him.'
M. Dupres said, 'Indeed, it is a unique ring. I designed it, it would be some twenty-six years ago. The account book would give the date.' He was fussy and slow, looking up the record. 'I can give you a sketch of the design. My memory is excellent, despite what the young people say. It is a yellow-gold ring-eighteen-karat gold-a diamond and two sapphires, all the stones are of half a carat weight.' He insisted upon drawing a neat little sketch.
Rambeau said at the hotel, 'So, my friend, you go home to find the solution to your mystery. And when you do, write and tell me, for I am interested to know. I shall never forget the little Juliette.'
HACKETT AND HIGGINGS had just come back from lunch when a man from Communications brought in a cable.
Hackett scanned it rapidly POSITIVE PROOF IDENTITY. BRINGING DEPOSITIONS. LEAN ON DAGGETTS HARD.
Hackett said, 'Well, I will be damned. Hie seems to have got what he went after.'
Sergeant Lake looked up from the switchboard. 'You've got a new one just gone down-a body.'
TEN
HACKETT, HHIGGINS, and Palliser confronted the Daggetts and Helen Garvey in Mendoza's office; there wasn't space for all of them in one of the interrogation rooms. The two women were silent and Daggett tried to bluster. Higgins said, 'We've spelled it out for you, Daggett. Now we can prove you've all been lying. We've got legal proof of who the girl really was. That she hadn't been living in that apartment-that her name wasn't Ruth Hoffman-and now we'd like to hear what you know about it. Who primed you with that story?'
Daggett's Adam's apple was jerking wildly. He said, 'I don't know anything about it. Not a thing. Just what I told you.'
'Don't waste time trying to deny it,' said Hackett. 'How did the girl get there and when? Who told you what lies to tell?'
Daggett looked at his wife and he looked like a frightened rabbit cornered by hounds. 'We never did anything to that girl. We don't know anything about that girl.'
'So what do you know about?' asked Palliser.
Daggett shifted in the chair, still looking at his wife. 'We never wanted to get into any trouble-'
'Well, you're in a hell of a lot of trouble now,' said Higgins brutally. 'You'll have to tell us about it sometime, and it had better be here and now.'
The woman said evenly, 'I guess we better tell them, Fred. I thought we put it over-even when that other one asked questions. But I guess we'll have to tell them the rights of it now.'
He licked his lips. 'Well,' he said, 'it was the money. I told you that building's going to be torn down and I'll be out of a job. I'm fifty-seven years old and it won't be easy to get another. I worked around a lot-construction and clerking in stores-but it won't be easy to find any kind of decent job at my age. I managed that apartment for ten years, we get the place rent free. But it's coming down. They're gonna build a big office building there. The land belongs to some big company, they couldn't care less about the likes of me, and we've been worried about it. I've been damn worried about it. It was around the first of August I got the phone call.' He was hunched forward, clasped hands between his knees, head down. 'And I can't tell you anything about the guy. I never laid eyes on him. It was just a voice on the phone-an ordinary voice. He asked me if the wife and me would like to earn ten thousand bucks each. We wouldn't have to do much, he said. Just tell a little story to the police. I didn't like the idea of police being in it. I never had anything to do with the police, but they can be nosy- and when he said what we'd have to do, I didn't like that so good either. But he said there couldn't be any trouble, the police would only come once and they'd believe what we said because there'd be things to back it up so the police would believe us. He said he'd let us think it over and call me back. Well, the wife and I talked it over and decided to do it-for the money. But I thought about Helen, see. She and Ethel been pretty good friends, time we'd been here, and I know things hadn't been easy for her either. And I thought it'd look better if somebody else was to back us up on that story. We talked it all over and when he called back I put it to him. I said Helen'd back us up for another ten thousand, and he said that was O.K.'
Hackett said, 'Not so much money for a thing like that, was it? With a dead body involved.'
Mrs. Daggett looked at him almost contemptuously. She was a short fat woman with sandy blond hair and hard pale blue eyes, a small tight mouth. 'Mister,' she said, 'I don't I know how old you are or how much you make at this job, but sooner or later you'll find out like the rest of us, in this life, it's dog eat dog. You got to look out for yourself first. Sure it was a little risk to take. But we figured it was worth it for the money, and so did Helen.' Helen Garvey was sitting silent, her much-made-up face gaunt in the bright sunlight pouring in the window. 'The fellow told Fred just what was going to be in that apartment. There'd be things to make the story look on the level.'
Daggett said, 'He told me just what I had to do. All I had l to do was just what he said. He didn't know exactly when it would be, but he'd let me know beforehand. He said I was to tell him the number of the apartment. Well, that was easy. People moving out the last three months-not five tenants left in the place, and Helen was the only one left on that floor, so I told him the one opposite her. He said when he called I was just to leave the key in the door and the only thing I had to do, make out rent receipts like the Hoffman girl had been living there. Leave the top ones in the apartment and have the carbons ready to show the police, and the next morning I was supposed to go up there and call the police and say how I'd found her.'
'You all knew you were getting mixed up in a murder, didn't you?' asked Higgins.
'You can't say any such thing! We never-how'd we know that?'
'When the fellow told you a month in advance,' said Hackett, 'that there was going to be a dead body in that apartment? You're not that much of a fool, Daggett.'
He looked wildly from side to side. 'I didn't want to know anything about it-it wasn't anything to do with me-with us. I didn't want to think about it.'
His wife said, 'We'd never have taken the risk except it looked like he had it all set up so the police wouldn't think it was a lie. Well, we lost the gamble, that's all.'
Palliser asked, 'And what happened next?'
'We had to be sure he'd pay up. He sounded like he meant business all right, and even before I asked him he said he'd pay us half first. The money came in the mail. It was a little package came by first-class mail and it was all cash- all in twenties. Fifteen thousand dollars. I never heard from him again until just the night before. He called and said we should get ready-to do it-the next morning. I-right then, I'd have liked to back out of the whole deal. I hadn't really thought about-about the body, but we were in it then-and I said O.K.' He took a deep breath. 'And he said, leave the key in the door and leave your own door shut-just sit and watch the T.V.'
'And that was what you did?' said Palliser.
Daggett nodded. 'And next morning I went up there. It was all just like he said it'd be, and the rest of the money was there on the table-another fifteen thousand in twenties. So I just did what he said to. We all did.'
Higgins said, 'You know you've laid yourselves open to a charge of accessories to a murder, don't you? That's what I it adds up to. Is that all you can tell us about him?'
'We don't know anything about a murder. I never laid eyes on him. That's all I can tell you. Just a voice on the phone. We never knew anything about that girl. You can't say we knew nothing about a murder. It was just a chance to make all that money. It didn't seem much to do for that much money.'
Hackett said, 'It's put you in one hell of a lot of trouble, Daggett. You're all going to jail and the money won't do you much good there.' Mendoza had predicted something like this, but it was unsatisfactory. It left the thing still shapeless. They talked it over a little after they'd booked the Daggetts and Garvey into jail. There had, of course, been an inquest on the supposed Ruth Hoffman, and at Mendoza's request the coroner had instructed the jury to leave it open. Now it was to be hoped that he had enough further evidence to conclude the inquest with a verdict of murder. He hadn't said when he'd be back. He might be on the way now.
