Drury Lane’s Last Case by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online Page A

him late in life when his daughter returned from abroad after an absence which had extended from pigtails to shaven eyebrows. But on this occasion his mute appeal for approval went unheeded; Patience was cogitating upon a multitude of things, and feeding her massive father’s vanity was not among them. The Inspector sighed.
    The door opened and the white-haired man of the downstairs booth appeared. His lips were rather tighter than they should have been, and he ignored the presence of the Thumms pointedly.
    â€œWant me, Mr. Theofel?” he said gruffly.
    The Inspector said in the calm magisterial tone of the professional policeman: “Spill it, Barbey.”
    The man’s head turned unwillingly, and he blinked once at Thumm and then shifted his gaze. “What——I don’t get you, mister.”
    â€œInspector to you,” said Thumm, hooking his thumbs in the armholes of his vest. “Come on, Barbey. I’ve got you with the goods, so there’s no sense in stalling.”
    Barbey looked about quickly, licked his lips, and stammered: “I guess I’m dumb. What goods? What d’ye mean?”
    â€œBribery,” said the Inspector with a vast unsympathy.
    The starter went white in a slow ebbing of facial blood. His big flabby hands twitched feebly. “How—how’d you find out?”
    Patience expelled her breath in a slow noiseless stream. A rising anger animated Theofel’s lined face.
    The Inspector smiled. “My business to find out. I’ll tell you right now, mister, I’d as soon throw you in the can as not; but Mr. Theofel, now—well, he’s inclined not to press the charge if you’ll come clean.”
    â€œYes,” said the manager hoarsely. “Well, Barbey, you heard the Inspector! Don’t stand there like a dumb ox! What’s it all about?”
    Barbey fumbled with his cap. “I—I got a family. I know it’s against the company rules. But the dough looked sort of—tempting. When this first guy come over I was going to tell him nothing doing——”
    â€œGuy with a soup-strainer and a blue hat, eh?” snapped Thumm.
    â€œYes, sir! I’m going to tell him nothing doing, see, but he shows me the corner of a ten-spot,” faltered Barbey, “and so I says okay. I let him climb in with the rest. Then about a minute later up comes another guy, and he gives me the same proposition as the first one. Wants me to let him go with Fisher’s bus. So, well, I’d let the first one on, so I thought while I was doin’ it I might’s well get the benefit of another five-spot. He gives me a fin, see. So this second guy, he climbs in, and that’s all I know.”
    â€œWas Fisher in on this?” asked Theofel harshly.
    â€œNo, Mr. Theofel. He didn’t know anything about it.”
    â€œWhat did the second bird look like?” asked the Inspector.
    â€œGreaseball, Chief. Face like a rat. Black. Eyetalian, I’d say. Dressed sporty, like the bunch that hangs around the Palace. Flashed a funny kind of ring on his left hand—he was a southpaw, Chief, or at least he handed me the fin with his left——”
    â€œWhat d’ye mean funny?”
    â€œIt had a little horseshoe where you’d expect a rock to be,” mumbled Barbey. “Looked like platinum or white gold. And it was set with diamond chips.”
    â€œHmm.” The Inspector rubbed his chin. “Never saw this man before, I suppose?”
    â€œNo, sir!”
    â€œKnow him again if you saw him?”
    â€œYes, sir!”
    â€œHe came back with the crowd of schoolmarms, didn’t he, but the bird in the blue hat didn’t?”
    Barbey’s eyes widened at this omniscience. “Why, that’s right.”
    â€œSwell.” The Inspector heaved to his feet, and stuck his hand out across the desk. “Thanks a lot, Mr. Theofel. And don’t be too hard on this