Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Backward Mule

“Well, about over in here,” Clane said.

“All right, you were standing over there. Now you reached down in your pockets and took out some money and paid the cab?”

“That’s right.”

“How much was the amount of the bill?”

Clane suddenly realized the trap into which he had been led. Inspector Malloy would subsequently check up on the exact distance from a point within two or three blocks of his apartment to this warehouse. Clane, having recently arrived from the Orient, being unfamiliar with present taxicab rates and not knowing the distance, would be certain to blunder in case he had not come in a taxicab.

Clane’s mind raced to meet the situation. He answered Malloy’s question with no apparent hesitancy. “I don’t know, Inspector. I gave the man a bill and told him to keep the change.”

“A bill?”

“That’s right.”

“What kind of a bill? Dollar bill? Two-dollar bill? Five-dollar bill?”

“A two-dollar bill.”

“Well, well, well, well,” Inspector Malloy said. “That’s generous of you. The fare probably wouldn’t have been that much.”

“I didn’t think it would be, but didn’t know.”

“You didn’t look at the meter?”

“No, I didn’t. I was thinking about something else and just got out and handed the man a two-dollar bill.”

“Well now, that’s a point, Mr. Clane. You see now why I told you that no detail was too small. We might have had some trouble finding the cab driver who drove you down here. But the way you handed him a two-dollar bill and told him to keep the change, we shouldn’t have any difficulty. Lots of people consider two-dollar bills bad luck, you know. A cabby wouldn’t refuse to take it, but he’d change it into something else first chance he had. That’s a break for us, Mr. Clane. A two-dollar bill, and told him to keep the change. That shows how it is in this game. You just can’t overlook anything, no matter how small it is. You see what you’ve done? You’ve given us an excellent means of finding that cab driver. That’ll be a break for you because he’ll substantiate your story. Now you gave him a two-dollar bill and told him to be on his way?”

“That’s right.”

“Now why did you come here in the first place?”

“Because Mr. Gloster asked me to meet him here.”

“Asked you to meet him here? Now that’s strange. Rather a peculiar place for an appointment, isn’t it?”

“I thought it was after I arrived.”

“That’s right. The lights weren’t on, you said?”

“No, they weren’t on.”

“District was all dark?”

“Yes.”

“And you were certain Gloster had told you to meet him here?”

“That was the address he had given me.”

“And how did he ask you?”

“Over the telephone.”

“Over the telephone. Know what time that call came in?”

“No, I don’t. It was some time after eleven.”

“About how long before you got here?”

“Oh, within say twenty minutes.”

“Within twenty minutes. Now where was he telephoning from?”

“He didn’t say.”

“But you assumed he was telephoning from here?”

“Well, I didn’t know. He had told me to meet him here and I told him I would.”

“Quite friendly with him, were you?”

“No, I was not friendly with him.”

“Not hostile to him, were you? Surely you didn’t have anything against the man?”

“No.”

“Just more or less indifferent?”

“More or less.”

“Well, which is it? More? or less?”

Clane laughed and said, “It’s neither. I was just indifferent to the man.”

“But you knew him?”

“Yes, I knew him.”

“And you’d got off the boat from China this afternoon, I believe?”

“That’s right.”

“And then had a session with the police. That was unfortunate. I’m sorry about that. Do you know the first thing I said when I heard that they’d grabbed you at the dock and taken you up for questioning? I said, ‘That’s too bad. That really is. Here’s Mr. Clane just arrived from China. He’s been away from this country for a long time and there are people he wants to see and... well, it’s just too bad, that’s all’.”

Clane waited, knowing that Malloy would give him no respite from the flow of seemingly innocent questions which were, nevertheless, designed to trap Clane into such a position that the incongruity of his statements would soon become apparent.

Knowing Inspector Malloy’s technique from previous experience, Clane sought to take advantage of every second’s lull in the conversation to think ahead.

“So you got off here and found that this man Gloster wasn’t here and paid off the cab.”

“That’s right.”

“Didn’t the cab driver ask if you wanted him to wait?”

“Yes.”

“And you told him no?”

“That’s right.”

“You’re a brave man, Mr. Clane. But then I suppose you’ve been in lots of tough places in your life, and a dark section of a big city doesn’t hold any particular terrors for you. But as you so aptly pointed out, a person would have to walk perhaps for a mile or two in order to find any telephone down here, and it’s pretty dark and deserted. Not the sort of district you’d pick out for an evening stroll, is it?”

“No.”

“And yet, despite the facts that you had an appointment with Gloster, that Gloster apparently wasn’t here to keep that appointment, that twenty minutes had elapsed from the time Gloster had telephoned you and he still wasn’t here, and the building was dark, and the district seemed to be deserted, you let the cab driver go?”

“That’s right. You see, I felt certain Mr. Gloster would be here.”

“You knew he was a man of his word, eh?”

“I thought he’d be.”

“A great deal of confidence to have in a man you hardly knew. I believe you said you hardly knew him?”

“I knew him. I wasn’t particularly friendly, but I wasn’t unfriendly. I just knew him.”

“Just a matter of indifference, I take it.”

“That’s right.”

“We’ve been all over that before, haven’t we? Ha, ha. We keep going around in circles. Well, let’s get away from that circle. Now did you notice this automobile parked over here when you drove up?”

“I did.”

“Did it occur to you that that might be Gloster’s automobile?”

“I didn’t think very much about it one way or the other.”

“Well, it’s his automobile.”

“Yes, I assume now that it must have been. Unless Gloster came here by cab.”

“That’s right. That’s Gloster’s automobile. It was parked there, right in that same position when you arrived?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s fine. Then we know that Gloster must have been here and lying dead in that office while you were out here paying off the cab driver. Giving him a two-dollar bill and telling him to keep the change. That’s right, isn’t it, Mr. Clane?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, then we may assume that the cab bill was less than two dollars. Probably less than a dollar seventy-five. If it had been more than a dollar seventy-five, the cab driver would have told you about it. He’d have wanted more than a two-bit tip. Well, perhaps more than a dollar and eighty cents. So we’ll assume that from the place you came to this place the bill was less than a dollar and eighty cents, and you let the cab driver go. All right, we’re that far. Now you watched the cab drive away, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. I started right for the door of the Eastern Art Import and Trading Company here.”

“Started right for the door?”

“That’s right.”