“Tell your story,” ordered Markham. “If it’s straight, you needn’t worry about the newspapers.”
Cleaver knew in his heart that this was true. No one—not even his bitterest political enemies—had ever accused Markham of buying kudos with any act of injustice, however small.
“There’s not much to tell, as a matter of fact,” the man began. “I went to Miss Odell’s house a little before midnight, but I didn’t enter her apartment; I didn’t even ring her bell.”
“Is that your customary way of paying visits?”
“Sounds fishy, doesn’t it? But it’s the truth, nevertheless. I intended to see her—that is, I wanted to—but when I reached her door, something made me change my mind—”
“Just a moment.—How did you enter the house?”
“By the side door—the one off the alleyway. I always used it when it was open. Miss Odell requested me to, so that the telephone operator wouldn’t see me coming in so often.”
“And the door was unlocked at that time Monday night?”
“How else could I have got in by it? A key wouldn’t have done me any good, even if I’d had one, for the door locks by a bolt on the inside. I’ll say this, though: that’s the first time I ever remember finding the door unlocked at night.”
“All right. You went in the side entrance. Then what?”
“I walked down the rear hall and listened at the door of Miss Odell’s apartment for a minute. I thought there might be someone else with her, and I didn’t want to ring unless she was alone. …”
“Pardon my interrupting, Mr. Cleaver,” interposed Vance. “But what made you think someone else was there?”
The man hesitated.
“Was it,” prompted Vance, “because you had telephoned to Miss Odell a little while before, and had been answered by a man’s voice?”
Cleaver nodded slowly. “I can’t see any particular point in denying it. … Yes, that’s the reason.”
“What did this man say to you?”
“Damn little. He said ‘Hello,’ and when I asked to speak to Miss Odell, he informed me she wasn’t in, and hung up.”
Vance addressed himself to Markham.
“That, I think, explains Jessup’s report of the brief phone call to the Odell apartment at twenty minutes to twelve.”
“Probably.” Markham spoke without interest. He was intent on Cleaver’s account of what happened later, and he took up the interrogation at the point where Vance had interrupted.
“You say you listened at the apartment door. What caused you to refrain from ringing?”
“I heard a man’s voice inside.”
Markham straightened up.
“A man’s voice? You’re sure?”
“That’s what I said.” Cleaver was matter of fact about it. “A man’s voice. Otherwise I’d have rung the bell.”
“Could you identify the voice?”
“Hardly. It was very indistinct; and it sounded a little hoarse. It wasn’t anyone’s voice I was familiar with; but I’d be inclined to say it was the same one that answered me over the phone.”
“Could you make out anything that was said?”
Cleaver frowned and looked past Markham through the open window.
“I know what the words sounded like,” he said slowly. “I didn’t think anything of them at the time. But after reading the papers the next day, those words came back to me—”
“What were the words?” Markham cut in impatiently.
“Well, as near as I could make out, they were: ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!’—repeated two or three times.”
This statement seemed to bring a sense of horror into the dreary old office—a horror all the more potent because of the casual, phlegmatic way in which Cleaver repeated that cry of anguish. After a brief pause Markham asked:
“When you heard this man’s voice, what did you do?”
“I walked softly back down the rear hall and went out again through the side door. Then I went home.”
A short silence ensued. Cleaver’s testimony had been in the nature of a surprise; but it fitted perfectly with Mannix’s statement.
Presently Vance lifted himself out of the depths of his chair.
“I say, Mr. Cleaver, what were you doing between twenty minutes to twelve—when you phoned Miss Odell—and five minutes to twelve—when you entered the side door of her apartment-house?”
“I was riding uptown in the Subway from 23rd Street,” came the answer after a short pause.
“Strange—very strange.” Vance inspected the tip of his cigarette. “Then you couldn’t possibly have phoned to anyone during that fifteen minutes—eh, what?”
I suddenly remembered Alys La Fosse’s statement that Cleaver had telephoned to her on Monday night at ten minutes to twelve. Vance, by his question, had, without revealing his own knowledge, created a state of uncertainty in the other’s mind. Afraid to commit himself too emphatically, Cleaver resorted to an evasion.
“It’s possible, is it not, that I could have phoned someone after leaving the Subway at 72nd Street and before I walked the block to Miss Odell’s house?”
“Oh, quite,” murmured Vance. “Still, looking at it mathematically, if you phoned Miss Odell at twenty minutes to twelve, and then entered the Subway, rode to 72nd Street, walked a block to 71st, went into the building, listened at her door, and departed at five minutes to twelve—making the total time consumed only fifteen minutes—you’d scarcely have sufficient leeway to stop en route and phone to anyone. However, I shan’t press the point. But I’d really like to know what you did between eleven o’clock and twenty minutes to twelve, when you phoned to Miss Odell.”
Cleaver studied Vance intently for a moment.
“To tell you the truth, I was upset that night. I knew Miss Odell was out with another man—she’d broken an appointment with me—and I walked the streets for an hour or more, fuming and fretting.”
“Walked the streets?” Vance frowned.
“That’s what I said.” Cleaver spoke with animus. Then, turning, he gave Markham a long calculating look. “You remember I once suggested to you that
