The Case of the Musical Cow

Chapter 21

Captain Harmon rang Colonel Stepney’s office. “The sheriff from across the river is here, Colonel.”

“What does he want?”

“Wants to talk with us about co-operation.”

“That’s fine. Bring him up.”

Captain Harmon hung up the telephone, said to Sheriff Landes, “Come on up, Sheriff. The colonel will see us.”

They climbed the stairs of the barracks, went through an office containing a secretary, who motioned them to go on into the private office. Colonel Stepney came around the desk to shake hands with Sheriff Landes. “How’s everything coming over on your side of the river, Sheriff?”

“Fine,” Landes said, sitting down, and accepting one of Colonel Stepney’s cigars. “I want to see you folks about a little co-operation.”

“What?”

“You have a man under arrest, Marvus L. Gentry.”

Colonel Stepney glanced at Captain Harmon.

Harmon nodded and said, “He’s the man we caught digging up that dope.”

“Oh, yes,” Colonel Stepney said.

“Now then,” Sheriff Landes went on, “we’ve got pretty much of an open-and-shut case against this Robert Trenton for murdering Harvey Richmond, but we want to sew it up just as tight as we can.”

“You think he’s guilty?” Colonel Stepney asked.

“I know darn well he’s guilty. In fact we’ve got a real case.”

Colonel Stepney nodded.

“But you know how those things are. Trenton has a lawyer who’s pretty slick and we want to get it sewed up so there’s no possible loophole.”

Colonel Stepney nodded once more.

“Now then,” Sheriff Landes went on, “this man Gentry would turn state’s evidence if we could give him a break.”

“How much of a break?”

“Immunity.”

Colonel Stepney shook his head.

“Now, wait a minute,” Sheriff Landes went on quickly. “When you come right down to it, you haven’t so much of a case against him.”

“We caught him with about forty thousand dollars’ worth of dope in his possession.”

“I know, but he didn’t know it was dope at the time.”

“Oh, sure,” Colonel Stepney said sarcastically. “He just went out at that particular place on the road to dig up some gladioli bulbs, and when he dug down to where he thought the bulbs would be, imagine his surprise to find a lot of oiled silk packets. He put them in his pocket because he didn’t know what else to do with them and then decided what was the use of trying to get the gladioli bulbs. He...”

“Now, wait a minute,” Sheriff Landes interrupted. “We’ve always co-operated with you and we want to co-operate with you. This man is an important witness for us. Why not hear his story?”

“What is his story? He’s refused to talk to our men.”

“Well, a lawyer came to us and told us a very sketchy outline of what his story would be in case we co-operate by giving him immunity.

“Gentry had been in the dope racket about two months. He was a new man. At first he didn’t know what the racket was. He knew it was smuggling, but thought it was diamonds.

“The gang was marking time waiting for a shipment to come from Europe. Last week they all got tense because they knew they’d have a small fortune if everything went all right. The ship was due to dock Monday.

“Monday afternoon the gang got word that everything was all right. Then early Tuesday morning they received word everything was all wrong.

“Gentry knows that Robert Trenton was the one who was supposed to have the dope. Then he was told Tuesday afternoon that Trenton was aboard, and shortly after dark he was sent to the place where Trenton had buried the dope. He was given a sketch map. You people have that map. It was on Gentry when you arrested him. It’s in Trenton’s handwriting.

“Gentry wants immunity. That seems a small price to pay for sewing up a murder.”

“How did Richmond happen to be aboard that houseboat?” Stepney asked.

“Because he found out that was Trenton’s headquarters.”

“How do you know it was Trenton who killed him?”

“We have an absolutely dead open-and-shut case on that. Trenton had a gun in his possession. A .32 automatic. We’ve traced it from the numbers. It was a gun that was stolen from a house about a year ago in a burglary.”

“Any fingerprints?”

“We’ve got it all tied up, I tell you,” Sheriff Landes said. “You know you don’t get fingerprints on a revolver, particularly if it’s well-kept and oiled, but with an automatic the situation is different. You do get fingerprints on the cartridge clip, usually the print of a thumb.

“In this case that’s exactly what we have. A thumbprint of Robert Trenton.

“What’s more, we can prove Trenton had the gun in his possession. Thanks to the good work your men did, that gun was found in a desk where Robert Trenton had locked it. We have three witnesses. Linda Mae Carroll, Linda Carroll, her niece, and Merton Ostrander. They’re all of them friendly to Robert Trenton. They’ll dislike very much to testify anything against him, but they’ll have to admit that the gun was in his possession, that it was locked in the desk.”

“Who had the key to the desk?” Colonel Stepney asked.

“Merton Ostrander.”

Colonel Stepney glanced at Captain Harmon, cocked a quizzical eyebrow.

Sheriff Landes interpreted the glance and said hurriedly, “Now look. I know what you’re thinking, but let’s be reasonable about it. Suppose Trenton tries to claim Merton Ostrander waited until he’d gone to sleep and then went down, opened the desk, and got possession of the gun.”

“Well?” Colonel Stepney asked.

“It couldn’t have happened that way.”

“Why not?”

“The bullets that were fired into Harvey Richmond’s body were immediately and instantly fatal. They were fired right under the heart. That is, one of them was in the heart and the other was just above the heart, severing the big artery. Now remember the time at which the shooting took place. Remember the time at which the fire started. Remember the place at which the fire started.

“Robert Trenton admitted to these witnesses that he fired two shots at a man on the boat. He says that he couldn’t even see the sights, but he admits that he fired two shots.

“It was immediately after that that the boat caught fire. Now then, when the boat caught fire it drifted down the river and came to a rest on that sandbar. The men aboard the boat finally got the fire out using hand extinguishers and a power pump. Then they cleared out. The boat was badly damaged. Fire trucks saw the blaze, rushed to the location, found it was on a boat in the river and turned back because they weren’t equipped to handle anything like that, and because they could see through binoculars that the crew were getting the fire under control.

“I didn’t hear about it until this morning. I went down shortly after daylight. I found the charred body. The boat was owned by Sam Joyner. I hunted him up. I didn’t like his story, so I put him under arrest.

“Then he cracked. He saw Trenton fire the fatal shots. Now there’s no question about the time when Trenton left the boat, no question about the time the shots were fired in relation to the time of the fire on the houseboat.

“But we need a motive. If we can prove Trenton was smuggling dope and that Richmond was on his trail, we have a perfect motive. All you need to do is to dismiss the charges against Gentry.”

Colonel Stepney said, “There was a woman with Gentry at the time he went to dig up the dope.”

Sheriff Landes was quick with an explanation. “That was his girl friend. She was out with him for the ride. She had nothing to do with it and wasn’t anywheres around when the dope was being dug up. That’s why your man lost her. She was over by the car, and as soon as she knew there was trouble she beat it into the grove on the other side of the road and made her getaway. She’s out of the case and she’s going to stay out of it. There’s no good to be achieved by bringing her into it. And the minute you try to do that Gentry is going to dry up like a clam.”

Colonel Stepney arose from his chair and paced the office floor, giving the matter frowning consideration.

“Look,” Sheriff Landes said, “I’ve fixed it all up with everybody. The Narcotics Division is all ready to play ball because they’re anxious to get a case against the man who murdered Harvey Richmond. All you have to do is just play ball with us and we’ll be sitting pretty.”

“Does Gentry have a record?”

“No, he doesn’t. He’s completely in the clear. We co-operate with you boys all the time and I don’t see why you won’t co-operate with us.”

“How long was it after the boat was turned loose from the moorings that the fire broke out?”

“Just two or three minutes.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, I’m figuring the way it must have been from what the witnesses say. Judging about the time they began to notice the red spot in the sky and the reflection of burning on the water, it couldn’t have been over two or three minutes.”

“I don’t like it,” Colonel Stepney said.

Sheriff Landes’ face darkened. “You fellows are always asking us...”

“Now, wait a minute,” Colonel Stepney interrupted. “Don’t get off on the wrong track. I’m simply saying there are some aspects of the case I don’t like. As far as this man Gentry is concerned, we’ll play ball. If that’s the way you want it, that’s the way it’ll be.”

Sheriff Landes’ face broke into a broad smile. He crossed the office and shook hands with Colonel Stepney. “You aren’t going to regret this,” he said. “This is going to mean a big thing to me, personally. It’s going to mean a big thing to the prosecuting attorney.”