The Greatest Murder Mysteries of S. S. Van Dine - 12 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). S.S. Van Dine
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CHAPTER X
A FORCED INTERVIEW
(Tuesday, September 11; 8 p. m.)
Markham dined at the Stuyvesant Club, as was his custom, and at his invitation Vance and I remained with him. He no doubt figured that our presence at the dinner-table would act as a bulwark against the intrusion of casual acquaintances; for he was in no mood for the pleasantries of the curious. Rain had begun to fall late in the afternoon, and when dinner was over it had turned into a steady downpour which threatened to last well into the night. Dinner over, the three of us sought a secluded corner of the lounge-room, and settled ourselves for a protracted smoke.
We had been there less than a quarter of an hour when a slightly rotund man, with a heavy, florid face and thin gray hair, strolled up to us with a stealthy, self-assured gait, and wished Markham a jovial good evening. Though I had not met the newcomer I knew him to be Charles Cleaver.
“Got your note at the desk saying you wanted to see me.” He spoke with a voice curiously gentle for a man of his size; but, for all its gentleness, there was in it a timbre of calculation and coldness.
Markham rose and, after shaking hands, introduced him to Vance and me—though, it seemed, Vance had known him slightly for some time. He took the chair Markham indicated, and, producing a Corona Corona, he carefully cut the end with a gold clipper attached to his heavy watch-chain, rolled the cigar between his lips to dampen it, and lighted it in closely cupped hands.
“I’m sorry to trouble you, Mr. Cleaver,” began Markham, “but, as you probably have read, a young woman by the name of Margaret Odell was murdered last night in her apartment in 71st Street. . . .”
He paused. He seemed to be considering just how he could best broach a subject so obviously delicate; and perhaps he hoped that Cleaver would volunteer the fact of his acquaintance with the girl. But not a muscle of the man’s face moved; and, after a moment, Markham continued.
“In making inquiries into the young woman’s life I learned that you, among others, were fairly well acquainted with her.”
Again he paused. Cleaver lifted his eyebrows almost imperceptibly, but said nothing.
“The fact is,” went on Markham, a trifle annoyed by the other’s deliberately circumspect attitude, “my report states that you were seen with her on many occasions during a period of nearly two years. Indeed, the only inference to be drawn from what I’ve learned is that you were more than casually interested in Miss Odell.”
“Yes?” The query was as non-committal as it was gentle.
“Yes,” repeated Markham. “And I may add, Mr. Cleaver, that this is not the time for pretenses or suppressions. I am talking to you to-night, in large measure ex officio, because it occurred to me that you could give me some assistance in clearing the matter up. I think it only fair to say that a certain man is now under grave suspicion, and we hope to arrest him very soon. But, in any event, we will need help, and that is why I requested this little chat with you at the club.”
“And how can I assist you?” Cleaver’s face remained blank; only his lips moved as he put the question.
“Knowing this young woman as well as you did,” explained Markham patiently, “you are no doubt in possession of some information—certain facts or confidences, let us say—which would throw light on her brutal, and apparently unexpected, murder.”
Cleaver was silent for some time. His eyes had shifted to the wall before him, but otherwise his features remained set.
“I’m afraid I can’t accommodate you,” he said at length.
“Your attitude is not quite what might be expected in one whose conscience is entirely clear,” returned Markham, with a show of resentment.
The man turned a mildly inquisitive gaze upon the District Attorney.
“What has my knowing the girl to do with her being murdered? She didn’t confide in me who her murderer was to be. She didn’t even tell me that she knew any one who intended to strangle her. If she’d known, she most likely could have avoided being murdered.”
Vance was sitting close to me, a little removed from the others, and, leaning over, murmured in my ear sotto voce:
“Markham’s up against another lawyer—poor dear! . . . A crumplin’ situation.”
But however inauspiciously this interlocutory skirmish may have begun, it soon developed into a grim combat which ended in Cleaver’s complete surrender. Markham, despite his suavity and graciousness, was an unrelenting and resourceful antagonist; and it was not long before he had forced from Cleaver some highly significant information.
In response to the man’s ironically evasive rejoinder, he turned quickly and leaned forward.
“You’re not on the witness-stand in your own defense, Mr. Cleaver,” he said sharply, “however much you appear to regard yourself as eligible for that position.”
Cleaver glared back fixedly without replying; and Markham, his eyelids level, studied the man opposite, determined to decipher all he could from the other’s phlegmatic countenance. But Cleaver was apparently just as determined that his vis-à-vis should decipher absolutely nothing; and the features that met Markham’s scrutiny were as arid as a desert. At length Markham sank back in his chair.
“It doesn’t matter particularly,” he remarked indifferently, “whether you discuss the matter or not here in the club to-night. If you prefer to be brought to my office in the morning by a sheriff with a subpœna, I’ll be only too glad to accommodate you.”
“That’s up to you,” Cleaver told him hostilely.
“And what’s printed in the newspapers about it will be up to the reporters,” rejoined Markham. “I’ll explain the situation to them and give them a verbatim report of the interview.”
“But I’ve nothing to tell you.” The other’s tone was suddenly conciliatory; the idea of publicity was evidently highly distasteful to him.
“So you informed me before,” said Markham coldly. “Therefore I wish you good evening.”
He turned to Vance and me with the air of a man who had terminated an unpleasant episode.
Cleaver, however, made no move to go. He smoked thoughtfully for a minute or two; then he gave a short, hard laugh which did not even disturb the contours of his face.
“Oh, hell!” he grumbled, with forced good nature. “As you said, I’m not on the witness-stand. . . . What do you want to know?”
“I’ve told you the situation.” Markham’s voice betrayed a curious irritation. “You know the sort of thing I want. How did this Odell girl live? Who were her intimates? Who would have been likely to want her out of the way? What enemies had she?—Anything that might lead us to an explanation of her death. . . . And incidentally,” he added with tartness, “anything that’ll eliminate yourself from any suspected participation, direct or indirect, in the affair.”
Cleaver stiffened at these last words, and started to protest indignantly. But immediately he changed his tactics. Smiling contemptuously, he took out a leather pocket-case and, extracting a small folded paper, handed it to Markham.
“I can eliminate myself easily enough,” he proclaimed, with easy confidence. “There’s a speeding summons from Boonton, New Jersey. Note the date and the time: September the 10th—last night—at half past eleven. Was driving down to Hopatcong, and was ticketed by a motorcycle cop just as I had passed Boonton and was heading for Mountain Lakes. Got to appear in court there to-morrow morning. Damn nuisance, these country constables.” He gave Markham a long, calculating look. “You couldn’t square it for me, could you? It’s a rotten ride to Jersey, and I’ve