The Case of the Crime King

Chapter 6

The next morning Frank and I got together with Andy and LaMonica. It was decided to hold a special show-up that night. The two Homicide officers got on separate phones to line up their witnesses. Frank and I thought it best to make a personal visit to James Dehelvey.

The supermarket owner wasn’t any happier to see us than he’d been the previous day. The news that both suspects were in custody didn’t seem to cheer him any.

He said, “If it’s those same men whose pictures you showed me, there’s no point in me coming tonight. I know they’re not the ones.”

“Look, Mr. Dehelvey,” I said. “We know you’ve been threatened, and we don’t blame you for being scared. But these men can’t hurt you from prison. You cooperate, and we’ll put them away for years.”

“I’m cooperating,” he said testily. “I’ll come down to your show-up, or whatever you call it.”

His tone meant that he’d humor us that far, but he was sure it was a waste of time. Frank and I examined him in silence for so long he began to grow uncomfortable.

“It’s all very well for you guys,” he said querulously. “You carry guns, and you’ve got a whole police department behind you.”

I said quietly, “It’s behind you, too, Mr. Dehelvey. It’s behind every honest citizen.”

“Yeah. If I end up on a slab, you’ll track down my killer.” This was his first real admission that he’d been threatened. But we didn’t pounce on it, for fear that he’d clam up again.

Frank said in a tone as quiet as mine had been, “They can’t hurt you from jail.”

“They can’t, no.”

As soon as the words were out, he looked as though he wished he hadn’t said them. His jaws clamped shut with an audible click of teeth. It was time to pounce.

I said, “It was somebody other than the suspects who threatened you, huh?”

He looked from me to Frank, then merely gave his head a sullen shake.

“You know who it was?” I persisted.

“Nobody!” he yelled. “Why do you keep pestering me?”

A woman pushing a grocery cart stopped to stare at us. Dehelvey gave her an abashed smile, and she moved on. Frank said, “Can you give us a description?”

Dehelvey emitted a weary sigh. “I’ve been pretty patient, Officers. But I don’t have to take this badgering. For the last time, I haven’t been threatened. For the last time, the men who robbed me weren’t in any of the pictures you showed. Now I have to get back to work.”

There was no point in trying again. He’d made up his mind. I said, “You will appear at the show-up, though?”

“Sure,” he said. “But it won’t do any good. What time?”

“Eight o’clock,” I told him. “In the auditorium on the first floor of the Police Building.”

Outside the store Frank looked at me and I looked at him. “What do you think, Joe?” he asked.

I said, “I think he’s not going to break. Ever.”

Back at the office we went into conference with Andy and LaMonica again. They said that there had been no indication from any of their four assault witnesses or the two victims that pressure had been brought to bear on them.

“The victims will be here, too,” Andy said. “They’re still bandaged up, but they’re out of the hospital.”

8:04 p.m. The special show-up was held. James Dehelvey, the four assault witnesses, and one of the assault victims were present. The one with the broken ribs had discovered at the last minute that, even tightly bandaged, it was too painful for him to sit erect in a car.

Ten men were led out on the stage. Without hesitation the assault victim and the four assault witnesses picked out Big Julie and Harry Strite from the group.

James Dehelvey stated that he had never seen any of the men before.

Afterward, when the suspects had been returned to the Felony Section and the witnesses had all been sent home, Andy and LaMonica, Frank and I went up to the cafeteria for coffee. Frank and I must have been wearing glum expressions, because Andy gave us a sympathetic look.

“At least we’ve got them on carrying and on assault,” he said. “They’ll go up for a while.”

I said, “Don’t be too sure.”

Andy raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

“We think some third person threatened our victim. Some pal of the suspects. Maybe he’ll get to your witnesses, too.” Andy frowned. “No indication of it yet.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“How you figure?”

“The show-up was just tonight.”

“So?” Andy said.

“Until now the suspects’ pal probably didn’t know who the assault witnesses were.”

Saturday morning, December 7th, Frank and I met with Captain Peters, a representative of the D.A.’s office, and Chief Brown in the latter’s office. In the face of James Dehelvey’s refusal to identify the suspects, it was decided we had no choice but to withdraw the robbery charge.

“What about the money?” I asked the chief.

“We’ll hang onto it as possible evidence as long as possible,” he growled. “She’ll probably have a lawyer demanding it back quick enough without our reminding her of it.”

During the following week Frank and I worked on three other robbery cases. We were too busy to wonder how Homicide was coming along with its assault case.

Monday morning, December 16th, Frank and I met in the cafeteria before check-in time. I noticed that Frank was having nothing but coffee.

“Had breakfast at home, huh?” I said.

“Toast and jelly is all,” he said listlessly.

I looked him over. “Don’t you feel good?”

“No.”

“What’s the trouble?”

“Armand,” Frank said, “He’s supposed to visit Fay’s sister over the holidays.”

“That makes you feel bad?” I asked incredulously.

“Made me feel good until this morning.”

“Oh?”

“Got a wire from Fay’s sister this morning.”

“Bad news?” I asked.

“Yeah. One of her kids has got measles.”

Andy came over and took a seat next to Frank. He said, “’Morning, gentlemen. Got all your Christmas shopping done?”

“Haven’t even started,” I told him. “We’ve been up to our ears.”

Andy pursed his lips. “Only seven more shopping days.” Frank said, “This time of year we’re lucky if we get a couple of hours sleep a night, let alone time for shopping. You Homicide guys have got a snap.”

Andy stirred his coffee. “How you figure that?”

“Season of good will. Not so many people go around killing each other.”

“We get enough,” Andy said dryly.

“Not like we get robberies. They take a jump.”

“Just before Christmas?”

“Yeah,” Frank said. “Always.”

Andy raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Why?”

Frank asked, “Got your Christmas shopping done?”

“Sure. What’s that got to do with anything?”

Frank said sourly, “Heisters have to get theirs done, too. And it takes money.”

Andy gave him a quizzical look, suspecting Frank was kidding. He wasn’t. We always do get an increase of business at holiday time. It’s one of the unfortunate side effects of the over-commercialization of Christmas. A lot of the robbers we catch at this time of year confess that their motive was to get money for presents.

I switched the subject by asking Andy, “How’d you make out with that assault case?”

Andy’s mouth corners turned down. “Out the window. We’re getting them on carrying. Period.”

“Oh? What happened?”

“What you warned us about. Somebody got to all six witnesses. Scared their pants off.”

Neither Frank nor I said anything.

“We played it cozy, too,” Andy said. “LaMonica and I got to thinking about what you said. So we put all six under surveillance. None of the stakeouts spotted a single out-of-the-way contact. But they all went back on their identifications. Couldn’t budge a single one.”

After a moment of silence, Frank said, “Fine thing. Here we know these guys are guilty of two crimes. And they get off clean on both.”

“Well, at least you’ve got them on carrying,” I said. “Nobody’s going to scare four police officers out of testifying.” Andy snorted. “Some deal. If they didn’t both have felony records, it’d only be a misdemeanor. Thirty to sixty days. With their previous falls, we may get them a year each in the Joint, but what’s that? Six to nine months, with time off for good behavior.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Lot of work for nothing.”

“How you mean?” I asked.

“You think a few months in the Joint is going to reform these characters?”

I shook my head. “Not likely.”

“I’ll give you a maximum of nine months,” Andy said. “Then we’ll have it to do all over again.”