The Bughouse Affair (22 page)

The little claims adjustor was neither mollified nor reassured. “He expected to have the man in custody at the Truesdales’, and should have but didn’t.”

“Through no fault of his.”

“And I suppose what happened at the Costain home was no fault of his, either?”

“It was not. If the newspapers implied it was, they’re quite wrong.”

“I did not find out about it from the newspapers, any more than from you or your partner. Do you realize how embarrassing it can be to be caught completely unawares by news such as this?”

“Yes, and you have my apologies. It wasn’t the police who told you?”

“Mrs. Penelope Costain. She came to see me this afternoon.”

Sabina raised an eyebrow. “For what reason, so soon after her husband’s death?”

“For what reason do you suppose? To file a pair of claims, one of which we’ll have to honor even if the burglar is caught and the stolen valuables recovered.”

“I assume one is for the assessed value of her stolen jewelry. And the other?”

“Life insurance policy. Double indemnity. Fifty thousand dollars.”

Sabina managed to conceal a wince.

“According to Mrs. Costain,” Pollard said, “Quincannon and a British detective named Holmes were at her home last night supposedly guarding it against invasion. The widow said this man Holmes was in the employ of your agency. I didn’t authorize any such extra expense.”

“And none will be charged to you.” Fortunately Pollard seemed not to have read any of the real Holmes’s investigations as recorded by Dr. Watson, or Ambrose Bierce’s diatribe in the
Examiner.
If he had, he’d be even more up in arms. “Andrew Costain also retained John to guard his home, a task which required a second man for the surveillance.”

“Two detectives, and neither able to prevent blatant murder and robbery.”

“It happened under peculiar and still unexplained circumstances no detective could have foreseen.”

“So you say. Mrs. Costain seems to think otherwise.”

“Mrs. Costain is hardly an impartial witness.”

“Perhaps not. But if I find out she’s correct, your agency will get no more business from Great Western Insurance.”

“You needn’t threaten me, Mr. Pollard. John and I have always maintained cordial relations with you, and we’ve never yet failed to carry out an assignment to mutual satisfaction.”

“Never before has so much been at stake. Don’t forget, Mrs. Carpenter—even if Quincannon recovers most or all of the stolen goods, which is by no means a certainty, Great Western is still liable for the fifty-thousand-dollar life insurance claim.”

He wished her a gruff good day and departed.

Sabina opened the window behind her desk, letting in fresh air to dissipate the too-sweet odor Pollard had left behind him. The clock on the office wall read 5:20. John might or might not return to the office at this late hour; she decided she would wait until six o’clock before closing up. There was much to be discussed with him, not the least of which was the would-be Sherlock’s claim to have solved the Costain mystery.

Fanciful nonsense, of course … wasn’t it? John would surely think so, but she couldn’t quite make up her mind whether the Englishman was a buffoon or in fact had some of the same ratiocinative brilliance as the genuine Baker Street sleuth.

25

QUINCANNON

The city prison, in the basement of the Hall of Justice at Kearney and Washington streets, was a busy place that testified to the amount of crime afoot in San Francisco. And to Quincannon’s experienced eye, there were just as many crooks on the outside of the foul-smelling cells as on the inside. Corrupt policemen, seedy lawyers haggling at the desk about releases for prisoners, rapacious fixers, deceitful bail bondsmen … more of those, in fact, than honest officers and men charged with felonies or with vagracy, public drunkenness, and other misdemeanors.

Quincannon delivered a sullen Dodger Brown there, and spent the better part of an unpleasant hour in conversation with a plainclothesman he knew slightly and a booking sergeant he neither knew nor wanted to know. He made no mention of Andrew Costain in his statement; it would only have complicated matters and subjected himself and Dodger Brown to the questioning of that lummox, Kleinhoffer, an ordeal to be avoided at all costs in the present circumstances.

He signed a complaint on behalf of the Great Western Insurance Company, and before leaving, made sure that the Dodger would remain locked in one of the cells until Jackson Pollard and Great Western officially formalized the charge. He knew better than to turn over any of the stolen goods, did not even mention that they were in his possession.

His first stop after leaving the Hall’s gray-stone pile was the insurance company’s offices on Merchant Street just east of the Montgomery Block, his intention being to report his success to Jackson Pollard. The claims adjustor, however, was not there. He had vacated the premises a short while before and was not expected to return.

Quincannon’s mood was still on the dour side when he entered the agency office. Sabina, seated at her desk, regarded him with her usual sharp eye. “Bad news, John?”

“Some bad, some good.”

“Mine as well. Dodger Brown?”

“Yaffled and in police custody. That’s the good news.” He sketched the day’s events for her, embellishing a bit on his brief skirmishes with Salty Jim O’Bannon on the oyster boat and the Dodger at Lettie Carew’s.

“You take too many risks, John,” she admonished him. “One of these days you’ll pay dearly for such recklessness—just as your father and my husband did.”

He waved that away. “I intend to die in bed at the age of ninety,” he said. “And not alone.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if either boast turned out to be true.” Her generous mouth quirked slightly at the corners. “You had no difficulty finding your way around the Fiddle Dee Dee, I’m sure.”

“Meaning what?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never been in a parlor house before.”

“Only in the performance of my duties,” he lied.

“If that’s so, I pity the city’s maidens.”

“I have no designs on the virtue of young virgins.” He added with a wink, “Young and handsome widows are another matter.”

“Then you’re fated to live out your years as celibate as a monk. Did you wring a confession from Dodger Brown?”

“Of the first three burglaries, yes.”

“But not the one of the Costain home?”

“That’s the bad news. The Dodger was cozied up at the Fiddle Dee Dee all of last night with bottles of wine and a Chinese strumpet named Ming Toy. She and Lettie Carew vouch for the fact.”

“They could have been paid to lie.”

“Could have been, but weren’t. Whoever broke into the Costain home and shot our client, it wasn’t Dodger Brown.”

“A copycat burglar?”

“A possibility.”

“Do you put much stock in it?”

“No. I can’t abide another coincidence.”

“Nor can I. I don’t suppose Dodger Brown is guilty of Clara Wilds’s murder any more than that of Andrew Costain?”

“Evidently not,” Quincannon said. “He claims he hasn’t seen her in months, since they parted company over her involvement with Victor Pope. And he has no claw marks anywhere on his person, as I had the distasteful task of confirming.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“Could Pope have stabbed the pickpocket?”

“No,” Sabina said. “He had neither the time nor the means. You may find this far-fetched, John, but for a time today I had the notion her murderer might have been Andrew Costain.”

Quincannon paused in the process of charging his pipe with tobacco. “Yes? Why would you think that?”

“Grasping at straws, perhaps.”

Sabina went on to explain about the buggy that had been parked in the carriageway behind Clara Wilds’s rooming house, and her investigation of the carriage barn on the Costain property. While she spoke, she removed a circlet of brass from her skirt pocket and handed it to him, saying, “I found this wedged between the buggy’s seat cushions. Do you recognize it?”

He turned it over in his fingers. “Yes. A gambling token from Charles Riley’s House of Chance, a high-toned establishment on Polk Street. Good for one dollar in play. Riley gives them to favored customers.”

“Andrew Costain being one?”

Quincannon said thoughtfully, “Perhaps. If it belonged to him. I’ll just keep it, if you don’t mind.” He pocketed the token when Sabina nodded her consent. “Did you find anything else in the buggy?”

“No.”

“Do you still consider Costain a suspect in Clara Wilds’s murder?”

“I don’t know,” Sabina admitted. “He doesn’t seem to have had any plausible motive. Nor any way to have identified Wilds as the woman who robbed him.”

“It’s also unlikely that he would have had time to change into old clothing, drive from his office to her lodging house, commit the crime, and then return to Geary Street, change back into his business attire, and be waiting when I arrived. If that was his plan, he wouldn’t have sent his message to me when he did. Or admitted, as he did, to being away from the office at all.”

Sabina nodded. “I’m sure you’re right. But I do still believe the two cases are connected somehow. Don’t you?”

“Possibly. Though at the moment I don’t see how.”

“Nor do I.” Sabina paused to tuck away a stray wisp of her dark hair before saying, “There are some other things you should know, John.”

“Yes?”

“For one, Jackson Pollard was here not long before you returned, all in a dither. And not just because of what happened last night. Two more claims, he said, have taxed his patience to the limit.”

“Two more?”

“Both filed today by Mrs. Costain. One for the assessed value of her missing jewelry.”

“And the other?”

“The Costains also have a joint life insurance policy with Great Western, for the double indemnity sum of fifty thousand dollars.”

“So the widow wasted little time, did she,” Quincannon said. “What did you say to Pollard?”

“That you knew the identity of the burglar, and expected to have him in custody and the stolen goods recovered soon. He should be somewhat mollified when he hears that you’ve accomplished that part of your mission.”

“But not completely until the Costain matter is cleared up.”

“No. And if that isn’t done soon to his satisfaction, we may well lose one of our best clients. He threatened as much.”

“It’ll be done, never fear.”

“Is that bluster, John? Or do you have some idea of the explanation for the Costain puzzle?”

“I never bluster,” Quincannon said, which earned him one of Sabina’s raised-eyebrow looks. “Of course I have some idea. No muddle, no matter how mysterious it might seem, has ever baffled me for long.”

“Not even the one of how Andrew Costain was murdered and his assailant managed to escape from a locked room and then a sealed house under close observation?”

“Pshaw. I know how that was done.” Which wasn’t true. Glimmerings of the truth, yes, now that Dodger Brown had been exonerated of the crime, but the exact details were still unclear. Soon, however. Soon.

“Do you, now?” Sabina said in tones that he chose not to construe as dubious. “And how was it done, pray tell?”

“All in good time, my dear. All in good time.”

“You may not have as much time as you think. You’re not the only one investigating the Costain murder.”

“If you mean that dolt Kleinhoffer—”

“No. I mean our ‘employee,’ thanks to you.”

“Employee? The bughouse Sherlock? I thought we were rid of him.”

“Not hardly. While Mrs. Costain was out making funeral arrangements today, he entered the house illegally. She caught him prowling around when she returned, and was in the process of evicting him when I arrived.”

“What the devil was he looking for?”

“He wouldn’t tell me when I met him outside,” Sabina said, “or when I suffered through his invitation to tea a short while later. But he seemed very pleased with his search.” Sabina paused again before continuing. “Now don’t get upset, John, but I overheard him tell Mrs. Costain that he was acting on our behalf.”

“Damn the man!”

“Mrs. Costain was beside herself, but I think I managed to unruffle her feathers. I don’t believe she’ll press charges.”

“If she does,” Quincannon said darkly, “he’ll be the one to suffer the consequences.”

“I told him as much. I also told him he’s to cease and desist pretending to be affiliated with this agency. He said he wouldn’t because it was no longer necessary.”

“What did he mean by that?”

“That’s the other thing you should know. He alluded to having solved the mystery of Andrew Costain’s death.”

“Alluded?”

“The phrase he used was
‘le cas est resolu.’
French for ‘the case is solved.’”

“Humbug! That addlepate couldn’t solve the riddle of how to fasten a pair of gaiters.”

“I’m not so sure about that, John.”

“Bah.” Quincannon began to restlessly pace the office. “The mystery will be solved shortly, yes, but not by that blasted Englishman.”

“Don’t be too cocksure. He may be a bit daft, but he’s canny nonetheless and he may well have found out something important, by accident if not by design. I think it would be a good idea if you spoke with him about it. As soon as possible.”

“Consult with that pompous buffoon? A waste of valuable time.”

“There’s another reason you should see him.”

“Yes? And what would that be?”

“He’s so certain of himself that he plans to arrange a meeting of the principals in the case, at which he’ll reveal what he knows or believes he knows.”

“What!”

A favorite expression of Quincannon’s father when taken with sudden fury had been that “his blood ran hot as boiling tar and just as dark.” Such was an apt description of his own blood at this news. Snarling and muttering invective, he stomped the floor hard enough to produce tremors in the office furniture. From Sabina’s expression, she had expected his furious reaction. She maintained a prudent silence.

“Make false claims and try to steal my thunder, will he?” Quincannon said when he had a reign on his anger. “By Godfrey, he won’t get away with it!”