The Baxter Trust

30

Steve Winslow sat on Maxwell Baxter’s couch. Max had not offered him a drink this time, but if he had Steve might have accepted it. He was enjoying himself, and was very much at ease.

Max was not. He stood looking down at Steve with ill-concealed hostility.

“Well,” he said, dryly. “What is it this time, more money?”

Steve smiled. “Uncle Max. You misjudge me.”

“Not by much. I’ll have you know I consulted my lawyers.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. That was a lot of crap you fed me, about if I didn’t give you a retainer the D.A. could put you on the stand. Sheila spoke to you in confidence as her attorney. Fees don’t come into it. There’s no way you could testify.”

“I know,” Steve said. “I was bluffing. I know the law. I just figured you didn’t.”

Max glared at him. “You’re just lucky you cashed that check as quickly as you did.”

“Oh yeah? Well, now I think you’re bluffing. Let me ask you something. When did you consult your attorneys?”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

Steve grinned. “It’s got everything to do with it. Here you are, striding around, saying, ‘Boy are you lucky you cashed that check in’ time.’ I think that’s bullshit. You want to have me believe that when you talked to your attorneys, it was too late to stop payment on that check. It never happened that way and you know it. You’re not that kind of guy. You didn’t wait till this morning to call your attorneys. You got ’em out of bed last night, and you told ’em the whole thing, and they told you what the law was. You could have stopped payment on the check, but you didn’t. And you wouldn’t. I could have that check in my pocket right now, and it would still be good, ’cause you have no intention of stopping payment on it.”

Steve paused, put his feet up on the coffee table and relaxed into the couch. “You see,” he said, “I have you by the balls. You don’t want to admit it, and that’s why you’re making these hollow ‘you’re lucky you cashed it in time’ remarks, but that happens to be the fact. Because, despite what your lawyers told you, which happens to be absolutely true, you can’t get away from the underlying threat in what I told you. Because, if you didn’t pay me, even if I couldn’t testify, there would always be a way of leaking what I know to the district attorney. And the thing is, you don’t know me well enough, and there’s nothing you can find out about me to convince you one way or another as to whether I’d be unscrupulous enough to do that. And you just can’t take the chance.

“So, like it or not, I’m Sheila Benton’s attorney, and you just have to get used to the fact. So, if you would be so kind as to give a message to Marston, Marston, and Cramden the next time you talk to them, please tell them this-lay off my client. Butt out. Because if they don’t, I am going to file a complaint with the Grievance Committee, charging them with tampering with a client and attempting to solicit her away from her attorney. And from what I know about the conservative, respectable firm of Marston, Marston, and Cramden, that is going to cause them to choke on their soup.”

Maxwell Baxter had not been a man of wealth and power for many years without developing a tremendous amount of poise. He showed it now.

“I see,” he said.

“But that’s not what I came for,” Steve said.

“Oh? What did you come for?”

“I thought perhaps we could talk over the case.”

“I fail to see what we have to talk about.”

“Well, for one thing, I just had a talk with Carla Finley. Nice girl. You should meet her.”

“Who’s Carla Finley.”

“Your detectives haven’t told you? She was a friend of the late Mr. Greely.”

“So?”

“She tells a very interesting story. It seems about a week ago Greely was all excited over something. She didn’t know what it was, but it was something big. He told her in a few weeks he’d have enough money to take her someplace. He told her she’d never have to work again.”

“So?”

Steve shrugged. “So, the police theory on this case is cockeyed. They figure Greely knew something that would have cost Sheila her trust fund, so he was putting the bite on her.”

“Obviously.”

“But it doesn’t add up. Sheila doesn’t come into her money until she’s thirty-five. No one’s going to get rich blackmailing her. So, I said to myself, if I were a blackmailer, who in this case would I blackmail?”

“Hypothetically, of course,” Max said ironically.

“And so I come to you.”

Max considered that for a moment. “I see. And so you’re going to claim that since Sheila had no money, Greely must have actually been blackmailing me. Therefore I killed him.”

“It’s a nice theory,” Steve said. “It would at least punch a few holes in the prosecution’s theory of the case.”

Max shook his head. “Frankly, I don’t think so. The police will claim that Sheila expected to get the money from me.”

“Of course that’s what they’ll claim. And I’ll have a devil of a time proving otherwise. But you and I both know that’s bullshit. You’re Sheila’s trustee. Can you really imagine her coming to you and saying, ‘There’s a blackmailer who knows something about me that you wouldn’t want to know. Unless you give him a lot of money he’s going to tell you.’”

“That’s absurd.”

“Well then, you explain it to me so that it doesn’t sound absurd.”

“That’s not the point,” Max said, with a condescending smile. “The point is, your fine theory is full of holes. If Greely were blackmailing me, why would he bother with Sheila at all? You see what I mean? It’s illogical.”

Steve smiled back. “Yes, but that’s not my problem. I don’t have to prove my theory, I just have to advance it. Then the prosecution has to disprove it. Because they have to prove Sheila guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt, that’s all I need.”

Steve paused while Max thought that over.

“Well, there you are,” Steve said. “You’re the perfect red herring. I’ll dangle you in front of the jury and claim you killed him. The prosecution will have to prove you didn’t.”

“That’s ridiculous. By your own reasoning, there was no way Greely could blackmail me over the trust.”

“That’s right,” Steve said. “I’ll claim he was blackmailing you over the will.”

Max was genuinely surprised. “The will!”

“That’s right. If he knew something that could upset the will, you’d be in a position to lose everything. It’d be a dandy motive for murder.”

“You’re crazy,” Max said, shaking his head. “The will was probated twenty years ago. It’s good as gold. There’s no way on earth he could have upset the will.”

“Oh no?” Steve said with a smile. “Try this on for size. No person convicted of murder may profit by inheritance from his victim. Suppose you killed your father. Suppose Greely knew about it. His testimony could convict you, and convicting you would upset the will.”

For once, Max lost his cool. His face reddened. “Well you son of a bitch.”

Steve shrugged. “Funny. That’s what Sheila said.”