The D.A. Breaks an Egg

“Now notice a peculiar coincidence. One of those things that isn’t entirely a coincidence because with a man who has as much practice as old A. B. Carr there are undoubtedly cases which dovetail, and dates which coincide time after time. But Carl Remerton met his death on July twenty-ninth. Daphne Arcola was mixed up in that death, and so was Barton Mosher. They appealed to Carr when Rose Furman got on the job. Then Moana Lennox came to Carr and wanted a man freed on a hit-and-run charge. He was really innocent and Moana knew it but couldn’t testify. The date was the twenty-ninth of July. Obviously, if Carr could give Daphne Arcola an alibi by showing that she was in California on the evening of the twenty-ninth, she could hardly have been administering knockout drops to Carl Remerton on that same date in Windrift, Montana.

“Now, you can piece together all of the things that Carr did. He convinced Moana that, as her benefactor, he’d get someone to take her place as an alibi witness. If he had offered to do this for nothing, it would have made her feel that there was something phony about the deal, and that Carr had an ax to grind. So Carr got her to part with something of value. All that she had was the antique jewelry. It wasn’t anything that Carr would ordinarily have bothered with. Carr didn’t even plan to dispose of it. He simply intended to keep it so as to make his activities appear regular so far as Moana was concerned.”

“Go on, Doug,” Brandon said. “You’re doing fine.”

“Well, there you have the entire story,” Selby went on. “You’ll remember, Rex, that when we first started figuring the thing we felt that Carr wanted to get an alibi for someone or something. Then it looked as though we were wrong and he was giving someone an alibi. But Carr was up to his old tricks.”

“And you think Carr killed Rose Furman?”

Selby said, “Carr doesn’t resort to murder. He isn’t that crude, but I wouldn’t put it at all past Carr to have suggested to Mosher that as long as Rose Furman was on the job he was bound to end up behind the eight ball sooner or later.”

“And where does that leave this girl?” Brandon asked, motioning his head toward Daphne Arcola.

“Probably,” Selby said, “she’s the one who put the knockout drops in the drink, or whatever it was. We’ll have to get an order exhuming the body and have a delicate chemical analysis made. But my best guess is Carl Remerton was murdered, either deliberately, or killed accidentally, in the process of seeing that he was kept quiet when he found out that he’d been trimmed and started to make a complaint.

“I’m not so certain that we can definitely prove our case against Mosher, but we certainly have the goods on this girl — or will have after we go into the question of Remerton’s death — and people of Mosher’s type are always rats. They’ll grab at straws. That’s what Carr was so intent upon doing. He was going to save his own skin while he still had a chance. He was going to get in touch with Mosher and... well, it’s a two to one bet, Rex, that they were going to fix things up so that Mosher turned state’s evidence and got off scot-free, and this girl got the works. That’s Mosher’s type.”

Selby stole a sidelong glance at Daphne Arcola’s profile, then went on. “And it’s a dirty shame in a way, because girls like Daphne get by on their beauty and youth. You know what happens after a woman has served a term in prison, even if it’s only a five-year term. She comes out looking like an old hag. There’s nothing left for her except jobs of floor scrubbing and they’re lucky to get those. Inside of another five years they have the figure of a sack of potatoes and...”

“Stop it!” Daphne Arcola screamed at him.

Selby looked at her in surprise. “What’s wrong, Daphne, can’t you take it?”

“Of course I can’t take it. And neither could any other woman. But I’m beginning to realize a lot of things now. You say Mosher would make a deal to turn state’s evidence and get off scot-free?”

Selby nodded.

“Well,” she said, “how about beating him to it? If you want a witness, I’ll make you a proposition.”

Selby said, “I can’t guarantee anything, but we’d use our influence with the grand jury, if the facts warrant it.”

She said, “Well, you seem to know pretty much what happened. The only thing you have wrong is my part.

“I was a come-on girl all right and I saw that Carl Remerton got taken to the cleaners. He was a good sport and a free spender, but, believe me, when he thought he’d been gypped, he really was a fighting fool.

“That’s where Mosher made his mistake. He underestimated Remerton, but I wasn’t the one who gave him the doped drink. I was instructed to get him in touch with Mosher that night. In other words, to put him on the spot. I thought it was just another gambling deal. Then I was instructed to leave him. I knew something was fishy then. The next I knew he was supposed to have died of heart failure while he was driving his automobile. Naturally, I kept my own counsel.