The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-24
CHAPTER. XXXV
MARKHAM sat glowering into
1V1 space.

IV1 space.
"I don't at all like the Cleaver
end Of this affair."" he said. There's
been something damned wrong
about him ever since Monday"
"And say" put in Vance, "doeSnt
the gentleman's false alibi take on a
certain shady significance now,
what?
"You apprehend, I trust, why l
restrained you from questioning him
about it at the club yesterday. l
rather fancied that if you could get
Mannix to pour out his heart to
YOU, you'd be in stronger posi-
ton to draw few admissions from
Cleaver.
"And behold! Again the triumph
of intuition! With what you now
know about him, you can chivvy
him most Internationally - eh,
what?"
And that's precisely what I'm go
ing to do" Markham rang for
Swacker.
"Get hold Of Charles Cleaver," he
ordered, irritably. "Phone him at
the Stuyvesant Club and also his
home-he lives around the corner
from the club, in w. Twenty
Seventh st.
"And tell him I want him to be
here in half an hour, or I'll send a
couple Of detectives to bring him in
handouts"
For five minutes Markham stood
before the window. smoking agl-
tatedly, while Vance. with a smile
of amusement, busted himself with
the Wall Street Journal.
Heath got himself a drink OF
water and took a turn up and down
the room. Presently Swacker re-
entered.
Sorry, Chief, but there's nothing
doing. Cleaver's gone into the
country somewhere. Won't be back
till late tonight"
Hell! . All right-that'll do"
Markham turned to Heath. "You
have Cleaver rounded up tonight,
Sergeant, and bring him in here
tomorrow morning at nine"
Hell be here, sir!' Heath paused
in his pacing and faced Markham.
"I've been thinking, sir; and there's
one thing that keeps coming up in
my mind, so to speak.
"You remember that black docu-
ment-box that was setting on the
living-room table? 1t was empty;
and what woman generally keeps
in that kind of a box is letters and
thinos like that.
'Well, now, here's what's been
bothering me; that box wasn't jim
mied open-it was unlocked with
key. And, anyway, a professional
crook don't take letters and docu-
ments. -. . You see what I mean,
sir?"
Sergeant Of mine!" exclaimed
Vance. IT abase myself before you!
I sit at your feet! The docu-
ment box-the tidily opened, empty
document box!
"Of course! Skeel didn't open it
never in this world! That was the
other chaps handiwcrk."
Whit was in your mind about
that box, Sergeant" asked Mark
ham.
Gust this, sir. AS Mr.. Vance has
insisted right along, there mighta
been some one besides Skeel in that
apartment during the night.
"And you told me that Cleaver
admitted to you he'd paid Odell lot
of money last June to get back his
letters
"But suppose he never paid that
money; suppose he went there Mon
day night and took those letters.
Wouldn't he have told you just the
story he did about buying em back?
Maybe that's how Mannix happened
to see him there"
That's not unreasonable" Mark
ham acknowledged. But where
does that lead uS?"
"Well, sir, if Cleaver did take 'em
Monday night, he mighta held on
to 'em. And if any of those letters
we're dated later than last June,
when he says he bought 'em back,
then we'd have the goods on him."
"Well?"
GAS I say, sir, I've been thinking.
.. Now, Cleaver is outa town to-
day; and if we could get hold Of
these letters. :"
"It might prove helpful, of
@ "a Ezzn uxzzM Ezzma "a HzEg
-----------------------