The Case of the Phantom Fortune

Chapter 22

As Hamilton Burger stalked angrilyfrom the courtroom, Lt Tragg came over and gave Mason the benefit of hiswhimsical smile.

"Well, Perry," he said,"we all of us make mistakes. Every once in a while I deviate from goodold-fashioned police procedure because I think I have everything I need andevery once in a while I find I'm on the wrong side of the fence.

"I certainly should have hadthe lights turned on and searched that place. Now then, how did you deduce whathappened?"

Mason said, "I began to feelthat Gideon had an accomplice. I think that accomplice was someone whom he metin prison. There wasn't an opportunity for him to have an accomplice otherwise.It must have been someone who was in prison and who was released withinprobably the first year after Gideon was incarcerated."

"But why would they have anassociation which would endure all that time, and -"

Mason said, "Here's Paul Drakecoming now. I think he has the answer."

Paul Drake, hurrying into thecourtroom, looked at the sprinkling of startled spectators talking in knots, atthe empty bench where Judge Saxton should have been sitting, then hurried over toMason and Lt Tragg. "What happened?" he asked. "Whathappened?"

Della Street said, "The judgedismissed the case."

"Dismissed it?" Drakeechoed.

"That's right," Masonsaid. "Quite a few things happened this noon. What did you find out aboutthe money, Paul?"

"You were dead right. A depositof forty-seven thousand dollars was made by mail. Just plain mail. The moneywas in an envelope with postage on it and nothing else. Naturally it aroused alot of curiosity.

"There have been nowithdrawals, but at regular intervals since, small sums of money have beendeposited to the account, so that it kept the account listed on the bank'srecords as a live account."

"And the name of the man whodeposited the account?" Mason asked.

"Collister Damon," Drakesaid. "And, of course, I only need remind you that Gideon's full name wasCollister Damon Gideon.

"He undoubtedly had anaccomplice who was released from prison shortly after he was incarcerated. Thatperson couldn't draw out the money, because he couldn't establish his identityas Collister Damon, but anyone can make deposits to an account and oncedeposits are made the account continues to be a live account."

A plain-clothes man hurried into thecourtroom and motioned to Tragg.

Tragg said, "Excuse me,"went to talk with him, came back and said, "Well, Perry, I guess we've gotthe clues we need. Somebody had been touching an object that was greasy andwhen he jumped into that corrugated packing box he left fingerprints, enough sothat they can be identified. Now then, we'll go over the records of prisonerswho were released from the federal penitentiary where Gideon was confined andsee what we can find there."

"Good enough," Mason said.

"Perhaps you can tell me whathappened between Gideon and the accomplice?" Tragg said.

"Sure," Mason said,"it's only surmise but I think you'll find it'll work out once you get theaccomplice.

"They had a nice hideout herein this deserted store. I think you'll find the fingerprints of this accompliceon some of the cooking utensils and empty tin cans."

Tragg winced and said, "Let'snot rub it in, Perry."

"And," Mason went on,"they were getting by all right until things went wrong and Gideon shotthis night watchman. He lost his head completely. That put the accomplice inthe position of having a possible one-way ticket to the gas chamber. Whenevertwo or more persons commit a felony, and a murder is committed in connectionwith the felony, all of them are equally guilty of first-degree murder. For allthey knew, the watchman was going to die.

"All of a sudden Gideon becamehotter than a stove lid. He wanted out of town. He didn't dare, under thecircumstances, to try and draw that money out of the bank. He needed money andhe needed it bad. He put the bite on me. He put the bite on Warren."

"Can you tell me what he had onyou and what he had on Warren?" Tragg asked.

"No, I can't," Mason said,"and it would help a lot if you'd not try to find out. You don't need to,you know."

"Probably not," Traggsaid.

"Anyway, Warren let the gun outof his possession. Gideon had a fight with his accomplice and Gideon tried tokill him. Gideon missed. The accomplice didn't."

Tragg said, "Why should Warrenhave conveniently left the gun for Gideon to pick up? He – Now wait a minute,Gideon was putting the bite on everybody he could."

Tragg's eyes narrowed. "Iwonder if by any chance Mrs Warren was included in his list of victims. Iwonder if she went down there with a gun and then Warren came in later. Hefound Gideon dead with the gun nearby and Warren picked up the gun, so as toprotect his wife, pocketed it and was trying to make his escape when he heardsirens tearing down the street and assumed it was the police."

Mason met Tragg's eyes."Those," he said, "are the things I wish you wouldn't try tospeculate about, Tragg. The accomplice will state that he killed Gideon inself-defense and I think perhaps he's right. Gideon shot at him with the Warrengun. The accomplice retaliated with the gun they had been using in theirholdups – the gun Gideon had had on the night the supermarket was heldup."

Tragg was thoughtfully silent.

"That's all you need,"Mason said. "The federal boys can recover the forty-seven thousand dollarsand there's nothing left for you to worry about."

"But you want to keep yourclients out of this?"

Mason met his eyes, "I want tokeep my clients out of it."

Silently, Tragg extended his handand shook hands. "You've been a big help, Perry," he said. "Idon't suppose you could go a step farther and give us some clue as to theidentity of the accomplice, could you?"

"Why not?" Mason asked.

Tragg raised his eyebrows.

"Think it over," Masonsaid. "I had a sketch made of Collister Gideon. We know now that he wasconnected with that hold-up and shooting at the supermarket.

"The night watchman who waswounded unhesitatingly identified the Gideon sketch as having a resemblance tothe man who had done the shooting.

"The other witness was positivethat the sketch didn't look like the man who had run out of the door. Yet itwas the man who ran out of the door who had the gun."

Tragg said thoughtfully, "Therecould have been two men connected with the hold-up."

Mason grinned. "And the policefound a man running down the street. If the man had tried to hide, they'd havegrabbed him and charged him with being the accomplice, but because the man hadenough presence of mind to run out in the middle of the street and start wavinghis arms at the police car trying to flag it down, the police fell for thestrategy and -"

"Good God!" Tragginterpolated. "Do you mean Drew Kearny was the accomplice?"

"Of course he was theaccomplice," Mason said. "That's why he wouldn't identify Gideon. Hedidn't dare to. He didn't want Gideon to have any connection with thatsupermarket. He was hoping that the police would never find the gun he had leftin the old warehouse after the shooting.

"Kearny is clever as hell and aconsummate actor. Take his fingerprints. Shake him down and you'll find he hasa criminal record, that he was in federal prison for a while when CollisterGideon was there, that Gideon confided in him, that Kearny came to this town,established a small business which gave him a legitimate front. From time totime he made deposits on the forty-seven-thousand-dollar account Gideon hadestablished. He was waiting for the time when Gideon would be released andcould draw cheques on the account without having the authorities censoring hismail.

"Kearny is probably responsiblefor a whole chain of burglaries that the police would like to clear up. He wassmart enough, however, to know that he had to keep his criminal activities entirelydivorced from his legitimate activities therefore he had a hideout he hadestablished in this old deserted building which was tied up in litigation. Hewould stay there when he wanted to pull a job. Probably his jobs were pulled,for the most part, on weekends. Of course I'm going on guesswork andprobabilities, Lieutenant, but there's no other explanation for that hold-upgun being the fatal gun which killed Gideon, and Kearny just had to be theaccomplice on that supermarket job. That's why he was running down the street,not toward the telephone, but away from the scene of the crime."

Tragg heaved a deep sigh."Where would you have been if Kearny had got back to that warehouse andremoved that gun before we found it?" Tragg asked.

Mason looked at his watch."Probably being sentenced for contempt of court right now," he said.

"Then you weren't influencingthe witness at all," Tragg said. "The witness was drawing redherrings across the trail just as fast as he could."

"And because the watchman saidthe sketch of Gideon did look like the man he had surprised in the supermarket,the district attorney and the police were blaming me for having influenced theother guy's testimony," Mason said.

Abruptly Tragg threw back his head,laughed, and said, "Well, I guess we'll get busy on a round-up,Perry."

"Going to take Hamilton Burgerin on it?" Mason asked.

Tragg said, "I think I'll keepout of Burger's office for a few hours, if you don't mind, Perry"

"I don't mind in theleast," Mason told him.

The End.