“Thank you.”
She got him a cold Bud, one of the tall ones. He sat there in his overcoat and old fedora, so worn that there was a hole in the front at the triangular crease.
“Betty,” he said, “you got a nice thing going here. You take care of the locals?”
“of course,” she said, astonished that he would ask such a question. “And the prick behind the lobby desk. And the alkie manager. How else could I operate?”
“Yeah,” he said, “it figures. I’ve been checking you the last three or four days. Regulars mostly, aren’t they?”
“Mostly. Some walk-in trade. Friends of friends.”
“Sure, I understand. You got a regular named Ronald Bellsey?”
“I don’t ask last names.”
“All right, let’s concentrate on Ronald. Comes in two afternoons a week. A chunky guy, an ex-pug.”
“Maybe,” she said cautiously.
“What kind of a guy is he?”
“He’s a pig!” she burst out.
“Sure he is,” Calazo said cheerfully.
“Likes to hurt you, doesn’t he?”
“How did you know that?”
“That’s the kind of guy he is. I want to take him, Betty.
With your help.”
“Take him? You mean arrest him?”
“No.
“Kill him?”
“No. Just teach him to straighten up and fly right.”
“You want to do that here?”
“That’s right.”
“He’ll kill me,” she said.
“You take him here and you don’t kill him, he’ll come back and kill me.”
“I don’t think so,” Detective Calazo said.
“I think that after I get through with him, he’ll stay as far away from you as he can get. So you’ll lose one customer-big deal.”
“I don’t like it,” she said.
“Betty, I don’t see where you have any choice. I don’t want to close you down, I really don’t, though I could do it. All I want to do is punish this scumbag. If he does come back, you can always tell him the cops made you do it.”
She thought about it a long time. She went to the small refrigerator and poured herself a glass of sweet wine. Calazo waited patiently.
“If he gets too heavy,” Betty Lee said finally, “I could always go to Baltimore for a while. I got a sister down there.
She’s in the game, too.”
“Sure you could,” the detective said, “but believe me, he’s not going to come on heavy. Not after I get through with him.”
She took a deep breath.
“How do you want to handle it?” she asked him.
He told her. She listened carefully.
“It should work,” she said.
“Give it to him good.”
Detectives Venable and Estrella walked in on Mrs. Gladys Ferguson without calling first. They didn’t want her phoning Mrs. Yesell and saying something like: “Blanche, two police officers are coming to ask me about you and our bridge club.
What on earth is going on?”
Mrs. Ferguson turned out to be a tall, dignified lady who had to be pushing eighty. She walked with a cane, and one of her shoes had a builtup sole, about three inches thick. She was polite enough to the two cops after they identified themselves, but cool and aloof.
“Ma’am,” Estrella started, “we’d like to ask you a few questions in connection with a criminal investigation we’re conducting. Your answers could be very important. I’m sure you’ll want to cooperate.”
“What kind of a criminal investigation?” she asked.
“Into what? I’ve had nothing to do with any crime.”
“I’m sure you haven’t,” Detective Estrella said.
“This involves the whereabouts of witnesses on a night a crime was committed.” She stared at him.
“And that’s all you’re going to tell me?”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“Will I be called to testify?” she said sharply.
“At a trial?”
“Oh, no,” Detective Helen Venable said hastily.
“It’s really not a sworn statement we want from you or anything like that.
Just information.”
“Very well then. What is it you wish to know?” ,”Mrs. Ferguson,” Estrella said, “are you a member of a bridge club that meets on Friday nights?”
Her composure was tried, but it held.
“What on earth,” she said in magisterial tones, “does my bridge club have to do with any criminal activity?”
“Ma’am,” Helen said, beginning to get teed off, “if you keep asking us questions, we’re going to be here all day. It’ll be a lot easier for all of us if you just answer our questions.
Are you a member of a bridge club that meets on Friday nights?”
“I am.”
Estrella: “Every Friday night?”
“That is correct.”
Venable: “How long has this club been meeting?”
“Almost five years now. We started with two tables. But members died or moved away. Now we’re down to one.”
Estrella: “And you’ve never missed a single Friday night in those five years?”
“Never. We’re very proud of that.”
Venable: “Have all the current members of the club been together for five years?”
“No. There have been several changes. But the four of us have been playing together for-oh, I’d say about two years.”
Estrella: “I presume you rotate as hostesses. The game is held at a different home each Friday?”
“That is correct. I wish you would tell me exactly what you’re trying to get at.”
Estrella: “Do you recall a Friday night early in November this year?
There was a tremendous rainstorm-one of the worst we’ve ever had.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my memory, young man. I remember that night very well.”
Venable: “In spite of the dreadful weather, your bridge club met?”
“You’re not listening to me, young lady. I told you we have not missed a single Friday night in almost five years.”
Estrella: “And at whose home was the game that particular night?”
“Right here. That is one of the reasons I remember it so clearly. It was supposed to be held at the home of another member. But the weather was so miserable, I called the others and asked if they’d mind coming to me.” She tapped her builtup shoe with her cane.
“Because of this, I don’t navigate too well in foul weather. The other members kindly agreed to come here. It wasn’t a great imposition; they all live within two blocks.”
Venable: “At whose home was the game originally scheduled?”
“Mrs. Blanche Yesell.”
Venable: “But she came here instead?”
“Must I repeat everything twice?” Mrs. Gladys Ferguson said testily. “Yes, she came here instead, as did the others.”
Estrella: “We just want to make certain we understand your answers completely, Mrs. Ferguson. What time do you ladies usually meet?”
“The game starts at eight-thirty, promptly. The members usually arrive a little before that. We end at ten-thirty, exactly.
Then the hostess serves tea and coffee with cookies or a cake.
Everyone usually departs around eleven o’clock.”
Detective Venable took out her notebook.
“We already know that you and Mrs. Blanche Yesell are two of the members. Could you give us the names and addresses of the other two?”
“Is that absolutely necessary?”
Estrella: “Yes, it is. You’ll be assisting in the investigation of a violent crime.”
“That’s hard to believe-the Four Musketeers involved in a violent crime. That’s what we call ourselves: the Four Musketeers.” Venable: “The names and addresses, please.”
The detectives spent the next two days questioning the other two members of the club. They were both elderly widows of obvious probity. They corroborated everything that Mrs. Gladys Ferguson had stated.
“Well,” Estrella said, staring at his opened notebook, “unless the Four Musketeers are the greatest criminal minds since the James Gang, it looks like Mrs. Yesell is lying in her teeth.
She wasn’t home that night, and her daughter is still on the hook.”
“Son of a bitch!” Helen Venable said bitterly.
“I still can’t believe Joan was the murderer. Brian, she’s just not the type.”
“What type is that?” he asked mildly.
“She’s human, isn’t she? So she’s capable.”
“But why? She keeps saying how much she admired the doctor.”
“Who knows why?” he said, shrugging.
“We’ll let Delaney figure that out. Let’s go up to Midtown North and borrow a typewriter. We’ll work on the report together. I’d like to get it to Sergeant Boone tonight. I have a heavy date with a Ouija board.”
“And I was going to share an apartment with her,” Venable mourned.
“Count yourself lucky,” Estrella advised.
“You could have picked Jack the Ripper.” - “I hope you have some good news for me,” First Deputy Commissioner Ivar Thorsen said.
“I sure could use some. The Admiral was slumped in a leather club chair in the study, gripping a beaker of Glenfiddich and water, staring into it as if it might contain the answers to all his questions.
“Ivar, you look like you’ve been through a meat grinder,” Delaney said from behind his cluttered desk.
“Something like that,” Thorsen said wearily.
“A tough day.
But they’re all tough. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Isn’t that what they say?”
“That’s what they say,” Delaney agreed.
“Only you happen to like the kitchen.”
“I suppose so,” the Deputy said, sighing.
“Otherwise why would I be doing it? When I leave here, I’ve got to get over to the Waldorf-a testimonial party for a retiring Assistant DA.
Then back downtown for a meeting with the Commish and a couple of guys from the Mayor’s office. We’re getting a budget bump, thank God, and the problem is how to spend it.”
“That’s easy. More street cops.”
“Sure, but who gets the jobs-and where? Every borough is screaming for more.”
“You’ll work it out.”
“I suppose so-eventually. But to get back to my original question-any good news?”
“Well …” Delaney said, “there have been developments.
Whether they’re good or not, I don’t know. So far we’ve eliminated four of the patients: Kane, Otherton, Gerber, and Symington. Some good detective work there and some luck.
Anyway their alibis have been proved out-to my satisfaction at least.”
“But you’ve still got two suspects?”
“Two possible suspects. One is Ronald Bellsey, a nasty brute of a man. Detective Calazo is working on him. In his last report, Calazo says he hoped to have definite word on Bellsey within a few days. Calazo is an old cop, very thorough, very experienced. I trust him.
“The other possible suspect, more interesting, is Joan Yesell, suicidal and suffering from depression. Her mother claims she was home at the time of the murder. Detectives Venable and Estrella have definitely proved the mother is lying. She was somewhere else and can’t possibly alibi her daughter.”
“You’re going to pick them up?”
“Mother and daughter? No, not yet. I’ve switched everyone except Calazo to round-the-clock surveillance of the daughter. Meanwhile we’re digging into her background and trying to trace her movements on the day of the murder.”
“Why do you think the mother lied?”
“Obviously to protect the daughter. So she must have some guilty knowledge. But it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Ellerbee’s death. Joan Yesell could have been shacked up with a boyfriend, and the mother is lying to protect her reputation-or the boyfriend’s.”
Thorsen took a gulp of his drink and regarded the other man closely.
“Yes, that’s possible. But you have that look about you, Edward-the endof-the-trail look, a kind of suppressed excitement. You really think this Joan Yesell is involved, don’t YOU?”
“I don’t want to get your hopes up too high, but yes, there’s something that’s not kosher there. I’ve spent all afternoon digging through the files, pulling out every mention of the woman. Some of the stuff that seems innocent on first reading takes on a new meaning when you think of her as a killer. For instance, right after Boone and I questioned her for the first time, she attempted suicide. That could be interpreted as guilt.”
“What would be her motive?”
“Ivar, we’re dealing with emotionally disturbed people here, and ordinary motives don’t necessarily hold. Maybe the doctor uncovered something in Yesell’s past so painful that she couldn’t face it and couldn’t endure the thought of Ellerbee knowing it. So she offed him.”
“That’s possible, I suppose. Sooner or later you’re going to have to confront her, aren’t you?”
“No doubt about that,” Delaney said grimly.
“And the mother, too. But I want to do my homework first-learn all I can about Joan and her movements on the murder night.
Maybe she really was with a boyfriend. If so, we’ll find out.”
“Meanwhile,” Deputy Thorsen said, “the clock is running out. Ten days to the end of the year, Edward. That’s when the PC selects his Chief of Detectives.”
Delaney took a packet of cigars from his desk drawer, held it out to the Admiral. But the Deputy shook his head. Delaney lighted up, using a gold Dunhill cutter his first wife had given him as a birthday present twenty years ago.
“At least,” he said, puffing, “this investigation has taken the heat off the Department. Right? You’re not getting pressure from the victim’s widow and father anymore, are you?
And I haven’t seen anything on the case in the papers for two weeks.”
“I’d like to see something in the papers,” Thorsen said.
“A headline like: COPS SOLVE ELLERBEE murder. That would be a big help to Suarez.”
“How’s he doing? I haven’t spoken to him for a while.
Maybe I’ll give him a call tonight.”
“He’s a better administrator than he is a detective. But I suppose you saw that, Edward.”
“Well, we’ve still got ten days. For what it’s worth, I believe we’ll clear it before the end of the year, or the thing will just drag on and on with decreasing hopes for a solution.”
“Don’t say that,” the Deputy said, groaning.
“Don’t even suggest it. Well, thank you for your hospitality; I’ve got to start running again.”
“Before you go, Ivar, tell me something-how are your relations with the DAS office?”
“The Department’s relations or mine, personally?”
“Yours, personally.”
“Pretty good. They owe me some favors. Why do you ask?”