Read Ebook: Remember the 4th! by Loomis Noel M

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Ebook has 158 lines and 15566 words, and 4 pages

Slim held up a sheet of ruled paper. "Got his already. I was just practicing; I got him when he was trying to hammer the door down yesterday."

Suddenly I felt a deep peace. I had the landlord in my power, now, and I didn't have to hurry; I could take my time.

But Slim notched me down. "Get this hundred changed," he said. "Give the landlord fifty and then have the telephone connected again."

I took the hundred.

"Get some more sandwiches, too. We'll be here late tonight."

Well, the landlord wasn't as sarcastic as I had feared. He defrosted slightly when he saw the fifty. Now we owed him only two hundred. I knew he was probably going to put us out on September the first, but I soothed my hurt feelings by imagining him walking around in his shorts. There is nothing else that will so undignify a man. But before long--in fact, as soon as I could get to the Brain-Finder while Slim wasn't watching--I'd get the facts.

We watched Mrs. Ellingbery for four straight nights and days. She went visiting; she played bridge; she shopped. She never did give more than a second glance at any man, and she didn't talk to any man over the phone. We could see her only when she looked at herself in the mirror. That was enough.

We followed her like two blood-hounds, from the time she ate breakfast until she went to bed at night, but Slim turned the machine off when she sat down to remove her stockings. Slim always was a gentleman.

We went back in "time"--fast. Flashes here and there. But Mrs. Ellingbery was like Caesar's wife. On the fifth day Slim called Tom Ellingbery and told him he was dropping the case, that his wife was above suspicion and it wasn't worth while to watch her. I was glad, but Tom Ellingbery swore; anyway, he said he'd send a check for another hundred. Then Slim sat back and looked at me. "Now," he said quietly, "we'll turn this thing where it belongs."

I'd been hoping he'd go out for a sandwich, now that we dared to use the passenger elevators, so that I could sneak a preview of the landlord biting his fingernails in seclusion, but no. Slim fixed his deep eyes on me and said, "We'll see what Tom has been doing recently. Do you realize he hasn't been in the picture but once in five days?"

Tom was it, all right. We trailed him that night to a big apartment house across town. Yes, it was a blonde, only this one had had considerable help from a bottle of peroxide....

Slim made a deal with Mrs. Ellingbery's lawyers. We were to get five triple-o's if Mrs. Ellingbery won. So Slim spent the week-end trailing Tom for the past three months while I wrote it all down like a chronological history of the war. I was tickled over July the Fourth. On July the Fourth, Tom and the bleached blonde started out with a popcorn picnic and wound up--you guess. Riding the roller coaster! I could just imagine what old Judge Monday would say to that; that little scene would be worth half of the property settlement.

We were short on time. Some way or another Tom Ellingbery had rushed the trial, and it was set for August 30. We turned over our notes to Mrs. Ellingbery's lawyers and sat back and waited. Private investigators never go near the courts unless they have to.

At four-thirty that day the telephone rang. Slim listened, then he hung up. "Tom has got a couple of shrewd, tough lawyers," he said. "We have to go to court. Tom isn't admitting anything and he isn't taking any bluffs. He demands proof."

"Well," I said, "for five M notes I'll tell everything."

Slim was worried. He talked to her lawyers, Youngquist and Rubicam, that night. The next morning we were both in court. It was direct examination. Slim identified himself, then he was asked: "You have investigated Tom Ellingbery's activities over the past three months?"

"Yes." Slim was very self-composed.

"Did you, on the night of August 26, observe him going into an apartment house at this address?"

"Yes."

And so on--but never a word of where Slim was when he saw all this. Very clever, I thought, but when I looked at those sharp-eyed young fellows at Tom Ellingbery's table, I knew it'd never get by.

Presently Mr. Youngquist said, "You may inquire." I held my breath. But one of the young fellows looked up and said, "Are you going to put his partner on?"

"Yes," said Mr. Youngquist.

"With that understanding, there are no questions of this witness, your honor."

I jumped as if I had sat down on an electric griddle. It was plain even to me; they figured Slim was pretty sharp, so they'd wait for me, and in the meantime they wouldn't tip me off by asking Slim any questions. I wished I could have held my breath for about three days.

I got along all right with Mr. Youngquist. I was careful not to say anything about where I had stood or sat or walked. I said, "Yes, I followed him," because I did follow him with my eyes. Then Mr. Youngquist turned to the young fellow and said, "You may inquire."

The young fellow got up slowly and looked at me easily and gently, but it was still August. I was sweating. I knew it was coming. I looked at Slim. Slim was sweating too. I looked at Mr. Youngquist. He wiped the perspiration from his forehead.

"You say," the young fellow began softly, "that you and your partner followed Mr. Ellingbery from sometime in June?"

"Yes."

"You testified, I believe, that on the night of July the Fourth, Tom Ellingbery and this girl were at the amusement park?"

"Yes."

"And I believe you have cited some eight or nine dates up to the fifteenth of July."

I looked at Mr. Youngquist and I was astonished to see his face the color of bleached muslin.

"Well, did you or did you not?"

I looked at Slim. He was puzzled, too. Finally I nodded.

"Will you say it for the record, please?"

"Yes."

"That is to say, you are now testifying that you followed Mr. Ellingbery on each of eight or nine occasions prior to July 15, and each time with your partner at your side?"

"Yes."

"And always at Mrs. Ellingbery's request?"

"Yes." That was a nasty question, but it had to be answered yes.

"Were you here in court yesterday?"

"No, sir." I would have said, "No, your majesty," if it would have helped.

"You didn't hear Mrs. Ellingbery testify that her suspicions were first aroused when somebody reported to her that on July the Fourth Tom Ellingbery was riding the roller coaster with another girl?"

I wish I could have jumped into the Brain-Finder and gone back about two weeks. I would have walked through the sidewalk while the coal was being poured.

"No," I said finally.

The young fellow looked triumphantly at Mr. Youngquist, who looked as if he would like to be buried in ashes up to his ears.

"That's all."

Mr. Youngquist rallied and put Slim back on the stand. Then there was a recess. Mr. Youngquist and Mr. Rubicam and Slim and Mrs. Ellingbery and I went into a big huddle out in the hall. "That's what comes of messing around with imbecilic things like this Brain-Finder," Mr. Youngquist moaned. "Why didn't we stick to straight law?"

"Because we couldn't win that way," Mr. Rubicam reminded him. "We didn't have any real evidence."

Well, they decided the only chance to win the case was to have Slim tell about and demonstrate the Brain-Finder. Slim didn't like to do that; but we needed those five G's. That afternoon he told. The next morning we lugged it into court and set it on a table with the screen facing the judge.

I looked his wife over in my best professional style. I thought I'd seen her some place, and a detective is supposed to remember faces, but I couldn't quite place her. Anyway, there were now three blondes mixed in with that court-room--and that's a lot of blondes. Mr. and Mrs. Swanberg sat down at one side opposite the jury-box where they could see the screen of the Brain-Finder as well as the judge. I suppose Swanberg had read the story and wanted to see what we were up to in his building. Mrs. Ellingbery sat across the counsel table from me. She was a winner if there ever was one.

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