The Strange Case of Cavendish Page 5

  CHAPTER V: ON THE TRACK OF A CRIME

  In the city room of the _Star_, Farriss, the city editor, sat back inhis swivel chair smoking a farewell pipe preparatory to going home.The final edition had been put to bed, the wires were quiet, and as hesat there Farriss was thinking of plunging "muskies" in Maine streams.His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a clatter of footsteps, and,slapping his feet to the floor, he turned to confront Willis and MissDonovan.

  "Great God!" he started, at their appearance at so late an hour.

  Miss Donovan smiled at him. "No; great luck!"

  "Better than that, Mr. Farriss," echoed Willis. "We've got something;and we dug all week to get it."

  "But it cost us real money--enough to make the business office moan, Iexpect, too," Miss Donovan added.

  "Well, for Pete's sake, shoot!" demanded Farriss. "Cavendish, Isuppose?"

  The two nodded. Their eyes were alight with enthusiasm.

  "In the first place," said the girl, with grave emphasis, "FrederickCavendish did not die intestate as supposed. He left a will."

  Farriss blinked. "By God!" he exclaimed. "That's interesting. Therewas no evidence of that before."

  "I got that from the servants of the College Club," Willis interposed."The will was drawn the night before the murder. And the man that drewit was Patrick Enright of Enright and Dougherty. Cavendish took away acopy of it in his pocket. And, Mr. Farriss, I got something else,too--Enright and young John Cavendish are in communication further. Isaw him leaving Enright's office all excited. Following my hunch, Icultivated Miss Healey, Enright's stenographer, and learned that thetwo had an altercation and that it was evidently over some document."

  Farriss was interested.

  "Enright's in this deep," he muttered thoughtfully, "but how?Well--what else?"

  Stella Donovan began speaking now:

  "I fixed it with Chambers, the manager of the Fairmount, to get JosetteLa Baum--she's Valois's _fiancee_, you remember--into the hotel as amaid. Josette 'soaped the keyhole' of the drawers in John Cavendish'srooms there. I had a key made from the soap impression, and from thecontents of the correspondence we found I learned that Celeste La Rue,the blonde of the Revue, had got some kind of hold on him. It isn'tlove, either; it's something stronger. He jumps when she holds thehoop."

  "La Rue's mixed up in this deeply, too," Willis cut in. "Neither oneof us could shadow her without uncovering ourselves, so we hired anInternational operative. They cost ten dollars a day--and expenses.What he learned was this--that while she was playing with youngCavendish and seeing him almost daily, the lovely Celeste was also incommunication with--guess who!"

  "Enright?" Farriss ventured.

  "Exactly--Enright," he concluded, lighting his half-smoked cigarette.

  "Well," the city editor tapped his desk; "you two have done prettywell, so far. You've got considerable dope. Now, what do you make ofit?"

  He bent an inquiring gaze on both the girl and the youth.

  "You do the talking, Jerry," Miss Donovan begged Willis; "I'm verytired."

  Willis was only too eager; Willis was young, enthusiastic,reliable--three reasons why the _Star_ kept him.

  "It may be a dream," he said, smiling, "but here is the way I stack itup. The night after he quarrelled with John, Frederick Cavendishcalled in Enright and made a will, presumably, cutting John off withpractically nothing.

  "Immediately after Frederick's departure, Enright calls Carbon's Cafeand talks to John Cavendish, who had been dining there with Celeste LaRue.

  "It is reasonable to suppose that he told him of the will. Less thanfive hours afterward Frederick Cavendish is found dead in hisapartments. Again it is reasonable to suppose that he was croaked byJohn Cavendish, who wanted to destroy the will so that he could claimthe estate.

  "These Broadway boys need money when they travel with chorines.Anyhow, the dead man is buried, and John starts spending money likewater. One month later he receives a letter--Josette patched thepieces together--asking him to call at Enright's office.

  "What happened there is probably this: Young Cavendish was informed ofthe existence of the will, and it was offered to him at a price whichhe couldn't afford to pay--just then.

  "Perhaps he was frightened into signing a promise to pay as soon as hecame into the estate--tricked by Enright. Enright, as soon as he heardno will had been found in Frederick's effects, may have figured thatperhaps John killed him, or even if he did not, that, nevertheless, hecould use circumstances to extract money from the youngster, who, evenif innocent, would fear the trial and notoriety that would follow ifEnright publicly disclosed the existence of that will.

  "John Cavendish may be innocent, or he may be guilty, but one thing iscertain--he's being badgered to death by two people, from what littlewe know. One of them is the La Rue woman; the other is Enright.

  "Now I wonder--Mr. Farriss, doesn't it occur to you that they may beworking together like the woman and the man in the Skittles case lastyear? You remember then they got a youngster in their power and nearlytrimmed him down to his eye-teeth!"

  Farriss sat reflecting deeply, chewing the stem of his dead pipe.

  "There's something going on--that's as plain as a red banner-head.You've got a peach of a start, so far, and done good pussyfooting--you,too, Stella--but there's one thing that conflicts with yourhypothesis----"

  The two leaned forward.

  "Valois's statement that he was almost positive that the dead man wasnot Cavendish," the city editor snapped.

  "I now believe Valois is mistaken, in view of developments," saidWillis with finality. "So does Stella--Miss Donovan, I mean. Rememberthe body was charred across the face and chest--and Valois was excited."

  Farriss was silent a moment.

  "Stick to it a while longer," he rapped out; "and get La Rue andCavendish together at their meeting-place, if you can discover it."

  "We can!" interjected Willis. "That's something I learned less than anhour ago. It's Steinway's Cafe, the place where the police picked upFrisco Danny and Mad Mike Meighan two years ago. I followed them, butcould not get near enough to hear what they said."

  "Then hop to it," Farriss rejoined. "Stick around there until you getsomething deeper. As for me--I'm going home. It's two o'clock."