The Benson Murder Case (7 page)

When he had shaken hands with the District Attorney, he turned to Vance.

“Good-bye, sir,” he said pleasantly, much to my surprise, and to Markham's, too, I imagine. “I hope you learned something this morning.”

“You'd be positively dumbfounded, Sergeant, at all I did learn,” Vance answered carelessly.

Again I noted the look of shrewd scrutiny in Heath's eyes; but in a second it was gone.

“Well, I'm glad of that,” was his perfurctory reply.

Markham, Vance and I went out, and the patrolman on duty hailed a taxicab for us.

“So that's the way our lofty
gendarmerie
approaches the mysterious wherefores of criminal enterprise—eh?” mused Vance, as we started on our way across town. “Markham, old dear, how do these robust lads ever succeed in running down a culprit?”

“You have witnessed only the barest preliminaries,” Markham explained. “There are certain things that must be done as a matter of routine—
ex abundanti cautelæ
, as we lawyers say.”

“But, my word!—such technique!” sighed Vance. “Ah, well,
quantum est in rebus inane!
as we laymen say.”

“You don't think much of Heath's capacity, I know”—Markham's voice was patient—“but he's a clever man, and one that it's very easy to underestimate.”

“I dare say,” murmured Vance. “Anyway, I'm deuced grateful to you, and all that, for letting me behold the solemn proceedings. I've been vastly amused, even if not
uplifted. Your official Æsculapius rather appealed to me, y'know—such a brisk, unemotional chap, and utterly unimpressed with the corpse. He really should have taken up crime in a serious way, instead of studying medicine.”

Markham lapsed into gloomy silence, and sat looking out of the window in troubled meditation until we reached Vance's house.

“I don't like the look of things,” he remarked, as we drew up to the kerb. “I have a curious feeling about this case.”

Vance regarded him a moment from the corner of his eye.

“See here, Markham,” he said with unwonted seriousness; “haven't you any idea who shot Benson?”

Markham forced a faint smile.

“I wish I had. Crimes of wilful murder are not so easily solved. And this case strikes me as a particularly complex one.”

“Fancy, now!” said Vance, as he stepped out of the machine. “And I thought it extr'ordin'rily simple.”

(
Saturday
,
June
15
th
;
forenoon
)

You will remember the sensation caused by Alvin Benson's murder. It was one of those crimes that appeal irresistibly to the popular imagination. Mystery is the basis of all romance, and about the Benson case there hung an impenetrable aura of mystery. It was many days before any definite light was shed on the circumstances surrounding the shooting; but numerous
ignes fatui
arose to beguile the public's imagination, and wild speculations were heard on all sides.

Alvin Benson, while not a romantic figure in any respect-had been well known; and his personality had been a colour, ful and spectacular one. He had been a member of New York's wealthy bohemian set—an avid sportsman, a rash gambler, and professional man-about-town; and his life, led on the borderland of the
demi-monde
, had contained many
high-lights. His exploits in the night clubs and cabarets had long supplied the subject-matter for exaggerated stories and comments in the various local papers and magazines which batten on Broadway's scandalmongers.

Benson and his brother Anthony, had, at the time of the former's sudden death, been running a brokerage office at 21 Wall Street, under the name of Benson and Benson. Both were regarded by the other brokers of the Street as shrewd business men, though perhaps a shade unethical when gauged by the constitution and by-laws of the New York Stock Exchange. They were markedly contrasted as to temperament and taste, and saw little of each other outside the office. Alvin Benson devoted his entire leisure to pleasure-seeking and was a regular patron of the city's leading cafés; whereas Anthony Benson, who was the older and had served as a major in the late War, followed a sedate and conventional existence, spending most of his evenings quietly at his clubs. Both, however, were popular in their respective circles, and between them they had built up a large clientele.

The glamour of the financial district had much to do with the manner in which the crime was handled by the newspapers. Moreover, the murder had been committed at a time when the metropolitan press was experiencing a temporary lull in sensationalism; and the story was spread over the front pages of the papers with a prodigality rarely encountered in such cases.
¹
Eminent detectives throughout the country were interviewed by enterprising reporters. Histories of famous unsolved murder cases were revived; and clairvoyants and astrologers were engaged by the Sunday editors to solve the mystery by various metaphysical devices. Photographs and detailed diagrams were the daily accompaniments of these journalistic outpourings.

In all the news stories the grey Cadillac and the pearl-handled Smith and Wesson were featured. There were pictures of Cadillac cars, “touched-up,” and reconstructed to accord with Patrolman McLaughlin's description, some of them even showing the fishing-tackle protruding from the tonneau. A photograph of Benson's centre-table had been taken, with the secret drawer enlarged and reproduced in an “inset.” One Sunday magazine went so far as to hire an expert cabinet-maker to write a dissertation on secret compartments in furniture.

The Benson case from the outset had proved a trying and difficult one from the police standpoint. Within an hour of the time that Vance and I had left the scene of the crime a systematic investigation had been launched by the men of the Homicide Bureau in charge of Sergeant Heath. Benson's house was again gone over thoroughly, and all his private correspondence read; but nothing was brought forth that could throw any light on the tragedy. No weapon was found aside from Benson's own Smith and Wesson; and though all the window grilles were again inspected, they were found to be secure, indicating that the murderer had either let himself in with a key, or else been admitted by Benson. Heath, by the way, was unwilling to admit the latter possibility despite Mrs. Platz's positive assertion that no other person besides herself and Benson had a key.

Because of the absence of any definite clue, other than the handbag and the gloves, the only proceeding possible was the interrogating of Benson's friends and associates in the hope of uncovering some fact which would furnish a trail. It was by this process also that Heath hoped to establish the identity of the owner of the handbag. A special effort was therefore made to ascertain where Benson had spent the evening; but though many of his acquaintances were questioned, and the cafés where he habitually dined were visited, no one could at once be found who had seen him that night; nor, as far as it was possible to learn, had he mentioned to anyone his plans for the evening. Further more, no general information of a helpful nature came to light immediately, although the police pushed their inquiry with the utmost thoroughness. Benson apparently had no
enemies; he had not quarrelled seriously with anyone; and his affairs were reported in their usual orderly shape.

Major Anthony Benson was naturally the principal person looked to for information, because of his intimate knowledge of his brother's affairs; and it was in this connection that the District Attorney's office did its chief functioning at the beginning of the case. Markham had lunched with Major Benson the day the crime was discovered, and though the latter had shown a willingness to co-operate—even to the detriment of his brother's character—his suggestions were of little value. He explained to Markham that, though he knew most of his brother's associates, he could not name anyone who would have any reason for committing such a crime, or anyone who, in his opinion, would be able to help in leading the police to the guilty person. He admitted frankly, however, that there was a side to his brother's life with which he was unacquainted, and regretted that he was unable to suggest any specific way of ascertaining the hidden facts. But he intimated that his brother's relations with women were of a somewhat unconventional nature; and he ventured the opinion that there was a bare possibility of a motive being found in that direction.

Pursuant of the few indefinite and unsatisfactory suggestions of Major Benson, Markham had immediately put to work two good men from the Detective Division assigned to the District Attorney's office, with instructions to confine their investigations to Benson's women acquaintances so as not to appear in any way to be encroaching upon the activities of the Central Office men. Also, as a result of Vance's apparent interest in the housekeeper at the time of the interrogation, he had sent a man to look into the woman's antecedents and relationships.

Mrs. Platz, it was learned, had been born in a small Pennsylvania town, of German parents, both of whom were dead; and had been a widow for over sixteen years. Before coming to Benson, she had been with one family for twelve years, and had left the position only because her mistress had given up housekeeping and moved into a hotel. Her former employer, when questioned, said she thought there had been a daughter, but had never seen the child, and knew nothing of it. In these facts there
was nothing to take hold of, and Markham had merely filed the report as a matter of form.

Heath had instigated a city-wide search for the grey Cadillac, although he had little faith in its direct connection with the crime; and in this the newspapers helped considerably by the extensive advertising given the car. One curious fact developed that fired the police with the hope that the Cadillac might indeed hold some clue to the mystery. A street-cleaner, having read or heard about the fishing-tackle in the machine, reported the finding of two jointed fishing-rods, in good condition, at the side of one of the drives in Central Park near Columbus Circle. The question was: were these rods part of the equipment Patrolman McLaughlin had seen in the Cadillac? The owner of the car might conceivably have thrown them away in his flight; but, on the other hand, they might have been lost by someone else while driving through the park. No further information was forthcoming, and on the morning of the day following the discovery of the crime the case, so far as any definite progress towards a solution was concerned, had taken no perceptible forward step.

That morning Vance had sent Currie out to buy him every available newspaper; and he had spent over an hour perusing the various accounts of the crime. It was unusual for him to glance at a newspaper, even casually, and I could not refrain from expressing my amazement at his sudden interest in a subject so entirely outside his normal routine.

“No, Van, old dear,” he explained languidly, “I am not becoming sentimen'al or even human, as that word is erroneously used to-day. I cannot say with Terence, ‘
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto
,' because I regard most things that are called human as decidedly alien to myself. But, y'know, this little flurry in crime has proved rather int'restin', or, as the magazine writers say, intriguing—beastly word! … Van, you really should read this precious interview with Sergeant Heath. He takes an entire column to say, ‘I know nothin'. A priceless lad! I'm becoming pos'tively fond of him.”

“It may be,” I suggested, “that Heath is keeping his true knowledge from the papers, as a bit of tactical diplomacy.”

“No,” Vance returned, with a sad wag of the head; “no man has so little vanity that he would delib'rately reveal himself to the world as a creature with no perceptible powers of human reasoning—as he does in all these morning journals—for the mere sake of bringing one murderer to justice. That would be martyrdom gone mad.”

“Markham, at any rate, may know or suspect something that hasn't been revealed,” I said.

Vance pondered a moment.

“That's not impossible,” he admitted. “He has kept himself modestly in the background in all this journalistic palaver. Suppose we look into the matter more thoroughly—eh, what?”

Going to the telephone he called the District Attorney's office, and I heard him make an appointment with Markham for lunch at the Stuyvesant Club.

“What about that Nadelmann statuette at Stieglitz's,” I asked, remembering the reason for my presence at Vance's that morning.

“I ain't
²
in the mood for Greek simplifications to-day,” he answered, turning again to his newspapers.

To say that I was surprised at his attitude is to express it mildly. In all my association with him I had never known him to forgo his enthusiasm for art in favour of any other divertisement; and heretofore anything pertaining to the law and its operations had failed to interest him. I realised, therefore, that something of an unusual nature was at work in his brain, and I refrained from further comment.

Markham was a little late for the appointment at the Club, and Vance and I were already at our favourite corner-table when he arrived.

“Well, my good Lycurgus,” Vance greeted him, “aside from the fact that several new and significant clues have been unearthed and that the public may expect important
developments in the very near future, and all that sort of tosh, how are things really going?”

Markham smiled.

“I see you have been reading the newspapers. What do you think of the accounts?”

“Typical, no doubt,” replied Vance. “They carefully and painstakingly omit nothing but the essentials.”

“Indeed?” Markham's tone was jocular. “And what, may I ask, do you regard as the essentials of the case?”

“In my foolish amateur way,” said Vance, “I looked upon dear Alvin's toupee as a rather conspicuous essential, don't y'know.”