Chapter VIII
Jimmy recognized several of the men and women on the porch asreporters and feature writers. These, knowing that Jimmy's paperwas the one that sprung the story, made a concerted rush for him.He fended them off. He told them that beyond what had been printedhe knew nothing. Asked about Professor Brierly, he told them thathe had not seen the old scientist for more than fifteen hours;that his paper in New York had handled that end. He assured themthat beyond the bare announcement over the phone that Schurman hadbeen murdered, he knew nothing new.
At this moment the grizzled negro came to the door of the porchand gestured to Jimmy. He said to the reporter when Jimmy camenear him:
"The jedge, Mistuh Hale, sez for you--all to come in an' see himand the otheh gempmen."
Aside from the eleven men he had first met the day before, therewere in the big, comfortable living-room, Professor Brierly andDistrict Attorney McCall. He felt and saw that all of them werelooking at him.
He was shocked at the appearance of some of the men. They seemedto have shrunken in size. There was a furtive air about some ofthem; stark fear, fear of the unknown danger, shone in the eyes ofa number of the men present.
"Mr. Hale, it is not your fault, but you are indirectlyresponsible for the presence of all those men and women out there.It is a very distressing thing. Newspapers have their place anduses, of course; we all recognize that, but we cannot at a timelike this be besieged by a horde of men and women, not all ofwhom, I regret to say, have the delicacy to show the kindness andconsideration--"
"I get you, Judge. The thing to do, of course, is to tell themthat you will issue periodic announcements about the developmentsin the case. They will all understand that, I am sure, and respectyour wishes for privacy at other times."
"Yes, of course, that is the simple, the obvious thing to do. Willyou act for us, Mr. Hale. Tell them--"
"Sorry, Judge, I should like to act in this capacity. But I alsoam a newspaper man out on a story and I should be in a falseposition. I can help you with advice, but that is as far as Idare, as far as I can go in such a matter. I can assure you thateverything you tell me in confidence will not be printed withoutyour permission. Your comrades here who know me, Judge, will vouchfor me, perhaps."
Marshall, McGuire and Fletcher nodded.
Mr. Marshall, at Jimmy's suggestion, went out to the porch andtold the assembled newspaper men of the decision they had reachedconcerning the issuing of statements for the press. When hereturned, Professor Brierly said:
"In this case, Hale, how will you treat information that youacquire through your contact with me. Would it be honorable--"
"I've thought of that, Professor. I shall not use any informationI get through my living at your camp that all the others are notpermitted to use. This, of course, does not apply to matters thatI would have learned without knowing Professor Brierly."
Some of the men present wrinkled their brows in perplexity. Theyhad difficulty following such a nice point of ethics. But theydropped the matter by mutual consent. After all it was a slightmatter in the face of the great tragedy facing them.
Jimmy turned his attention to Professor Brierly, who had beentalking when he was ushered into the room. The other men settledthemselves back to listen. The old scientist was saying:
"August Schurman was murdered, Wrigley was really drowned. I donot know at this time whether or not some outside influence wasresponsible for his drowning. I merely had myself flown to the NewJersey sea coast town, where they were keeping the body. Myexamination was hasty, but enough to determine that he wasdrowned; death was really due to that."
There was a dead silence in the room. The calm unemotional voiceof Professor Brierly in this room of utter fear set Jimmy's spinetingling. Once more, for the third or the fourth time since he hadcome upon these men, he was struck with the odd notion that it wasnot real; that he was witnessing a play in which the actors didnot know their lines and were missing their cues. It was thegrotesque bordering on the terrible, the tragic.
"And Schurman, Professor?"
Jimmy almost jumped, as did some of the others on this breaking inof his thoughts. They also were evidently immersed in their ownthoughts. It was Goldberg and Vasiliewski, who, as if actuated bya single impulse, had broken the silence.
"Schurman," answered Professor Brierly slowly, "was murdered;there is no question about that." Something clicked in Jimmy'smind. He had missed something from Professor Brierly's speech.There was not his wonted incisiveness and crispness. The reporterlooked sharply at the old man. Jimmy's mind cleared; he becameconvinced that Professor Brierly was hiding something, waswithholding something he had learned in New York. He did not, ashe was accustomed to do, explain in elaborate detail. FormerPolice Commissioner McGuire asked:
"Murdered! How was he murdered? The information is that he washung. What a strange way of murdering a man."
Professor Brierly nodded. He said: "He was found dead, hangingfrom a hook in his living-room, but he was dead when he was hung."
Marshall burst out:
"Why did you go to New York, Professor?" Still speaking slowly,Professor Brierly answered: "I was engaged by the New York Eagleto undertake the trip for the purpose of viewing both bodies. Ialso had another reason. Since I am plunged into this investigationit may be necessary for me to have certain instruments, instrumentsof precision, for the purpose of conducting certain inquiries andfor making certain tests."
"Why, Professor," exclaimed Justice Higginbotham. "You need nothave gone to the trouble for the second reason you give.
"It is likely that my workshop and laboratory contain everythingyou might need."
The professor's eyes lit up with a gleam of interest.
"Indeed they do, and I may yet avail myself of them, but I wiredyesterday for additional instruments, and early this morning Istopped at my place, where I obtained a few things I needed." Hearose to go, but Justice Marshall detained him:
"You did not tell us the details of the death of the two men yousaw in New York and Bradley Beach, Professor. You say Schurman wasmurdered. Won't you tell us about it?"
Jimmy was once more conscious of a hesitancy in ProfessorBrierly's manner. Jimmy was quite certain that if the old man werenot such a forthright individual he should have used evasivetactics at this time. After a brief pause, scrutinizing brieflythe faces in front of him, he resumed his seat.
"Schurman was murdered by being struck at the base of his skull.The blow fractured one and dislocated another one of the vertebraecausing asphyxia, which made it easy for the examiner to concludethat he had been asphyxiated by the rope with which he was hung."Once more the reporter was conscious of an unwonted hesitancy inthe old scientist's manner. He cast another glance about thesemicircle of strained faces; then went on: "After he was struckthe fatal blow, he was hung to a hook high up on the wall of hisbedroom. Schurman occupied a small apartment on West FourteenthStreet, one formerly occupied as a theatrical boarding house, whenthat was the theatrical district.
"Entrance into his apartment was affected by an expert cracksman,the New York police say. Schurman had a small safe. The marks onthe safe and the method in which entrance was affected makes thepolice believe that they may be able to find the man.
"There was an additional factor. There was a small electricrefrigerator which was open when the body was found. There weresome soiled dishes on the table in the kitchen. It appeared thatan enormous quantity of food had been eaten. On one of the shelvesof the refrigerator there was an apple, a green apple in whichthere were teeth marks.
"Someone had evidently bitten into this apple and found it toogreen for eating. The maid, who came to the apartment once a dayto clean up, was able to estimate the amount of food that had beeneaten since she had last visited the place. Six eggs were eaten atthis meal.
"This woman found Schurman's body yesterday morning. The conditionof the body showed that it had been dead nearly twenty-four hours.The condition of the stomach showed that he had not eat
en forabout six hours prior to death, and no eggs then. A quick searchby the police placed him in a small restaurant near his apartment,about two o'clock on the morning he was found. Thus it may beassumed that the person who murdered Schurman is the person whoconsumed that enormous amount of food. The police say they haveone additional bit of evidence they would rather not divulge."
At this point in the recital McGuire jumped up. His features werealight with a mixture of ferocity and the zeal of the hunter. Hegrowled:
"The bird who did that left his visiting card!"
All eyes were turned in his direction.
He continued:
"Cracksmen, criminals of all kinds have their idiosyncrasies,their peculiarities. They do certain things and thus leave a broadtrail for the police to follow. The police know these peculiarities,they have a record of them. Here is a bird who does an unusual thing,he eats an enormous quantity of food. He is an expert; he has probablydone it before. The police are sure to get him. During my tenure ofoffice as Police Commissioner of New York, I have seen it work out thisway lots of times. They never learn, the criminals don't; they neverlearn."
McCall nodded. "You're right, Commissioner. Professor Brierlysuggested that yesterday, when he was discussing the murder ofMorris Miller. The murderer in that case left even more pronouncedclues than this one you are now discussing. Professor Brierly thensaid that the police must surely have a record of a man who doesthings in such a way."
"Sure to have," responded McGuire. He arose and stretched hisshort huge bulk. "This is something like it. We now have somethingtangible, something definite. It was the damnable inaction thatwas beginning to get on my nerves. I'm going to use your phone,Judge."
They heard his voice rumbling at the telephone in the adjoiningroom. They were still conscious of his deep growling voice whenProfessor Brierly, Jimmy and McCall departed.
The two younger men succeeded in warding off from ProfessorBrierly the barrage of questions that was fired at him by thehorde of men and women who still waited about, hoping for a crumbof information in addition to that which had been furnished.
When they were free of the crowd of newspaper men, Jimmy asked:
"Did the police tell you, Professor, what the additional bit ofevidence was?"
"Yes, when I convinced them it was not suicide they made a moreextended search of the apartment. It was then they learned that anexpert cracksman had entered, that an expert had opened the safewithout blowing it open or forcing it open. This cracksman,however, did things in a way that only about half a dozen men inthe country do it and the police have all of them tagged.
"The additional individual evidence was entirely accidental. Theyfound under the safe a small nail file. On its smooth portion theyfound a clear thumb and forefinger print. They were rathermysterious about it, so evidently they think they can lay theirhands on the man who left this print. Off hand, I should say thatfinding the man who did it and fixing the guilt definitely shouldbe rather easy."
He stopped, shook his head in some perplexity, and murmured:
"There is something about the whole devilish business that justwon't fit, won't fit into all the known facts, won't fit intoobservation and experience; won't fit--" The rest was too low forJimmy to hear.
Professor Brierly refused the offer of the pilot of the plane thatwas gently rocking near the wharf. Getting into McCall's boat withits owner, they got under way, followed by Jimmy Hale and hisyouthful pilot, Harry Stoy.