The Case of the Musical Cow
- Автор: Гарднер Эрл Стенли
- Год: 1950
- Язык: английский
- Год: Morrow
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Case of the Musical Cow». Краткое содержание книги:
It was there that Rob Trenton found himself on a blissful tour with the lovely, if mysterious, Linda Carroll. And it was there that the bumptious Merton Ostrander joined the twosome and, as far as Rob was concerned, made it a crowd.
But it was on a lonely road outside New York City that the real trouble began. For that was when Rob discovered the cache of dope cleverly concealed in Linda’s car — setting the scene for murder...
Ostrander nodded. “Now, you say the boat continued to burn, Rob?”
“It continued to burn for a while, but I don’t think the fire got much worse. They may have controlled it. It made a red glow in the sky for a while. I think they deliberately started the fire.”
Ostrander glanced at Linda Carroll.
It was the older woman, however, who stepped in and took charge of the situation. “We’ve got to do something about this,” she said.
“I’ll say we have,” Ostrander said. “If anyone has discovered where Rob buried that dope... Well, we’ve got to stand by him, and we’ve got to find out how the dope came to be concealed in the car in the first place.”
Linda Carroll moved forward, put her hand on Rob’s arm. “Rob,” she said, “please forgive me... I tried to keep you from finding out where I was... I wanted to call on you, not have you call on me, and that was the reason Aunt Linda...”
“I see,” Rob said, stiffly. “If you wanted to take Merton into your confidence, but arrange with your aunt to have me kept in the dark, I suppose that’s your privilege.”
“But Rob,” she said miserably, “I didn’t take Merton into my confidence. Merton did the same thing you did, only he... well, he had more luck than you did. When he came here... well, it was shortly after you had left here, and Aunt Linda had telephoned me and told me all about you being here and about the fact that you had said the car had been stolen and... well, I was nervous and upset and I decided to come here and talk with her, and Merton happened to get here shortly before I did. Aunt Linda made short work of him. She told him the same story she’d told you, but as Merton went out he...” She laughed and said, “Well, he had a break, that’s all. He met me coming in.”
“You don’t have to explain,” Rob said with dignity.
“Rob Trenton, don’t you dare be like that!” she flared. “Naturally, having been caught red-handed we owed Merton a sort of explanation.
“I had a dinner date for this evening, but I told Merton that if he wanted I’d meet him here tomorrow. I told him that I’d talk with him then and explain. I arrived here about eleven-thirty and — well, Merton showed up about ten minutes after I arrived. He got Aunt Linda Mae out of bed. He came on the bus, and the last bus back had left... well, Aunt Linda offered him the guest room, and that’s all there is to tell. Oh, Rob, why do you put me in such a position that I have to tell you all these things now?
“Aunt Linda Mae had offered Merton a room for overnight, but I’d been furiously angry at him. And now you come with all this... and it seems we’re all three of us in a mess...”
Ostrander interposed with a practical suggestion. “Look,” he said, “let’s forget the personalities, and forgo the dramatics. There isn’t one chance in ten thousand that Rob Trenton has done anything that was illegal or dishonorable. And he hasn’t dragged us in. If dope was concealed in the Rapidex sedan, we’re in already. Now let’s make up our minds that we’re all going to stand together on this thing.”
“I don’t want any help from anyone,” Rob said. “All I want is to know the facts, and then I’ll paddle my own canoe.”
“The facts!” Ostrander exclaimed in surprise. “Why you told us the facts. Someone got hold of this automobile and used it as a means of getting dope smuggled into the country.”
“I’ve been reading something about schemes of this sort,” Linda said. “But I never thought I’d be mixed up in such a deal. It’s a new development in smuggling. Nowadays a great many tourists are taking their own cars over to Europe with them. It’s become quite a racket for garage employees to stand in with dope smugglers. When a car is left in a garage overnight, or perhaps stored for a day or two, the garage men get in touch with the head of the smuggling ring. From then on it’s easy.
“The smuggling gang even furnishes its own mechanics. They’re expert welders and they have receptacles that go on the car in places where no one would ever think to look. But even if anyone did look it would seem to be just a part of the car — something that had been installed when the car was built. No one even thinks that it might be a receptacle for anything. It’s just a bulge in the frame where room was made for some revolving part or something of that sort.
“Then the smugglers take the license of the car, the registration, and after that they don’t even need to follow the car around Europe. All they need to do is to wait until the car is loaded for shipment. Then they advise their accomplices in this country, who wait until the car is first put in a garage and then the drugs are removed and no one is ever the wiser.
“That’s the way it would have been with my car, only because of that blow-out, Rob found and removed the part that had the drugs before the smugglers could get to the car.”
Ostrander nodded. “Yes, we can see that all right, now. But the point is that Rob should have telephoned the State Police. That’s where he’s in bad. He should have reported finding the dope.”
“I... well, I wanted to talk with Linda before I did anything,” Rob said.
Their silence was a mute indication of their disapproval.
“Not that I thought she was mixed up in smuggling, or anything like that,” Rob hastened to add, “but... well, it was her car and... I thought she should know about it. I thought it would be a lot better if she telephoned the police.”
“Well, anyway,” Ostrander said cheerfully, “that’s all water under the bridge. Now let’s use our heads on this thing. How much have you handled that gun, Rob?”
“Why? I took it, put it in my pocket, and I fired it twice.”
“Well,” Ostrander said, “there may be a fingerprint of the smuggler on it. Something like that might well be damaging evidence. Let’s put this gun under lock and key. Then let’s back this car you grabbed into the driveway. As soon as it gets daylight we’ll drive up and locate the place where this houseboat was tied up. We’ll make a survey of the extent of the damage and then we’ll notify the police.”
“Why not notify them right now?” Rob asked.
Ostrander shook his head and smiled. “Let’s see if we can’t all keep out of it,” he said. “After all, Rob, you haven’t the faintest scintilla of proof at the present time. You’ve got to get some sort of evidence. You owe that to yourself — to Linda.”
“The police can see where that cup-shaped thing was welded on to Linda’s car.”
“Sure,” Merton said. “But where’s Linda’s car? And how are you going to convince anyone you didn’t weld that thing on?”
Rob was silent.
“Her car may be anywhere,” Ostrander pointed out. “It may be out of the state or in the bottom of the river. You’ve reported the theft to the police.”
“But,” Rob said, “my place is being watched and...”
“Sure, your place is being watched,” Merton Ostrander said. “You’re not going back there. You can’t afford to let the police grab you until you have enough evidence to clear yourself. You can’t get evidence while you’re in jail. And once the police get you in jail they’ll only look for evidence that will hook you. But if we can keep you in the clear, the police may get evidence that’ll lead ’em to this gang of smugglers.”
He turned and looked significantly at the older woman.
“Oh, all right,” she said, laughing. “There’s another spare room that has a bed in it. It’s not as comfortable as the guest room, but it’ll do.”
“All right,” Ostrander said. “Let’s lock up this gun, keep a record of the numbers, and preserve what fingerprints may be left on it. Tomorrow we’ll give the police an anonymous tip that the houseboat was the headquarters of a gang of smugglers. That’s all we can do. Rob didn’t notify the police because he wanted to protect us. Let’s now try to protect him.”