Hot cash cold clews, p.32
Hot Cash, Cold Clews,
p.32
“But you can’t fool the police department all of the time. The boys ain’t so dumb as they’re supposed to be. We got wise, trailed the Morgan woman until she contacted Morley. Then, when they fished the dice from the tank we swooped down on ‘em, caught ‘em red-handed, and got confessions from both of them.
“That’s the case we’ve got against you, Leith. You can figure it out. It’s circumstantial, of course, but you know what a jury will do.
“Have you got anything to say? If you don’t make a statement, your silence will be taken as an admission. If you do say anything, it can be used against you!”
And Sergeant Ackley yanked a cigar from his pocket, ripped off the end with his fanglike teeth, spat it explosively and scraped a match across the sole of his shoe.
Sergeant Arthur Ackley was enjoying this moment very, very much indeed.
Lester Leith took one hand from the dog’s collar, took a cigarette from the case on the table, smiled, lit the cigarette and sent twin streamers of smoke from his dilated nostrils.
The smile became a grin. The grin became a chuckle.
“Well!” yelled Sergeant Ackley.
“It’s all very simple,” said Lester Leith, suppressing his continued chuckles with difficulty. “I had no idea the necklace was in the gasoline tank. As proof of that fact, your own men will have to admit that I tried to sell that tank all over town for as much as three dollars.
“When I couldn’t get a sale at that price I became disgusted. I had rather throw the thing away than sell it at an absurdly low price, and I drove out the river road until I came to a pile of old junk and threw the gasoline tank on the pile.
“Your own men were continually shadowing me, sergeant. They saw me do that.”
Sergeant Ackley snorted, rolled his cigar in his puffy lips and finally clamped it at an aggressive angle with the yellow, horse-like teeth.
“Yes, after you’d emptied it of the gems. You had a six-inch hole in that tank. Simple for you to reach your hand in and pull out the jewels.”
Lester Leith shrugged his shoulders.
“That, of course, is something for you to prove before a jury. You’ll have to show it by some sort of evidence, not by mere conjecture. If my hand would have fitted into that hole in the gasoline tank and pulled out the diamonds, the hands of twenty-five junk dealers would have fitted through the same hole. And the twenty-five junk dealers had equal opportunity to do that very thing.”
That was the weak point in Sergeant Ackley’s case, and he knew it. But he wouldn’t admit it. He reached in his holster, took out his ugly, blued steel revolver.
“Lester Leith, I arrest you in the name of the law. I am about to put handcuffs on you. If that dog shows any hostility, I shall shoot the dog. If you show any resistance or attempt to encourage the dog in any way, I shall shoot you!”
And Sergeant Ackley got up from his chair.
Lester Leith held up a hand.
“Just a minute, sergeant,” he said, and then turned toward Samuel Riggers.
“Mr. Riggers, you offered a reward of seven thousand dollars for the return of those diamonds. Is that offer still open?”
For the first time since he had entered the room, a gleam of hope came into the gray eyes of the white-haired man.
“Make it eight thousand,” he said. “The diamonds are worth a lot of money, but my reputation is at stake. If I can’t recover those gems I am ruined. If I get them back I can still continue in business.”
Lester Leith nodded.
“Will you promise in writing to pay me seven thousand dollars if I tell you exactly where those diamonds are, and you can recover them from that place?”
The man nodded his eager acquiescence.
Sergeant Ackley held back.
“Leith,” he warned, “all I need to make a perfect case against you is to show that you have those diamonds in your possession. Perhaps, knowing everything is lost, you want to raise some money. If so, that’s all right, but I’ve warned you what the effect of your admission will be.”
Lester Leith sighed. “Yes, oh, yes,” he said, almost casually, “but I want the reward. I’ll tell—as soon as Mr. Riggers gets his offer in writing. Be sure, Mr. Riggers, to make it conditioned upon the fact that I furnish the information that will tell you where the gems are, and that you can go to that place and get them.
“I fancy Sergeant Ackley will deprive me of my liberty temporarily, so that I can’t actually hand them to you.”
Samuel Riggers was scribbling on the leaf of a notebook. He glanced sharply at Sergeant Ackley,
“You haven’t any idea where they are, sergeant?”
Ackley shook his head in ponderous negation.
“I have reason to believe they’re not on him or in the apartment. Our spy system tells us that. He’s probably got ‘em in some safe deposit box under an assumed name. He’s clever as hell at ditching the swag, once he’s copped it.”
Riggers nodded, glanced at Morley, his disgraced butler. “Mor-ley, you’re sunk anyway. If you knew, I feel certain you’d tell me.”
Morley sighed, a tremulous sigh. “Honest, Mr. Riggers, I thought they were in the gasoline tank where I slipped ‘em. When we fished out that string of dice you could have knocked me over with a feather.”
Samuel Riggers signed his name, passed over the sheet of paper. “Here you are, sir.”
“Thanks,” said Lester Leith, “the diamonds are in a wrecked gasoline-tank, and the gasoline tank lies on top of a pile of junk about two miles out on the river road, at the city dumping ground.”
And he folded the paper and put it in his pocket.
The announcement was received in utter silence. Had Lester Leith suddenly vanished into thin air the consternation of his spectators could not have been more complete.
“Fat chance!” said Ackley, after he was able to get his breath. “You wouldn’t have been dumb enough to carry around a string of diamonds in a gasoline tank and offer ‘em to every junk dealer in town for three bucks. You wouldn’t have been foolish enough to let a hundred-thousand-dollar string of diamonds slip through your fingers!”
But his tone failed to carry conviction. It was plain that Sergeant Ackley, himself, was dazed as he saw his carefully planned case going to pieces.
But Samuel Riggers, his mind trained in the ways of business, grasped the situation more quickly than the others.
“Not so dumb as you think, sergeant,” he snapped. “You have sat by and let this man trap me into a promise by which I have to pay seven thousand dollars in return for information which you would already have had if you hadn’t been so eager to suspect him of criminal intentions. The place he mentions is the one place where the diamonds could be and absolutely prove his innocence, the very place they would be in if your charges were false, and if he was telling the plain, unvarnished truth. And he capitalizes that fact to the tune of seven thousand dollars of legitimate money.”
Sergeant Ackley abruptly sat down. “But—but—” he stammered. “You had the gasoline tank in your hands!”
Lester Leith smiled. One of the policemen actually snickered out loud.
“The fact that I carelessly threw the diamonds away without even knowing they were in the tank until I heard Morley’s confession, is sufficient proof of my innocence. It absolutely proves my good faith.”
Samuel Riggers got to his feet.
“Come on,” he snapped at Sergeant Ackley. “Let’s go get the diamonds before some more of your fool suspicions lets them slip through my fingers. This man has proved his good faith…also his diabolical cleverness.
“Mr. Leith, if you ever want to turn your intellectual talents to business pursuits, I shall deem it a pleasure to have you call upon me.”
And Samuel Riggers stalked toward the door.
Sergeant Ackley was muttering to himself. Here and there a sentence was eligible to the ears of his audience. “… seven thousand dollars…proves we were mistaken about young Carl Bromley… leaves ‘em in the one place on God’s green earth where they could be found without convicting him of crime…Damn!”
Lester Leith called to him as he went through the door. “By the way, sergeant, this should be a good lesson to you not to browbeat witnesses into identifications. Unless the police had insisted and brought pressure to bear, none of the witnesses would have identified Carl Bromley as the man you wanted.. .and don’t slam the door as you go out!”
Sergeant Ackley paused on the threshold. His hands were clenching and unclenching. His face was distorted with rage. He heard, as he-paused, the voice of Rhoda Bromley.
“Mr. Leith, you’d better take both hands to hold that bulldog with, because I’m coming over there and kiss you!”
And then Sergeant Arthur Ackley banged the door with a terrific bang that threatened to crack the plaster.
Bibliography
All stories and books were written by Erle Stanley Gardner.
The Case of the Murderer’s Bride and Other Stories, edited by Ellery Queen. New York: Davis (Ellery Queen Presents 1) 1969. Marked in the bibliography as MB.
The Case of the Crying Swallow, A Perry Mason Novelette and Other Stories. New York: William Morrow, n.d. [1971]. Marked in the bibliography as CS.
The Case of the Irate Witness, A Perry Mason Mystery and Other Stories. New York: William Morrow, n.d. [1972]. Marked in the bibliography as Irate.
The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith, edited by Ellery Queen. New York: Davis (Ellery Queen Presents 1) 1980/1981. Marked in the bibliography as EQP.
The Bird in the Hand and Four Other Stories. Roslyn, NY: Published by the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Club by Walter J. Black Inc., n.d. [1980]. Marked in the bibliography as EQMC.
Hot Cash, Cold Clews. Cincinnati, OH: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 2020. Marked in the bibliography as C&L.
Bibliography of Lester Leith Stories
“A Deal in Cement,” Detective Fiction Weekly. July 30, 1932.
“A Hot Tip,” Detective Fiction Weekly. May il, 1929.
“A Peach of a Scheme,” Detective Fiction Weekly. July 20,1929.
“A Sock on the Jaw,” Detective Fiction Weekly. ND. ***
“A Sugar Coating,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 29,1941.
“A Thousand to One,” Detective Fiction Weekly. October 28, 1939.
EQ
“A Tip from Scuttle,” Detective Fiction Weekly. March 2, 1929. C&L, EQMC
“Bald-Headed Row,” Detective Fiction Weekly. March 21,1936.
“Big Money,” Detective Fiction Weekly. April 18,1931.
“Both Ends Against the Middle,” Detective Fiction Weekly. May 3, 1930.
“Caws and Effect,” Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly. July, 1943.
“Closer than a Brother,” Detective Fiction Weekly. July 9,1932.
“Cold Clews,” Detective Fiction Weekly. January 24,1931. C&L.
“Crocodile Tears,” Detective Fiction Weekly. June 10, 1934.
“Crooks’ Vacation.” Detective Fiction Weekly. July 8, 1933.
“Dead to Rights.” Detective Fiction Weekly. June 2,1934.
“Double Shadows,” Detective Fiction Weekly. September 21,1929. “Even Money,” Detective Fiction Weekly. August 3,1929.
“Fair Exchange,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 18, 1939. “False Alarm,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 5, 1932.
“Faster than Forty,” Detective Fiction Weekly. August 31, 1929. “Hot Cash,” Detective Fiction Weekly. May 23, 1931. C&L “Hot Dollars!,” Detective Fiction Weekly. July 26,1930.
“In Round Figures,” Detective Fiction Weekly. August 23,1930. EQP, EQMC
“It’s a Pipe!,” Detective Fiction Weekly. August 10,1929.
“Juggled Gems,” Detective Fiction Weekly. December 24,1932. “Lester Frames a Fence,” Detective Fiction Weekly. December 13, 1930
“Lester Leith, Magician,” Detective Fiction Weekly. September 16, 1939. EQP
“Lester Takes the Cake,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 23, 1929. C&L
“Lost, Strayed and Stolen,” Detective Fiction Weekly. February 24, 1934.
“Monkeyshine,” Detective Fiction Weekly. March 16,1940.
“Not So Dumb,” Detective Fiction Weekly. June 27,1931.
“One Jump Ahead,” Detective Fiction Weekly. February 4,1933. “Planted Planets,” Detective Stories December, 1938.
“Put it in Writing!,” Detective Fiction Weekly. June 7,1930. C&L “Queens Wild,” Detective Fiction Weekly. January 26,1935.
“Red Herring,” Detective Fiction Weekly. December 26,1931. “Rolling Stones,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 21,1931. “Screaming Sirens,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 2, 1935. “Something Like a Pelican,” Flynn’s. January 1,1943. Irate “Sugar,” Detective Fiction Weekly. January 20,1940.
“The Artistic Touch,” Detective Fiction Weekly. October 26,1929. “The Bird in the Hand,” Detective Fiction Weekly. April 9,1932. EQP, EQMC
“The Burden of Proof,” Detective Fiction Weekly. December 2, 1933.
“The Candy Kid,” Detective Fiction Weekly. March 14,1931. MB “The Case of the Fugitive Corp,” Detective Fiction Weekly. April 6, 1929.
“The Crimson Mask,” Detective Fiction Weekly. November 7, 1931. “The Doubtful Egg,” Detective Fiction Weekly. January 11, 1930. “The Dummy Murder,” Detective Fiction Weekly. March 23, 1929. “The Exact Opposite,” Detective Fiction Weekly. March 29, 1941. EQP, EQMC
“The Fourth Musketeer,” Detective Stories. March 1,1939.
“The Girl with the Diamond Legs,” Detective Fiction Weekly. July 11,1931. C&L
“The Gold Magnet,” Detective Fiction Weekly. September 26,1931. “The Man on the End,” Detective Fiction Weekly. September 27,
1930.
“The Monkey Murder,” Detective Stories. January 1,1939. EQMC “The Painted Decoy,” Detective Fiction Weekly. February 23, 1929. “The Pay-off,” Detective Fiction Weekly. April 27, 1929.
“The Play’s the Thing,” Detective Fiction Weekly. February 27, 1932. “The Queen of Shanghai Night,” Detective Stories. May 1939.
“The Radio Ruse,” Detective Fiction Weekly. April 1,1933.
“The Ring of Fiery Eyes,” Detective Stories. August 1939.
“The Seven Sinister Sombreros,” Detective Stories. February 1939. “Thieves’ Kitchen,” Detective Fiction Weekly. June 4,1932. C&L “Thin Ice,” Detective Fiction Weekly. June 10,1933.
“With Rhyme and Reason,” Detective Stories. April 1939.
*** This story was listed as published by Gardner’s secretaries and was included in the Hughes’ biography of Gardner, but insufficient publication information was provided to give a clear indication if this entry was correct.
Hot Cash, Cold Clews
Hot Cash, Cold Clews by Erle Stanley Gardner is printed on 60 pound paper, and is designed by Jeffrey Marks using InDesign. The type is Palatino Linotype, a old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf in 1949. The printing and binding is by Southern Ohio Printers and Cincinnati Bindery for the hard cover and the trade paperback version The book was published in July 2020 by Crippen & Landru Publishers, Inc., Cincinnati, OH.
Erle Stanley Gardner, Hot Cash, Cold Clews
