Erle Gardner - The Case of the Postponed Murder

“We do.”

“That is with you?”

“It’s in my briefcase.”

“Get it, please.”

Grastin walked to his seat in the front of the room, picked up a briefcase, returned with it to the witness stand, and took out a large looseleaf notebook.

“Look under the name of Tooms,” Mason said, “and see what else you find.”

Grastin ran through the pages. Suddenly he said, “Wait a minute. I remember that name now. She’s won quite a few championships; she’s quite an all round athlete.”

“All right,” Mason said. “Just look through your records. Now, what do you find in connection with swimming?”

“In each of the past two years,” Grastin said, “she has won the women’s long distance swimming championship. Last year, she also won the four hundred metre freestyle swimming event for women. In—”

“I think that’s enough,” Mason said. “It’s enough to prove my point in any event. Now, I’m going to show you this photograph, Mr. Grastin, and call your attention to a coin-like object contained in a case and shown on this shelf.” Mason handed him the photograph and pointed. “Please look at it with this magnifying glass. Can you tell what it is?”

Grastin held the magnifying glass in position, then said slowly, “Why, yes. That’s the medal we had struck off for second place in the women’s tennis tournament. That series of lines across it represents a tennis net.”

Mason smiled affably at Justice of the Peace Scanlon and said, “I think, Your Honour, by the time the district attorney’s office puts two and two together, it will have an answer to its question of who killed Penn Wentworth; and it wasn’t Mae Farr.”

Mason, Della Street, Mae Farr, and Paul Drake sat in Mason’s office. Mae Farr seemed dazed at the swift turn of events. “I don’t see how you figured it out,” she said. “I thought I was up against a certain conviction.”

Mason said, “It was mighty thin ice. Almost as soon as I talked with Hazel Tooms, I sensed she was altogether too eager to get out of the country. My first reaction was that her eagerness was due to the fact that her apartment had been bugged and the police were trying to trap me. When she saw I wasn’t walking into the trap, she tried too hard to get me in.

“Later events caused me to change that opinion. If, then, her anxiety to escape hadn’t been a scheme to trap me, what was the cause? That opened up an interesting field of speculation. I knew that she was an all round athlete. I could tell by looking at her, and she had told me of winning second place in that tennis tournament. I also sensed that she had really cared a great deal for Penn Wentworth, and I believe, though I can’t prove it, that theirs was more than a platonic friendship.

“It was quite obvious to me that Wentworth either must have been shot from an airplane or by someone who had been aboard the Pennwent with him and had been able to swim ashore after the shooting.

“I knew that Marley’s alibi wasn’t cast iron, but he didn’t impress me as being a man who could have swum ashore, landed virtually naked, and made his way back to the hospital without showing some evidence of his experience. Mrs. Wentworth might have done it, but it was quite evident that she was in San Diego. Unless Eversel had shot Wentworth from the airplane, I couldn’t connect him with it. You were out in Marley’s boat. You brought it back. For the reasons I mentioned, I didn’t think you could have done the actual killing.

“As soon as I realized that what you had taken for the flash of a pistol was probably the release of a flashlight bulb, I knew that the murder had been postponed from that moment until a later one.

“Once I had that theory, it was easy to reconstruct what must have happened. Hazel Tooms won the second place medal in the tennis finals. She went down to Wentworth’s yacht to be congratulated. Knowing what we do of Wentworth, we can be sure that his idea of congratulations would require the use of lipstick by Hazel Tooms after those congratulations were received. When she had repaired the damage, she put the medal and the lipstick on the shelf in the cabin.

“Wentworth then told her of his plan to sail to Ensenada that night and asked her if she’d like to go with him. She was delighted but pointed out that she’d have to get some clothes and that they needed some provisions. So she left the Pennwent, drove home to pack, and on the way back stopped to pick up the provisions.

“During the time she was gone, you, Mae, boarded the Pennwent and had your struggle with Wentworth. Eversel boarded the boat and took the photograph of Wentworth in a compromising position, then left. Anders boarded the boat to rescue you. Then you two left.

“Some time after that, probably not long after, Hazel Tooms returned with the provisions, boarded the Pennwent, and she and Wentworth set sail for Ensenada.

“Wentworth was undoubtedly angry and upset. He knew he had been photographed. He reacted instinctively by doubling up and covering his face. He could guess that that photograph might make it very much more difficult for him to arrange a divorce on reasonable terms when he met his wife the next morning. He probably told Hazel Tooms all about it.

“Whether or not Wentworth had promised to marry Hazel if and when he got his freedom, I think Hazel assumed that was his intention and he made it plain that was a ridiculous assumption. For whatever reason, she was filled with murderous rage. He was probably sitting there laughing at her when she pulled the gun and shot him.

“She thought she’d killed him outright. The impact of the bullet must have knocked him out before he came to and wandered around. And she had to get off the boat. I believe she carried one of those canvas bags people take aboard instead of suitcases — just as I believe she always carried a gun in case one of the yachtsmen she picked up got too rough. I think she took off her clothes, stuffed them in the bag along with the tennis medal, the lipstick, and the gun, set the automatic pilot on the course for Ensenada if that hadn’t already been done, dove overboard with the bag, and swam ashore.

“At first, I couldn’t understand why she would have taken along the murder weapon instead of dumping it overboard. Then I put myself in her place and realized what she was up against. She’d arrive on shore naked at some strange place. She’d have to put on her wet clothes and find some motorist who would pick her up as a hitchhiker and take her to within walking distance of the Yacht Club where she had left her car. As a matter of protection, she decided to keep her revolver with her.

“She got back to the Yacht Club in time to see Mae Farr coming in aboard the Atina. Then she went home. The next morning, in the news coverage of the murder, she learned where Anders had thrown his gun. She drove down and ‘planted’ the murder weapon. Sometime that morning she also told Frank Marley about seeing Mae Farr bringing in the Atina .”

“That’s quite a reconstruction, Perry,” Paul Drake said, “but I still don’t see how you can figure that a normal, well balanced, athletic girl like Hazel Tooms would commit murder.”

“She might have fooled me if it hadn’t been for one thing, Paul.”

“What’s that?”

“No matter what other facts we may get by surmise, one fact stands out as absolutely true. The person who killed Wentworth took the murder weapon down to the place where Anders had thrown his gun and planted it in hopes that it would clinch the case against Anders. In other words, the murderer was quite willing to send Anders up for a life sentence or a death penalty for a crime he hadn’t committed. That showed that the person who had done the killing knew that there was some possibility a subsequent investigation might be made, that that person might be suspected, and strove to forestall both the investigation and the suspicion by deliberately trying to build up an iron clad case against Anders.”