The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (22 page)

"Undoubtedly, the conspirators had been watching for just the right opportunity to perpetrate their crime, and undoubtedly Peter Laxter had shrewdly deprived them of this opportunity until he had completed his preparations, which included getting a body and reducing all of his negotiable property to cash so that his ostensible heirs could not loot his estate.

"Watson Clammert, however, had a driving license and certain papers of identification, so it was easier for Peter Laxter to assume the name of Watson Clammert than it was to adopt an entirely new name. When the stage had been set, he let the conspirators burn up his country house, after going to the elaborate trouble of introducing carbon monoxide gas into his bedroom. They then went ahead and probated his will while Peter Laxter sat on the sidelines and laughed at them.

"You understand, your Honor, I am now stating the reasons which lay behind my actions. Much of this is, of necessity, assumption, but I think the assumption is well taken.

"Everyone has acted upon the assumption that because Oafley was not present where Ashton's body was found at the time Ashton was murdered, he has a good alibi. As a matter of fact, there is nothing which actually indicates that Ashton was murdered at the place where his body was found. I believe that he was murdered in Edith DeVoe's apartment. I believe that he went there, or was lured there by the conspirators when they found out that Ashton knew of their conspiracy. I think that they both believed Peter Laxter was dead. I think that they killed Ashton, cut up the crutch, took out the diamonds, and, knowing that they had to dispose of Ashton's body, slipped it out of the window into Oafley's waiting automobile. Then Frank Oafley drove his machine to the Laxter residence sometime after the defendant had left the premises with the cat, and slid the body through the window which was customarily left open to enable the cat to go in and out.

"The murderer knew that Clinker customarily slept on the bed. He wanted to show that everything was as it should be. So he looked around to find Clinker and found that Clinker had been taken a few minutes earlier by Douglas Keene, so he immediately realized what damaging evidence he could pile up against Keene if there were cat tracks on the bed. So he went out, found a cat and forced the cat to make tracks on the bed. In doing this his hands were scratched.

"Oafley wanted to have some logical explanation by which he could account for his scratched hands. So he arranged to have a telegram sent to him, and, in order to make that telegram appear natural, he arranged that a check-up would apparently show it had been sent by Winifred Laxter. This telegram gave Oafley an opportunity to dig in the rosebush, so that he could have a logical explanation for his scratched hands.

"Now then, your Honor, we enter upon the phase of the case which so far can only be a matter of speculation. As soon as I realized that it was contemplated a Watson Clammert might be given access to the safety deposit boxes Ashton had rented, I realized that Peter Laxter had, for the sake of convenience, taken the name of Watson Clammert, probably in order to use Clammert's driving license, rather than apply for another. I don't know what happened in Edith DeVoe's apartment shortly after eleven o'clock, but I can surmise what happened. Oafley assisted her in killing the caretaker. Then he took the caretaker's body, leaving the crutch in Edith DeVoe's apartment. They sawed up the crutch and intended to burn it up, after having removed the diamonds Sam Laxter went to his lawyer's office in the green Pontiac. He returned home in the caretaker's Chevrolet. Therefore, he must have found the Chevrolet parked at some place which he visited after leaving Shuster's office.

"He wouldn't have taken this car unless he had thought Ashton was dead, or unless he was in a hurry caused by panic.

"I feel certain that he and Shuster discussed the fact that Edith DeVoe was making charges against him. I think Shuster found out what was happening from remarks dropped by Oafley. I think Sam Laxter went to see Edith DeVoe, either with or without Nat Shuster's knowledge. Sam Laxter went to the apartment and found her dying. He left in a panic, and it is reasonable to surmise that he called his attorney, Nat Shuster. I will not speculate as to what he said to Shuster or what Shuster said to him, but the fact remains that a very shrewd attempt was made to fasten the crime on Douglas Keene. In view of the statements Edith DeVoe had been making charging Sam Laxter with murder, Sam Laxter realized at once that if it could be shown he was at Edith DeVoe's apartment at about the time the murder was committed, he would stand but little chance of being acquitted.

"Now then, the question arises: Who did murder Edith DeVoe? I don't know; but I do know that Peter Laxter, masquerading as Watson Clammert, purchased a new Buick sedan. I do know that a new Buick sedan was seen by witnesses parked immediately behind the caretaker's Chevrolet in front of Edith DeVoe's apartment house. The probabilities are that Peter Laxter went there to wait for Ashton to come out. After a period of waiting, Peter Laxter went to Edith DeVoe's apartment. This was probably at about eleven o'clock or a little later. He found Edith DeVoe under most incriminating circumstances. The caretaker's crutch had been sawed up and was being burned in the grate. The Koltsdorf diamonds were probably in plain sight on a table. I don't think Laxter lost his temper and struck Edith DeVoe purposely with a club. But we must remember that Laxter was an elderly man; that Edith DeVoe was vigorous and well-formed, strong and feline. She probably was the one who attacked Laxter. Laxter took the first weapon which came to his hand, pulling out a piece of the sawed-up crutch from the fireplace. We can surmise that the crutch had just started to burn, because a few minutes before Edith DeVoe had gone into the next room to borrow a match. We know that wood had recently been burned in the grate. We know that there were some evidences of heat having been applied to one end of the section of crutch which was used as a club. And I think the police will find the fingerprint on that club was left by Peter Laxter – alias Watson Clammert."

Perry Mason ceased talking, smiled at the startled prosecutor.

Dr. Jason pushed his way into the courtroom. His manner was excited. "The man didn't meet his death by burning," he said, "or from carbon monoxide poisoning, either. He apparently died from natural causes, and there isn't any break in the right leg, so the body wasn't that of Peter Laxter."

Hamilton Burger burst into the courtroom through another door. "Your Honor," he said, "halt this trial immediately. The district attorney's office demands an indefinite continuance. A man arrested as a car thief in New Mexico as Watson Clammert has telegraphed a confession, stating that he is really Peter Laxter; that he knows Edith DeVoe and Frank Oafley killed Charles Ashton and that Peter Laxter, invading Edith DeVoe's apartment to get evidence of that murder, struck the blow which killed Edith DeVoe. Panic-stricken, he wanted to escape. It's all here in this telegram. He's now willing to come back and face the music."

Pandemonium broke loose in the courtroom.

Winifred Laxter, with a glad cry, ran toward Douglas Keene, whose open arms were waiting for her.

Perry Mason uncrossed his legs, smiled at the startled face of Judge Pennymaker, reached out and snapped his fingers at the cat.

"Hi, Clinker," he said.

"Are you going to defend Peter Laxter?" she asked.

"If they prosecute him I am."

"I don't see how you knew what had happened."

"I didn't," he said, "at first. But I had a shrewd suspicion later on. There were two or three things which gave me a pretty good idea. Notice the manner in which Frank Oafley married Edith DeVoe. During the time he was living with Peter Laxter he said his courting was of necessity surreptitious because of Peter Laxter's objections. But he thought Peter Laxter was dead after the house had burned up. There was no necessity for having a secret marriage ceremony and no necessity for not going on a honeymoon, but returning to the Laxter home. I am forced to conclude, therefore, that the reason both parties were so anxious to have the marriage ceremony performed was due to the fact that they realized a wife could not be examined against her husband without the consent of her husband, nor a husband be compelled to give testimony against his wife. This was because they knew the conspiracy was likely to be discovered, and that means that, in some manner, they had found out Ashton had knowledge of the conspiracy. They thought Peter Laxter was dead. Therefore, Ashton was the only one who could have known it.

"But the really significant clue is the one of the crutch. The theory of the prosecution was that the person who murdered Ashton had taken the crutch to Edith DeVoe's apartment and then murdered Edith DeVoe. That manifestly would have been impossible unless Edith DeVoe had been a party to the Ashton murder, because the crutch wasn't sawed up when taken there. It was sawed up in the apartment, and pieces of it had been burned in the grate. That would indicate that Ashton had been in the apartment; that his murderers had cut up the crutch after they'd killed him."

"Where would you have been if the police hadn't apprehended the grandfather?" Della Street asked.

"I don't know," Mason said. "I might have been able to make it stick, and I might not, but I think I could have pieced the facts together."

"Why didn't you accuse Oafley earlier?" she asked.

"Because," said Mason slowly, "of various factors involved. In the first place, I wanted Douglas Keene to come through, and, in the second place," and he chuckled, "I wanted to grandstand. If I had tipped off the police, they'd have taken all the credit, and they might have bungled the case so that Keene would never have been really vindicated. They might even have framed him. And I wanted Oafley to admit under oath being with Edith DeVoe at the exact time Ashton was murdered."

"And," she said, "last but not least, you so love to skate on thin ice that you like to play people one against the other while you take all kinds of chances."

"Perhaps," he grinned. "As I've told you before, I like to play a no-limit game."

"But why didn't you get Drake to find Watson Clammert?"

"He probably couldn't have done it in time. He'd have been handicapped. The best organized law enforcement agency in the country today is the one perfected by insurance companies to apprehend automobile thieves. They've worked out a perfect system of coordination. Ordinarily police don't coordinate. They do in automobile cases. So I fixed things so Watson Clammert would be apprehended as a car thief. That got me quicker results, enabled us to have him arrested, and brought about his confession. After all, it was really very simple. By going to the Biltmore Hotel, establishing our identities as honeymooners, letting the clerk see our new car, and get interested in you, then having you conceal the car and report it as stolen, we started in motion the machinery which was bound to put a finger on Clammert. He was entirely unsuspecting. He was driving the car he had purchased under his assumed name. It was only a matter of hours until he'd be arrested."

"Well," Della Street said, "the Lord knows your methods are unconventional, but I will say this for them, they're effective."

He grinned at her.

"And," she said, "now that we've finished up this case, we have an extra Buick sedan on our hands. What are we going to do with it; sell it, or sell the convertible?"

"No, Mason said slowly, "we'd better keep them both."

She raised her eyebrows.

"You see," he said, "it's a handy car to have around – in case I should ever want to go on a honeymoon."

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22/08/2007

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