The Glass Key Read online

  Janet Henry frowned at Ned Beaumont, obviously perplexed by something, started to speak, but pressed her lips together instead.

  Senator Henry touched his lips with the napkin he held in his left hand, dropped the napkin on the table, and asked: “Is there—ah—any other evidence?”

  Ned Beaumont’s reply was another question carelessly uttered: “Isn’t that enough?”

  “But there is still more, isn’t there?” Janet demanded.

  “Stuff to back this up,” Ned Beaumont said depreciatively. He addressed the Senator: “I can give you more details, but you’ve got the main story now. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

  “Quite enough,” the Senator said. He put a hand to his forehead. “I cannot believe it, yet it is so. If you’ll excuse me for a moment and”—to his daughter—“you too, my dear, I should like to be alone, to think, to adjust myself to—No, no, stay here. I should like to go to my room.” He bowed gracefully. “Please remain, Mr. Beaumont. I shall not be long—merely a moment to—to adjust myself to the knowledge that this man with whom I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder is my son’s murderer.”

  He bowed again and went out, carrying himself rigidly erect.

  Ned Beaumont put a hand on Janet Henry’s wrist and asked in a low tense voice: “Look here, is he likely to fly off the handle?”

  She looked at him, startled.

  “Is he likely to go dashing off hunting for Paul?” he explained. “We don’t want that. There’s no telling what would happen.”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  He grimaced impatiently. “We can’t let him do it. Can’t we go somewhere near the front door so we can stop him if he tries it?”

  “Yes.” She was frightened.

  She led him to the front of the house, into a small room that was dim behind heavily curtained windows. Its door was within a few feet of the street-door. They stood close together in the dim room, close to the door that stood some six inches ajar. Both of them were trembling. Janet Henry tried to whisper to Ned Beaumont, but he sh-h-hed her into silence.

  They were not there long before soft footfalls sounded on the hall-carpet and Senator Henry, wearing hat and overcoat, hurried towards the street-door.

  Ned Beaumont stepped out and said: “Wait, Senator Henry.”

  The Senator turned. His face was hard and cold, his eyes imperious. “You will please excuse me,” he said. “I must go out.”

  “That’s no good.” Ned Beaumont said. He went up close to the Senator. “Just more trouble.”

  Janet Henry went to her father’s side. “Don’t go, Father,” she begged. “Listen to Mr. Beaumont.”

  “I have listened to Mr. Beaumont,” the Senator said. “I’m perfectly willing to listen to him again if he has any more information to give me. Otherwise I must ask you to excuse me.” He smiled at Ned Beaumont. “It is on what you told me that I’m acting now.”

  Ned Beaumont regarded him with level eyes. “I don’t think you ought to go to see him,” he said.

  The Senator looked haughtily at Ned Beaumont.

  Janet said, “But, Father,” before the look in his eyes stopped her.

  Ned Beaumont cleared his throat. Spots of color were in his cheeks. He put his left hand out quickly and touched Senator Henry’s right-hand overcoat-pocket.

  Senator Henry stepped back indignantly.

  Ned Beaumont nodded as if to himself. “That’s no good at all,” he said earnestly. He looked at Janet Henry. “He’s got a gun in his pocket.”

  “Father!” she cried and put a hand to her mouth.

  Ned Beaumont pursed his lips. “Well,” he told the Senator, “it’s a cinch we can’t let you go out of here with a gun in your pocket.”

  Janet Henry said: “Don’t let him, Ned.”

  The Senator’s eyes burned scornfully at them. “I think both of you have quite forgotten yourselves,” he said. “Janet, you will please go to your room.”

  She took two reluctant steps away, then halted and cried: “I won’t! I won’t let you do it. Don’t let him, Ned.”

  Ned Beaumont moistened his lips. “I won’t,” he promised.

  The Senator, staring coldly at him, put his right hand on the street-door’s knob.

  Ned Beaumont leaned forward and put a hand over the Senator’s. “Look here, sir,” he said respectfully, “I can’t let you do this. I’m not just interfering.” He took his hand off the Senator’s, felt in the inside pocket of his coat, and brought out a torn, creased, and soiled piece of folded paper. “Here’s my appointment as special investigator for the District Attorney’s office last month.” He held it out to the Senator. “It’s never been cancelled as far as I know, so”—he shrugged—“I can’t let you go off to shoot somebody.”

  The Senator did not look at the paper. He said contemptuously: “You are trying to save your murderous friend’s life.”

  “You know that isn’t so.”

  The Senator drew himself up. “Enough of this,” he said and turned the door-knob.

  Ned Beaumont said: “Step on the sidewalk with that gun in your pocket and I’ll arrest you.”

  Janet Henry wailed: “Oh, Father!”

  The Senator and Ned Beaumont stood staring into each other’s eyes, both breathing audibly.

  The Senator was the first to speak. He addressed his daughter: “Will you leave us for a few minutes, my dear? There are things I should like to say to Mr. Beaumont.”

  She looked questioningly at Ned Beaumont. He nodded. “Yes,” she told her father, “if you won’t go out before I’ve seen you again.”

  He smiled and said: “You shall see me.”

  The two men watched her walk away down the hall, turn to the left with a glance thrown back at them, and vanish through a doorway.

  The Senator said ruefully: “I’m afraid you’ve not had so good an influence on my daughter as you should. She isn’t usually so—ah—headstrong.”

  Ned Beaumont smiled apologetically, but did not speak.

  The Senator asked: “How long has this been going on?”

  “You mean our digging into the murder? Only a day or two for me. Your daughter’s been at it from the beginning. She’s always thought Paul did it.”

  “What?” The Senator’s mouth remained open.

  “She’s always thought he did it. Didn’t you know? She hates him like poison—always has.”

  “Hates him?” the Senator gasped. “My God, no!”

  Ned Beaumont nodded and smiled curiously at the man against the door. “Didn’t you know that?”

  The Senator blew his breath out sharply. “Come in here,” he said and led the way into the dim room where Ned Beaumont and Janet Henry had hidden. The Senator switched on the lights while Ned Beaumont was shutting the door. Then they faced one another, both standing.

  “I want to talk to you as man to man, Mr. Beaumont,” the Senator began. “We can forget your”—he smiled—“official connections, can’t we?”

  Ned Beaumont nodded. “Yes. Farr’s probably forgotten them too.”

  “Exactly. Now, Mr. Beaumont, I am not a blood-thirsty man, but I’m damned if I can bear the thought of my son’s murderer walking around free and unpunished when—”

  “I told you they’ll have to pick him up. They can’t get out of it. The evidence is too strong and everybody knows it.”

  The Senator smiled again, icily. “You are surely not trying to tell me, as one practicing politician to another, that Paul Madvig is in any danger of being punished for anything he might do in this city?”

  “I am. Paul’s sunk. They’re double-crossing him. The only thing that’s holding them up is that they’re used to jumping when he cracks the whip and they need a little time to gather courage.”

  Senator Henry smiled and shook his head. “You’ll allow me to disagree with you? And to point out the fact that I’ve been in politics more years than you’ve lived?”

  “Sure.”

  “Then I can assure you that t
hey never will get the necessary amount of courage, no matter how much time they’re given. Paul is their boss and, despite possible temporary rebellions, he will remain their boss.”

  “It doesn’t look like we’ll agree on that,” Ned Beaumont said. “Paul’s sunk.” He frowned. “Now about this gun business. That’s no good. You’d better give it to me.” He held out his hand.

  The Senator put his right hand in his overcoat-pocket.

  Ned Beaumont stepped close to the Senator and put his left hand on the Senator’s wrist. “Give me it.”

  The Senator glared angrily at him.

  “All right,” Ned Beaumont said, “if I’ve got to do that,” and, after a brief struggle in which a chair was upset, took the weapon—an old-fashioned nickeled revolver—away from the Senator. He was thrusting the revolver into one of his hip-pockets when Janet Henry, wild of eye, white of face, came in.

  “What is it?” she cried.

  “He won’t listen to reason,” Ned Beaumont grumbled. “I had to take the gun away from him.”

  The Senator’s face was twitching and he panted hoarsely. He took a step towards Ned Beaumont. “Get out of my house,” he ordered.

  “I won’t,” Ned Beaumont said. The ends of his lips jerked. Anger began to burn in this eyes. He put a hand out and touched Janet Henry’s arm roughly. “Sit down and listen to this. You asked for it and you’re going to get it.” He spoke to the Senator: “I’ve got a lot to say, so maybe you’d better sit down too.”

  Neither Janet Henry nor her father sat down. She looked at Ned Beaumont with wide panic-stricken eyes, he with hard wary ones. Their faces were similarly white.

  Ned Beaumont said to the Senator: “You killed your son.”

  Nothing changed in the Senator’s face. He did not move.

  For a long moment Janet Henry was still as her father. Then a look of utter horror came into her face and she sat down slowly on the floor. She did not fall. She slowly bent her knees and sank down on the floor in a sitting position, leaning to the right, her right hand on the floor for support, her horrified face turned up to her father and Ned Beaumont.

  Neither of the men looked at her.

  Ned Beaumont said to the Senator: “You want to kill Paul now so he can’t say you killed your son. You know you can kill him and get away with it—dashing gentleman of the old school stuff—if you can put over on the world the attitude you tried to put over on us.” He stopped.

  The Senator said nothing.

  Ned Beaumont went on: “You know he’s going to stop covering you up if he’s arrested, because he’s not going to have Janet thinking he killed her brother if he can help it.” He laughed bitterly. “And what a swell joke on him that is!” He ran fingers through his hair. “What happened is something like this: when Taylor heard about Paul kissing Janet he ran after him, taking the stick with him and wearing a hat, though that’s not as important. When you thought of what might happen to your chances of being re-elected—”

  The Senator interrupted him in a hoarse angry tone: “This is nonsense! I will not have my daughter subjected—”

  Ned Beaumont laughed brutally. “Sure it’s nonsense,” he said. “And your bringing the stick you killed him with back home, and wearing his hat because you’d run out bare-headed after him, is nonsense too, but it’s nonsense that’ll nail you to the cross.”

  Senator Henry said in a low scornful voice: “And what of Paul’s confession?”

  Ned Beaumont grinned. “Plenty of it,” he said. “I tell you what let’s do. Janet, you phone him and ask him to come over right away. Then we’ll tell him about your father starting after him with a gun and see what he says.”

  Janet stirred, but did not rise from the floor. Her face was blank.

  Her father said: “That is ridiculous. We will do nothing of the sort.”

  Ned Beaumont said peremptorily: “Phone him, Janet.”

  She got up on her feet, still blank of face, and paying no attention to the Senator’s sharp “Janet!” went to the door.

  The Senator changed his tone then and said, “Wait, dear,” to her and, “I should like to speak to you alone again,” to Ned Beaumont.

  “All right,” Ned Beaumont said, turning to the girl hesitating in the doorway.

  Before he could speak to her she was saying stubbornly: “I want to hear it. I’ve a right to hear it.”

  He nodded, looked at her father again, and said: “She has.”

  “Janet, dear,” the Senator said, “I’m trying to spare you. I—”

  “I don’t want to be spared,” she said in a small flat voice. “I want to know.”

  The Senator turned his palms out in a defeated gesture. “Then I shall say nothing.”

  Ned Beaumont said: “Phone Paul, Janet.”

  Before she could move the Senator spoke: “No. This is more difficult than it should be made for me, but—” He took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands. “I am going to tell you exactly what happened and then I am going to ask a favor of you, one I think you cannot refuse. However—” He broke off to look at his daughter. “Come in, my dear, and close the door, if you must hear it.”

  She shut the door and sat on a chair near it, leaning forward, her body stiff, her face tense.

  The Senator put his hands behind him, the handkerchief still in them, and, looking without enmity at Ned Beaumont, said: “I ran out after Taylor that night because I did not care to lose Paul’s friendship through my son’s hot-headedness. I caught up with them in China Street. Paul had taken the stick from him. They were, or at least Taylor was, quarreling hotly. I asked Paul to leave us, to leave me to deal with my son, and he did so, giving me the stick. Taylor spoke to me as no son should speak to a father and tried to thrust me out of his way so he could pursue Paul again. I don’t know exactly how it happened—the blow—but it happened and he fell and struck his head on the curb. Paul came back then-he hadn’t gone far—and we found that Taylor had died instantly. Paul insisted that we leave him there and not admit our part in his death. He said no matter how unavoidable it was a nasty scandal could be made of it in the coming campaign and—well—I let him persuade me. It was he who picked up Taylor’s hat and gave it to me to wear home—I had run out bare-headed. He assured me that the police investigation would be stopped if it threatened to come too near us. Later—last week, in fact—when I had become alarmed by the rumors that he had killed Taylor, I went to him and asked him if we hadn’t better make a clean breast of it. He laughed at my fears and assured me he was quite able to take care of himself.” He brought his hands from behind him, wiped his face with the handkerchief, and said: “That is what happened.”

  , His daughter cried out in a choking voice: “You let him lie there, like that, in the street!”

  He winced, but did not say anything.

  Ned Beaumont, after a moment’s frowning silence, said: “A campaign-speech—some truth gaudied up.” He grimaced. “You had a favor to ask.”

  The Senator looked down at the floor, then up at Ned Beaumont again. “But that is for your ear alone.”

  Ned Beaumont said: “No.”

  “Forgive me, dear,” the Senator said to his daughter, then to Ned Beaumont: “I have told you the truth, but I realize fully the position I have put myself in. The favor I ask is the return of my revolver and five minutes—a minute—alone in this room.”

  Ned Beaumont said: “No.”

  The Senator swayed with a hand to his breast, the handkerchief hanging down from his hand.

  Ned Beaumont said: “You’ll take what’s coming to you.”

  II

  Ned Beaumont went to the street-door with Farr, his grey-haired stenographer, two police-detectives, and the Senator.

  “Not going along?” Farr asked.

  “No, but I’ll be seeing you.”

  Farr pumped his hand up and down with enthusiasm. “Make it sooner and oftener, Ned,” he said. “You play tricks on me, but I don’t hold that against you when I see wh
at comes of them.”

  Ned Beaumont grinned at him, exchanged nods with the detectives, bowed to the stenographer, and shut the door. He walked upstairs to the white-walled room where the piano was. Janet Henry rose from the lyre-end sofa when he came in.

  “They’ve gone,” he said in a consciously matter-of-fact voice.

  “Did—did they—?”

  “They got a pretty complete statement out of him—more details than he told us.”

  “Will you tell me the truth about it?”

  “Yes,” he promised.

  “What—” She broke off. “What will they do to him, Ned?”

  “Probably not a great deal. His age and prominence and so on will help him. The chances are they’ll convict him of manslaughter and then set the sentence aside or suspend it.”

  “Do you think it was an accident?”

  Ned Beaumont shook his head. His eyes were cold. He said bluntly: “I think he got mad at the thought of his son interfering with his chances of being re-elected and hit him.”

  She did not protest. She was twining her fingers together. When she asked her next question it was with difficulty. “Was—was he going to—to shoot Paul?”

  “He was. He could get away with the grand-old-man-avenging-the-death-the-law-couldn’t-avenge line. He knew Paul wasn’t going to stay dummied up if he was arrested. Paul was doing it, just as he was supporting your father for re-election, because he wanted you. He couldn’t get you by pretending he’d killed your brother. He didn’t care what anybody else thought, but he didn’t know you thought he had and he would have cleared himself in a second if he had.”

  She nodded miserably. “I hated him,” she said, “and I wronged him and I still hate him.” She sobbed. “Why is that, Ned?”

  He made an impatient gesture with one hand. “Don’t ask me riddles.”

  “And you,” she said, “tricked me and made a fool of me and brought this on me and I don’t hate you.”

  “More riddles,” he said.

  “How long, Ned,” she asked, “how long have you known—known about Father?”