Alphabet Hicks

Twenty-three

The reaction to Vail’s startling pronouncement, while not violent, was noticeable. Heather gripped Hicks’s arm and stared at his face inquiringly. Ross stood up and uttered a word not in common use in the presence of women. Judith gazed directly at Vail, if not in complete disbelief, in scornful incertitude.

“Nonsense,” she said sharply. “Dick might have trumped up something against me. I’ve refused to believe it, but I admit it’s possible. But he did not murder—”

“Please!” Hicks said peremptorily. He was cocking an eye at Vail, his head sidewise. “This is really a very fine theory. Beautiful! As I understand it, Dundee prepares to explode a mine under his wife by concocting this phony sonotel record. No sooner does he touch it off than the whole scheme is endangered by the unexpected return of Martha Cooper from abroad. Ross has heard the record. If he meets Martha Cooper and hears her speak, with a voice so amazingly like his mother’s, he is bound to smell a rat; and there is Martha, right there on the place. So Dundee seizes a lucky opportunity and kills her.”

“Bosh!” Judith said incisively.

“No, no,” Hicks protested. “Not bosh at all, as a theory. Dundee having acted impulsively and impetuously, which is in character, finds upon reflection that he is still in a hole and even a deeper one. He not only reflects, he probably hears things. With wires and sonotels and God knows what all over that house, he almost certainly hears things. He may have heard Ross and Miss Gladd discussing that sonograph plate. He may have met Cooper and talked with him when Cooper went there this afternoon. He knows that his wife may show up out there at any moment, especially since she has heard the sonotel record, and he knows I have the record. At any rate, as Vail has said, he knows that if either Cooper or Miss Gladd meets his wife and hears her speak, he is in for it. So he kills Cooper.”

“This is absolute—” Judith began.

“Don’t do that,” Hicks told her. “We’re working on Vail’s theory, and it’s a beaut. It’s the only one that fits the known facts. Vail is intelligent enough to realize that. He also realizes that if we all keep our mouths shut, if we give the police no hint of all this shenanigan about the sonotel record, Dundee is safe. They’ll never even seriously suspect him, let alone hang it on him. Isn’t that it, Vail?”

“Certainly. It’s obvious—”

“It sure is. I never saw anything obviouser.” Hicks glanced around, and back at Vail. “But I don’t know if you can make it unanimous. Ross won’t blab, not caring to see his father convicted of murder. Mrs. Dundee won’t. Of course I won’t, because I’m getting paid. You won’t, for friendship’s sake. Your old pal, Dick Dundee. But I don’t know about Miss Gladd. How are we going to silence her?”

Heather and Judith spoke at once.

“If you mean you believe—”

“That’s utterly ridiculous—”

“Please, ladies! Never get mad at a theory! Have I stated the situation correctly, Vail?”

“You have.”

“And you sort of rely on us to bring Miss Gladd into line?”

“I rely on no one. I merely present the problem. I admit that I wouldn’t like to have all this gone over in a courtroom, but the Dundees stand to lose a good deal more than I do. Maybe you do too, I don’t know.”

“I do indeed,” Hicks agreed heartily. “Therefore I’m going to poke around in the ashes before I commit myself. You can’t object to that.”

“I’m not objecting to anything.”

“Good. Then take that sonotel record. The theory is that Dundee faked it by using Martha Cooper for Mrs. Dundee’s voice, and getting someone to imitate yours. You seem to have read the paper this morning, so you must know that Martha Cooper went to Europe with her husband nearly a year ago and only came back Monday. So please tell me how Dundee used her when he faked that record.”

“I don’t pretend to know exactly when and where it was done.”

“I know you don’t. But theoretically?”

“It could have been done before she left.”

“A year ago?” Hicks’s brows went up. “He kept it around a whole year before he decided to use it? That’s possible, of course, but I don’t like it. It’s not neat. I’d like to suggest an alternative.” He turned to Heather. “Your sister visited you at Katonah a couple of times before she went to Europe, didn’t she?”

“Yes,” Heather said. “I told you.”

“And there was a sonotel installed in that house at the time, for experiments?”

“Yes.”

“Did your sister come by train, or did she drive?”

“She drove. She had a little convertible—”

“And might she not, on one of those visits, have said something like this to you? Quote: ‘Good lord, let me sit down and gasp a while! I know I’m late, but I had an awful time getting here. I never saw such traffic.’ Unquote. Might she not have said that to you?”

“Yes. She might.” Heather was frowning. “I think I remember — I’m not sure. Of course she might.”

“Might is good enough. For that, but not for this. This is more important. Did she, on either occasion, bring you something? Some kind of a gift?”

“A gift?” Heather looked blank. Then suddenly her face lit up. “Oh, of course! A dress! My tan—” Her eyes went down. “I have it on! She brought me this dress!”

“That’s a nice little concidence.” Hicks patted the dress where it curved over her knee. “Nice dress. Then of course it was natural that she should say that she hoped you’d be pleased with what she had brought you. Did she say that?”

“I suppose she did. Of course.”

Hicks nodded, and turned to Vail. “So there you are. That’s on that record, Martha Cooper saying that she hoped the person she was talking to would be pleased with what she had brought. That’s about all she does say of any significance. Most of the material items of the conversation — for instance, a reference to carbotene — are in your voice — I mean the imitation of your voice. So I suggest this. The sonotel records from that machine installed experimentally in the house at Katonah were sent to Dundee. Among them were some of the conversations between Miss Gladd and her sister, and the remarkable resemblance of the sister’s voice to that of his wife was of course noted by Dundee. He got — no matter when, possibly only recently — the notion of faking a record. He found someone to imitate your voice, and for his wife’s part of it he used selected items from the records he had in Martha Cooper’s voice. He knew, undoubtedly, that Martha Cooper was in Europe, or he wouldn’t have risked it. What do you think of it?”

Vail emitted a noncommittal grunt.

“You don’t like it?”

“It’s ingenious,” Vail admitted. “But it seems unnecessarily devious.”

“On the contrary. It’s far more plausible than your suggestion that Dundee faked the record nearly a year ago and kept it all that time before using it. As you know, he’s an impetuous man. What I want to know, is it technically possible? Could a sonotel record be faked by using — only for parts of it — scraps from other records?”

“Certainly. Any good technician could do it.”

“Fine.” Hicks looked pleased. “That settles that detail. That was the chief thing that bothered me, though there are one or two other little points—”

Judith cut in, “This is perfectly absurd! I don’t believe it and I never will believe it.”

“Nobody expects you to,” Hicks told her. “We are theorizing.”

“Then why go on with this crazy—”

“We go on because it’s interesting. Very interesting. Also because I’m expecting a phone call from District Attorney Corbett and this is as good a way to pass the time as any. Better than any. I don’t believe you appreciate the exceptional beauty of Vail’s theory, especially since we’ve established the possibility that the sonotel record was faked by using another record or records of Martha Cooper’s voice. It will stand more wear and tear than any other theory I’ve ever met. Say, for instance, that your husband could prove, somehow or other, no matter how, that he didn’t fake that record, and he didn’t kill Martha Cooper, and he didn’t kill George Cooper. Under such a blow as that most theories would totally collapse, but not this one. It would remain intact. All you would have to do would be to substitute someone else as the murderer, either your son or Vail himself.”

Ross, scowling, blurted truculently, “Look here—”

Hicks waved him away. “Forget it, son. I’m not going to pick on a tough baby like you, leaping over cars at armed men. I’ll use Vail instead, to show what I mean. If you don’t object?”

A corner of Vail’s thin mouth had a twist to it. “It seems to me that we’re not here to pass the time. You say you are expecting a call from the district attorney. I want to say, I must warn you, all of you, that if my name is dragged into this, if I am brought into this in any way, I shall be compelled to give the authorities the whole story. Omitting nothing.”

“Sure,” Hicks agreed. “We understand that.” He went back to Mrs. Dundee: “To show you about that theory. Let’s say Vail faked that record and did the murders, for example. You’d hardly have to change a thing, only a few details. Why did he fake the record? To lead suspicion away from the individual in the Dundee organization — a confidential secretary or assistant — from whom he had been getting the Dundee formulas. How did he fake the record? The confidential secretary noticed that among the experimental records from Katonah were some with a voice exactly like Mrs. Dundee’s, and that gave him the idea, which he passed on to Vail. They didn’t even have to find someone to imitate Vail’s voice, Vail did that part himself. In that detail, at least, it’s an improvement on Vail’s original theory. How did they plant the fake record? Simple. The confidential secretary merely inserted it in the case of records that had been delivered to Dundee by the detective agency as coming from Vail’s office.”

Vail stood up. “If this is a display of virtuosity—” he began contemptuously.

“Sit down,” Hicks said.

“I don’t intend—”

“I said sit down! If Ross could knock you cold, all alone, and you with a gun, you can imagine what we could do if we went at it together. I listened to you expounding your theory, and as a matter of courtesy you can listen to my variation. When that phone call comes I’ll get practical. Good God, look at you. Do you want an ice bag for that bump?”

Vail, not replying, went back to his chair. His gaze, presumably, was fixed on Hicks; there was no way of telling. Hicks resumed to Judith:

“Last Monday, Monday morning, Vail got bad news. He saw in the paper that Mr. and Mrs. George Cooper had returned from Europe. That was awful, since the trap had already been baited and Dundee had taken the bait. If Dundee or his son met Martha Cooper, as they well might, since her sister worked for them, their suspicion would be aroused and the whole thing would certainly be exposed, and both Vail’s business and his reputation would be ruined. From there on my variation pretty well follows the original. Vail, who has plenty of sand and daring, not only proceeded to remove Martha Cooper, he did it at a place and in a way to throw suspicion on the Dundees. And this afternoon, at my room, he learned that Cooper knew about that sonotel record and had actually heard it, or part of it, and intended to investigate it. Of course that wouldn’t do. Cooper had announced that he was going to Katonah, so Vail went there too. From where he left his car on that deserted road, it’s only a fifteen-minute walk, cross-country, mostly woods, to the Dundee place. No doubt his report of his conversations with Brager is true to fact — it must be, since he is expecting Brager to corroborate it. So after he shot Cooper he went back to his car and waited there, ostensibly, for Brager to send Cooper to him.”

“You know,” Vail said quietly, “this is interesting. But I’m wondering why you’re wasting time with it, or even passing time, because you certainly haven’t given it much thought. For instance, Martha Cooper. According to the account in the paper, she was killed between three and four o’clock. From three to six yesterday afternoon I was in my factory in Bridgeport. That of course would make it difficult—”

A bell rang.

Everybody jerked around. Hicks arose, saw that Ross too was up and crossing to a cabinet against the far wall, and was there at the young man’s elbow as he swung out a phone bracket and lifted the receiver. Ross spoke into the phone, turned and said, “For you,” and handed it to Hicks.

If Vail, or anyone, expected any elucidation from Hicks’s end of the conversation, they were disappointed. It was brief, and his contribution was chiefly a series of yesses. At the end he said, “We’ll start right away,” replaced the instrument, and turned to the group:

“Okay, folks. We’re all set. Off for Katonah.”

They looked at him in astonishment. Then they all spoke at once, but Vail’s voice dominated:

“I warn you, all of you! This man’s a fool! Get Dick here! I’ll have it out with Dick face to face! Judith! Ross! I warn you — let go of me, damn you!”

Hicks had his arm. “Listen, brother,” Hicks said grimly. “Your warning days are over. We’re going to Katonah and that includes you. On the hoof or in a package?”