Inspector Queen’s Own Case

He went into the Humffrey house on the heels of his two detectives.

Stallings waited.

When all the officers had disappeared, he stole up the driveway to the service entrance, slipped inside, shut the door quietly, and went to the telephone extension in the butler’s pantry. He gave the Taugus operator the Humffrey apartment number in New York City number.

“The Humffrey residence,” Mrs. Lenihan’s Irish voice answered.

“Lenihan,” Stallings muttered. “Is his nibs there?”

“Who is this?”

“Stallings. Got to talk to Mr. Humffrey. Shake a leg.”

“You old fool, what are you up to now?” the housekeeper sniffed. “Drunk again, like as not. Mr. Humffrey isn’t here.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. All he said was for Henry to have the limousine ready. They drove off early this morning.” Mrs. Lenihan lowered her voice. “Something doing?”

“Plenty. Cops all over the place. Chief Pearl with a search warrant. Don’t you have no idea where they went?”

“Mercy,” Mrs. Lenihan said faintly. “I don’t, Stallings. What are they looking for?”

“How should I know?” Stallings sounded disgusted. “Well, I done my duty.”

He hung up and returned to his bulbs.

In Alton Humffrey’s upstairs study, Abe Pearl replaced the study extension on its base softly.

At a few minutes past two that afternoon Stallings phoned Mrs. Lenihan again. This time he sounded agitated.

“Isn’t Mr. Humffrey back yet, Lenihan?”

“Not yet,” the housekeeper said. “What’s the latest?”

“They just left.”

“That’s good.”

“Maybe not so good,” Stallings said slowly. “Maybe not so good, my fine Mrs. Lenihan.”

“Now what? You and the voice of doom! What did they do? What did they say?”

“Nothing. Wouldn’t tell me nothing. But Chief Pearl cracked me on the back, and do you know what he says to me?”

“What?”

“‘Stallings,’ he says, ‘I got the funniest feeling you’re going to be looking for a new job,’ he says.”

“He didn’t!” the housekeeper gasped.

“That’s what he says to me, Lenihan, word for word.”

“What do you suppose it means?”

“I don’t know,” the caretaker muttered. “But I don’t like it... You better make good and damn sure Mr. Humffrey calls me the minute he gets in!”

Abe Pearl began phoning the Humffrey apartment from his office in Taugus police headquarters at a little past 3 p.m. He called again at 3.30, and again at 4.00.

When he phoned at 4.15 Mrs. Lenihan answered in a voice shrill with tension. “No, he isn’t here yet, Chief Pearl. I told you I’d tell Mr. Humffrey the minute he comes in. Mercy!”

“Make sure you do, Mrs. Lenihan,” Chief Pearl growled. He hung up and said, “Well, that’s it. Let’s hope it works.”

“It’ll work, Abe,” Richard Queen said confidently.

It was almost 6 p.m. when Abe Pearl put his hand over the mouthpiece and said, “Here he is!”

Richard Queen hurried into the anteroom. The police operator handed him the earphones and he slipped them on and waved a go-ahead through the open doorway.

Abe Pearl removed his hand and said grimly, “Okay, Phil. Put Humffrey on.”

Alton Humffrey’s voice rasped in the earpiece. “Chief Pearl!”

The chief said coldly, “So you finally got my messages, Mr. Humffrey.”

“I’ve only just got in. May I ask what in the name of common sense has been going on today? My housekeeper is in tears, Stallings keeps babbling some nonsense about a police raid on my Nair Island property—”

“Oh, you’ve talked to Stallings.”

“Certainly I’ve talked to Stallings! He’s been calling all day, too. Is he out of his mind, Chief, or are you?”

“I’d rather not discuss it over the phone.”

“Really? By what right do you invade my privacy, ransack my house, trample my flowers, put dredgers to work off my beach? By what right, Chief Pearl?” The millionaire’s twang vibrated with anger.

“By the right of any police officer who’s got the jurisdiction to search for evidence in a murder case.”

“Murder case? You mean the baby? Good heavens, are you people singing that tune again? Don’t you remember, Mr. Pearl? That case is closed. You closed it yourself.”

“An unsolved murder case is never closed.”

“It wasn’t an unsolved murder case! It was an accident.”

“It was a murder case, Mr. Humffrey,” Abe Pearl said. “And now we’ve got the evidence to prove it.”

There was a pause.

Then the millionaire said in an altogether different way, “Evidence, you say? What evidence?”

“I’d appreciate it if you came out to police headquarters in Taugus right away, Mr. Humffrey. Tonight.”

“Tonight? I’m not going anywhere, any time, until I have more information! What evidence?”

The chief glanced over into the anteroom. Richard Queen nodded.

“Well, you might say,” Abe Pearl said into the phone, “you might say it’s something we should never have stopped looking for in the first place.”

There was another pause.

“I see,” Humffrey said. “You wouldn’t be referring, by any chance, to that pillowslip the Sherwood woman — that nurse — kept babbling about?”

The police chief glanced over at Richard Queen again. The old man hesitated this time. But then, grimly, he repeated the nod.

“That’s right,” Abe Pearl said.