Эрл Гарднер - The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith

“Indeed, no,” Leith observed. “I’d be interested to know what did happen.”

“As though you didn’t know,” Ackley said. “I tell you Alcott has confessed. They took him into Betcher’s suite in the hotel. He was given the twenty-five one-thousand-dollar bills there, and he knew, of course, they’d keep him under surveillance until he had gone to Judge Mandeville’s chambers. But Alcott’s pretty slick. He managed to get one of the pieces of adhesive tape off of the bandage on his head. He was sitting on the bed in Betcher’s suite at the time. He got his knife out of his pocket. While they were checking and listing the numbers on the bills, he pushed back the end of the pillowcase and cut a small slit in the end of the pillow. When they handed him the twenty-five one-thousand-dollar bills, he took them with his right hand, folded them, and then surreptitiously slipped them into his left hand. He had already planted twenty-five one-dollar bills in his left coat sleeve. He managed to substitute those bills and then put them ostentatiously in his pocket. He shoved the twenty-five one-thousand-dollar bills into the opening in the pillow, put the piece of adhesive tape over the cut in the pillow, and pulled back the pillowslip. He intended to watch his opportunity, return, and pick up the twenty-five thousand dollars.

“The thing that betrayed him was a white feather from the inside of the pillow. In pulling the adhesive tape from his bandage, he got some of the adhesive stuck to his fingers. That caused one of the white feathers from the inside of the pillow to stick to his fingers and get folded in with the one-dollar bills. Later on, when the one-dollar bills were found in his wallet, the white feather was among them. He knew that he had to think fast and explain away that feather. Otherwise, it would furnish a clue to the entire business. So he handed out a cock-and-bull story about it being a lucky piece that he had carried for some time.”

Leith’s eyes showed interest.

“That’s very interesting, Sergeant,” he said. “Now, would you mind telling me how it concerns me?”

“You know how it concerns you. You went to a lot of trouble to set the stage for a nice little act which you staged in Betcher’s apartment this afternoon. You went up there with a pillow under your clothes. You arranged things so that you had a few minutes alone in Betcher’s room. Those few minutes were sufficient for you to identify the pillow that had the twenty-five thousand dollars in it. You couldn’t take the time there to search around in the feathers and find the roll of bills, so you simply switched pillows! You took the one which you had used as padding and placed it on Betcher’s bed, took the one on Betcher’s bed which was sealed up with a piece of adhesive tape and put it inside of your clothes as padding, and then went down the hall to terminate your ‘employment’ of Betcher. You did the whole thing so elaborately no one suspected that your real purpose was to have a few minutes alone in Betcher’s room in the hotel.”

Lester Leith nodded. “Sergeant,” he said, “I admire much of your deductive reasoning. As it happens, this time you’re a lot closer to the true facts of the case than is ordinarily the case. To be frank with you, Sergeant, I noticed the discrepancy between the condition of that feather and Alcott’s story as soon as I saw his picture in the paper. Then when I saw the picture taken after he was booked and noticed that one of the strips of adhesive tape was missing, I thought that it was quite possible that he had concealed the money in a pillow somewhere, and that the white feather had stuck to his fingers when he pulled it out.

“However, Sergeant, my interest in crime is only academic. It’s that of a student. The practical application of my theories to a solution of the crime has no particular charm for me.

“However, it did occur to me that Betcher might perhaps be a crook, and I suggested the matter to Scuttle, my valet. He thought that Betcher was quite honest. The thing got to a point where we laid a wager on it, and I believe that you—”

“That’s enough,” Sergeant Ackley interrupted. “We’re not interested in anything about that. We have a search warrant. We’re going to search your apartment, and if we find a pillow with adhesive tape on it—”

“Just a moment, Sergeant,” Captain Carmichael said. “I think Mr. Leith’s comments constitute damaging admissions. I think we should hear him out. Do you admit, Mr. Leith, that you posed as Mr. Randerman, and that you and Mrs. Randerman went to all that elaborate buildup for the purpose of making contact with Betcher?”

“Certainly,” Leith said.

Captain Carmichael frowned. “I’m afraid,” he said, “you’re going to have some difficulty explaining that.”

“Oh, not at all,” Leith said. “It’s simply the result of a wager. Sergeant Ackley knows all about it. In fact, he’s a party to the wager.”

Sergeant Ackley said, “I can explain it all, Captain. But this isn’t the time.”

“In fact,” Leith said, “I have already paid the wager to my valet, and I have reason to believe that he’s passed Sergeant Ackley’s share on to him.”

Captain Carmichael frowned. “Is that true, Sergeant?” he asked.

“Well,” Sergeant Ackley said, “it was a private matter, and—”

“Private matter!” Captain Carmichael roared. “It would make the department the laughing-stock of the newspapers, and why the devil didn’t you report it?”

“I didn’t think it was—”

“I know why you didn’t report it,” Captain Carmichael said. “You wanted to chisel twenty-five dollars.”

“At the time,” Sergeant Ackley said, “I thought it was best. I—”

“I notice there was nothing about that wager mentioned in your reports... Get busy, men. You have a search warrant. Look through these pillows and see if you can find one which has been cut, and the cut repaired with adhesive tape.”

Lester Leith said, in a slow drawl, “Of course, Captain, you know this is an inexcusable outrage. I should resent it, only I’m rather tired tonight, and being resentful consumes a lot of energy, don’t you think?”

Captain Carmichael said nothing.

Sergeant Ackley, who had popped into the bedroom, let out a whoop of delight. He returned to the living room, holding up a pillow in one end of which a small cut had been patched up with a piece of adhesive tape. “This is it!” he shouted. “This will convict him. This is all the evidence we need.”

Leith said, “That’s nonsense, Sergeant. I told you that white feather had caused me to wonder about Alcott. In the privacy of my own apartment I made an experiment to determine whether a small hole in a pillow could be plugged with adhesive tape taken from a bandage. I found that it could.”

Sergeant Ackley said gloatingly, “You’ll have a chance to tell that to the jury. This is the same pillow which was taken from Betcher’s hotel. I can swear to it. I’ve seen the pillows. I can identify them. Now then, you supercilious crook, laugh that off.”

One of the detectives who had entered Beaver’s bedroom came running into the living room, carrying a pillow. “I’ve found it, Captain,” he said.

There was grim silence while the detective peeled back the pillowcase to show a second pillow with a cut covered with adhesive tape.

“Any other pillows?” Captain Carmichael asked dryly.

The detective said, “Gosh, Captain, I didn’t look. I found this one. It was the first one I looked at, and—”

“Look at the others,” Captain Carmichael said.

The crestfallen Sergeant Ackley and the other detectives returned to their search. In the next five minutes they uncovered six pillows. Each one had been cut, and the cut patched with adhesive tape.