Эрл Гарднер - The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith

The spy tried another approach. “Of course, sir,” he said, with a cunning gleam in his eye, “any man of ordinary intelligence could point out the probable criminal in live cases out of ten. The police, however, have a different problem. They have to prove that a man is guilty.”

Leith said, almost musingly, “After all, Scuttle, why not? The crime has everything to challenge the imagination of the investigator: Oriental background, fabulous pearls, a mysterious disappearance, and— Yes, Scuttle, I will commission you to do it.”

“To do what, sir?”

“To go through the newspapers and note every single fact about the crime.”

The spy’s eyes lit up. “Yes, sir. When shall I start?”

“Right now,” Leith said. “And by the way, Scuttle...”

“Yes, sir.”

“I notice that Mr. Sansone has a Chinese secretary.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Find out about her. Get a full description of the pearls. I think Mr. Shogiro stated they were the duplicate of a string which has been illustrated in some publication on the museum pieces of China. Find out whether Peter Grier speaks Chinese, and whether Frank Thoms, the big game hunter, intends to go to Alaska this fall for Kodiac grizzly. And, oh, yes, find out if Shogiro has given up his proposed trip to Europe. As I remember it, he intended to sail the middle of the month.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And get me the address of every manufacturer in the city who handles equipment for amateur magicians.”

The spy blinked.

“And,” Leith said, “I think that is all — for the moment.”

Lester Leith strolled into the newspaper office with a want ad.

“Help Wanted — Female,” he said to the young woman behind the counter. “Run this ad in a box so that it will attract considerable attention.”

She read it through, then glanced quickly at Leith. “It will cost a lot,” she explained.

“Quite all right,” he assured her.

She counted the words, made a note of the total, and then looked at the hundred-dollar bill which Leith took from his pocket and slipped across the counter. She opened the cash drawer, made change, and handed him a receipt.

“I want the earliest possible publication,” he said.

“Yes, sir.”

She followed him with her eyes as he left the office, then hastily beckoned to the girl on her left. “Gosh, Mamie,” she said, “don’t you wish you were Chinese?”

“Shucks, no,” the girl said, patting her hair. “Who was the swell, Gert?”

“Read it,” Gertrude said, handing Leith’s copy over to Mamie. “He wants a Chinese secretary who is young and free to travel. He wants someone who knows Chinese history and who has a college education. He offers to pay six hundred dollars a month and all traveling expenses... Think of working for a guy like him and getting six hundred bucks a month for it!”

Meanwhile, Leith took a taxi to one of the largest bookstores. “I want some of your best books,” he said, “on legerdemain.”

And while this was happening, Beaver sat closeted with Sergeant Ackley at police headquarters. Ackley worried the stump of a cold cigar as he listened, his forehead puckered into a prodigious frown.

When the undercover man had finished, Ackley said, “Listen, Beaver, if we could put this thing across, we could make a clean-up. Shogiro has offered a reward of five thousand bucks and no questions asked.”

The undercover man whistled.

Sergeant Ackley said, “I’ll get you the file, and you can go over it. Don’t let him get away on this, Beaver. This is the biggest thing we’ve ever tackled. If we could nail him, and at the same time get that necklace, we could kill two birds with one stone. Think of what you could do with twenty-five hundred bucks in cold, hard cash.”

The undercover man sighed.

“Don’t overlook Charles Sansone in this thing,” Sergeant Ackley said. “The facts point to him as the slicker, although he’s fired his Chinese secretary — a nice way of diverting suspicion from himself.”

“Why?” Beaver asked. “That is, what reason does he give for firing her?”

“Seems she’d violated instructions. Sansone told her to clear out and not come back until after the dinner. He had his eye on that necklace — wanted to buy it from Shogiro. Shogiro wanted to sell it. They were doing a little trading on the price. Apparently, the necklace is a pip, in addition to which it was worn by the Empress Dowager of China and has a lot of history attached to it... By the way, what’s all this stuff about the amateur magic?”

“Hanged if I know,” Beaver said. “You know what he does when he starts working on a case. He gets a lot of goofy stuff together. Some of it’s important, some of it isn’t — but it all fits in some way.”

“Well,” Sergeant Ackley chuckled, “this is once he’ll come a cropper. He hasn’t any head start on us this time. We’re in on the ground floor.”

Lester Leith eyed the Chinese girl thoughtfully. Her skin was smooth as old ivory. The eyes were slightly slanted. She was in her late twenties, and her voice had that delicacy of expression which is indicative of a race which must have vocal cords so finely trained, and an ear so delicately receptive, as to distinguish any one of the eight tones in which a syllable of the Chinese language may be spoken.

She said, very casually, “There are not a great number of Chinese girls in this country who know both the Chinese written and spoken language, have first-hand experience with their native land, and possess a degree from a Western university.”

“I daresay that is right.”

Her eyes glittered in a swift survey of his face, but her face remained blank. “One might almost have thought,” she said, “that the advertisement was intended to single me out.”

Leith said, “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but anyone who did possess the rather unusual combination of qualifications could be pardoned for thinking so.”

“Then you pardon me?”

“Yes.”

There was the ghost of a twinkle in her eyes as she said, “Then I think so.”

Leith laughed. “All right,” he said. “Miss Foy, I acknowledge the guilt. To be perfectly frank with you, I read in the newspaper account of the theft of that necklace that you had been dismissed because of a violation of instructions.”

“My dismissal,” she said, “was unjust.”

“What happened?”

“My employer suggested that because he was desirous of purchasing the necklace, and because Mr. Shogiro would be suspicious if one of my race was a guest at the dinner, that it would be well to absent myself, not only from the dinner, but from the house.”

“You failed to do so?”

“I did exactly as he requested. Unfortunately, however, I discovered that I had lost some very valuable jade which my mother had given me. It was a pendant, and evidently the supporting ring had almost worn through. The pendant had caught on something, and all that was left was the chain.”

“So you returned to the house?” Lester Leith asked.

“I did. I tried to return in such a way that no one would notice. But I failed.”

“Did you find the jade?”

“Yes. It had caught on one of the drapes in my bedroom and had dropped to the floor.”

“What sort of chap is Sansone?” Leith asked.

She said, very calmly, “I’m afraid I do not understand. Is it not the purpose to ask the former employer concerning the character of the employee, rather than to to ask the employee about the character of her former employer?”

Leith said, “Doubtless that is the custom, but I asked the question for a very particular purpose.”

“He is a gentleman,” Mah Foy said.

Leith drummed with the tips of his fingers on the table. “If perhaps he had thought that a theft would occur while Shogiro was at his house, and wished to protect you, he might have been been shrewd and considerate enough to suggest that you arrange a perfect alibi for yourself.”