Ed McBain - Three Blind Mice

“Ned?”

“Jessie’s brother. Our manager. Ned Weaver.”

“Your manager is…?”

“Yes, my brother-in-law. My wife’s maiden name was Weaver. Jessie Weaver. Ned’s been working for us ever since…”

There was a slight pause. Hardly long enough to notice — unless you were listening for that single sharp, piercing note.

“.. last summer,” Leeds said.

Matthew looked at him.

Their eyes met.

What? Matthew thought.

What’s here?

“So you feel it isn’t necessary to lock the doors,” he said. “With your brother-in-law living in the guesthouse.”

“He’s a very big man,” Leeds said.

“How far away is the guesthouse?”

“Down the end of the road.”

“How far is that?”

“Two, three hundred yards.”

“Then… if the doors were unlocked… someone could have got in, isn’t that so? Without Ned hearing them?”

“Well, I suppose so. But you don’t think something like that’s going to happen, you know. Someone breaking into the house…”

“Or just walking in, actually, if the doors were unlocked.”

“Yes, but you don’t think of that out in the country.”

“I suppose not. Mr. Leeds, when you took your car in for service… the Cadillac…”

“Yes?”

“Did you leave them your keys?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Which keys?”

“Well, my key chain.”

“Were your house keys on that chain?”

“Well… come to think of it, yes, I suppose they were.”

“You left your house keys at the garage?”

“Well… yes. I’ve been taking it to the same place for the past God knows how long. I trust those people completely.”

“You trust them with your house keys?”

“I’m sure Jimmy doesn’t leave keys out in the open. I’m sure he’s got this metal box he puts them in. Hanging on the wall. With a lock on it.”

“Jimmy who?”

“Farrell. He owns the garage.”

“What’s the name of the garage?”

“Silvercrest Shell. On the Trail near the Silvercrest Mall.”

“Any other keys on that ring? Beside your car keys and your house keys?”

“Well, the keys to Jessie’s car, too, I guess.”

Matthew looked at him.

“It’s a hard ring to get keys on and off of,” Leeds said.

Matthew kept looking at him.

“Well, it is.”

“So what we’ve got here,” Matthew said, “is a situation where anyone could have taken those keys from the garage…”

“No, I’m sure Jimmy locks them up.”

“But if someone did get hold of them, he could have got into your house even if the doors were locked …”

“Well, yes, I…”

“… and then driven away in your wife’s Maserati.”

“Yes. I suppose so.”

“How many people knew you’d taken your car in for service?”

“I really don’t know. I spoke about it, I guess…”

“To friends?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“I really do want that list, Mr. Leeds. Who else would have known?”

“Well, everyone on the farm. The people who work for me. They’d have known the Caddy was gone. But I don’t think they’d have known where it was. The garage I took it to. They couldn’t have known that.”

“Your boat key wasn’t on that key ring, was it?”

“No, no.”

“I didn’t think it’d be. What have you got? One of these little flotation key chains…?”

“Yes, shaped like a buoy…”

“The kind that comes apart?”

“Yes.”

“So you can put your registration inside it.”

“Yes. Red and white.”

“Mine’s green and white. Where do you keep that key, Mr. Leeds?”

“In my study. At the farm.”

“Where is that? The study?”

“Just to the left of the entrance door. You take two steps down, and you’re in the study.”

“And the key would be where?”

“On a brass key holder fastened to the wall. Alongside the door leading out to the garage. We keep the car keys on it and also the boat keys.”

“Any spares to that boat key?”

“One.”

“Where?”

“At the marina. In case they have to move the boat.”

“And those are the only boat keys? The one on the wall in your study and the one at the marina?”

“Yes.”

“After you took the boat out on the afternoon of the murders… did you put that key back in your study?”

“Yes.”

“Would you know if it’s still there?”

“How could I? I was arrested the next morning.”

“Would Jessica know where to find that key if I asked her?”

“I’m sure she would. It’s right on the wall.”

“Who else knows where you keep that key?”

“You have to understand…”

“Yes?”

“Whenever we invited friends on the boat, they’d come to the farm first. We’d gather there, do you see?”

“Yes?”

“And the last thing I’d do before we left for the marina was take that key off the wall. I’m sure any number of people saw where I kept it. It wasn’t a secret. It was just the key to the boat.” Leeds shrugged. “I mean… you don’t expect something like this to happen.”

“No, you don’t,” Matthew said.

You don’t expect murder to happen, he thought. Only when it happens do the keys to a boat and a house and a red Maserati become important. Only when it happens do you realize that any number of people could have gained entrance to a house as accessible as the Gulf of Mexico. And taken a boat key and a car key from that house. And driven off to the Riverview Marina in the red Maserati Stubbs later saw. Any number of people. Which was the same thing as saying anybody . And when you had anybody , you had nobody .

Matthew sighed heavily.

“Mr. Leeds,” he said, “Patricia Demming came to…”

“Patricia Demming?”

“The State Attorney who’s…”

“Oh, yes.”

“She offered a deal,” Matthew said. “I’m obliged to tell you what the offer was.”

Leeds nodded, said nothing.

“You plead guilty to three counts of murder one…”

“I didn’t kill those men,” Leeds said.

“You plead guilty and the state will consolidate the three indictments and ask for a waiver of the penalty proceeding.”

“What does that mean?”

“They’ll agree to life imprisonment. If the judge goes for it.”

“I didn’t kill those men.”

“You’d be eligible for parole in twenty-five years.”

“I’d be sixty-six years old.”

“You’d be alive.”

“But I didn’t kill those men.”

“What shall I tell her?”

“Tell her to go to hell.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Matthew said. “Thank you.”

From a phone booth outside the Calusa Safety Building, Matthew dialed the State Attorney’s office number from memory and asked for Patricia Demming. It was several moments before her voice came on the line.

“Hi,” she said pleasantly.

“Hello, Patricia,” he said. “I just talked to my client.”

“And?”

“He says to tell you he didn’t kill those men. He doesn’t want your deal.”

“I’m sorry he feels that way,” she said.

She did sound genuinely sorry.

“It’s not what he feels ,” Matthew said, “it’s what he knows . He did not kill those men.”

“We think otherwise,” Patricia said.

“Yes, that’s why there are courts of law,” Matthew said.

“Well, fine,” she said, her voice going suddenly harsh. “You prove it in a court of law, okay?”

“You’ve got it backward, Patricia. You’re the one who has to prove…”