Ehrengraf for the Defense

by Lawrence Block

  “Certainly. I was at my home that evening when Howard called. He was in a mood and wanted to see me. I drove over to his house. He made drinks for both of us and paced around a great deal. He was extremely agitated.”

  “Over what?”

  “Leona wanted him to marry her. Leona Weybright.”

  “The cookbook writer?”

  “Yes. Howard was not the sort of man to get married, or even to limit himself to a single relationship. He believed in a double standard and was quite open about it. He expected his women to be faithful while reserving the option of infidelity to himself. If one was going to be involved with Howard Bierstadt, one had to accept this.”

  “As you accepted it.”

  “I accepted it,” Evelyn Throop agreed. “Leona evidently pretended to accept it but could not, and Howard didn’t know what to do about her. He wanted to break up with her but was afraid of the possible consequences. He thought she might turn suicidal and he didn’t want her death on his conscience.”

  “And he discussed all of this with you.”

  “Oh, yes. He often confided in me about his relationship with Leona.” Evelyn Throop permitted herself a smile. “I played a very important role in his life, Mr. Ehrengraf. I suppose he would have married me if there’d been any reason to do so. I was his true confidante. Leona was just one of a long string of mistresses.”

  Ehrengraf nodded. “According to the prosecution,” he said carefully, “you were pressuring him to marry you.”

  “That’s quite untrue.”

  “No doubt.” He smiled. “Continue.”

  The woman sighed. “There’s not much more to say. He went into the other room to freshen our drinks. There was the report of a gunshot.”

  “I believe there were three shots.”

  “Perhaps there were. I can remember only the volume of the noise. It was so startling. I rushed in immediately and saw him on the floor, the gun by his outstretched hand. I guess I bent over and picked up the gun. I don’t remember doing so, but I must have done because the next thing I knew I was standing there holding the gun.” Evelyn Throop closed her eyes, evidently overwhelmed by the memory. “Then Mrs. Keppner was there—I believe she screamed, and then she went off to call the police. I just stood there for a while and then I guess I sat down in a chair and waited for the police to come and tell me what to do.”

  “And they brought you here and put you in a cell.”

  “Yes. I was quite astonished. I couldn’t imagine why they would do such a thing, and then it developed that Mrs. Keppner had sworn she saw me shoot Howard.”

  Ehrengraf was respectfully silent for a moment. Then he said, “It seems they found some corroboration for Mrs. Keppner’s story.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The gun,” Ehrengraf said. “A revolver. I believe it was registered to you, was it not?”

  “It was my gun.”

  “How did Mr. Bierstadt happen to have it?”

  “I brought it to him.”

  “At his request?”

  “Yes. When we spoke on the telephone, he specifically asked me to bring the gun. He said something about wanting to protect himself from burglars. I never thought he would shoot himself.”

  “But he did.”

  “He must have done. He was upset about Leona. Perhaps he felt guilty, or that there was no way to avoid hurting her.”

  “Wasn’t there a test?” Ehrengraf mused. “As I recall, there were no nitrite particles found in Mr. Bierstadt’s hand, which would seem to indicate he had not fired a gun recently.”

  “I don’t really understand those tests,” Evelyn Throop said. “But I’m told they’re not absolutely conclusive.”

  “And the police gave you a test as well,” Ehrengraf went on. “Didn’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “And found nitrite particles in your right hand.”

  “Of course,” Evelyn Throop said. “I’d fired the gun that evening before I took it along to Howard’s house. I hadn’t used it in the longest time, since I first practiced with it at a pistol range, so I cleaned it, and to make sure it was in good operating condition I test-fired it before I went to Howard’s.”

  “At a pistol range?”

  “That wouldn’t have been convenient. I just stopped at a deserted spot along a country road and fired a few shots.”

  “I see.”

  “I told the police all of this, of course.”

  “Of course. Before they gave you the paraffin test?”

  “After the test, as it happens. The incident had quite slipped my mind in the excitement of the moment, but they gave me the test and said it was evident I’d fired a gun, and at that point I recalled having stopped the car and firing off a couple of rounds before continuing on to Howard’s.”

  “Where you gave Mr. Bierstadt the gun.”

  “Yes.”

  “Whereupon he in due course took it off into another room and fired three shots into his heart,” Ehrengraf murmured. “Your Mr. Bierstadt would look to be one of the most determined suicides in human memory.”

  “You don’t believe me.”

  “But I do believe you,” he said. “Which is to say that I believe you did not shoot Mr. Bierstadt. Whether or not he did in fact die by his own hand is not, of course, something to which either you or I can testify.”

  “How else could he have died?” The woman’s gaze narrowed. “Unless he really was genuinely afraid of burglars, and unless he did surprise one in the other room. But wouldn’t I have heard sounds of a struggle? Of course, I was in another room a fair distance away, and there was music playing, and I did have things on my mind.”

  “I’m sure you did.”

  “And perhaps Mrs. Keppner saw the burglar shoot Howard, and then she fainted or something. I suppose that’s possible, isn’t it?”

  “Eminently possible,” Ehrengraf assured her.

  “She might have come to when I had already entered the room and picked up the gun, and the whole incident could have been compressed in her mind. She wouldn’t remember having fainted and so she might now actually believe she saw me kill Howard, while all along she saw something entirely different.”

  Evelyn Throop had been looking off into the middle distance as she formulated her theory, and now she focused her eyes upon the diminutive attorney. “It could have happened that way,” she said, “couldn’t it?”

  “It could have happened precisely that way,” Ehrengraf said. “It could have happened in any of innumerable ways. Ah, Miss Throop—” now the lawyer rubbed his small hands together “—that’s the whole beauty of it. There are any number of alternatives to the prosecution’s argument, but of course they don’t see them. Give the police a supposedly ironclad case and they look no further. It is not their task to examine alternatives. But it is our task, Miss Throop, to find not merely an alternative but the correct alternative, the ideal alternative. And in just that fashion we will make a free woman of you.”

  “You seem very confident, Mr. Ehrengraf.”

  “I am.”

  “And prepared to believe in my innocence.”

  “Unequivocally. Without question.”

  “I find that refreshing,” Evelyn Throop said. “I even believe you’ll get me acquitted.”

  “I fully expect to,” Ehrengraf said. “Now let me see, is there anything else we have to discuss at present?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “Your fee,” said Evelyn Throop.

  * * *

  Back in his office, seated behind a desk which he kept as untidy as he kept his own person immaculate, Martin H. Ehrengraf sat back and contemplated the many extraordinary qualities of his latest client. In his considerable experience, while clients were not invariably opposed to a discussion of his fees, they were certainly loath to raise the matter. But Evelyn Throop, possessor of dove-gray eyes and remarkable facial bones, had proved an exception.

  “My fees are
high,” Ehrengraf had told her, “but they are payable only in the event that my clients are acquitted. If you don’t emerge from this ordeal scot-free, you owe me nothing. Even my expenses will be at my expense.”

  “And if I get off?”

  “Then you will owe me one hundred thousand dollars. And I must emphasize, Miss Throop, that the fee will be due me however you win your freedom. It is not inconceivable that neither of us will ever see the inside of a courtroom, that your release when it comes will appear not to have been the result of my efforts at all. I will, nevertheless, expect to be paid in full.”

  The gray eyes looked searchingly into the lawyer’s own. “Yes,” she said after a moment. “Yes, of course. Well, that seems fair. If I’m released I won’t really care how the end was accomplished, will I?”

  Ehrengraf said nothing. Clients often whistled a different tune at a later date, but one could burn that bridge when one came to it.

  “One hundred thousand dollars seems reasonable,” the woman continued. “I suppose any sum would seem reasonable when one’s life and liberty hang in the balance. Of course, you must know I have no money of my own.”

  “Perhaps your family—”

  She shook her head. “I can trace my ancestors back to William the Conqueror,” she said, “and there were Throops who made their fortune in whaling and the China trade, but I’m afraid the money’s run out over the generations. However, I shouldn’t have any problem paying your fee.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m Howard’s chief beneficiary,” she explained. “I’ve seen his will and it makes it unmistakably clear that I held first place in his affections. After a small cash bequest to Mrs. Keppner for her loyal years of service, and after leaving his art collection—which, I grant you, is substantial—to Leona, the remainder comes to me. There may be a couple of cash bequests to charities but nothing that amounts to much. So while I’ll have to wait for the will to make its way through probate, I’m sure I can borrow on my expectations and pay you your fee within a matter of days of my release from jail, Mr. Ehrengraf.”

  “A day that should come in short order,” Ehrengraf said.

  “That’s your department,” Evelyn Throop said, and smiled serenely.

  Ehrengraf smiled now, recalling her smile, and made a little tent of his fingertips on the desk top. An exceptional woman, he told himself, and one on whose behalf it would be an honor to extend himself. It was difficult, of course. Shot with the woman’s own gun, and a witness to swear that she’d shot him. Difficult, certainly, but scarcely impossible.

  The little lawyer leaned back, closed his eyes, and considered alternatives.

  Some days later, Ehrengraf was seated at his desk reading the poems of William Ernest Henley, who had written so confidently of being the master of one’s fate and the captain of one’s soul. The telephone rang. Ehrengraf set his book down, located the instrument amid the desk top clutter, and answered it.

  “Ehrengraf,” said Ehrengraf.

  He listened for a moment, spoke briefly in reply, and replaced the receiver.

  Smiling brightly, he started for the door, then paused to check his appearance in a mirror.

  His tie was navy blue, with a demure below-the-knot pattern of embroidered rams’ heads. For a moment Ehrengraf thought of stopping at his house and changing it for his Caedmon Society necktie, one he’d taken to wearing on triumphal occasions. He glanced at his watch and decided not to squander the time.

  Later, recalling the decision, he wondered if it hinted at prescience.

  * * *

  “Quite remarkable,” Evelyn Throop said. “Although I suppose I should have at least considered the possibility that Mrs. Keppner was lying. After all, I knew for a fact that she was testifying to something that didn’t happen to be true. But for some reason I assumed it was an honest mistake on her part.”

  “One hesitates to believe the worst of people,” Ehrengraf said.

  “That’s exactly it, of course. Besides, I rather took her for granted.”

  “So, it appears, did Mr. Bierstadt.”

  “And that was his mistake, wasn’t it?” Evelyn Throop sighed. “Dora Keppner had been with him for years. Who would have guessed she’d been in love with him? Although I gather their relationship was physical at one point.”

  “There was a suggestion to that effect in the note she left.”

  “And I understand he wanted to get rid of her—to discharge her.”

  “The note seems to have indicated considerable mental disturbance,” Ehrengraf said. “There were other jottings in a notebook found in Mrs. Keppner’s attic bedroom. The impression seems to be that either she and her employer had been intimate in the past or that she entertained a fantasy to that effect. Her attitude in recent weeks apparently became less and less the sort proper to a servant, and either Mr. Bierstadt intended to let her go or she feared that he did and—well, we know what happened.”

  “She shot him.” Evelyn Throop frowned. “She must have been in the room when he went to freshen the drinks. I thought he’d put the gun in his pocket but perhaps he still had it in his hand. He would have set it down when he made the drinks and she could have snatched it up and shot him and been out of the room before I got there.” The gray eyes moved to encounter Ehrengraf’s. “She didn’t leave any fingerprints on the gun.”

  “She seems to have worn gloves. She was wearing a pair when she took her own life. A test indicated nitrite particles in the right glove.”

  “Couldn’t they have gotten there when she committed suicide?”

  “It’s unlikely,” Ehrengraf said. “She didn’t shoot herself, you see. She took poison.”

  “How awful,” Evelyn Throop said. “I hope it was quick.”

  “Mercifully so,” said Ehrengraf. Clearly this woman was the captain of her soul, he thought, not to mention master of her fate. Or ought it to be mistress of her fate? And yet, he realized abruptly, she was not entirely at ease.

  “I’ve been released,” she said, “as is of course quite obvious. All charges have been dropped. A man from the District Attorney’s Office explained everything to me.”

  “That was considerate of him.”

  “He didn’t seem altogether happy. I had the feeling he didn’t really believe I was innocent after all.”

  “People believe what they wish to believe,” Ehrengraf said smoothly. “The state’s whole case collapses without their star witness, and after that witness has confessed to the crime herself and taken her life in the bargain, well, what does it matter what a stubborn district attorney chooses to believe?”

  “I’m sure you’re right.”

  “The important thing is that you’ve been set free. You’re innocent of all charges.”

  “Yes.”

  His eyes searched hers. “Is there a problem, Miss Throop?”

  “There is, Mr. Ehrengraf.”

  “Dear lady,” he began, “if you could just tell me—”

  “The problem concerns your fee.”

  Ehrengraf’s heart sank. Why did so many clients disappoint him in precisely this fashion? At the onset, with the sword of justice hanging over their throats, they agreed eagerly to whatever he proposed. Remove the sword and their agreeability went with it.

  But that was not it at all.

  “The most extraordinary thing,” Evelyn Throop was saying. “I told you the terms of Howard’s will. The paintings to Leona, a few thousand dollars here and there to various charities, a modest bequest to Mrs. Keppner—I suppose she won’t get that now, will she?”

  “Hardly.”

  “Well, that’s something. Though it doesn’t amount to much. At any rate, the balance is to go to me. The residue, after the bequests have been made and all debts settled and the state and federal taxes been paid, all that remains comes to me.”

  “So you explained.”

  “I intended to pay you out of what I received, Mr. Ehrengraf. Well, you’re more than welcome to every cent I get. You
can buy yourself a couple of hamburgers and a milkshake.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s the damned paintings,” Evelyn Throop said. “They’re worth an absolute fortune. I didn’t realize how much he spent on them in the first place or how rapidly they appreciated in value. Nor did I have any idea how deeply mortgaged everything else he owned was. He had some investment reversals over the past few months and he’d taken out a second mortgage on his home and sold off stocks and other holdings. There’s a little cash and a certain amount of equity in the real estate, but it’ll take all of that to pay the estate taxes on the several million dollars’ worth of paintings that go free and clear to that bitch Leona.”

  ‘You have to pay the taxes?”

  “No question about it,” she said bitterly. “The estate pays the taxes and settles the debts. Then all the paintings go straight to America’s favorite cook. I hope she chokes on them.” Evelyn Throop sighed heavily, collected herself. “Please forgive the dramatics, Mr. Ehrengraf.”

  “They’re quite understandable, dear lady.”

  “I didn’t intend to lose control of myself in that fashion. But I feel this deeply. I know Howard had no intention of disinheriting me and having that woman get everything. It was his unmistakable intention to leave me the greater portion, and a cruel trick of fate has thwarted him in that purpose. Mr. Ehrengraf, I owe you one hundred thousand dollars. That was our agreement and I consider myself bound by it.”

  Ehrengraf made no reply.

  “But I don’t know how I can possibly pay you. Oh, I’ll pay what I can, as I can, but I’m a woman of modest means. I couldn’t honestly expect to discharge the debt in full within my lifetime.”

  “My dear Miss Throop.” Ehrengraf was moved, and his hand went involuntarily to the knot of his necktie. “My dear Miss Throop,” he said again, “I beg you not to worry yourself. Do you know Henley, Miss Throop?”

  “Henley?”

  “The poet,” said Ehrengraf, and quoted:

  “In the fell clutch of circumstance,

  I have not winced nor cried aloud: