May 15, 2025 • 25 mins
In the grimy underbelly of the city, a girls lifeless body is discovered in a desolate lot, horrifyingly beaten and with an eye brutally gouged out. Across town, another young woman is found dead under similar circumstances. Lieutenant Mendoza is convinced theres a chilling connection. As he delves into this twisting mystery in this first riveting installment of the Lt. Mendoza series, he navigates a colorful landscape of intriguing characters, veiled secrets, and stark realism that resonates with the modern reader. (Summary by Ben Tucker)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter thirteen of case Pending by Del Shannon. The LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter thirteen. The phone
call had come through, Sue said. When she eventually got
Morgan at the office after lunch, about eleven o'clock, it
was the woman again, again, sounding as if she were
reading the message, refusing to answer questions, say anything else.
(00:25):
I tried to. I thought if I could appeal to her,
remind her what she said before, what we meant. She
just gave a little gasp and said, oh, I couldn't
miss Morgan and hung up. Dick, Yeah, he said, making
meaningless scribbles on the note pad in front of him.
Henry was there at his desk across the room stack
right alongside under the other window. Morgan couldn't say much
(00:47):
directly go on, and what it came to was right
back to Graham Court seven o'clock. Smith's message said, at
Graham Court, the address and apartment number carefully read out.
Morgan might as well come to him, ran the message,
insolently phrased, sounding the opposite in the woman's soft voice.
And he needn't think. Account of things going haywire last night,
(01:09):
he had stopped meaning anything he'd said he'd be waiting
alone for Morgan at seven, and this had better be
the payoff or else. All right, said Morgan steadily, I've
got that seven. That's early. I'd better not try to
make it home first, mean, just more bluster, it's all.
Don't worry, Hon, You'd better expect me when you see me. Okay.
(01:32):
He put down the phone and went back to his
open case book there on the desk, pretending to check
notes at a word here and there, but not really
seeing anything on the page. Two things said themselves over
in his mind, the apartment and alone Smith, of course,
unknowing that he had any prior knowledge of the apartment
any other reason to be there. It added up for Morgan,
(01:55):
and also to a couple of things that were no
concern of Morgan's but interesting. And that alone suggested that
Smith had seen to it that neither the woman nor
the boy had any idea how much money he was expecting,
And that and the revealing of his home address suggested
that very likely he was planning to DeCamp with the money.
Maybe at once. What it added up to for Morgan
(02:16):
the murderer was safety, maybe depending on where Mendoza's men were.
He thought he might get some information on that point
when he saw Mendoza an hour from now with this
stuff from the school, from the time on Saturday night,
when the cold fact had penetrated his mind that the
only real lasting safety was Smith dead. Circumstances had been
(02:36):
forcing on Morgan certain changes of his original plan he
didn't much like. He looked at this one from all
the angles. It was better than the street hold up
in a way, and it would of course have to do.
You were always seeing something like that in the paper.
A man shot himself, hanged himself, slashed his wrists in
the bath tub, no known reason, no prior threat. The
(02:58):
tricky factor was the timing. If Mendoza's men were inside,
it couldn't be done at all. They'd be too close
and not unlikely in a position to know at which
floor Morgan stopped. But if they were outside, then which
way before or after the Lindstrums before he thought, quick
and quiet up to the third floor, and no back
chat with Smith as soon as the door was shut
(03:20):
behind him in Smith's place and Smith away from it,
and no fooling aroundould any attempt to muffle the shot
a suicide wouldn't bother, and there wouldn't be time gun
in his hand. Prince thirty seconds, there had to be
a good chance he'd have time to be outside the
door again, at least before any one else got there.
There was a narrower chance that he could get half
way down the stairs before that, people exclaimed, talked a little,
(03:42):
wondered before they went to see. The ideal thing would
be Morgan standing in the second floor hall, just ready
to knock on the Lindstrom's door, when doors opened and
people came out, saying, was that a shot? But Morgan
half way down, which was also half way up, would
do I'd just got to the Lindstrom's door when I
(04:03):
knew it was a shot up here, and I started
up to see. That was all he needed to say,
None of his business, nothing to link him to an
unexplained suicide sue, of course, no question here passing it
off as accident. It couldn't be helped. He'd got past
worrying about the side effects he was feeling now the
way she had said, let's, for God's sake get it
(04:23):
done and over any way at all, Because if he'd
be honest with himself, he wasn't sure he could do it,
that all this would come to any action in the end,
he had to do it the only possible solution. He'd
seen that clear on Saturday night, which, of course was
the point. If you got yourself wound up to a
place where you were ready to do murder, you ought
(04:44):
to do it right then. While, so to speak, the
spring was tight, he hadn't. He'd had three nights and
nearly three days to think about it, and now he
didn't know if when the chips were down, he could
really bring himself. He touched the gun under his coat.
He'd been carrying it because he was afraid Sue would
find it if he left it around the house, he thought, angrily, uneasily.
(05:05):
Ethics be damned. What loss is that hood? He had
decided this he was just being a damned coward to
think you got a little cowardly when you were thirty
eight with a wife and a child and a mortgage
on the house, and debts and a job to pay
just forty two hundred a year. And once he had
thought if he could feel he was to blame for
getting into this mess, but of course he was. They
(05:26):
both were. They'd known at the time, it was a
silly and dangerous thing to do, which brought him back
to the woman, because he supposed if you looked at
it from all sides, and remarkable as it might seem,
she wouldn't want to lose her husband, whatever kind he was,
People thought Morgan, tiredly. People, the agency's bright, brisk assurances,
(05:50):
we like to find just the right child for the
individual parents, patience, the endless forums, the investigators, questions, questions,
time and by, and both of them afraid never and Sue.
And then that woman, just by chance, sitting next to
Sue in the lounge of a department store rest room,
(06:11):
such a lovely baby, Dick, I couldn't help saying, only
a month old and darling. She hadn't even named her.
Wasn't that interested? She later They both thought less lack
of interest in the baby than preoccupation with the husband. Oh, obviously,
that curious mixture of obsession that couldn't really be called love,
dependence and fear. He was awfully mad when he heard
(06:34):
about the baby. He didn't want another kid. They take
a lot of time at all, you know, And I
can't go out to work now with it to look
out for he's my husband. He's back east, he's well,
he's sick, he awful, sick in the hospital and can't work.
I'd just as soon an anyways, I guess it'd be
better off of folks like you. Yes, silly, dangerous, all
(06:55):
that you forgot confronted with the warm round armful that
would be Janet and Morgan a little since you tried
to use you got the woman to sign a statement
saying she was relinquishing the child voluntarily. And you told
doctor Fordyce that Sue was nervous, didn't trust the agency's
medical tests, wanted his report too, And doctor Fordyce very
probably could make a pretty shrewd guess at the truth.
(07:17):
But he was an old friend, and he figured maybe
that it wasn't up to him to be an officious,
busybody in all the tests, saying just what Jenny had
been telling everybody since, such a lovely baby. And now
Smith Robertson. The woman said, Smith Brown Green, what the
hell if it was O'Kelly or Bernstein or Gonzalez. There
(07:38):
he was, and he was the danger. It would all
come to nothing if he were out of it. The
woman was a non entity with no forcenter, so that
left it right up to Morgan, and this was the
only way he could see open to him. When he
came round to that point again, he got up and
shut the case book. On his way over to police headquarters,
he told himself that from another angle, it was safer,
(07:58):
really if you came to murder to do it cold thinking,
if you had to, if you could, if you could
face the issue and take the only decision. The waiter
at Federico's saw Mendoza come in, and when he presented
the menu also brought the two fingers of rye that
was usually Mendoza's one drink of the day, and five
(08:18):
minutes later the black coffee. They never hurried you at Federico's,
and they knew their regular patrons. Mendoza brooded over the coffee.
He had something else to think about now, which was
probably quite irrelevant, and that was Morgan. Morgan so much
friendlier than he had been this morning, expanding on what
information he had got at the school, and then asking
(08:39):
questions a Mendoza got anywhere on the Lindstrums, anything suggestive
from the men watching the apartment, and just how did
they go about that? Anyway, he'd think it was an
awkward job that they'd be spotted, oh from a car
and tailing the woman when she and only up to midnight.
That was interesting Morgan being affable in order to ask questions,
(09:00):
and just why Morgan now? Mendoza looked at him with
more attention, strung up a little tense, putting on an
act of being just as usual. So all right, he
was worried about something. He had had a fight with
his wife, he was coming down in the cold, or
quite likely he'd felt a trifle ashamed of his barely
courteous manner this morning and was trying to make up
for it. There were more interesting things to think about
(09:22):
than Morgan. Over his dinner, Mendoza thought about them. The school,
somewhat bewildered at being asked but polite to an accredited
civic agency, said in effect that young Martin Lindstrom was
one of its more satisfactory pupils. A good student, not brilliant,
but intelligent, co operative, well mannered, and reliable. He had
a good record of attendance and punctuality. He was somewhat
(09:43):
immature for his age, not physically or academically, but socially,
not a particularly good mixer with other children, shy, a
little withdrawn, but not to any abnormal degree. Missus Lindstrom
had never attended any PTA meetings. None of the teachers
had ever met her, but that was not too unusual.
The tailors and Doza had debated about taking them off,
(10:05):
a waste of time, not likely to come up with anything,
and there was no real reason to single these people out.
In twenty four hours, she had left a place only once,
between seven and eight last evening the boy then being home,
she had walked three blocks to a grocery store on
Maine and home again with a modest bag of supplies.
On Thursday, she had an appointment at the county clinic.
(10:26):
He toyed with the idea of putting a policewoman in
there to inveigle her into casual conversation. But what could
he hope to get after all, no leeds, no line.
He'd like to talk with her himself, judge for himself,
what kind of woman? See the boy get some idea.
Remembering missus Cotter's graphic description, he reflected that missus Lindstrom
(10:47):
wouldn't be an easy woman to talk with. Sound out
the doll His only excuse for approach, and not a
very good one. He knew now definitely that it was
the same doll. The factory had identified it by a
serial number as the word sold to missus Breen, and
that was something. It might be a lot definite facts
he liked. This was one of the few he had
to contemplate in this business. But as he had said
(11:10):
to Missus Bran and Missus Demerist, make it an excuse
to see the Lyndstrum woman, forget eleanor Ramirez and go
back to Brooks. Say you were inordinately interested in this
piece of merchandise and all the rest of it. She
would only tell him some plausible tale of a niece
or godchild, and that was that. No further excuse to
pry at her. He got out the little strip of
(11:30):
lace and brooded over that a while. He muttered to it,
iss novelon Coomino, not worth a hang. Both ends of
this thing had come to a dead stop, blind alleys.
There was nowhere new to go on either Brooks or Ramirez.
And yet at the same time he felt even more
certain now that the cases were essentially the same case,
(11:51):
that the Lindstroms were. The link or one of them,
and that just a couple of steps beyond this dead
end lay something, someone, some one, more definite fact that
would lead him to the ultimate truth and to a murderer.
He had, also, for no reason, a feeling of urgency,
a feeling that time was running out. When he left
(12:11):
Ferderico's he went back to his office, and that was
for no reason either. He stood there, half in coats,
still on, looking down at that doll on his desk.
He thought it might mean this, and it might mean that.
But the one thing it meant, sure as death was
that somebody was trying to tell him something with it.
And what he would like to think somebody was telling
him was that the Lindstroms were definitely involved. Suddenly, he
(12:35):
swore aloud, folded the wrapping paper round the thing, and
thrust it under his arm. There were times you had
to sit down and think, and other times you had
to act. Even if you weren't sure what action to take.
There was a chance you'd pick up a new lead
somehow somewhere. If you went out and about, just at random,
take the excuse, go and see the woman, talk with
her about anything, something might show up. He might get
(12:58):
the smell of a new line. It was just before
seven when he knowsed the Ferrari in to the curb
outside Graham Court, already dark, but the city truck had
been around finally to replace the bulb in the street
lamp a little way down from the entrance to the
cul de Sac, and he recognized the man just turning
in there, walking fast, Morgan. Small and rather dubious satisfaction
slid through Mendoza's mind for a possible answer to this
(13:20):
one little irrelevant puzzle. Morgan, perhaps infected with boyish detective fever,
using his own excuse to get at the Lindstroms. If so,
and if they were involved in this thing, the blundering
amateur effort might warn them, or it could be useful
frightening them into some revealing action. Mendoza got out of
(13:41):
the car and stood there for a minute at the
curb with the doll under his arm, debating his own
next move now, whether to join Morgan or wait until
he came out. Marty hadn't gone home after school, and
he wasn't lying to himself about why he couldn't. He
was just plain scared, more than he had ever been
before his whole life. It had been bad enough this morning.
(14:02):
He got out just as quick as he could, long
before usual, and of course she couldn't come after to
drag him back make him answer questions. This morning had
been pretty bad. He had some idea what was going
to happen right off, but he just hadn't cared then.
The thing was maybe like a silly little kid believing
in fairies, and like that. When he thought about the
afterward part, vague and eager, he thought, if it was
(14:26):
going to tell them anything at all, it'd be right away,
and maybe even by this morning, sometime today. Everything would
not like that, maybe not even some time today, maybe never.
And what might happen now when he went home, He
just couldn't imagine how bad it'd be, or even what
it might be. She knew he had something to do
(14:47):
with its being gone, with the door always locked inside
and all, and besides Ma what she'd do and say
and ask. This had been about the longest and awfullest
day of his whole life. He got up early before
it was light, even he hadn't even really got to sleep.
After he was back in from doing that, just laid there,
miserable and scared and wondering what would happen now, and
(15:09):
then getting out soon as he ever could after it
started to happen. He hadn't really had breakfast. She'd been
too upset and he thought some scared too to fix much,
and he hadn't wanted that, and she hadn't fixed his
lunch to carry either, so he didn't have any times
to day he'd felt sort of empty, but not like
being hungry. An awful day otherways, all the ways it
(15:32):
could be. He'd been dumb in history class and mister
Prothee had scolded him, and then in English class he'd
felt so sleepy, couldn't lift his head up hardly take
in what miss Skinner was saying, and she'd been mad.
He was glad sort of when it was three thirty
and school was out, but another way he wasn't because
it was at least somewhere to be. He didn't go home.
(15:52):
He had the thirty cents Maud given him, hadn't bought
anything in the school cafeteria at lunch time because he
wasn't hungry then but now he was, and he bought
a ten cent chocolate barn ate it while he just
walked along going nowhere. Staying from home, he walked for
a while, just anywhere, and sat on the curb sometimes
to rest. He started to feel like he couldn't breathe
(16:14):
from being so scared and not knowing what to do.
Because he had to go home some time. There wasn't
anything else to do, anywhere else to go. It'd get
dark and he couldn't go on walking sitting on kerbs
all night. Somewhere along one street down near Maine, he
met Danny's ma. It was just starting to get dark.
Then she saw him, and she made him stop and said, Oh,
(16:38):
you're the boy lives downstairs, aren't you? You know Danny
Danny Smith, don't you? Yes, ma'am, said Marty, and he
took off his cap like Mo and Dad both always
said you ought to talking to a lady or when
you came inside, to be a polite. Oh you haven't
seen him anywheres? Was he at school today? No, ma'am,
(17:00):
I guess he wasn't. I haven't seen, oh, dear, she
said in her funny, soft little voice. I guess he's
for sure run off. I don't know what I'd better
do about it. You see, his dad was kind of nice,
to him a while, just lately, and then he got
mad at him, and I guess it sort of turned Danny,
do you suppose boys they're funny anyways, never know what
(17:22):
they're up to. It was like she was talking to herself.
I better ask Ray what to do, only he said
not to come home till eight anyways. Oh well, And
she smiled sort of absent minded at Marty and went past.
And he saw her stop and look at the ads
outside the movie house there and go in. He couldn't
be bothered think much about her, Danny. It got darker,
(17:43):
and then it was really dark and getting cold too,
and his head began to feel funny light, and he
wasn't sure he could keep on walking, like even if
he sat down somewhere he might fall over. There wasn't
anything left to do but go home, and it'd be
worse now after a whole day, and worse two with
Ma because he had stayed away so long. It took
a long time to get there, and he thought for
(18:04):
a while he'd never get to the top of the stairs.
And now he wasn't feeling so awful scared any longer,
Like he got past that part of him was just
feeling sick and so tired, and wanting to get home
because that was the place to go when you felt
that way, and another park, just wanted to have it
all over with whatever was going to happen. He leaned
(18:26):
on the door when he knocked and waited for her
to come, and so when the door opened, he almost
fell down, and she grabbed at him. She hadn't called
out sharp way she always did who was there first
before unlocking, but he hardly noticed, Marty, she said, And
there wasn't so much crossness in her voices he'd expected.
She sounded almost like the way he had been feeling
(18:47):
plain scared, Marty, Where you been I've been nearly crazy
all day. You got to say what you did? Where
you go? Go and get it back, Marty. And that
was the first time he ever remembered. She didn't right
away locked the door, but he didn't notice that much either.
Right then, Gunn was starting a cold and left the
office early as usual. He denied the vague, stuffy sensation
(19:10):
in the head, the little soreness in the throat, the
general feeling of lassitude. He said he wouldn't dare have
a cold after the way she'd been stuffing him with
vitamin sea all winter. Christy, having been married to him
for thirty nine years. Next June ignored that stood over
him to see he finished the glass of hot lemonade
and honey, and said he'd better have something like for
dinner instead of the hamburger. And why didn't he get
(19:33):
into his robe and slippers and be comfortable? So far
as she knew nobody was coming in, Gun said defiantly.
He felt perfectly all right. Never better, of course, said
Christie briskly. But no law against making yourself comfortable. I
suppose you'll give me no piece until I do, said Gun,
relieved at being argued into it. And then the phone rang,
(19:53):
and she said vexedly, there, if that was the McDonald's
wanting to play bridge tonight, they could go on wanting,
not of course, because his Gun wasn't feeling well, but
because she didn't feel like it herself. He had his
tie off in the bedroom, listening to her murmuring protests
at the phone when she came to the door and
said crossly it was somebody who insisted on speaking with him.
Wouldn't take no for an answer, so he went out
(20:14):
and picked up the phone mister Gunn, said a male voice, confident, courteous,
used to doing business over the phone. I've got a
little deal for you. Sorry to disturb you at home,
but I'm glad I finally got a hold of you.
Your office. Let me have your number. You don't know me.
I'm Earl King King, contracting out on Western, but your
office sent a memo to me, and I guess a
lot of other places about a fellow named Lyndstrom, wanting
(20:36):
to know if he'd applied for work or been hired
under that name or any other. Yes, gun sat down
beside the telephone table. Well, I've gotten him for you.
It was quite a little surprised to me, I tell you,
because of the kind of thing it is, deserting his family.
If you'd ask me, i'd've said he was the last man.
He'd been working for me nearly six months, one of
my steadiest men, and under his own name too. When well,
(20:57):
that's fine, said Gunn. We're glad to know where he is.
And in the morning. Wait a minute, this is just
the start. When I got your form letter asking about him,
well there wasn't any doubt it was him, name and
description and all. But I tell you, It staggered me.
I couldn't help feeling there must be something on his side,
you know, because of the kind of guy he is,
and I didn't want to go and haul him off
(21:18):
the job in front of the other men, make a
big thing of it. What I did. I met him
at the job half an hour ago when he'd been
through for the day, and tackled him about it. No
trouble at all. He broke right down, said he was
glad to come out, and he'd thought it would be
before this, and anyway, he'd been feeling so bad about it.
He couldn't have gone on much longer. Oh that's fine,
said gun yawning, glad to hear it. He's decided to
go back to his family. So that's that. Surreptitiously, he swallowed,
(21:42):
testing that soreness at the back of his throat. Well
not quite, said King. Now the dam's broken. He's been
telling me a lot of things, but more to the point,
he insists on seeing you. You're the one after him,
so to speak, and he's in such a state. Well,
he's one of those terribly honest fellows, you know, can't
sleep if they forget to pay for a cup of
coffee at a drug store counter. You know what I mean.
He's got to get it all off his chest right
(22:03):
away to you in the morning, said Gun, remembering that
Mendoza would also be interested and want to see lens
from if he'll come. I can't talk him into that, mister, Gunn.
He's in such a state, not wild, you know, don't
mean that, but look, I can't help feelings, so damn
sorry for the guy. He's sort of desperate, keep saying
he can't rest. Tilly explains how he came to you
(22:24):
see how it is. Look, if you'll agree to see
him tonight, I've said I'll drive him over there. I
know it's an imposition, but there's one thing about it too,
I don't know, but what it'd be just as well
for well, I think you'll be interested. And if oh, well,
said Gun. But this was in a way a funny
sort of job, and you ran into these things sometimes.
Strictly speaking, it was Morgan's case and he ought to
(22:44):
be the one to handle this. But let it go.
At least it didn't mean going out again, and an
hour should take care of it, all right, bring him here.
If it's like that, have you got the address. Just
a minute, I'll take it down. Oh that's quite a drive.
Don't expect us much before seven. Okay, thanks very much,
mister Gunn. I hope this isn't interfering with any plans.
(23:04):
I appreciate it. He really is a nice fellow, and
I can't help feeling he well, we'll see you about
seven then, thanks again. Gun hung up and said hell again.
Christy wasn't very pleased either, said she thought he'd given
up being on twenty four hour call when he retired.
But she got dinner a little early and they had eaten,
and Gun was sitting in the front room in his
robe and slippers when the doorbell sounded while she cleaned
(23:27):
up in the kitchen. He'd left the porch light on.
He went and let them in, brought them into the
living room. King fortyish, nice looking, responsible looking fellow. And
Lindstrom a big man, tall and also broad, still in
his work clothes. And yes, the very look of him
making you think the last man A steady type, you'd say,
mild blue eyes behind steel framed glasses, square honest looking face,
(23:50):
big blunt workman's hands, twisting his white work cap. Come in,
Sit down, won't you. Lindstrom burst out, nervous, apologetic. It's
awful good to see me this way, and mister King two,
drive all this far over. I gotta think you. I
just got to tell explain it to you, sir. I
don't mind what have you got to do to me?
For it was terribly wrong thing. I knew that all
(24:12):
the while. I felt so bad after. But I no
one's going to do anything to you, mister Lenstrom. And
it's just that when a family has deserted, you understand,
the county has to support them, and we try to
find the husband to save ourselves a little money, Gun smiled,
to put the man more at ease. It costs the
county quite a bit, or know, even in a case
like your wife's where there's only one child. Leinstrom looked
(24:34):
down at his cap for a minute. It seemed as
if his big hands would tear it apart, straining and twisting.
That's what I you don't understand, ah, he raised, desperate,
suddenly tear filled eyes to gun A. We got two boys,
he said, two. The other one Eddie, our oldest one.
(24:54):
He's not right, not in noways she wouldn't have been
here to even when the doctor said, but she always
kept him hid away from everybody, to account of being
shamed secret. End of Chapter thirteen,
Chapter thirteen of case Pending by Del Shannon. The LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter thirteen. The phone
call had come through, Sue said. When she eventually got
Morgan at the office after lunch, about eleven o'clock, it
was the woman again, again, sounding as if she were
reading the message, refusing to answer questions, say anything else.
(00:25):
I tried to. I thought if I could appeal to her,
remind her what she said before, what we meant. She
just gave a little gasp and said, oh, I couldn't
miss Morgan and hung up. Dick, Yeah, he said, making
meaningless scribbles on the note pad in front of him.
Henry was there at his desk across the room stack
right alongside under the other window. Morgan couldn't say much
(00:47):
directly go on, and what it came to was right
back to Graham Court seven o'clock. Smith's message said, at
Graham Court, the address and apartment number carefully read out.
Morgan might as well come to him, ran the message,
insolently phrased, sounding the opposite in the woman's soft voice.
And he needn't think. Account of things going haywire last night,
(01:09):
he had stopped meaning anything he'd said he'd be waiting
alone for Morgan at seven, and this had better be
the payoff or else. All right, said Morgan steadily, I've
got that seven. That's early. I'd better not try to
make it home first, mean, just more bluster, it's all.
Don't worry, Hon, You'd better expect me when you see me. Okay.
(01:32):
He put down the phone and went back to his
open case book there on the desk, pretending to check
notes at a word here and there, but not really
seeing anything on the page. Two things said themselves over
in his mind, the apartment and alone Smith, of course,
unknowing that he had any prior knowledge of the apartment
any other reason to be there. It added up for Morgan,
(01:55):
and also to a couple of things that were no
concern of Morgan's but interesting. And that alone suggested that
Smith had seen to it that neither the woman nor
the boy had any idea how much money he was expecting,
And that and the revealing of his home address suggested
that very likely he was planning to DeCamp with the money.
Maybe at once. What it added up to for Morgan
(02:16):
the murderer was safety, maybe depending on where Mendoza's men were.
He thought he might get some information on that point
when he saw Mendoza an hour from now with this
stuff from the school, from the time on Saturday night,
when the cold fact had penetrated his mind that the
only real lasting safety was Smith dead. Circumstances had been
(02:36):
forcing on Morgan certain changes of his original plan he
didn't much like. He looked at this one from all
the angles. It was better than the street hold up
in a way, and it would of course have to do.
You were always seeing something like that in the paper.
A man shot himself, hanged himself, slashed his wrists in
the bath tub, no known reason, no prior threat. The
(02:58):
tricky factor was the timing. If Mendoza's men were inside,
it couldn't be done at all. They'd be too close
and not unlikely in a position to know at which
floor Morgan stopped. But if they were outside, then which
way before or after the Lindstrums before he thought, quick
and quiet up to the third floor, and no back
chat with Smith as soon as the door was shut
(03:20):
behind him in Smith's place and Smith away from it,
and no fooling aroundould any attempt to muffle the shot
a suicide wouldn't bother, and there wouldn't be time gun
in his hand. Prince thirty seconds, there had to be
a good chance he'd have time to be outside the
door again, at least before any one else got there.
There was a narrower chance that he could get half
way down the stairs before that, people exclaimed, talked a little,
(03:42):
wondered before they went to see. The ideal thing would
be Morgan standing in the second floor hall, just ready
to knock on the Lindstrom's door, when doors opened and
people came out, saying, was that a shot? But Morgan
half way down, which was also half way up, would
do I'd just got to the Lindstrom's door when I
(04:03):
knew it was a shot up here, and I started
up to see. That was all he needed to say,
None of his business, nothing to link him to an
unexplained suicide sue, of course, no question here passing it
off as accident. It couldn't be helped. He'd got past
worrying about the side effects he was feeling now the
way she had said, let's, for God's sake get it
(04:23):
done and over any way at all, Because if he'd
be honest with himself, he wasn't sure he could do it,
that all this would come to any action in the end,
he had to do it the only possible solution. He'd
seen that clear on Saturday night, which, of course was
the point. If you got yourself wound up to a
place where you were ready to do murder, you ought
(04:44):
to do it right then. While, so to speak, the
spring was tight, he hadn't. He'd had three nights and
nearly three days to think about it, and now he
didn't know if when the chips were down, he could
really bring himself. He touched the gun under his coat.
He'd been carrying it because he was afraid Sue would
find it if he left it around the house, he thought, angrily, uneasily.
(05:05):
Ethics be damned. What loss is that hood? He had
decided this he was just being a damned coward to
think you got a little cowardly when you were thirty
eight with a wife and a child and a mortgage
on the house, and debts and a job to pay
just forty two hundred a year. And once he had
thought if he could feel he was to blame for
getting into this mess, but of course he was. They
(05:26):
both were. They'd known at the time, it was a
silly and dangerous thing to do, which brought him back
to the woman, because he supposed if you looked at
it from all sides, and remarkable as it might seem,
she wouldn't want to lose her husband, whatever kind he was,
People thought Morgan, tiredly. People, the agency's bright, brisk assurances,
(05:50):
we like to find just the right child for the
individual parents, patience, the endless forums, the investigators, questions, questions,
time and by, and both of them afraid never and Sue.
And then that woman, just by chance, sitting next to
Sue in the lounge of a department store rest room,
(06:11):
such a lovely baby, Dick, I couldn't help saying, only
a month old and darling. She hadn't even named her.
Wasn't that interested? She later They both thought less lack
of interest in the baby than preoccupation with the husband. Oh, obviously,
that curious mixture of obsession that couldn't really be called love,
dependence and fear. He was awfully mad when he heard
(06:34):
about the baby. He didn't want another kid. They take
a lot of time at all, you know, And I
can't go out to work now with it to look
out for he's my husband. He's back east, he's well,
he's sick, he awful, sick in the hospital and can't work.
I'd just as soon an anyways, I guess it'd be
better off of folks like you. Yes, silly, dangerous, all
(06:55):
that you forgot confronted with the warm round armful that
would be Janet and Morgan a little since you tried
to use you got the woman to sign a statement
saying she was relinquishing the child voluntarily. And you told
doctor Fordyce that Sue was nervous, didn't trust the agency's
medical tests, wanted his report too, And doctor Fordyce very
probably could make a pretty shrewd guess at the truth.
(07:17):
But he was an old friend, and he figured maybe
that it wasn't up to him to be an officious,
busybody in all the tests, saying just what Jenny had
been telling everybody since, such a lovely baby. And now
Smith Robertson. The woman said, Smith Brown Green, what the
hell if it was O'Kelly or Bernstein or Gonzalez. There
(07:38):
he was, and he was the danger. It would all
come to nothing if he were out of it. The
woman was a non entity with no forcenter, so that
left it right up to Morgan, and this was the
only way he could see open to him. When he
came round to that point again, he got up and
shut the case book. On his way over to police headquarters,
he told himself that from another angle, it was safer,
(07:58):
really if you came to murder to do it cold thinking,
if you had to, if you could, if you could
face the issue and take the only decision. The waiter
at Federico's saw Mendoza come in, and when he presented
the menu also brought the two fingers of rye that
was usually Mendoza's one drink of the day, and five
(08:18):
minutes later the black coffee. They never hurried you at Federico's,
and they knew their regular patrons. Mendoza brooded over the coffee.
He had something else to think about now, which was
probably quite irrelevant, and that was Morgan. Morgan so much
friendlier than he had been this morning, expanding on what
information he had got at the school, and then asking
(08:39):
questions a Mendoza got anywhere on the Lindstrums, anything suggestive
from the men watching the apartment, and just how did
they go about that? Anyway, he'd think it was an
awkward job that they'd be spotted, oh from a car
and tailing the woman when she and only up to midnight.
That was interesting Morgan being affable in order to ask questions,
(09:00):
and just why Morgan now? Mendoza looked at him with
more attention, strung up a little tense, putting on an
act of being just as usual. So all right, he
was worried about something. He had had a fight with
his wife, he was coming down in the cold, or
quite likely he'd felt a trifle ashamed of his barely
courteous manner this morning and was trying to make up
for it. There were more interesting things to think about
(09:22):
than Morgan. Over his dinner, Mendoza thought about them. The school,
somewhat bewildered at being asked but polite to an accredited
civic agency, said in effect that young Martin Lindstrom was
one of its more satisfactory pupils. A good student, not brilliant,
but intelligent, co operative, well mannered, and reliable. He had
a good record of attendance and punctuality. He was somewhat
(09:43):
immature for his age, not physically or academically, but socially,
not a particularly good mixer with other children, shy, a
little withdrawn, but not to any abnormal degree. Missus Lindstrom
had never attended any PTA meetings. None of the teachers
had ever met her, but that was not too unusual.
The tailors and Doza had debated about taking them off,
(10:05):
a waste of time, not likely to come up with anything,
and there was no real reason to single these people out.
In twenty four hours, she had left a place only once,
between seven and eight last evening the boy then being home,
she had walked three blocks to a grocery store on
Maine and home again with a modest bag of supplies.
On Thursday, she had an appointment at the county clinic.
(10:26):
He toyed with the idea of putting a policewoman in
there to inveigle her into casual conversation. But what could
he hope to get after all, no leeds, no line.
He'd like to talk with her himself, judge for himself,
what kind of woman? See the boy get some idea.
Remembering missus Cotter's graphic description, he reflected that missus Lindstrom
(10:47):
wouldn't be an easy woman to talk with. Sound out
the doll His only excuse for approach, and not a
very good one. He knew now definitely that it was
the same doll. The factory had identified it by a
serial number as the word sold to missus Breen, and
that was something. It might be a lot definite facts
he liked. This was one of the few he had
to contemplate in this business. But as he had said
(11:10):
to Missus Bran and Missus Demerist, make it an excuse
to see the Lyndstrum woman, forget eleanor Ramirez and go
back to Brooks. Say you were inordinately interested in this
piece of merchandise and all the rest of it. She
would only tell him some plausible tale of a niece
or godchild, and that was that. No further excuse to
pry at her. He got out the little strip of
(11:30):
lace and brooded over that a while. He muttered to it,
iss novelon Coomino, not worth a hang. Both ends of
this thing had come to a dead stop, blind alleys.
There was nowhere new to go on either Brooks or Ramirez.
And yet at the same time he felt even more
certain now that the cases were essentially the same case,
(11:51):
that the Lindstroms were. The link or one of them,
and that just a couple of steps beyond this dead
end lay something, someone, some one, more definite fact that
would lead him to the ultimate truth and to a murderer.
He had, also, for no reason, a feeling of urgency,
a feeling that time was running out. When he left
(12:11):
Ferderico's he went back to his office, and that was
for no reason either. He stood there, half in coats,
still on, looking down at that doll on his desk.
He thought it might mean this, and it might mean that.
But the one thing it meant, sure as death was
that somebody was trying to tell him something with it.
And what he would like to think somebody was telling
him was that the Lindstroms were definitely involved. Suddenly, he
(12:35):
swore aloud, folded the wrapping paper round the thing, and
thrust it under his arm. There were times you had
to sit down and think, and other times you had
to act. Even if you weren't sure what action to take.
There was a chance you'd pick up a new lead
somehow somewhere. If you went out and about, just at random,
take the excuse, go and see the woman, talk with
her about anything, something might show up. He might get
(12:58):
the smell of a new line. It was just before
seven when he knowsed the Ferrari in to the curb
outside Graham Court, already dark, but the city truck had
been around finally to replace the bulb in the street
lamp a little way down from the entrance to the
cul de Sac, and he recognized the man just turning
in there, walking fast, Morgan. Small and rather dubious satisfaction
slid through Mendoza's mind for a possible answer to this
(13:20):
one little irrelevant puzzle. Morgan, perhaps infected with boyish detective fever,
using his own excuse to get at the Lindstroms. If so,
and if they were involved in this thing, the blundering
amateur effort might warn them, or it could be useful
frightening them into some revealing action. Mendoza got out of
(13:41):
the car and stood there for a minute at the
curb with the doll under his arm, debating his own
next move now, whether to join Morgan or wait until
he came out. Marty hadn't gone home after school, and
he wasn't lying to himself about why he couldn't. He
was just plain scared, more than he had ever been
before his whole life. It had been bad enough this morning.
(14:02):
He got out just as quick as he could, long
before usual, and of course she couldn't come after to
drag him back make him answer questions. This morning had
been pretty bad. He had some idea what was going
to happen right off, but he just hadn't cared then.
The thing was maybe like a silly little kid believing
in fairies, and like that. When he thought about the
afterward part, vague and eager, he thought, if it was
(14:26):
going to tell them anything at all, it'd be right away,
and maybe even by this morning, sometime today. Everything would
not like that, maybe not even some time today, maybe never.
And what might happen now when he went home, He
just couldn't imagine how bad it'd be, or even what
it might be. She knew he had something to do
(14:47):
with its being gone, with the door always locked inside
and all, and besides Ma what she'd do and say
and ask. This had been about the longest and awfullest
day of his whole life. He got up early before
it was light, even he hadn't even really got to sleep.
After he was back in from doing that, just laid there,
miserable and scared and wondering what would happen now, and
(15:09):
then getting out soon as he ever could after it
started to happen. He hadn't really had breakfast. She'd been
too upset and he thought some scared too to fix much,
and he hadn't wanted that, and she hadn't fixed his
lunch to carry either, so he didn't have any times
to day he'd felt sort of empty, but not like
being hungry. An awful day otherways, all the ways it
(15:32):
could be. He'd been dumb in history class and mister
Prothee had scolded him, and then in English class he'd
felt so sleepy, couldn't lift his head up hardly take
in what miss Skinner was saying, and she'd been mad.
He was glad sort of when it was three thirty
and school was out, but another way he wasn't because
it was at least somewhere to be. He didn't go home.
(15:52):
He had the thirty cents Maud given him, hadn't bought
anything in the school cafeteria at lunch time because he
wasn't hungry then but now he was, and he bought
a ten cent chocolate barn ate it while he just
walked along going nowhere. Staying from home, he walked for
a while, just anywhere, and sat on the curb sometimes
to rest. He started to feel like he couldn't breathe
(16:14):
from being so scared and not knowing what to do.
Because he had to go home some time. There wasn't
anything else to do, anywhere else to go. It'd get
dark and he couldn't go on walking sitting on kerbs
all night. Somewhere along one street down near Maine, he
met Danny's ma. It was just starting to get dark.
Then she saw him, and she made him stop and said, Oh,
(16:38):
you're the boy lives downstairs, aren't you? You know Danny
Danny Smith, don't you? Yes, ma'am, said Marty, and he
took off his cap like Mo and Dad both always
said you ought to talking to a lady or when
you came inside, to be a polite. Oh you haven't
seen him anywheres? Was he at school today? No, ma'am,
(17:00):
I guess he wasn't. I haven't seen, oh, dear, she
said in her funny, soft little voice. I guess he's
for sure run off. I don't know what I'd better
do about it. You see, his dad was kind of nice,
to him a while, just lately, and then he got
mad at him, and I guess it sort of turned Danny,
do you suppose boys they're funny anyways, never know what
(17:22):
they're up to. It was like she was talking to herself.
I better ask Ray what to do, only he said
not to come home till eight anyways. Oh well, And
she smiled sort of absent minded at Marty and went past.
And he saw her stop and look at the ads
outside the movie house there and go in. He couldn't
be bothered think much about her, Danny. It got darker,
(17:43):
and then it was really dark and getting cold too,
and his head began to feel funny light, and he
wasn't sure he could keep on walking, like even if
he sat down somewhere he might fall over. There wasn't
anything left to do but go home, and it'd be
worse now after a whole day, and worse two with
Ma because he had stayed away so long. It took
a long time to get there, and he thought for
(18:04):
a while he'd never get to the top of the stairs.
And now he wasn't feeling so awful scared any longer,
Like he got past that part of him was just
feeling sick and so tired, and wanting to get home
because that was the place to go when you felt
that way, and another park, just wanted to have it
all over with whatever was going to happen. He leaned
(18:26):
on the door when he knocked and waited for her
to come, and so when the door opened, he almost
fell down, and she grabbed at him. She hadn't called
out sharp way she always did who was there first
before unlocking, but he hardly noticed, Marty, she said, And
there wasn't so much crossness in her voices he'd expected.
She sounded almost like the way he had been feeling
(18:47):
plain scared, Marty, Where you been I've been nearly crazy
all day. You got to say what you did? Where
you go? Go and get it back, Marty. And that
was the first time he ever remembered. She didn't right
away locked the door, but he didn't notice that much either.
Right then, Gunn was starting a cold and left the
office early as usual. He denied the vague, stuffy sensation
(19:10):
in the head, the little soreness in the throat, the
general feeling of lassitude. He said he wouldn't dare have
a cold after the way she'd been stuffing him with
vitamin sea all winter. Christy, having been married to him
for thirty nine years. Next June ignored that stood over
him to see he finished the glass of hot lemonade
and honey, and said he'd better have something like for
dinner instead of the hamburger. And why didn't he get
(19:33):
into his robe and slippers and be comfortable? So far
as she knew nobody was coming in, Gun said defiantly.
He felt perfectly all right. Never better, of course, said
Christie briskly. But no law against making yourself comfortable. I
suppose you'll give me no piece until I do, said Gun,
relieved at being argued into it. And then the phone rang,
(19:53):
and she said vexedly, there, if that was the McDonald's
wanting to play bridge tonight, they could go on wanting,
not of course, because his Gun wasn't feeling well, but
because she didn't feel like it herself. He had his
tie off in the bedroom, listening to her murmuring protests
at the phone when she came to the door and
said crossly it was somebody who insisted on speaking with him.
Wouldn't take no for an answer, so he went out
(20:14):
and picked up the phone mister Gunn, said a male voice, confident, courteous,
used to doing business over the phone. I've got a
little deal for you. Sorry to disturb you at home,
but I'm glad I finally got a hold of you.
Your office. Let me have your number. You don't know me.
I'm Earl King King, contracting out on Western, but your
office sent a memo to me, and I guess a
lot of other places about a fellow named Lyndstrom, wanting
(20:36):
to know if he'd applied for work or been hired
under that name or any other. Yes, gun sat down
beside the telephone table. Well, I've gotten him for you.
It was quite a little surprised to me, I tell you,
because of the kind of thing it is, deserting his family.
If you'd ask me, i'd've said he was the last man.
He'd been working for me nearly six months, one of
my steadiest men, and under his own name too. When well,
(20:57):
that's fine, said Gunn. We're glad to know where he is.
And in the morning. Wait a minute, this is just
the start. When I got your form letter asking about him,
well there wasn't any doubt it was him, name and
description and all. But I tell you, It staggered me.
I couldn't help feeling there must be something on his side,
you know, because of the kind of guy he is,
and I didn't want to go and haul him off
(21:18):
the job in front of the other men, make a
big thing of it. What I did. I met him
at the job half an hour ago when he'd been
through for the day, and tackled him about it. No
trouble at all. He broke right down, said he was
glad to come out, and he'd thought it would be
before this, and anyway, he'd been feeling so bad about it.
He couldn't have gone on much longer. Oh that's fine,
said gun yawning, glad to hear it. He's decided to
go back to his family. So that's that. Surreptitiously, he swallowed,
(21:42):
testing that soreness at the back of his throat. Well
not quite, said King. Now the dam's broken. He's been
telling me a lot of things, but more to the point,
he insists on seeing you. You're the one after him,
so to speak, and he's in such a state. Well,
he's one of those terribly honest fellows, you know, can't
sleep if they forget to pay for a cup of
coffee at a drug store counter. You know what I mean.
He's got to get it all off his chest right
(22:03):
away to you in the morning, said Gun, remembering that
Mendoza would also be interested and want to see lens
from if he'll come. I can't talk him into that, mister, Gunn.
He's in such a state, not wild, you know, don't
mean that, but look, I can't help feelings, so damn
sorry for the guy. He's sort of desperate, keep saying
he can't rest. Tilly explains how he came to you
(22:24):
see how it is. Look, if you'll agree to see
him tonight, I've said I'll drive him over there. I
know it's an imposition, but there's one thing about it too,
I don't know, but what it'd be just as well
for well, I think you'll be interested. And if oh, well,
said Gun. But this was in a way a funny
sort of job, and you ran into these things sometimes.
Strictly speaking, it was Morgan's case and he ought to
(22:44):
be the one to handle this. But let it go.
At least it didn't mean going out again, and an
hour should take care of it, all right, bring him here.
If it's like that, have you got the address. Just
a minute, I'll take it down. Oh that's quite a drive.
Don't expect us much before seven. Okay, thanks very much,
mister Gunn. I hope this isn't interfering with any plans.
(23:04):
I appreciate it. He really is a nice fellow, and
I can't help feeling he well, we'll see you about
seven then, thanks again. Gun hung up and said hell again.
Christy wasn't very pleased either, said she thought he'd given
up being on twenty four hour call when he retired.
But she got dinner a little early and they had eaten,
and Gun was sitting in the front room in his
robe and slippers when the doorbell sounded while she cleaned
(23:27):
up in the kitchen. He'd left the porch light on.
He went and let them in, brought them into the
living room. King fortyish, nice looking, responsible looking fellow. And
Lindstrom a big man, tall and also broad, still in
his work clothes. And yes, the very look of him
making you think the last man A steady type, you'd say,
mild blue eyes behind steel framed glasses, square honest looking face,
(23:50):
big blunt workman's hands, twisting his white work cap. Come in,
Sit down, won't you. Lindstrom burst out, nervous, apologetic. It's
awful good to see me this way, and mister King two,
drive all this far over. I gotta think you. I
just got to tell explain it to you, sir. I
don't mind what have you got to do to me?
For it was terribly wrong thing. I knew that all
(24:12):
the while. I felt so bad after. But I no
one's going to do anything to you, mister Lenstrom. And
it's just that when a family has deserted, you understand,
the county has to support them, and we try to
find the husband to save ourselves a little money, Gun smiled,
to put the man more at ease. It costs the
county quite a bit, or know, even in a case
like your wife's where there's only one child. Leinstrom looked
(24:34):
down at his cap for a minute. It seemed as
if his big hands would tear it apart, straining and twisting.
That's what I you don't understand, ah, he raised, desperate,
suddenly tear filled eyes to gun A. We got two boys,
he said, two. The other one Eddie, our oldest one.
(24:54):
He's not right, not in noways she wouldn't have been
here to even when the doctor said, but she always
kept him hid away from everybody, to account of being
shamed secret. End of Chapter thirteen,
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