Erle Gardner - The Case of the Rolling Bones

Harold Leeds said sullenly, “Gosh, Inez, I made absolutely certain no one was following me. How did I know I was going to walk into this guy?” indicating Mason with a jerk of his head. “I simply had to see you.”

Mason said, “Suppose you tell us all about it, Harold. Sit down where you can be comfortable, and get it off your chest. You’ll feel better then.”

“I have nothing to say,” Harold Leeds said, “particularly to you. If I talk, it will be to the district attorney.”

“That’s swell,” Mason said. “But first, young man, you’ll go on the witness stand as a witness for the defense. I’ll ask you why you went downstairs to John Milicant’s apartment, what your business dealings with Milicant were and why you deemed it necessary to kill him. You can answer those questions on the witness stand. Here’s a subpoena.”

With a flourish, Mason handed him a subpoena to appear as a witness for the defense in court at ten o’clock A.M. the next day. The young man, as one in a daze, extended a quivering hand to take the folded oblong of legal-looking paper.

Mason said to Paul Drake, “Okay, Paul, let’s go. Come on, Della. We have nothing more to do here.”

Leeds said, “Wait a minute. You can’t... can’t put me on the witness stand.”

“You just think I can’t,” Mason said.

“No! No! You can’t! I wouldn’t help your case any. I’d hurt it, and I can’t afford to get mixed up in this thing.”

“Why not?” Mason asked.

“Because... because I can’t.”

“That’s too bad,” Mason observed without sympathy, starting toward the door.

Inez Colton straightened in the chair. “Oh, go ahead and tell him, Harold,” she said. “What’s the use of trying to lie out of it now.”

Then, as Harold remained sullenly silent, she said to Mason, “All right. I’ll tell you if he won’t. Harold’s crazy about the ponies. He can’t keep away from them. Neither can I. I’m a married woman. I was married to a man who was a race track tout. We knew John Milicant, but we knew him as Louie Conway, a plunger. I met Harold out at the race track. I was having a squabble with my husband. Harold and I fell in love. I decided to leave my husband, and wanted some place to live where he’d never find me, because he’s just the type to make trouble. I spoke to Louie Conway, and asked him if he couldn’t get me a job. He could and he did. I took an apartment in the same building where he had an apartment. I went under the name of Inez Colton. Harold started calling on me, and one day he and Louie ran into each other in the elevator. Harold recognized Louie as John Milicant. Louie, of course, recognized him as Harold Leeds. That was all there was to it. Louie told Harold to keep quiet about what he knew. He was afraid his sister was going to find out what he was doing. Then when Harold found out that Alden Leeds had made a big check in favor of L. C. Conway... Well, Harold thought he should do something about it. Louie told him to come down and talk things over.

“Harold went down to his apartment.

“Milicant told a most amazing story. He said that he was actually entitled to a full one-half of all of the money Alden Leeds had ever made, that Alden Leeds secured his original start by stealing one-half of his fortune, that it all went back to the time when Leeds was in the Klondike, and...”

Mason, his eyes glinting with interest, said, “Are you, by any chance, going to say that Milicant claimed he was Bill Hogarty?”

Her face showed surprise.

“Yes,” she said, “that’s exactly what he did say and showed documents to prove it.”

“Where are those documents now?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know.”

Harold Leeds said sullenly, “He was Hogarty all right.”

“And Emily Milicant is his sister?” Mason asked.

“She’s no more his sister than I am,” Inez Colton said. “Up there in the Yukon, Leeds took possession of the cabin and all the grub. He beat up Hogarty and then drove him out of camp at the point of a gun, without blankets, without food, and, as he thought, without matches. Then Alden Leeds took all the gold, and mushed out to civilization. He was shrewd enough to take the name of Hogarty, making it seem that Leeds had been the one to disappear. That threw the authorities off the track. Hogarty almost died of cold and exposure. Leeds had hit him a terrific blow on the head in the fight which preceded his being driven out of camp. The fight was over Emily Milicant who had been Hogarty’s sweetheart. She was a Dawson dance hall girl.

“Hogarty decided not to complain to the authorities. He made up his mind he could let Leeds think him dead, that then, after Leeds had grown careless, he would track him down, and force an accounting.

“Leeds went to Seattle, met Emily Milicant, told her Hogarty was dead, and married her. He married her under the name of Hogarty. Then, in some way, Leeds found out Hogarty was on his trail, and ran away — vanished into thin air, leaving his wife behind him. The real Hogarty found the wife. There was an argument, of course, a period of hot words and accusations, then they made up. They lived together as man and wife for some time, then finally broke up, but remained good friends. She wanted to find Leeds. Hogarty wanted to find him and force an accounting. They finally discovered him. Leeds had again taken his real identity when he thought there was no further danger. That’s the way Hogarty told the story to Harold, the way Harold told it to me.”

Mason turned to Harold Leeds. “Is that,” he asked, “the truth?”

“That’s the truth,” Leeds said.

“What did you do?”

“What could I do? My hands were tied. Apparently, it was a matter between Hogarty and Uncle Alden. Hogarty said that Uncle Alden was willing to make out a settlement.”

“And you went down to see Milicant, or Hogarty or Conway, whatever you want to call him, the night of the murder?” Mason asked.

“Yes,” Harold Leeds said, in a voice which was almost inaudible.

“What time was it?”

“Right after Uncle Alden left.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw Uncle Alden leave the Conway apartment and walk down the corridor to the elevator.”

“Where were you?”

“I was coming down the stairs. The stairs are back toward the end of the corridor. I’d just reached the foot of the stairs when the door of the apartment opened, and Uncle Alden walked down the corridor to the elevator. He was moving very rapidly.”

“You didn’t speak to him?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“He seemed — well, nervous and upset — and I couldn’t explain to him about Inez. I didn’t want him to know I was... there in the building.”

“So what did you do?”

“After he’d gone down in the elevator, I went to the Conway apartment.”

“Knock on the door?” Mason asked.

“The door was slightly ajar, an inch or so. I knocked on it. There was no answer. I pushed the door open, and called Conway’s name. He’d asked me never to call him Hogarty, and not to refer to him as Milicant while he was there in that apartment. There was still no answer. The apartment had been searched. Papers were scattered about. There were some empty dishes on the table. Evidently, two people had eaten a hurried dinner, and...

“Why hurried?” Mason asked.

“Because places weren’t set at the table. The plates were placed just as they’d been left, with the knives and forks dumped on the tray. There was a pot that had contained coffee on the tray and two saucers. The cups were dirty.”

“The dishes weren’t piled up?” Mason asked.

“No, left just as though people had eaten hurriedly and dropped the dishes back into place.”