CHAPTER XVII
ANOTHER VISIT TO THE CHIEF
Felix Markle was at the very top of his profession. A man of rare culture and natural refinement and of indomitable will and courage, he might have made a name for himself in any walk of life he had chosen to follow. It was a pity that so much that was fine in him should have gone to make a master thief instead of the noble leader he might have been.
The possession of Detective O’Gorman’s notebook was of the greatest importance to him. The deciphering of it would tell exactly how much the secret service knew concerning him and his accomplices. How much was known concerning his aliases and if his wife was suspected or had been at any time.
He was determined to protect her at any cost, but everything was going so well he could see no reason to doubt that they could go on with their clever schemes indefinitely. Every now and then one of the supposed owners of the elegantly furnished apartments determined to have a sale and then large sums would be realized on the stolen treasures. The firm of Simpkins & Markle would handle the sale, taking out their commission and Markle would have the part of seeing that the fictitious owners got their share of the profits. All transactions appeared on the books of the real estate firm and any expert examiner of those books would have pronounced everything to be in perfect form and order.
Josie O’Gorman had hoped to keep up with the case unaided by mere man, but things were getting too much for her. She began to lose sleep going over and over how best she could trap the persons of whose dishonesty she was assured. Her idea was not to spring the trap too soon for fear she might lose some of the principal offenders. After many sleepless nights, she determined to take Chief Charley Lonsdale into her confidence and ask for his support.
On this visit she found the man at the door awake and taking notice.
“You can’t see the chief,” he announced decisively, looking at Josie as though she were thin air. “He’s that busy he says he can’t see a soul. If you are after making a complaint about a neighbor’s hens? or the like, there’s a man at the desk for such business.”
Josie’s eyes took on the dull look she loved to assume when there was important business on hand.
“It’s worse than hens—it’s tigers!” she exclaimed. “A man at the desk can’t attend to tigers. I must see the chief.”
The astonished man let her pass. Of course tigers were a little too important for a small man like the one at the desk to cope with.
The chief was alone and busy looking over some papers. A worried frown was on his brow. He looked up a moment after Josie entered.
“Ah, the little O’Gorman! Nothing doing, I fancy, and you have come for help.”
“I have come for help but not because there is nothing doing. I could handle that situation alone,” replied Josie in a cool drawl that was ludicrously like the tone her father had used and it made Chief Lonsdale smile. “There is so much doing that I have had to come for help. I hate to do it, as I’d like the glory along with the work, but I can’t let the whole school of fish escape just so I can have the honor of landing the biggest one of the lot. Father used to say that a detective must first consider his duty to society; that is, to get the wrong-doers caught, never mind who does the catching.”
“Humph! I wish there were more of his way of thinking. Now tell us all about it.”
Josie sat down and unfolded her tale from the beginning. She made the man’s eyes wide with astonishment when she told of the Markles’ entrance into her shop and the purloining of the notebook. He laughed delightedly over what Markle was spending so much time trying to master.
“The Hound of Heaven!” he cried. “That sounds like good stuff. And who is this young newspaper chap who has drawn the blank? Does he know it yet?”
“He has been very busy and has not yet opened the book,” explained Josie. “I have seen him once and he tells me he has it in his breast pocket and is waiting for an evening off when he intends to untie the hard knot of the ribbon and then try to unravel the cipher. I was sorry not to put him on to the fake, but I felt I had better not take anyone else into our confidence just yet. I’ll set his mind at rest when he finds it out, because, of course, he will feel responsible for it. I am rather hoping Mrs. Markle will be around when he lets me know about it. I like to study her. She is a deep one, for sure.
“Of course,” she continued, “up to this time we have nothing to go upon but suspicion, except that they came in and purloined the notebook. The fact that Mr. McGraw’s friends in New York lost an enamel pin and all their etchings and rugs, etc., and that Mrs. Markle has a pin like the one lost is no proof, but link by link the chain is being forged and, in my own mind, I am sure of them. Of course, I overheard their talk when they were in my shop, and that is enough to settle the matter for me, but it wouldn’t amount to much as evidence. Not even the fact that former initials had been cut out of the napkins would count for much.”
“Well, now, what do you advise?” asked the chief, quite humbly. This girl’s level-headed ingenuity amazed him.
“I advise a very circumspect supervision of the real estate firm of Simpkins & Markle first,” said Josie. “If by hook or crook one could get hold of their books and see where they have done business lately. Do you know Simpkins?”
“Yes, went to school with him—a man of no imagination and perfect honesty—dull though—dull.”
“Any means?”
“Doing well—very well—so I am told, especially since he has gone into partnership with this Markle.”
“You see, if we could get some idea of where their business is located we could spread nets all around and catch the whole bunch of confederates. Have you someone you can trust not to bungle?” Josie looked so solemn and so young the chief had to smile behind his papers.
“Perhaps!” and then the man and the girl put their heads together and step by step traced out their strategic plans.
“I hope the ax won’t drop until after Mary Louise is married and off on her wedding trip,” sighed Josie. “Poor Mary Louise is always getting mixed up in other persons’ villainies.”
“Yes, if we could only warn her of the perfidy of this new friend. Don’t you think we might?” asked the chief, who was as fond of Mary Louise as though she had been his own daughter.
“Never! In the first place, she wouldn’t believe any tales about her dear Hortense, and in the second, she would queer our game by trying to get her off if she was convinced of her being a criminal. Mary Louise is not of the stern stuff that you and I are made of, Chief.”
“Well, I only hope they won’t be trying any of their monkey tricks at her wedding,” laughed the man. “But they would hardly do that. Anyhow, we must be prepared and, of course, our object is to catch them redhanded. I may have to send to New York for assistance, but I promise you that no matter what help I get, you are the boss of this job.”
“I wish I had been born triplets,” sighed Josie. “I’d like to run on to New York and have a personal interview with this friend of Billy McGraw’s named Thomas who had his stuff all lifted—as it is, I think you had better put some man on the job who can fix it up with him to be in Dorfield in the next few days, or immediately after the wedding, so he can identify his goods. I have an idea most of his things are right here in the Markle apartment. Of course, he must not let on to McGraw that he is coming or he will queer the whole thing by mentioning to Hortense Markle that he is expecting his friend and she will see to it that all traces are removed. She is slick as slick can be and has that young fellow guessing, not that he is in love with her, but just fascinated by her big eyes and her confiding girlish manner. My opinion is that she is madly in love with that scamp of a husband but she leads these rich young men on just to fleece them.”
“Yes, I know the type,” put in the chief.
The young girl and the old man were agreed that they would try to hold off until after their dear Mary Louise was married and started on her wedding trip, then they would close in around the Markles and their confederates and have the matter all settled before Danny and his bride should return from their honeymoon.
“Nothing must come up to cloud the girl’s happiness,” said Josie, and the chief said: “Amen!”