Erle Gardner - The Case of the Haunted Husband

There was no one in the corridor.

“I heard someone,” she said. “Someone was turning the knob, very slowly and stealthily. The door was sliding open.”

Mason frowned. “I am afraid you have ruined everything.”

“I am sorry.”

“It is as much my fault as yours. And as for carrying that gun — you are foolish. Your life is in danger but it is nothing you can ward off with a gun. The persons who are after you are far too clever to be disposed of that way.

“Now, look here, you are nervous, unstrung, and hysterical. Go to your family physician and ask him to give you a narcotic which will make you sleep for at least twenty-four hours. How long since you have slept?”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “Not more than an hour or two since...” Her face was distorted by a spasm. “I can’t get it out of my mind! I can’t. I can’t! I am going to be next. I know it. I have been followed. I have been...”

Mason said, “Mrs. Greeley, I want you to go see a doctor right now. I can’t give you any more time now. Promise me you will go to your doctor at once. Will you do that?”

His hand patted her shoulder.

Her eyes blinked up at him through tears. “Mr. Mason, you are absolutely wonderful. I shall go at once.”

She took a deep breath, and tried to smile. “I am sorry I lost control,” she said. “Good-bye, Mr. Mason.”

“Good-bye.”

Mason closed and locked the door. Some thirty minutes later, in response to another knock, he tiptoed to stand on one side of the door so that a bullet sent crashing through the panels would miss him.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Tragg.”

“I don’t recognize your voice.”

“What is the idea?” Tragg asked. “Can’t you...”

Mason unlocked the door. “I just wanted to be sure.”

“Why all the caution?”

“I am expecting the murderer to call on me.”

“So I gathered. What is the idea?”

Mason dropped into a chair, lit a cigarette. “Mrs. Warfield came to this hotel. She didn’t stay in her room that night.”

“Certainly not. She went to Greeley’s room. I found her baggage there.”

“Where did she go after that?” Mason asked.

“She stayed right there.”

“After shooting Greeley?”

“Yes. Why not?”

“She couldn’t be certain someone hadn’t heard the shot.”

“No, of course not,” Tragg admitted, “but it didn’t sound like a shot. Two or three people heard the noise, but thought it was a car exhaust.”

“She, of course, had no way of knowing that.”

“What are you getting at?”

“She didn’t leave the hotel until the next morning.”

“She stayed there in the room, with Greeley’s body?”

“Why not?”

“The bed wasn’t slept in. She would hardly be down with a corpse and go to sleep.”

“And she would hardly sit up all night in the room with a dead man. Granted that she has a pretty strong stomach, it is still asking too much.”

“What did she do?” Tragg asked.

“Spent the night in another room.”

“Whose?”

Mason shrugged. “There are a lot of things about this case that can’t be proved — yet. But, Tragg, we know what the answer is, and if there is anything wrong with my reasoning, point it out.”

“All right, go ahead.”

“When I realized what must have happened here at the hotel, I had Drake look up the registrations. Two single rooms were rented within fifteen minutes of the time Mrs. Warfield registered. One was to a man who answered the description of the driver of the car. So I didn’t bother with the other. I realize now I should have.”

“Who was the other?”

“A woman. Don’t you get it?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Mrs. Warfield must have spent the night with that woman.”

“But her baggage was in Greeley’s room...”

“Certainly,” Mason said. “Mrs. Warfield registered and went to her room, then she went back to the lobby to try and pick up some back numbers of Photoplay Magazine. I had shown her a photograph of Homan. I asked her if it wasn’t her husband or Spinney. She had been trying to locate Spinney — to find out who he really was. She thought this was Spinney’s picture. Through him, she thought she could reach her husband. When she found she couldn’t get the magazine she wanted, she returned to her room. Greeley was probably there waiting for her.”

“You think Greeley was Spinney?”

“Yes.”

“Then who was her husband?”

“Greeley.”

“I don’t get you.

“Greeley created Spinney out of thin air to give himself a go-between.”

“Go ahead,” Tragg said.

“Now Greeley takes Mrs. Warfield down to his room. Naturally, he takes her baggage along. Remember he is her husband, and she is crazy about him.”

“You think he was waiting for her when she got back from the lobby?”

“Sure. Otherwise she would have at least washed up and used the soap and a towel. All right, now we have got Mrs. Warfield in Greeley’s room. He makes the mistake of trying to confess and ask her forgiveness. In place of that, he gets a bullet in his brain. Mrs. Warfield has been through too much to do any forgiving. She has been working to the limit of her endurance, and sending every cent she could possibly spare to a man whom she loved. When she finds out he has been deliberately milking her of money so she wouldn’t have enough carfare to come to the Coast and investigate...”

“All right, she shot him,” Tragg interrupted. “Then what?”

“She goes back to her room, prepares to make an escape. That’s when the woman found her.”

“Who was the woman?”

“Mrs. Greeley.”

“What?”

“Yes. It must have been.”

“And what did Mrs. Greeley want?”

“Mrs. Greeley was suspicious. She didn’t have proof — not then. She wanted to pump Mrs. Warfield.”

“What happened?”

“Mrs. Warfield recognized a marvelous opportunity to escape. She strung Mrs. Greeley along, stayed with her that night, and calmly walked out in the morning.”

“That’s a pretty fancy story.”

“It checks with the evidence. Mrs. Greeley is in love with Jules Homan. In Hollywood, they handle those things very nicely. The husband steps aside. There is a quiet divorce, and the parties marry. But Greeley wasn’t of the Hollywood crowd. He became suspicious and wanted to hook Homan for big damages for alienation of affections. Homan couldn’t stand that. It would hurt his business career.”

“How do you get all this?” Tragg asked.

Mason said, “Homan must have been driving that car Tuesday. Mrs. Greeley must have been with him on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. That’s the only way you can put the evidence together so it fits. They left Beverly Hills Tuesday, went to a mountain cabin which Homan owns in the mountains back of Fresno. You will probably find the third key on that ring fits the lock on that cabin. Those were Homan’s keys, an extra set he kept for his expeditions with Mrs. Greeley when he could get away — sometimes on the yacht, sometimes up to this mountain cabin.”

Tragg said, “I think it is cuckoo, but I shall hear the rest of it.”

“Tanner, the chauffeur, had been bribed by Greeley to act as his spy. Greeley was in San Francisco taking the identity of Spinney for the purpose of keeping Mrs. Warfield where he wanted her. He knew, of course, that it must be during his trips to San Francisco that Homan was taking advantage of his absence. Tanner telephoned Greeley in San Francisco twice. The first time, he told Greeley that Homan had taken the car and left. The second time that Homan hadn’t gone to the yacht, and, therefore, must be in the cabin back of Fresno. And at least once Greeley telephoned Tanner at Homan’s residence.”