CHAPTER IX
THE DETECTIVE'S STRANGE STORY
Detective Bob Rack and his prisoner, with Phil to drive, went to Griffinin the Torpedo while Paul, Billy, Dave and Mr. Peek rode in the Six. ForMr. Rack would hardly consent to the old gentleman spending theremainder of the night alone. So, in due time, was he given a room atthe American House. Mr. Pickem, otherwise Smith, otherwise Kull, wasassigned to very narrow and also strong, quarters in the village prisonwith Chief Fobes personally mounting guard over both him and Coster. Twobig revolvers the officer had and there was no sign of sleep in hisusually languid eyes.
The capture of the chief's prisoner was, vastly to his satisfaction,effected by himself and the village night watchman. On the advice of BobRack they had watched the railroad yards closely. Coster was seized justas he darted from some hiding-place and tried to board an out-boundfreight.
Deeply interested in the exciting occurrences of the evening, LandlordWagg had not gone to bed, as proved quite fortunate for the Auto Boysand the detective. When Mr. Peek had been given every attention, heannounced that a little supper for five was ready to serve wheneverwanted.
"I rarely venture an opinion without having facts to support it," saidMr. Rack, smiling, "but on this occasion I will say that I think all ofus are ready to show our appreciation of such an invitation in a verythorough manner, provided you will join us, Mr. Wagg. Also I've promisedthe boys a little history of the case that brought us together. Perhapsyou may be interested."
A large part of the story told by Mr. Bob Rack as the party sat longover a supper of cold meats, bread and butter, coffee and fruit, isfamiliar to the reader. Without quoting his language then,--and thepleasing modulations of his voice could not be shown in print, in anyevent,--the narrative was substantially as follows:
When the theft of Adam Kull's car, at Harkville, was reported to theauthorities two months earlier, Mr. Rack had been asked by the insurancecompany, in which a policy covering theft was held, to assist in thesearch.
Not a trace of the car was found. There seemed to be no clue to go upon.An odd circumstance which, though it apparently had no connection withthe case, yet which Mr. Rack was unwilling to dismiss wholly from hismind, was the fact that a few days earlier Mr. Kull had purchased from aneighbor and shipped to a middle western city a fine Scotch collie. Thedog was greatly attached to the automobile, and had sometimes beenallowed to ride. This simple fact in itself was not important; but thepurchase of the dog, apparently for the mere purpose of giving theanimal away, was not in keeping with Mr. Kull's usual disposition.
From so trifling a cause for suspicion the detective was unwilling tomake even a hint as to what was in his mind. All he could do, and thething he did do, was to place a watch upon Adam Kull while secretly hemade a thorough search of the man's record.
Among other things it was found that, as a young man, Kull had been aparty to a transaction by which he and his mother obtained a strangehold upon a wealthy farmer near Griffin, Henry Peek by name. The womanmarried Mr. Peek but they soon separated. To be free of the woman andher son, Mr. Peek had entered into a written contract involving thepayment of a large sum of money at once, and the further stipulationthat, should the wife survive the husband, she should receive the entirePeek estate. If, on the other hand, Mr. Peek survived his one-time wife,the estate should ultimately go to his heirs alone, and no heir of hersshould be considered as having any claim whatever upon the property. Thebargain seemed a very good one for the woman as she was much youngerthan Mr. Peek.
Years passed. Mrs. Peek, who had resumed her former name, Kull, livedwith her only son and they had eventually settled in Harkville. Here theman was engaged in real estate, a number of shady deals being creditedto him in that connection.
Within a few months of the present time, the mother, though but littlepast middle age, had been stricken by an incurable disease. The soncould not have failed to remember that, unless she survived his formerstep-father, the rich Peek estate would not descend to him.
Matters were at this pass when Detective Rack obtained his firstextended knowledge of Kull, following his investigation of thedisappearance of the automobile the latter had owned. Several weeksslipped by and, as the man under scrutiny had made no movement whichwould in any way strengthen suspicion against him, the watching of hisgoing and his coming was relaxed.
One day, nearly two months after the theft of Kull's car, a strange mancalled on the real estate dealer, later left his office, and was notseen afterward. Mr. Rack's men discovered the fellow to be a worthless,discharged employe of a motor concern in Rochester. His name was Coster.
It was but a day or two later that Kull suddenly left home. Later it waslearned he was in Griffin, registered at the American hotel under anassumed name.
"And it was at that time, undoubtedly," said Mr. Rack, "that, havingtaken the Torpedo from wherever it was concealed, Coster was on the waywest with it. Kull was in Griffin to meet him. He visited the old farmwhere he had once lived for a short time. He carried the planks over thehill to the icehouse, that his friend might readily run the Torpedo downthe embankment and so into that building. There are some links missingas to this assertion but it will be found substantially correct when thedetails are known. For it was certainly the intention that the Torpedoshould be placed in this new and more distant hiding-place. Kull hadpurchased a supply of Fielderson's automobile and carriage paint. Hementioned to a clerk in the store that he was going to use the materialon an old surrey he had. He owned no such vehicle. Hence my conclusion,at this time, that the paint was to be used in a further concealment ofthe identity of the Torpedo.
"Again I heard from Harkville that Kull, after a brief stay at home,following his having been in Griffin, was once more out of town. I wasbusy with other matters and did not immediately take up the threads ofthe case again. I was about to do so yesterday," and here Mr. Racksmiled toward Mr. Wagg, who sat with eyes and mouth open, his glassesperched on the very top of his bald head,--"when Mr. Phil and Mr. David,here, came in upon me, introduced by one of our best young lawyers. Theywere in possession of so much information that, dovetailing theirstatements with my own previous knowledge, I had a fairly perfect fabricof fact. From this it was simply a little study to deduce practicallycertain probabilities. However, I spent a few hours piecing out andverifying my threads of information. I found that Kull's poor mothercould probably live but a few days or weeks, at most. I found a mannamed Coster had been locked up for intoxication here in Griffin, thathe was first seen in town on Saturday and his clothing was splashed withmud. Friday was a rainy day, you will remember. By the merest chance myHarkville representative also learned yesterday that Kull had purchasedsome saws for cutting steel before leaving town on Tuesday. He hadbought a ticket for Batavia, but that was no certain sign that he wouldnot stop off in Griffin.
"To see through the man's entire plan now is, of course, like reading itin print. All that we do not know is just how Coster happened to losethe Torpedo, then pick up the car of our friends here, which certainlyhe did. That we will learn later. The point I would bring to your noticenow is that Kull, whatever his first plan may have been, changedsomewhat his course of action as he found circumstances favoring him. Hehad learned of Coster reaching Griffin in an intoxicated condition andbeing locked up. He enabled him to escape by passing saws in to him bymeans of a long stick put between the bars of the rear corridor window,which was open. This he did last night, Mr. Fobes believes, and heprobably is correct.
"It is an interesting fact, but not a strange one, for usually it is thesmall thing that trips the criminal up,--an interesting fact, observe,that the dog Kull had been at such pains to be rid of in Harkville, lestit innocently betray the spot where his car had been concealed, hadappeared here in Griffin to trouble him. To regain possession of theTorpedo (after having failed to get it placed in a barn where he couldmore easily get at it) Kull found it necessary to kill the Scotchcollie. This he did on Sunday night. It was also desirable that Mr.Cr
eek be placed beyond power to hinder. An anonymous telephone call fromPort Greeley, summoning him there, did the work nicely.
"Now we come to the circumstance that Kull believed so especiallyfavored him--Coster breaking jail, the Torpedo disappearing, poor oldMr. Peek assaulted and killed--all this in one night. Where wouldsuspicion naturally point? To Coster, certainly."
Mr. Rack smiled and paused.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Mr. Wagg.
"Not at all. The boys deserve more credit than I. And we found so muchadditional information the moment we reached Griffin to-night, that theveriest novice could hardly go wrong. Billy had Coster's measure fromboots up. Fobes knew nothing except that he was able to tell me thatCreek telephoned to him from Port Greeley, stating that there wasdeception in his being summoned to that town, and asking him to watchthe garage, which, by the way, he did not do. The time was short and theonly particle of credit we deserve is for having moved at once andquickly.
"The time was short for Kull to act if he was to take advantage offavoring circumstances,--that is apparent now and it was before. Itrequired no great mental power to see that at a glance. Where Kull wouldbe found was thus easily determined. And, fortunately, we arrived intime. On my first survey of the Peek place I found nothing but theTorpedo, partially concealed behind some trees by the roadside and everylight extinguished. Kull could not be far away but I hesitated lest itshould prove that, having not yet entered the house, he should discoverthat he was watched. The facts were, he was in the house when we reachedthe place. He was waiting to be sure his victim slept. I flashed a lightupon him as he was in the act of striking his first blow and possiblythat was why he struck to one side of the temple and only a flesh woundresulted. I seized his arms but he escaped me. I fear I might have beenobliged to shoot to frighten him, if nothing more, but for Phil's veryable and timely help."
"But what is _your_ idea as to the reason this fellow Coster left onecar in the road and hid another in the icehouse in place of it?" Mr.Wagg inquired.
"One of two things--Coster left the car to look about the Peek place,either knowing or suspecting Kull's ultimate plan of making away withthe old gentleman, and in his absence the machine was in some mannerstarted forward. Or, and I think more probably, Coster was drunk andfell from the Torpedo as he saw another car approaching on thatunfrequented road where he did not expect to see, and had no wish tosee, any other traveler. And now, perhaps, we would better bid oneanother goodnight," Mr. Rack concluded.
"Might as well make it good-morning," grinned Paul Jones, stepping to awindow, "it's nearly daylight."
The following day Coster made a complete confession to Mr. Rack. Thelatter's idea of the entire plans of Kull were substantially correct.About the abandonment of the Torpedo, Coster said he had been drinking agreat deal and, contrary to his usual experience, the more he drank themore he feared for his own safety in the car he knew police anddetectives had made prolonged search to find. Seeing a large,six-cylinder machine come rapidly over a hill toward him, and on thatlonely road where he had been assured he would see no one whomsoever, hesuddenly lost his head. He leaped headlong from the Torpedo into thebushes at the roadside. Later he had crept forward and, from thehillside, watched all that the Auto Boys did until they went away in theempty car. Then he put their machine in the icehouse, guided no doubt bythe drunken notion that he was very considerably the gainer. But insteadof sobering up and meeting Kull at the American House, as had beenagreed he should do, he spent the night in a barn and proceeded to getdrunk again the moment he reached the town in the morning.
"It appears," said Bob Rack, telling the boys, Chief Fobes (who wasstill in a perfect fever of wonder and excitement) and Willie Creek thesubstance of Coster's confession, the day following Kull's capture,--"Itappears that our Harkville friend concealed his car several days beforehe pried the padlock off his garage and reported the machine to havebeen stolen. He had hidden the machine in an unused garage attached to asummer hotel a few miles from the town. Coster obtained it there.Knowing the case as I do now, I would venture to believe that it was theapparent success of his first crime, in defrauding the insurance people,that nerved Kull to carry out his plan further, and so led to theattempt on the life of old Mr. Peek. His plans were clever, after acrude fashion, but he made the mistake every criminal makes sooner orlater, in the belief he apparently entertained that deception could becovered up. In the long run there is no such thing. Even Coster may betruthful when he declares he did not know Kull had defrauded theinsurance company."