ALM06 Who Killed the Husband? by Hulbert Footner

proceeded to write the check. Lee watched him steadily. It was a vast sum to an old man who had worked for wages all his life. If he felt any reluctance to hand it over, he hid it well. Handing over the check, he asked with an innocent air: "What should I do now, sir?"
    "Go back to Philadelphia and act as if nothing had happened. Tell nobody about your windfall. We don't want the man we're looking for to take alarm."
    "Very good, Mr. Mappin."
    As soon as he had gone, Lee got Loasby on the wire. "The man you assigned to watch Robert Hawkins," he said; "can you depend on him?"
    Loasby chuckled. "I reckon so. He followed Hawkins to the bank this morning, rode to New York on the train with him and tailed him to your office. My man was waiting in a store across the street while Hawkins was with you, and he phoned me from there."
    "Very good," said Lee. "As an extra precaution, notify the bank in Philadelphia that if Hawkins should try to draw out more than the sum he deposited himself, he is to be detained for questioning."
    "Right! What's up, Mr. Mappin?"
    "I'm coming down to your office after lunch. I'll explain when I see you."
    At Headquarters, when Lee had described the scene with Hawkins to Loasby, the latter said: "What do you make of it?"
    "There are three possibilities," said Lee. He ticked them off on his fingers: "First, Al Yohe is the murderer and is trying to throw suspicion on Hawkins. Judging from what he told me, Al is well heeled. Second, Agnes Gartrey had the money conveyed to Hawkins to bolster up her suggestion that the butler is the guilty man. There are two sub-theories here: (a) it was Agnes herself who shot Gartrey, or (b) she believes that Al Yohe did it. Third, Hawkins shot Gartrey and the five thousand is his pay, or part of it. We have got to follow up all these lines simultaneously until they are disproved or proved."
    "Right. What do you want me to do?"
    "You have men who are experienced in Wall Street affairs investigating Gartrey's business relations?"
    "Sure."
    "Well, let them dig deeper. We've got to know who Gartrey had injured, who were his enemies, who profited by his death."
    "Right."
    "Here's something else you can do. Suppose for the moment that old Hawkins is telling the truth. Suppose Mrs. G. sent the money to Philadelphia. There are two men who have been trying to make time with her since this happened. One of them, Alan Barry Deane, we know has been lying. Arrange it so that the bank teller can have a look at Deane and at Rulon Innes without their knowing it."
    "I'll do that. What line are you going to take?"
    "I'm going to cultivate the acquaintance of the beautiful widow," said Lee with a smile.
    "What about Al Yohe?"
    "I was hoping you might be able to give me some news about him."
    Loasby shook his head gloomily. "In addition to my own men every uniformed cop on the force is looking for him. No reports."
    "I'm going down to Hasbroucks from here," said Lee. "There are several questions which I have no right to ask there, but the police are entitled to the information."
    "What are they?"
    "Get Mr. Gartrey's private secretary. Find out from her if Gartrey got a phone call on November 3rd before he went home, and so on."
    "I'll see to it," said Loasby.
    Lee proceeded further downtown to the offices of Hasbrouck and Company in the great building on Wall Street which bore their name. Hasbroucks, oldest and wealthiest private bankers in New York, was a name to conjure with in financial circles. None of the present generation of Hasbroucks was in the bank; one was an artist; one raised race horses; a third was simply an ornament to Newport and Palm Beach. For upwards of ten years Jules Gartrey had been president of the concern. On the day following his death, at a special meeting of the directors, George Coler, first vice president, had been elected president in Gartrey's stead. Everybody took it as a matter of course that Coler should succeed the man who had trained him.
    The executive