The Garaucan Swindle

CHAPTER XVI. AFTER MIDNIGHT

IT was after midnight. Dunwood Marrick was seated in the living room of his sumptuous apartment. A fierce glower showed on Marrick’s straight-nosed face. The banker’s eyes glistened as they surveyed Wally Wilking from beneath their bushy brows.

“So the girl told you everything, eh?” demanded Marrick.

“Wasn’t that enough?” questioned Wilking.

“More than enough,” Marrick snorted. “It looks like you talked too much to Zellwood. I told you to be careful, all along.”

“I know it.” Wally’s fingers were nervous as they applied a match to a cigarette. “But after all, Marrick, I had a right to talk to Zellwood. My trust money was in Hildreth’s bank, wasn’t it? Zellwood was the cashier.”

“Yes,” agreed Marrick, “he was. But he isn’t now. That’s the trouble.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if Zellwood were still alive, he would be afraid to say anything that would hurt you. He would repudiate this talk of Jodelle’s. But with Zellwood dead, it looks bad for you — from the standpoint of circumstantial evidence.”

“You mean they’ll actually try to prove that Zellwood passed me the combination to the bank vault?”

“Absolutely. Unless you can snatch that evidence out of Hildreth’s vault, you’re going to be in trouble.”

“I’d like to get into that vault,” asserted Wally. “I’ve got my chance at last, from what Claire told me. That card with the combination — in the cigar box—”

“It’s your ticket, Wally.”

Wilking paced back and forth across the room, puffing at the cigarette that he had inserted in the long holder. At last, he paused to face Dunwood Marrick.

“I’ll chance it,” decided Wally. “It will be worth a lot to you as well as to me, though, Marrick.”

“Granted,” agreed the chunky-headed banker. “If they try to incriminate you — and succeed — they’ll certainly come after me.”

“Which wouldn’t be to your liking.”

“On account of those securities that I have here in my safe? The ones that are on Hildreth’s list?”

“Yes.”

“I’d get rid of them in a hurry, Wally. No, my boy, it would be a tough job for them to brand Dunwood Marrick as the big brain behind a bank robbery. At the same time, I don’t want any suspicion to be placed upon me.”

“On account of the Garaucan bonds?”

“Exactly. Stop your pacing, Wally. Listen to me, while I present this entire situation in an impersonal manner. Are you ready?”

“Shoot.”

“I STEPPED into the limelight,” declared Marrick, “by announcing that I was caught with two million dollars’ worth of Garaucan bonds. I made the announcement to preserve my reputation. It went over big with nearly every one.

“Certain wiseacres, however, saw a ruse. They advanced the theory that I was the financier who backed the Garaucan bond issue. They said that I made my statement merely to cover up my past. I sat tight, figuring that the rumor would die.

“Then came the robbery of the Founders Trust Company. Commissioner Barth has been talking of a brain behind the crime. No one, however, thought of naming me as the brain. The idea would have been preposterous.”

“Then why the worry?” quizzed Wally.

“Because the chance exists,” answered Marrick. “Barth is an eccentric egg. Should he suddenly pick on me, in one of his theorizing moments, he would have an interesting deduction for a starter. He could reason thus.

“First: that I am in back of the Garaucan bond swindle. That theory would make me capable of other crime. Being a banker, knowing banks and their weaknesses, why should I not go in for bank robbery?

“Second: figuring that I am on the level, so far as my loss of two millions is concerned, Barth could form another interesting theory. I am noted for my burning desire to recoup any losses that I have sustained. Due to present business conditions, I have performed no transaction that could have regained a portion of the two millions. Therefore, I might have turned to crime to get that amount back.”

“Barth would have to be crazy,” observed Wally, “in order to jump at either one of those theories.”

“Barth is crazy,” responded Marrick, in a tone of positive assurance.

“But not crazy enough,” said Wally. “He would have to be completely cuckoo to start in a brain-storm of that sort.”

“Agreed,” nodded Marrick, soberly. “I doubt that Barth would formulate either theory on his own account. But he would jump to either idea if he were given a stimulus.”

“I see,” said Wally slowly. “Then if I were accused of working on Zellwood; if the fact that I know you were made public—”

“Barth would jump for me like a mad dog,” interposed Marrick. “All the bankers who are after my scalp would join in, rally round Hildreth.”

“And then?”

“They would link me up with Dobey Blitz. I did lend Dobey money, when I first met him. It was for real estate transactions. I made him later loans — all in a legitimate way, of course.”

“Did he give you good security?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s no crime to lend money to Dobey Blitz, if he puts up the paper for it.”

“It was no crime for you to talk to Zellwood.”

Wally pondered. His cigarette was burning the end of his holder. He shook the stump into an ash tray.

His nervousness had increased.

“CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidence again,” remarked Marrick. “Circumstantial evidence throughout. The same applies to the police theory regarding Dobey Blitz. I doubt that they gained any tangible evidence against him. But circumstantial evidence can do a lot.”

“How?”

“By forming a chain. That’s what it can do in this case. Dunwood Marrick — the brain. Wally Wilking — the informant. Dobey Blitz — the robber. It fits in with the police theory.”

“They can’t get anywhere with it,” protested Wally. “You know they can’t, Marrick! The proof is lacking! It would have to be a frame-up.”

“A frame-up,” chuckled Marrick. “The law is not above it, Wally. When they think a man is crooked, they frame him when they can’t get him any other way. No, Wally, the best system is to stop the whole trouble before it begins. You can do that to-morrow night.”

“By getting those papers?”

“Yes. You know where they are. In the pigeonhole marked W. Without those papers, Hildreth and Jodelle cannot stir Barth to action. You will be safe. I will be safe.”

“And Dobey Blitz.”

“I’m not thinking about him. He has paid back his loans. He means nothing to me.”

“It won’t take me long,” mused Wally. “But when I get into the vault, I ought to do more than just take the papers.”

“Certainly. Grab the papers first; if you have time, see if you can find anything else I want.”

“I’ll do that, Marrick.”

While Wally was lighting another cigarette, Dunwood Marrick leaned back in his chair and stared toward the ceiling. He began to speak in a speculative tone.

“They thought they could get at me through you,” remarked the banker. “I wonder, Wally, if they think they could get at me through Dobey Blitz?”

“How could they do that? Dobey might admit that he borrowed money from you. That would be all.”

“I’m not sure about Dobey. You know what Hildreth told his niece — that he intended to make things easy for you if you squealed on me.”

“Well?”

“The police might try the same tactics on Dobey. He might decide to make a goat of me. Big shots of his type have no scruples when it comes to passing the buck.”

“Mob leaders don’t talk.”

“Not against their pals. But Dobey is no pal of mine. He’s a fox, that fellow. He would say anything under the proper persuasion. With all his bluff, he is yellow at heart. Like all professional murderers, he is a coward.”

“Why not go to him?”

“I could do that. Very easily. The sight of a gun would scare the daylights out of him.”

“Out of Dobey Blitz?”

“Certainly. Why do you think he bought that apartment house and put a strong-arm crew in charge? Because he’s scared for his yellow hide.”

“Then if you go to see him—”

“I’m not going,” interposed Marrick, emphatically. “At heart, Dobey is such a coward that he would start to crawl the moment I would begin to warn him. I might send you, though, Wally.”

“When?”

“Before you go to Hildreth’s. It might do you good — give you a chance to show your nerve. On the other hand, it might be better to wait until after you have brought the papers here. Perhaps you should not see Dobey at all.

“I’ll think it over, Wally.” Marrick had risen. “Go home and get some sleep. Forget all about to-morrow. Be in your apartment at six o’clock to-morrow afternoon. Wait there until I call you. Then do as I tell you.”

Wally nodded. Marrick ushered his visitor from the apartment. Returning, the broad-shouldered banker lighted a cigar and puffed thoughtfully as he resumed his chair.

A leer showed above Marrick’s protruding jaw. The man’s heavy brows formed a scowl. Dunwood Marrick was thinking of the morrow. A fighter, a challenger, a schemer who dealt in millions, Marrick showed by his expression that he would be ready for what might come.