Death Points a Finger

by Will Levinrew

  Chapter XIX

  The swift boat bearing two police officers picked up ProfessorBrierly and Matthews. McCall and Jimmy left immediately. The avidhorde of newspaper men had swooped down on the Higginbotham camp.Only the fact that they had two red-coated men in the boatenabled the old scientist and his assistant to get near the house.A path was cleared and the four men went into the living-roomwhere the eight survivors, Jimmy Hale, McCall and as manynewspaper men and women as could find standing room were crowded.

  The two officers with the help of two others who had arrivedcleared the room after considerable difficulty. The porch had beenshorn off the building as though it were done with tools. The hugerock was nestling at the edge of the water.

  Jimmy was surprised at the demeanor of the eight survivors. Thereaction had set in. Now that the worst had come, come rightbefore their eyes they took it with a sang-froid that wassurprising under the circumstances. Pride of race, the knowledgethat a great many persons had their eyes upon them, the knowledgethat the entire world had their eyes on them through theirrepresentatives of the press had its influence.

  Samuel Goldberg and Lorenzo Tonti, the man who had influenced theframing of the Tontine insurance agreement, were killed outrightby the falling of the rock. Two of the others suffered minorinjuries. While they were calm the eight survivors were grim. Theylooked toward Professor Brierly.

  "How did it happen?" he asked quietly.

  Mr. Marshall answered.

  "Six or seven of us were on the porch, the rest of us were inside,finishing breakfast. McGuire was just coming up from the lake, hehad been out. The rock, without any warning, came down. Poor Sam.He always sat where he could see the rock. It had a fascinationfor him. He always alluded to the possibility of its coming down."

  Charles Rochambeau leaned forward in his chair tensely.

  "Well, Professor, you could not save us from this could you?" Hesprang up and threw his hands up with true Gallic violence. "MyGod, when will this end?"

  There was pain, grief in the deep-set eyes that looked at theexcitable old man. Professor Brierly said slowly:

  "It will end right now, Mr. Rochambeau. It has ended." He turnedto the two officers who had come with him, saying:

  "A man by the name of Amos Brown, who lives about six miles up thelake was shot to death this morning."

  Bruce Thomas started forward, crying hoarsely:

  "No, no. Amos Brown died thirty years ago."

  Professor Brierly, ignoring the interruption, pointed at formerPolice Commissioner McGuire. "This man, officer, probably isarmed. You will find that the bullet that killed Amos Brown camefrom his weapon."

  One of the officers took a step toward the ruddy octogenarian.Jimmy stared, startled. Something was coming off that he did notunderstand. Three of the men sprang to their feet glaring at theprincipal actors to this strange scene. McGuire stood up, theblood gradually draining from his face. One of the police officersasked quietly, holding out his hand:

  "Are you armed, sir?" As McGuire's hand slowly went toward hisside pocket, the officer said:

  "Give me the weapon, please."

  McGuire stared a long time at Professor Brierly, at his comrades,at the officers. He said:

  "Yes, I killed Brown. I killed him in self-defense." He drew outthe weapon, slowly.

  Professor Brierly's voice, in the strained silence that had fallenon the group, sounded like a death knell.

  "You did not kill Goldberg and Tonti in self-defense. You did notengineer the killing of Schurman, Miller and Flynn in self-defense.You--_John!_" Professor Brierly's voice suddenly rose to ahoarse shout. The weapon in the hand of the stout, erect, pale manwas slowly turning. Matthews sprang forward, but the officerreached McGuire first. There was a brief struggle for the weapon.Two officers led the man away.

  There was pain in Professor Brierly's eyes, and not theexhilaration to be found at the successful conclusion of anexperiment in science; or the completed solution of a crime. Hesat down and appeared reluctant to furnish the explanation thatwas expected of him. Suddenly Justice Higginbotham burst out:

  "But this is unthinkable, Professor. He was a comrade of ours. Hewas here with us all the time. He--you must be mistaken." Hestopped and then continued more slowly, gravely:

  "Professor Brierly, you will have to give a very good reason foryour astounding charge. You will have to remove every reasonabledoubt. I am not talking in the legal sense now. This man was ourcomrade. I should as soon believe that I did this impossible, thisterrible thing myself."

  A swift glance about the circle of faces showed Jimmy that theywere all of the same mind. Professor Brierly said:

  "I understand. That is why I was reluctant to make the chargesooner, when we discussed it the other day. Some of you urged me,remember, to make a guess, which I could have done then. Thisterrible thing that happened this morning is something I couldhardly foresee." He paused and went on.

  "Your number '14' Amos Brown died twenty-eight years ago, beingsurvived by a son and grandson. The son died a short time later.Amos Brown the third, had no kin. But he was a self-sufficientyoungster who managed pretty well. He entered the flying servicein the World War and returned a bitter, disillusioned man.

  "He became a hatter and worked in Danbury, Connecticut, for atime, in a department called the 'pouncing' department. In such adepartment, they shave off the rough fur of felt hats after theyhave been dyed. In a 'pouncing' room, although there are blowersto take up the fine fur, there is nevertheless a good deal of itflying about in the air. I am thus dwelling on this seeminglytrivial point because it formed an important clue in myinvestigation.

  "Several years ago, young Amos Brown was approached by a man whowas alleged to have been a comrade of his grandfather in the CivilWar. Amos Brown was persuaded that your Tontine group had treatedhis grandfather very badly. He was shown that by working with thisold veteran he could not only revenge his grandfather's wrongs,but also obtain a false justice for himself.

  "This kind benefactor, as an evidence of goodwill, bought AmosBrown a farm in Canada; he bought him a plane. He then convincedhim that by helping kill off the Tontine group the two of themwould share their huge fund.

  "Preparations were carefully made. Amos Brown was a strong, activeman. The veteran had access to files where the peculiarities of agreat many criminals, in and out of prison, were carefullyrecorded. It was recorded for example that one man had the habitof getting into places by using climbing irons. Another had adifferent method but he had a weakness for large quantities offood when he committed a robbery, his special weakness being foreggs. It was comparatively easy for a former police commissionerto get all this information you see, a police commissioner whokept in touch with his old department.

  "But first of all the murders had to be so committed that theywould look like suicide. The former man hunter knew enough to makethem look like suicides to the casual examiner. But suppose acareful examination were made of a particular death, and it wasdiscovered to be murder. Then what?

  "Then you see, the peculiarities of a certain criminal wouldappear so prominently that the police would pick this man up andpin the crime on him. But suppose again this innocent criminalhappened to have an unshakable alibi? That could be arranged fortoo. The alibi could be made to look 'fishy', as my friend Halewould put it.

  "Former Police Commissioner McGuire knew that 'Chicago' Boyle,alias 'Lefty' Harris was in this neighborhood. 'Lefty' had beenconvicted of entering a house with rope, climbing irons, and soforth. So first of all, Miller was killed in a manner that wouldlook to the casual examiner like suicide. When I pointed out thatit was not suicide and further pointed out how the murdererentered, it was a foregone conclusion that Boyle would be pickedup.

  "Boyle had a story, but what policeman or jury would believe it?The stranger who met him in a speakeasy and drugged his drink tookgood care that he would not have a convincing one to tell.

  "The one flaw in the reckoning of the murderer was that the rope,with
which entry was made, was found. It showed me as definitelyas though I had seen it, the farmyard where Amos Brown lived. Thetwine also showed me that it had been in a 'pouncing' room in ahat factory for a long time.

  "Boyle's watch which had not been cleaned for a long time andwhich we placed was in his possession about three years ago didnot show that it had ever been in a 'pouncing' room. And you candepend on it, that one could not keep a watch for a single day insuch a room without the fur getting inside the case, to saynothing of keeping it there for months or years.

  "In the Schurman case, in New York, there was the fortuitousincident of the apple. Amos Brown was not a trained criminal, yousee. He did not think, when he bit into the apple that he wasleaving what the police call a 'calling card'. It will be found oninvestigation that Amos Brown's teeth fit into the 'moulage' ofthe apple.

  "In addition to that, unfortunately for the murderer, 'Fingy' hada splendid alibi, an alibi that the killer could not foresee."

  "The Flynn murder was easy. The man who made the telephone callneed not have known what he was doing. But it is safe to say thatit was Brown. Mr. McGuire would trust as few persons as possiblein this. The call that killed Flynn might just as well have beenmade from Canada."

  "But, Professor, you accused him of murdering Goldberg and Tonti,"protested Judge Fletcher.

  "Yes. Justice Higginbotham was going to make a spectacle of hismastery of a hobby. He had everything arranged. He was going to--"

  "I had the wires disconnected, Professor, interrupted JudgeHigginbotham."

  "Connecting the wires would be just about a minute's work."

  "But McGuire was down near the water. How could he throw a beam oflight at that tube in the daylight."

  "That's right, Judge. McGuire was facing the east. The sun wasjust right to reflect a powerful beam of sunlight into the door tothe photo-electric cell with a piece of mirror. If you will look,Judge, you will find that door open.

  "The act before that was the kidnapping of Matthews' nephew.Brown, inherently a decent chap, balked at that but he was tooinvolved by then. When they could not make me go to New York,Brown was told to send us a tooth as evidence of what they wereprepared to do to the little boy. Brown balked at that too. Heobtained some older boy's tooth, probably from a dentist."

  He was now speaking more slowly.

  "Obviously an octogenarian could not commit these murders himself,but being a former police commissioner, he could easily hiresomeone to do it for him; he knew the ropes. He could not trustthe ordinary killer; he would have placed himself in such a man'spower.

  "What better instrument than Amos Brown? Amos Brown could be madeto believe that he was performing an act of justice by killing themen who had mistreated his grandfather. Such a man is much moredangerous than the professional killer. He was a flyer and a goodone. He had a powerful, fast plane, small enough not to attracttoo much attention. He could kill Schurman in the evening andMiller, four hundred miles away early the following morning.

  "Without Brown's knowledge 'Fingy' was watched. If he had notfound it necessary to rob the delicatessen store, he might havemet a stranger, as did Boyle, who would provide him with an alibithat no one would believe. The work of providing a bad alibi mighthave been done and probably was done by a person who knew nothingand had no interest in the members of the Tontine group. Such aman as McGuire could easily have arranged that.

  "A police commissioner who was wiped out in the stock marketcrash; a man who was accustomed to the good things in life in amaterial sense. A man' who was forced to consort with criminalsprofessionally. He was cleaned out in the crash, and neverrecovered.

  "There is a record of a case similar to that of the Miller case.Schurman was killed in the way that Emmeline Reynolds was killedin 1898. In her case a bludgeon was used. In Schurman's case Brownprobably used his fist. The similarity in particular originalitydisplayed, the details were masterpieces of subtlety.

  "We can picture what happened at Brown's farm this morning. Brownrefused to go any further with the plan. We have an indication ofBrown's character by the fact that he refused to extract a boy'stooth. Oh, no. It is not at all inconsistent. A man like Brownmight commit murder to satisfy his false sense of justice, and yetbe tenderhearted enough to refuse to inflict pain on a little boy.

  "But the old police commissioner had gone too far. There werewords. Brown would be of no further use to him. McGuire had thesmall mirror in his pocket. He calculated that he would findeveryone on the pond. If I did not have a complete case againsthim, what a perfect case the police commissioner would have had,assuming that he was caught coming from Brown's farm. He couldhave said that he had revenged the death of his comrades.

  "He made two grave errors. The sun's rays which he used with suchmurderous effect were in his eyes facing the east. The porch beingin semi-gloom, he thought perhaps that you were all there. Hissecond error was in overestimating the strength with which theporch was fastened to the main building.

  "The documentary proof of what I say is all there, gentlemen,every step of it. The living proof is present, to say nothing ofthe dead proof. Small things in themselves; powder marks; freshputty; the absence of hat fur in a watch case; an apple which wastoo green, or too sour or too bitter. Small things but what anunbreakable chain."

  Epilogue

  The world was good to James Hale three days later. He stayed inbed until the sun was high in the sky. Nothing to do for nearly aweek.

  As he went to the bathroom his whistling and vocal efforts viedwith the feathered songsters outside the window. As he passedthrough the living-room on his way to the dining room he picked upa letter addressed to him. The upper left hand corner of theletter told him that it was from the Eagle. He stuffed itcarelessly into his pocket. It was probably from one or moremembers of the gang at the office asking him to smuggle in someScotch when he came back. It could not be from Hite. Hite neverwrote letters. He spoke to his men and women verbally, bytelephone or by wire. He even did his firing that way.

  He ate his breakfast alone. Matthews and Professor Brierly hadgone off somewhere. Norah was in the kitchen singing. Tommy, inthe costume with which he had been born, was outside fishing.

  Jimmy pushed out the canoe onto the lake and sat there watchingTommy. Tommy never caught anything fishing, but that neverdisturbs a devotee of the Waltonian art. Tommy had his own methodsfor the sport. He fished without line, hook or bait. He usedneither guile, nor any of the lures employed by fishermen. Tommystood there in two feet of water staring intently at the denizensof the water darting back and forth. They could plainly be seen,the water was clear. When one of the finny tribe hesitated nearthe surface of the water Tommy would grab--a fist full of water.

  Jimmy tried his blandishments and charm on Tommy without success.Tommy had his own ideas about Jimmy.

  Now Pop was a superior sort of person. Pop paid one the complimentof serious consideration. Also, Professor Brierly having taken acourse in tricks of magic in his youth, Pop could do the mostwonderful things with his hands and with things. He could and didexplain everything. But Jimmy was another, but quite differentfriend.

  Uncle Jack could also do fascinating things with his hands.Besides, Uncle Jack was quite the strongest and swiftest person inthe world. Tommy like Jack, that was a little to much to expect.

  Mummie had a place all her own. She was only a woman, of course,but she was the most beautiful woman in the world, one loved her alot. She could and did make the most delicious things to eat, shetucked one in bed and other things.

  Jimmy now, it was hard to classify Jimmy. In the first place hewas so frivolous. He received one's most serious statements with agrin. And it was remarkable that Pop and Uncle Jack would oftenjoin Jimmy in discussing the most frivolous topics, topics thatone could not understand. Maybe they were doing it to be polite.He had been told about that--about being polite and listeningrespectfully to strangers. Decidedly Jimmy did not make a hit withTommy. He was tolerated, but that's all. Right now he was grinn
ingat Tommy's serious efforts to catch fish.

  Jimmy's attention wandered. This was swell. A perfect day, nothingto do for nearly a week. He would not even look at his portableduring this time. His hand went to his pocket for cigarettes andencountered the letter. He lazily tore open the flap.

  He sat up and glowed with pleasure. It was from the publisher ofhis paper. The publisher wrote of "loyalty to the newspaperideal," "unstinting, unremitting effort." The letter spokeeffusively about Jimmy's recent achievement on the murder story.The letter concluded with the statement that in view of the factthat that splendid story encroached on his vacation, his vacationwould be extended with pay for one week.

  Now that was something like it. That was appreciation for you.Hite would never--Martha's voice broke in on his rumination. Therewas a telephone call. He lazily got out of his canoe.

  The first voice was Ann's, the second Hite's.

  "Say, Jimmy, I got an idea. You know there's bootlegging inCanada. Fact is where sale of liquor is permitted up to certainhours, there are birds who sell it after hours and are subject tofine and imprisonment mebbe. In view of the to do aboutprohibition and bootlegging in this country, it would be swell tohave a feature story about bootlegging in Canada. Run up to Quebecand Montreal and stop at places between and give us a story willyou. That Tontine story was a nice story, Jimmy, g'by."

  Hite had talked fast in jerky sentences. All Jimmy had said was,"Hello." The wire was dead. Jimmy, with a stony face got out themap of Canada. It showed him what a trip to Quebec and Montrealwith stops between would involve. He mumbled: "Quebec-Montreal-stopsbetween-feature story-extend my vacation."