Erie Gardner: The Case of the Lazy Lover

“So Allred got a bright idea. Why not keep me from getting to work on the case by seeing that I had two checks. One of them could be forged. He felt certain that when I got two checks in the same amount I’d refrain from doing anything until I could get in touch with Mrs. Allred.

“And Allred felt he only needed just one day’s time. By Monday night it would be all over. And if he could fog the issues so the check Mrs. Allred sent me wasn’t cashed on Monday, it would never be cashed then because a person’s death automatically cancels any outstanding checks.

“Mrs. Allred had hurriedly typed the letter to the bank at Las Olitas. It was lying there on the table by her typewriter and checkbook. Allred slipped a sheet of carbon paper underneath it, traced the signature with a pointed instrument, perhaps the point of a nail file, on a check and made out the body of the check after Mrs. Allred had left. Remember, he didn’t go to Springfield with them, but followed them after a few minutes.

“He made his wife believe that Patricia Faxon had run into Fleetwood with her automobile. You can follow Allred’s reasoning all the way through. He wanted to murder Fleetwood, and he made two attempts at it. He thought he had killed Fleetwood the first time when he slugged him with a club and left him lying by the hedge.

“Allred ran along the side of the hedge when Fleetwood started to leave the place. He was waiting on the street side of the hedge, just as Fleetwood came out on the patio side at the opening by the driveway. It only took one good, heavy blow to crumple Fleetwood to the ground. Allred thought he had killed him. Then Allred dragged the body back a little ways, took his own car and parked it in such a position that when Patricia came driving up, it was almost certain that she would cut a corner of the hedge. Even if she hadn’t, Allred could have gone out and crumpled the fender after the car was in the garage and then had Patricia thinking she had struck Fleetwood with that fender as she made the turn.

“Then Fleetwood regained consciousness. That meant Allred had to work out some other bulletproof murder scheme. When Fleetwood pretended amnesia, Allred saw another opportunity. He got Fleetwood to go with Mrs. Allred, Mrs. Allred telling Fleetwood she was his married sister, and Allred coming to me and saying that Fleetwood had run away with his wife.”

“Allred certainly went in for complicated schemes,” Drake said.

“He schemed himself right into a grave,” Mason said. “Evidently he hired a car and driver to take him to the Snug-Rest Auto Court and just about the time he was getting there, Fleetwood must have been trying for a getaway.

“Allred had a gun and he forced Fleetwood to stop the car and let him in. From that point on, Fleetwood’s story could be the truth. The only part about it that’s a lie is the story about Mrs. Allred’s being in the luggage compartment. And Fleetwood and Bernice Archer hatched up that story to account for the bloodstains on the carpet of the luggage compartment.”

“And Mrs. Allred changed her story to you because she felt that was her best way out?” Della Street asked.

“Sure. Fleetwood and his girl, Bernice Archer, made such a convincing story that Mrs. Allred suddenly realized she stood a better chance of going free by falling in with their story than by trying to tell the truth. The artistic way Bernice fixed up the story was that it gave Mrs. Allred almost a perfect out on a plea of self-defense — and, of course, it got Fleetwood out of a jam.

“Circumstantial evidence never lies, but it isn’t always easy to interpret it correctly.”

“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Della Street said. “This case certainly expanded into a lot of complications from a forged check. I suppose it was that check which really aroused your suspicions, Chief.”

Mason smiled. “The thing which really made me suspicious was the stories everyone had about the lazy lover. The picture of Fleetwood eloping with Mrs. Allred and then sitting back and letting her do all the running around and registering at the motel while he sat in the car, too lazy to move. Well, somehow when that picture was sketched I began to think Allred might have something up his sleeve in the way of a whole deck of marked cards.”

“That’s a good way to file it,” Della Street said smiling, “The Case of the Lazy Lover.”