A Handy Death by Robert L. Fish Read Free Book Online Page B

her Grace. She also said not to let the Mrs. bother him as her husband was away on a business trip. He also said he thinks he remembered that other people in the bar called her by the name Grace—”
    Ross interrupted with a frown, the twiddled pencil still.
    â€œHe testified he thinks he remembered?”
    â€œHis testimony was full of ‘I think’ and ‘I’m not sure, but I seem to recall’ and ‘if I’m not mistaken’ and phrases like that.” Steve shrugged. “Naturally the prosecution tore him into little shreds on a good part of his testimony, but the boy freely admitted he was very drunk and therefore extremely hazy as to details.”
    â€œGreat!” Ross said in disgust. “All right. Go on.”
    â€œWell, despite Dupaul’s testimony, the bartender in the place said he never heard of a Mrs. Neeley—Grace or any other name—and he didn’t notice the boy with anyone in particular, or anyone at all. The bartender said he cut Dupaul off after three drinks because he was obviously out on his feet. Dupaul denied this—”
    â€œWere there any other witnesses to these events?”
    â€œNone that the defense called. The prosecution didn’t need to call any others.” Steve added, “In that regard, Hogan can be criticized, I think. I don’t believe he truly tried to find any corroborative witnesses.”
    â€œAll right,” Ross said. “I’ll try not to interrupt so much.”
    â€œRight.” Steve referred to his paper, shoving his glasses back. “Dupaul’s story was that he was with Mrs. Neeley and in fact even bought her a drink and paid for it. The bartender said that lots of people, after being cut off, try to pull the gag of pretending to buy a drink for someone on an adjoining stool, but he still had no recollection of any woman. He also testified he was working the other end of the bar when Dupaul left and therefore couldn’t say if the boy went out alone or not. The place was busy and the bartender said he couldn’t keep track of every drunk around.
    â€œAt any rate, Dupaul’s story goes on that they went to an apartment on West Sixtieth Street by taxi—the taxi records were checked by the prosecution and no record of a trip to that address that night was found, but that doesn’t mean too much—it could have been a gypsy. Dupaul stated that he thought he remembered the woman leading him to a mailbox and pointing out the name ‘Neeley’ on it; the prosecution had a lot of fun with that, since the letter box is behind the stairs and out of the way, and why would the woman do it? Not that they denied that Neeley lived there.
    â€œAnyway, Dupaul said he thought he remembered going up in an elevator and going into this apartment. He said he remembered sitting on a bed while the woman undressed him, and he remembered feeling very dizzy—”
    Ross said, “Do you have his direct testimony there?”
    â€œRight here. Do you want it?”
    â€œNo. Just give Sharon the page numbers. I may want to check it out later.”
    â€œRight,” Steve said. He dug through one of the stacks, checking page numbers. “Pages 116 through 122. It starts—the part I’m describing now—on line 5 of page 118. Okay?”
    Sharon nodded and marked the footage on the recorder meter. Steve went back to his notes.
    â€œWell, to sum up his testimony, he said he wasn’t feeling well, but this woman obviously wanted to make love and he figured she was a prostitute, and then all of a sudden she let go of him and made this funny noise and there was a man with a suitcase standing in the doorway. The man started to swear at him and dropped the suitcase and started to go through a dresser drawer looking for a gun—”
    Ross interrupted. “How could he know what the man was looking for?”
    Steve reddened slightly.
    â€œWell, actually he