Джон Макдональд - A Key to the Suite

“Hubbard told me about ten times. He was shook,” Al said.

“But,” Brewhane continued, “we could rush around trying to add up two and two and get nine and create a hell of a lot of stir and confusion and find out in the end we just didn’t have enough to go on, and all we would succeed in doing is hurting a lot of people for no good reason. We could jump too fast at little things like Daniels not wearing his shoes, and the fresh gouges on his shoulder, and the woman’s shower cap being on backwards, and come up with some cute theory about Daniels killing her and making it look like a shower-bath accident, and then trying to leave by way of the terrace and slipping.” He turned to give Amory a prolonged, sleepy stare. “And even though we might get no place at all checking all that out, Amory, we might have to go through the motions if somebody agitates us to keep looking.”

Amory glanced sidelong at Emper, and knew this was the crucial moment. He tried to keep his tension hidden. “Mr. Daniels was a Chicago sales executive, Captain. All his friends were disturbed about his heavy drinking. Mr. Mulaney told me that Mrs. Daniels was also very upset about it. By the way, Mr. Mulaney phoned her from my office long distance and broke the terrible news to her. He said she seemed stunned, but at the same time she acted as if she’d expected something like this to happen. And certainly Mr. Daniels’ employers are not going to want to pursue this any further. I’m sure the company would be most happy to have it all handled as quietly as possible. Mr. Frick suddenly remembered Daniels complaining about feeling dizzy and nauseated earlier in the evening. I’ve always felt those terrace railings were a little too low, actually.”

Brewhane nodded. “But the woman is local. That could be something else again, couldn’t it?”

Amory spoke slowly, selecting his wording with extreme care. “I took the liberty of helping Lieutenant Farrier check her out, Captain. She was working on a freelance magazine assignment. She was a divorcée, living alone.”

“Next of kin?”

“I took the liberty of making a phone call, with Lt. Farrier’s permission. I called a woman I had reason to believe might know her. A Mrs. Alma Bender.”

The Captain’s eyes widened. “Well, well, well,” he said softly.

“Mrs. Bender says that as far as she knows there’s no next of kin close enough to have any particular interest in the Barlund woman, dead or alive. Mrs. Bender says that the Barlund woman was only a casual acquaintance, but that she would be willing to... take over the arrangements for burial and so forth, provided it’s just a routine case of accidental death. Because she was only an acquaintance, Mrs. Bender doesn’t feel that she should get involved in anything which might get too much attention in the papers. She might not even be able to identify the body, if that’s the case. She’s waiting to hear.”

Brewhane looked at Alan Amory with a small gleam of humor. “Because of this relationship with Alma Bender, which you just happen to know about, Amory, would you care to make any guess about motive — if we got all carried away?”

Amory swallowed. “I don’t know what to say. It wouldn’t be robbery. Mr. Daniels was a successful man. And it could hardly be a rape murder, could it?”

Detective Farrier said, “The thing is, Bill, nobody is going to push.”

Peter Lipe spoke in a young, petulant voice. “It’s all very neat, isn’t it? You don’t even want to find out what actually happened, Captain, do you? Maybe somebody on the newspapers will be a little more anxious to add your two and two and see what...”

“We can go into it very thoroughly, young man,” Captain Brewhane said.

Amory had the horrid feeling that Lipe had spoiled it all. Rice Emper smiled and said, “You seem to be accusing Captain Brewhane of incompetence, Mr. Lipe. There’s a formal procedure you can follow, you know. Before you embark on anything so... so very dangerous, I suggest you take it up with your superior, John Swazey. I have every confidence he will give you sound advice. He is one of my oldest and closest friends.”

“All I meant was...”

“Nobody on any newspaper is going to get eager,” Amory said. “I kid you not. They know it wouldn’t get into print. Big hotels do too much advertising, Mr. Lipe. We do a hell of a lot more local advertising than makes sense — except in situations like this.”

“In a big hotel like this one,” Sergeant Milton Manning said in a heavy self-conscious voice, “the way I see it, you got two accidental deaths in one night, right? So it’s only natural to try to tie them up in one package, and there’s maybe twenty ways you could try to do it, but where the hell would you be even if it worked? Who gets jailed? Daniels has kids and a wife. Hubbard has got a wife and kids. He’s in the clear because he was sacked up with the blonde broad while whatever was going on was going on, but he would have to be brought into it on account of the key. So you end up with a hell of a lot of fuss and heartbreak over one dead flooze. That’s the way I see it. And, like the Captain said, maybe after all the fireworks, we can’t get any place anyway, after filling up the newspapers all over the country.”

Rick DiLarra cleared his throat and said uncertainly, “I may have made a terrible mistake. I really didn’t know there was any chance of it turning into some kind of an investigation. You see, I’ve had Mr. Hubbard’s things moved to a different room, and I had the woman’s things packed and sent down to the police morgue, and I told the housekeeper on eight to get some maids and clean up 847. I... I suppose they’re done by now.”

Amory managed to keep his sigh from being audible. He knew it was over. He knew by the expression on Captain Brewhane’s face. The Captain stood up and said, “We don’t have to go any further with this. I see no connection between the two accidental deaths. Amory, let’s go make a verbal statement to those reporters out there. Al, you go talk to your friend Frick and the others, tell them they’re free to go and put the fear of God into them about giving any interviews. Thanks for the drink and the cooperation, gentlemen.”

Hubbard looked up when Al Farrier walked into the office. Farrier was a burly man with small delicate features. He paused just inside the door and relighted a cigar and grinned at them.

“What’s the word, Al?” Fred Frick asked eagerly.

“Everything is all settled down nice. We got an accidental on both of them, and with the report I’ll write, the confirmation is automatic.”

“I gave him the key,” Hubbard said in a hopeless voice.

“So what? So maybe he used it. Maybe he didn’t. The thing is, she borrowed your room to get cleaned up, right? Twenty thousand people a year fall and kill themselves in bathrooms. It isn’t an unusual thing. And it’s all figured out that he couldn’t have landed where he did if he came off the terrace of 847.”

“What?” Hubbard asked. “What was that?”

“You don’t come into it in any way, Mister,” Farrier said.

“But I...”

“Shut up,” the blonde girl said. “Leave it alone. Honest to God, Floyd, for hours and hours you’ve been trying to put your ass in a sling. You want trouble? I sure don’t. I don’t want any part of anything. I want to go home. So kindly keep your fat mouth shut.”

“That’s a smart girl talking,” Fred said. “We all should leave it just the way it is. Right, Jesse?”

“Absolutely,” Jesse Mulaney said.

“Now all of you get one thing squared away,” Farrier said. “And this includes you, Fred. Anybody asks questions about this, you three men have been questioned on account of being with the same company as Daniels. Beyond that, you know nothing.”