Chapter IV: The Junior Partner’s Strange Behavior

Victor Redway entered the room of death looking pale and worried. He cast a glance at the body of the dead girl, and a perceptible shudder shook his frame.

Nick lost no time in “doing business” with the junior member of the law firm.

“Your name is Victor Redway?” began Nick.

Redway nodded assent.

“The junior member of this law firm?”

“As Mr. Gay informed you, I presume.”

There was a decided sneer in the reply.

“Mr. Gay has told us a number of things. How many of them were truth remains to be seen.”

As Nick said this, he did not fail to notice that Redway seemed pleased with the latter part of the sentence.

“The two men are enemies, if not openly, then unavowed,” thought Nick. To Redway he said:

“We have called you in here to get your version or story of the tragedy so far as you are willing to give it.”

“Willing to give it? What do you mean?”

“Why, this: I am a detective; this is the coroner; you are a lawyer. This is not an inquest, nor yet a preliminary hearing; you are not under oath. There may be circumstances about the death of that girl which you do not desire to tell. Indeed, it might be to your interest not to talk of it at all.”

Redway looked at Nick long and steadily. At last he said:

“I think I understand you. You believe I killed her?”

“I have no belief one way or the other. It is my business to prove, to know, not to believe.”

“But I am suspected?”

“The law will undoubtedly look to you to make a satisfactory explanation of your knowledge of the crime, or your ignorance of it.”

“Well, suppose you ask me your questions.”

“You will answer?”

“Some of them, perhaps. As a lawyer, I may choose to remain silent on some points--for the present, at least.”

“Then I’ll begin at the beginning. Mr. Redway, did you kill that girl?”

The answer came without hesitation, and accompanied by the faintest touch of a smile.

“I certainly did not.”

“Do you know who did?”

The answer to this question was not given so spontaneously, and the smile gave way just an instant to the shadow of a frown. After only a moment of hesitation, Redway replied:

“No, I do not.”

“Do you believe she committed suicide?”

“My belief on that score is not of any value.”

“Do you know whether she had any cause to kill herself?”

“No.”

“Did you ever hear her threaten to kill herself?”

“Not directly.”

“Will you explain?”

“Well, she once dropped the remark that if she ever married, and her husband deserted her for another woman she would, she believed, kill herself.”

“Ah!”

“But she would first kill the man who deceived her and the woman who robbed her of her rights?”

“Oh! What called forth this declaration?”

“The story of a client who had suffered somewhat in the same manner.”

“How did she hear the story?”

“I told it to her.”

“She was not married?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Had she a lover?”

“How should I know.”

“Were you and she not on confidential terms?”

“Why should we be?”

“You two were in here together a great deal.”

“True, as man and employee. I am not one to become confidential with an office attache.”

“Not even with a pretty woman?”

“Especially not with a woman of any kind.”

There was a hard, bitter ring to these words, which Nick did not fail to make a note of.

“Yet you told her the story of that deceived client.”

“There was a reason for that.”

“What reason?”

Redway frowned again, and answered:

“That is something I refuse to say.”

“You were not her lover, Mr. Redway?”

An angry flush mounted the young lawyer’s brow, and he replied:

“The question is not worthy of an answer.”

“You are sure you never gave her cause to believe you thought more of her than any other young woman?”

“I don’t pretend to know what is in any woman’s mind.”

“But your treatment of her----”

“Was of a business kind entirely.”

“Well, we’ll leave that part of the subject and come down to the tragedy. Were you in the room when the fatal shot was fired?”

“Why, no, certainly not.”

“Where were you?”

“On the street.”

“Was there any one in the office at the time?”

“I don’t know.”

“When you came in you found her lying there on that desk dead?”

Nick once more noticed just the mote of a hesitation in the reply.

“Yes, she was sitting there in that chair stone dead.”

“How long had you been out of the office?”

“Ten or fifteen minutes--maybe longer.”

“Where had you gone?”

“To the street.”

“To any particular place?”

“Yes.”

“You had an object in leaving the office for the street?”

“Perhaps.”

“But had you not?”

“Oh, yes. There usually is an object in all we do.”

“Well, what was your object in this instance?”

“I think I will not answer that question.”

“Very well. When you went out, what was Miss Langdon doing?”

“Putting her desk in order.”

“Preparatory to leaving?”

“I supposed so.”

“Was it her time to go home?”

“It was past the time.”

“What had detained her?”

“I don’t know. A woman’s whim, perhaps.”

“Did you say anything to her as you went out?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“She asked me: ‘Are you going, Mr. Redway,’ and I replied: ‘Yes.’”

“She meant to ask whether you were leaving for the day?”

“I suppose so.”

“And you deceived her?”

“No. I had no intention then of coming back.”

“What changed your mind?”

“A mere whim. I couldn’t answer you intelligently on that point.”

“You mean you will not,” thought Nick.

“When you came in you found her dead?” Nick continued.

“Yes, I said so before.”

“Any one else in the office?”

“No.”

“You gave no immediate alarm?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I realized from the first that it was an awkward fix for me to be in, any way I could manage it.”

“So you remained?”

“Yes.”

“What did you do here alone with the corpse?”

Redway’s gray eyes once more turned sharply on Nick’s face before he made reply.

“I spent a few minutes trying to find some trace of the crime, and at the same time figuring upon my own danger.”

“So you waited for some one to come in?”

“I waited till some one did come in.”

“Who was it?”

“Jack Marston--the office boy.”

“How long after you returned was it till Jack Marston appeared?”

“I don’t know. A man under such circumstances hasn’t much knowledge of time.”

“Did you send him to summon the police?”

“I made him understand that Miss Langdon had been killed, and--well, he did the rest without waiting for directions.”

Again that faint smile twitched the corners of Redway’s stern mouth.

“And while he was gone Gay came in?”

“Yes.”

“When he entered the door where were you?”

“At the side of the corpse.”

“What were you doing?”

“I had just stooped to pick up the pistol.”

“Oh! But you didn’t pick it up?”

“Why, no! In my personal contact with Gay I forgot it.”

Nick gave a quiet chuckle in his innermost soul at so neatly trapping a lawyer.

“Whose pistol was it, Mr. Redway?”

“Mine.”

“Where was it when you saw it last before you saw it on the floor near the dead girl?”

“In the drawer of my desk over there.”

“When was that?”

“This morning.”

“Was it loaded?”

“Yes.”

“Every chamber?”

“I remember distinctly filling the chambers with cartridges yesterday, and I have not fired one of them since.”

Nick noted the evasive answer.

“Were you in the habit of keeping it loaded?”

“No. On the contrary, I seldom had a cartridge in it. Yesterday I bought some and filled the chambers.”

“What for?”

“I intended it for the benefit of a cat which spends the midnight keeping people awake.”

“Another evasive answer,” mentally noted Nick.

“Well?”

“Well, I went away without taking it with me. Hence it lay there all day loaded.”

“Did Miss Langdon know the pistol was in that drawer?”

“I suppose she did. The drawer was never locked, and she frequently went there to get things out of it.”

“That is all I have to ask you at present, Mr. Redway. Will you have the kindness to remain in the outer office till we have a talk with the office boy?”

“I have no choice but to oblige you,” came the sarcastic reply, and the junior partner left the room.

The coroner looked at Nick with a puzzled expression on his face.

“What do you make of Mr. Redway?” he asked.

“Nothing yet, but there is a good deal more to learn which may place Mr. Redway in an entirely different light. Now for Jack Marston. I depend on the boy for information which may be most valuable.”