the attorney said enthusiastically. “I told you I could do it.”
“You call a five-hundred-dollar fine a victory?” asked Johnny cynically.
“For forgery, grand larceny, jail-breaking...”
“Cut it out,” shuddered Sam.
“A victory,” the lawyer said firmly. “If it wasn’t for the fact that the city prosecutor is my cousin and that I just happen to play golf with the judge, it would have been five years in the State penitentiary. Six months in the county jail, at the very least.”
“All right,” said Johnny. “Thanks. Thanks a million. You did a great job. The next time one of us gets arrested in Peekskill, we’ll give you our business.”
“You’ll be in good hands. And now, I must say good-bye to you, gentlemen. One of my, ah, clients has been charged with stealing a, ah, a bus. Ridiculous, of course, but I must do my duty by him. Good-bye, gentlemen.”
The attorney bustled away and Johnny and Sam walked toward the bus stop where they would get a bus that would take them back to Manhattan.
“I’m never going to come anywhere near Peekskill again,” said Sam solemnly.
“It’s a good thing Mr. Carmichael gave me that thousand dollars this morning. He didn’t really have to give it to me, you know. It was for finding Lester Smithson. And I never found him.”
“How could you find him when he was dead?”
Johnny suddenly snorted. “Imagine that lawyer — a thousand bucks! And cash he wanted, too. Before the trial.”
“I’m sorry, Johnny. We’re just about broke again, aren’t we?”
“After we pay the bus fare we’ll have about seventy cents left over.” Johnny shook his head and sighed. “Well, that’s too bad. I was going to mail thirty-six dollars to Mr. Peabody — along with the pawn ticket for his suit. But now, I guess, I’ll just mail him the pawn ticket. That’s better than nothing, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but don’t we owe some room rent again?”
“Sure, but what’s that? I’ll think of something. I always do.”