The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

“Of course, the endorsement being forged, the check couldn’t be cashed. The money would return to the estate, and whoever inherited that estate would inherit the money on that check.

“The fact that I was able to show that Benjamin Addicks had been mistaken about the theft of the ring and the watch was a break for them. They decided to capitalize on that by incorporating that matter in the will which would give the whole thing an air of authenticity.

“They didn’t get all the breaks. A few things went against them. One was that while I was there Sidney Hardwick came out to see his client, and the masquerader, who was supposed to be Benjamin Addicks, said that he felt too upset to see him — to see his own attorney, mind you, although he had previously given me an audience, and I was not only a stranger, but a man whose interests were completely hostile.”

Drake said, “Then Josephine Kempton was telling the truth.”

“The truth about everything except that cashier’s check. She tried to hide that. Of course, Hershey, Fallon and Herman Barnwell knew that they had her the minute she took that check. It could either be found in her possession or she would try to cash it. As far as they were concerned they were perfectly willing for her to cash it. She could have taken the money and then Herman Barnwell, in checking into the business affairs, could have detected a forgery. The bank records would show the twenty-five thousand dollars had been paid to Josephine Kempton and there they had her.

“In other words, if the story of the gorilla murdering Benjamin Addicks went across all right, that was fine, that was the way they wanted it; but in the event anything went wrong, Josephine Kempton could be cast in the role of murderess. And in the event she wasn’t accused herself, once she had cashed that cashier’s check they had her absolutely in their power.”

“Well,” Drake said, “it was a bizarre scheme, but nevertheless when you realize the weird circumstances under which Benjamin Addicks lived, his attempts at experimentation with animal psychology, and — how do you explain that, Perry?”

“He’d killed a man in Australia,” Mason said. “We have a lot to check, but apparently Herman’s story to me was, in the main, true. Benjamin Addicks, or Barnwell, was rationalizing with his conscience. He probably felt he had been hypnotized. He may have been off the beam on that one subject.”

“How did you get the lead on all this?” Drake asked.

Mason said, “Actually, Paul, I should have smelled a rat a lot sooner than I did.”

“How come?”

Mason said, “I went out to see Benjamin Addicks. I saw a man who was introduced as Benjamin Addicks. I did not get a good look at his face. He was wearing dark glasses so I couldn’t see his eyes. He had a bandage which concealed nearly all of his face. Actually, of course, I was talking with Herman instead of Benjamin. Herman had been here for some time, leaving an accomplice in Australia to answer cablegrams from Hardwick. That was all part of the carefully laid trap. Herman was a good enough actor to change his voice, and since I had never met Benjamin, they stood very little chance of detection — not one chance in a million. But they fell down on one thing.”

“What?”

Mason said, “It was then Tuesday evening. The gorilla was supposed to have attacked Benjamin the day before. I had a glimpse of the cheek of the man with whom I was talking. That cheek was smoothly shaven. In court they introduced a photograph of Benjamin’s face. I examined the photograph rather closely and saw that the lacerations were deep and painful.

“I felt vaguely uneasy about that photograph. I knew there was something wrong, but I couldn’t tell what. It was, of course, the incongruity of the shaven cheek I had seen at the edge of the bandage.

“That the lacerations were too painful for the victim to have shaven, was shown by indisputable evidence — the fact that he hadn’t shaved. Yet the man whom I saw had a cleanly shaven cheek more than thirty-four hours after the injuries were supposed to have been sustained.

“You can’t be mistaken on that. A bandage, of course, will cover up skin, but as a person talks the bandage moves slightly, and if the skin under the bandage is unshaven, whiskers will be working out.”

“Now what happens?” Della Street asked.

“Fortunately,” Mason said, “we can prove that holographic will is a forgery. Hershey is simply dying to turn state’s evidence. The other will then becomes effective, the one that Hardwick prepared. Of course, there’s a clause in that will that Hardwick didn’t want to tell us about, a clause leaving the bulk of the fortune to Helen Cadmus. Hardwick kept insisting that Benjamin Addicks make a new will because he thought Helen Cadmus was dead. Benjamin, however, had no real intention of changing his will because he knew Helen Cadmus was very much alive, and he knew that he wanted to have her provided for in the event anything happened to him.