A Crime Story
“Platitudes are what you lay the table with, he said adjusting his jacket. They might get you so far and you end up like Napoleonic aphorism at the Battle of Waterloo.”
“O’Grady I prefer when you are drunk, we want to crack open this case and like it not we want your help, so more literature, the boys want to hear concrete facts.”
“What am I supposed to say, I loved her.”
“Well that breaks the Captain’s rule, you know “Nothing personal you can’t work a case if it is personal.”
“Ain’t he the Bob Hope.”
“Cut it out, we all have feelings, but we want you to be a police officer. This homicide has had us puzzling over it for two months. We either clear it up or give it to the others.”
“Is that a threat Mills?”
“No it’s an order, so Jim what have you for us?”
“Shirley Lane was alive on October 20th 1948, not seen by anyone after she left the Three Banana’s Club and found in pieces on November 5th 1948 in a suitcase that should have sunk near a private country club owned by Johnny Rio. There is no evidence that she left with Rio, nor have we found any evidence that she there on October 20th 1948. A car a dark green sedan was parked outside her apartment. The body was we know cut by a professional butcher or surgeon, and the knives used have been identified. Again there is no evidence in her car or at the Bywaters Country Club. After many hours of exhaustive interviews of the staff, guests and the owner, Johnny Rio, it is my opinion that whoever killed Shirley Lane did so as to frame Johnny Rio. But for some reason they failed plant more evidence. The suitcase we know however belonged to Miss Lane. It’s one big puzzle. There are clues but they lead you in circles.”
“Take a break O’Grady you are beginning to look like a bloodhound.”
“No if it is OK with you I’d like to continue, I want to give you a timeline of what we know of Shirley Lane’s evening. It’s on the board. We know that Miss Lane had several admirers and these included Mr. Rio, but there were others, and I guess you won’t like this. Here’s the list.”
“O’Grady, strike out those names unless you have evidence. I don’t think it helps to have the Mayor and Governor included.”
“That’s funny Mills, because I remember when I first started up in this district I was told by none other than an officer with the same surname as yours that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.”
“Well for pete sake, put them at the bottom of the list.”
“They were there that night.”
“You strike them out, or I will.”
“Here if this makes you happy, but Eileen for the record, honey make a note.”
“You will do nothing of the kind.”
“It’s in the air. I shall not refer to them by name if it helps, just as M and G.”
“Get back to the case.”
“We have five admirers, M & G, a surgeon, a banker and a judge. Here they are.”
“OK O’Grady you cross out those names.”
“I’m not suggesting they slept with her, but her diary does have some interesting entries.”
“Her diary? Well the hell did you find that?”
“I did not. She gave it to me for safekeeping. Remember I knew her.”
“Carnally I suppose.”
“I should give you a slug, but if it appeases your libido Mills, yes we were lovers.”
“People might think you were in the blackmail racket.”
“I prefer to say insurance.”
“You must hand in this diary.”
“Not yet, because I believe certain parties want to get their hands on it.”
“You can’t withhold evidence.”
“It will be handed in due course, but let’s look at these five men. In the diary Miss Lane had given them nicknames, M was the bear, G was the hyena, the surgeon was the snake, the banker was the elephant and the judge was the giraffe. How she concocted those names is interesting, because they say something about these suspects. The names are based on their looks and their personality. You might get an idea from these photographs.”
There is laughter in the room.
“O’Grady knock it off this is not a beauty contest.”
“It certainly isn’t Mills, one or maybe two of these men killed Miss Lane, and we have to consider why?”
“All five of these men are married.”
“How is that relevant?”
“Because it is my belief whoever it was, tricked Miss Lane into telling her that they would marry her.”
“How would they do that?”
“Forged divorce papers.”
“What?”
“They tricked her with something. I mean how many married men tell their mistresses they are going to divorce their wives? A lot, so this person, I believe has done this before in order to bed a romantic interest. That means who has the power to do that? That eliminates the banker and the surgeon, and leaves the bear, the hyena and the giraffe.”
More laughter from the room.
“You have no proof.”
“I knew Miss Lane, she was not a person to have relations with a married man. She told me that. As you know my marital status has been single for a number of years, and the same is true of Johnny Rio.”
“But why dump the body near the Bywaters Country Club?”
“To incriminate Rio I am sure.”
“But what about this cutting up?”
“We have to bring the snake back into the picture. That man is a butcher. He knows how to cut up a body and according to Doc Meyers, it was either a butcher or surgeon. I figure he was blackmailed into doing it after Miss Lane was killed.”
“I don’t understand why Miss Lane died?”
“She died because the son of a bitch is a sadist. He liked to use leather.”
“Leather?”
“Leather Mills, you can I am sure read of it in those books by Havelock Ellis.”
“How can you tell O’Grady?”
“Because of the telltale leather marks on those pieces of flesh we found in the suitcase. She died from being whipped.”
“Good God, and you expect us to believe that?”
“You can come in now Doc Meyers.”
“This better be good.”
“It is. Now Doc Meyers what can you tell about this case.”
“Firstly it is unusual; the body had been surgically cut into strips like do with salami. However I was able under the microscope to see that the skin had been exposed to violence consistent with whipping. You can see it clearly in this photograph. I have identified the spot. We had no head but were able to identify the bloody through blood type analysis and a finger print. One of her fingers had been partially cut but we could reconstruct the whorls. The bones in the suitcase provided more evidence, as did a filling we found that matched the work done recently by her dentist. My guess is that they were worried that the head might give away too many clues that direct us away from the Mohawk River and the Country Club. We found fibres that came from a suit. We checked with our archives and located the tailor.”
“This is splendid work, Doc Meyers.”
“From what we can gather is that two men, one the killer, had contact with the body. The suitcase by the way was suggestive of a honeymoon.”
“This means three were involved.”
“Yes it seems like that. My guess that the killer has to be the Bear or the Hyena, one of them got the fake divorce papers from the Giraffe, and that the Giraffe married them too.”
“Hence the suitcase.”
“Yes hence the suitcase.”
“I suppose you know who wore the suit?”
“It was Italian and made for the Bear.”
“Jesus to high heaven, O’Grady what are you saying, the Mayor is some kind of pervert who murders young women by whipping them to death.”
“It’s called bondage.”
“It is pure fiction. Fiction. Eileen tear those pages up.”
“I am going to ask you to bring in the Mayor for questioning.”
“But it is preposterous.”
“Everyone is equal before the law.”
“It’s not water tight, all circumstantial. I mean those fibres. He could have danced with her.”
“That’s true.”
“The whipping. He does not look the part.”
“Very true. But I discovered at Johnny Rio’s that there is a “special club.”
“What kind of club?”
“A bondage one, and would you know, the names include all five. It even had a special account that was organized by the elephant.”
“This is incredible.”
“Here is the book. Read it.”
“But the Mayor!”
“Oh don’t forget the Governor.”
“You mean they were all in it?”
“Yes they were. Now I thought it was strange that Miss Lane handed me the book. However I found references to all these men. They were not admirers. They were hunting her. They wanted her as a sacrificial victim for their twisted libidos.”
“Ok, suppose this is true, how can we bring them to court, our superiors are all lovey dovey with them.”
“I suggest we bring in the surgeon first.”
“Why’s that? “
“My guess is that he did not do this willingly, he was blackmailed. If he suggested that we found evidence that he did it through a instrument match, then he will crack I am sure. But we must do it with the others knowing.”
“But the Mayor?”
“What’s the matter, don’t you want to clean up the scum?”
“But the Mayor.”
“Mills have you ever known a clean Mayor?”
“I’ll make the phone call. I want the rest of you to do full background checks and look for more evidence that links Miss Lane’s disappearance to these men. You can use Miss Lane’s nicknames. I don’t understand you O’Grady, you cracked it already, why did you give us this circus.”
“Easy Mills, everyone knows what happened, and I guess that means it will go to court. I would not like police corruption to get in the way of solving this case.”
“You loved her O’Grady.”
“That I did Mills, now if you can excuse me, I need a drink.”A