Obelists Fly High Page 4

  ‘Hasn’t seen the rest of his party, then?’

  ‘No, he hasn’t seen his nieces. But he made a ’phone call about 12.30, which was traced to their apartment; undoubtedly he told them then about the new reservations on the Transcontinental ... So there’s a harmless day. He was approached by no one in the least suspicious, there were no mysterious messages or other communications detected.’

  ‘What about the rest of these people?’ Lord asked. ‘I turned that over to Captain Dennis before I left this morning.’

  ‘Nothing much,’ the Commissioner sighed, reaching for yet other papers. ‘Hood Tinkham,’ he read off. ‘Born in Columbus, Ohio, 1902. Parents both dead. He came to New York in 1920, worked his way through Columbia, then through medical school, and has a medical degree. Cutter took him up in 1928, as he told us; uses him as a research assistant and also in his operations. Tinkham has no money of his own, but Cutter pays him well, practically supports him. The opinion is that he gets his money’s worth, however, and is enthusiastic about Tinkham’s ability. That’s all. Tinkham lives quietly at a hotel on the west side, has no habits, bad or otherwise, spends all his time in research.’

  Darrow paused, took up another sheet. ‘Anne Cutter, the sister. A famous beauty about the turn of the century. Her first husband died in 1904, and she married Wotan Mann – there’s a name for you – in 1909. He is of German extraction, seems to have independent means and one big hobby: he hunts – large tough animals and small, frail ladies. About half and half; sometimes he combines the two as at present. He left for Africa a month ago with a little show-girl named Mitzi. There is no doubt about the grounds for divorce.

  ‘Fonda and Isa Mann, just what you’d expect. Carefully brought up, finishing school and so on. Fonda is twenty-four and Isa twenty-two. Modern and independent, live in their mother’s apartment, which is practically their own, for she has spent most of her time travelling or visiting in Reno since her estrangement from her second husband, their father . . . Sven Dahlgren,’ Darrow grunted in exasperation, ‘just nothing. Goes to the movies. Naturalised years ago, Been with Cutter since 1908.’ He spread his hands. ‘So there you are.’

  ‘Well, it isn’t much,’ Lord acquiesced, ‘is it?’

  ‘No. It’s a curious thing how little these routine reports tell you about anyone except a professional crook. Nothing at all about amateurs. It might be any of them.’

  ‘Or none of them. There certainly isn’t anything there to indicate our note-writing friend.’ Lord stopped and lit a cigarette, this conference was informal. ‘Well, I’ve had a busy day.’

  Darrow smiled. ‘I don’t doubt it. Let’s hear about it.’

  ‘In the first place, which was the last on my programme, the Secret Service reports that there is no activity directed towards Cutter’s brother, the Secretary of State, so far as they know. They assure me that they very probably do know, and that, in any event, such activity on the part of any foreign government in times of peace would be most extraordinary. On the other hand, they tell me that so indirect a menace as this threat against his brother, who is to perform a serious operation on him, would be not entirely unbelievable on the part of at least two Powers under present conditions. They promise to continue working on the idea until they get the “All clear” from us. There they leave it and, as they know nothing definite, I suppose that’s all they can do.

  ‘In order to guard against this foreign angle I have taken two precautions. First, I went to the Army Air Service, as you know – ’

  ‘As I don’t know,’ interrupted the Commissioner. ‘I’ve given them some kind of a written request that they wanted, but I don’t know what it’s all about.’

  ‘Perhaps I’m putting on extra steam there,’ Lord admitted, with a grin. ‘But it struck me, when I was looking over the route we would fly, out at the airport this morning, that there were plenty of places on it where a strange ’plane could find us and take a crack at us. Bring us down; maybe burn us up.’

  Darrow said mildly, ‘Isn’t that just a trifle far-fetched, Michael?’

  The other shrugged. ‘Maybe it is. Yes, to tell you the truth, I do think it is. Just the same, why leave it open? . . . Anyhow, I went to the Air Service and told ’em we wanted the route patrolled, and why we wanted it patrolled. Result, they’ll patrol it. There will be an army combat ’plane, sometimes two of them, in sight of us the whole way out, with orders to warn off any inquisitive neighbours and, if necessary, to fire on them and put them out of business. For this purpose they have arranged that our ’plane will carry the army insignia on top of both wings and will display what I gather is an unheard-of yellow light on the roof of the cabin at night.’

  ‘But how can they tell your ’plane from one of their own, if you carry their insignia?’

  ‘Because there aren’t any Boeing transports in the Air Service now. Of course, all these transports are convertible into army bombers, in case of war, but they’re not converted yet. The army pilots know all types of army ’planes, and most of the others; when they see ours, they’ll know what it is . . . The orders won’t go out to the army fields until first thing in the morning, so there will be no chance of a leak and a phoney ’plane with our markings. Incidentally, they seemed delighted with the opportunity of doing something besides taking joy rides, for a change.

  ‘Well, that’s the first thing I did. The second has to do with any possible tampering with the ’plane itself, and I ought to tell you what the ordinary precautions are as to that. An hour before any Amalgamated transport ’plane goes up, it is completely gone over by their regular mechanics, and then it is warmed up and tested under the direct supervision of the chief mechanic of the air field in question. A half-hour before it leaves, it is gone over again by the pilots who are to take it up – there are two of them, senior and junior – and it is warmed up and tested again. Fifteen minutes before departure, the pilots taxi it out to the starting point and continue testing until the ’plane actually leaves. That seems pretty thorough, but it wasn’t enough for me. After all, I don’t know the chief mechanic; he may be all for Amalgamated, but bribable as regards Cutter.

  ‘So all this routine will be gone through with the regular ’plane which would naturally go out to-morrow morning, but that one won’t be the one that goes. Our ’plane, extra thoroughly inspected and tested beforehand, will come over to Newark from Hadley Field at New Brunswick just fifteen minutes before we leave. There is a ’plane due from the west at 8.30, and ours will come in with three or four dummy passengers in it, so it will look to anyone interested like a section of the trip from the west. But it won’t be; it will be the one we are really going out in.’

  ‘This seems,’ Darrow hazarded, ‘very elaborate.’

  Lord stated, ‘It’s as elaborate as I could make it. I couldn’t think of anything else to add. I admit I don’t know much about foreign spies, but I think I’ll give them a run for their money if they are really involved. And it won’t be ostentatious – that’s certain. I doubt if the other passengers have a hint of any of it.’

  ‘Ah, the other passengers.’

  ‘Yes, there is the matter of the other passengers. But there we are playing in a little real luck. There are only four of them; with our party that makes nine for the ’plane, which carries no more than ten passengers, anyhow. The Amalgamated people have consented not to sell the other seat for this particular trip, and so the four already booked are all we shall have to think about. Of these four, one is Dr Pons, the man I told about who was on the Transcontinental when Sabot Hodges was killed; and he was on the Meganaut, too.’ Lord smiled reminiscently. ‘He’s a psychologist, the fellow who wished the “intrextroversion” method on me. There is certainly no possibility of his setting out to put a hole through Cutter.

  ‘Another one is Manly Bellowes, from the church uptown, and still another is Hugh L. Craven, the English novelist and dramatist. So, unless we are going to look for hobgoblins in our overcoat pockets, they’re out, to
o. I just can’t see either of them as our criminal, even though amateur.’

  The Commissioner’s, ‘Well-l,’ was long-drawn. ‘That is a bit of luck. Look out for your Bellowes man, though. I heard him a year or so ago; he’s a holy terror.’

  ‘Hot stuff, eh? I only know he has one of the largest congregations in town.’

  ‘He gets them by scaring them,’ Darrow averred. ‘His line is hell and damnation, brimstone and fire. If his pulpit manner is any criterion, his name is belligerency. He’s far from a typical minister; there aren’t many like him left nowadays. As for me, I prefer the clergy somewhat more dignified, as most of them are, of course . . . In any event, I’m sure you can count out both Bellowes and Craven. But what about your fourth passenger?’

  ‘His name is Isador Didenot, and that’s all I know about hirn – yet. But there ought to be a report here for me from the field; that may tell us something.’

  Together they bent over the Commissioner’s stack of papers, and almost immediately turned up a sheet in his secretary’s handwriting, headed: ‘Information for Captain Lord, from Amalgamated Air Transport.’ It was the telephone message from Wiley concerning the reservations. From this it appeared that Pons had made his reservation the day before, as Lord knew already, and that Bellowes had done the same, but in New York. The Englishman’s reservation had been made for him by a lecture bureau some two weeks previously; and a place had been held for Didenot by the American Philosophical Society no less than three months before. Recourse to a reference book showed Isador Didenot to be listed as a member of that organisation, and a ‘phone call to one of the newspapers disclosed that the society was about to hold a convention in San Francisco. ‘So there’s his explanation,’ Darrow commented, ‘and he is almost certainly as harmless as the rest. In any event, he planned to take this ’plane three months ago, and that is long before James Cutter was taken sick or had even gone to the west. Also, it’s even longer before Amos Cutter had any idea of going. Yes, your Didenot man is out, too. It strikes me forcibly,’ he continued, ‘that of all the people on the ’plane, Cutter himself is the one who is likely to give you the most trouble.’ He paused, as if struck by a sudden thought. ‘He can’t possibly be up to any hanky-panky himself, can he?’

  Lord considered the suggestion for several minutes in silence. Then he said slowly. ‘No, I can’t really believe that possible. Whatever you can say about him, he surely is not an unbalanced neurotic. He would never plan to do himself an injury and then tell the police about it in advance.’

  ‘Of course not,’ agreed Darrow. ‘It was a silly idea. What I started to say was that he is an obstinate old codger; all his remarks about his “not being a child,” and so on. You’ll probably have a fine time making him follow orders.’

  ‘You’re right on that. I had a chance to stop at Physicians and Surgeons this afternoon for a few words with some of his colleagues. He’s crabby and obstinate, without a doubt. Gesell, the man I spent most time with, seemed definitely hostile to him at first; but then, when I told him what the purpose of my inquiry was, he changed completely. He said there was no question but that Dr Cutter was a man of the highest attainments professionally, and couldn’t imagine that anyone would try to injure him seriously. I couldn’t help noticing that he went further that way than he had the other; I can easily believe that Cutter is hard to get on with, though, and, of course, Gesell didn’t know that there was anything dangerously wrong, to begin with.

  ‘As a matter of fact, this man Gesell helped me work out an idea I had for Cutter’s own protection, but one that I’m not going to tell Cutter about, I assure you. I think he needs to be protected from himself, and here’s what I propose to do ...’

  Darrow, a moment later, had opened his eyes widely. Then he chuckled. Then he congratulated Michael Lord. ‘Of course,’ the latter added, ‘the idea primarily is to balk whoever may be trying to injure him.’

  ‘Well, let’s see what else.’ Darrow drew out a small page of notes and regarded it for some moments. ‘We’ve been over the passengers and we’ve been over the members of Cutter’s own party. I’ve a note regarding them. You remember, when we suggested to Cutter that someone might be trying to injure his brother by keeping him – Amos – away by threats, that he said, “Nobody who knows me would have tried that trick.” Aside from the fact that we haven’t been able to turn up anything to implicate his nieces or his assistant, it seems to me that his remark was pretty nearly correct, and that they all know him fairly well. For what it’s worth, it’s in their favour, don’t you agree?’

  ‘Yes, if the threat is really against his brother, or if it is against both of them. If it’s only against Amos Cutter, of course, the point doesn’t mean so much.’

  ‘H’m. Yes, that’s so. And yet this certainly seems an innocent party all around, if ever there was one. We haven’t left anyone out of – ’

  ‘But we have,’ Lord interrupted gently. ‘The crew of the ’plane.’

  Darrow grunted with chagrin. ‘My word! That’s right. Naturally.’

  ‘However, they are as innocent-looking as all the rest. Even more so. We change ships at Chicago and at Cheyenne; they used to change pilots oftener than that, but with these new and faster ships the pilots are only changed when the ships are changed. There are always two pilots, so that’s six on the way out. Most of the senior pilots employed by the Amalgamated were army flyers in the war, then air mail flyers; nearly all of them have around 10,000 hours of transport flying to their credit, and even the junior pilots hold the highest-class Department of Commerce Transport Licences. Of course, they all have to have Federal Licences as radio operators.

  ‘That’s as to their regular abilities. To-morrow we start out with the veteran senior pilot, as would have happened in the ordinary course of events, anyhow. The ones we pick up later have been specially transferred to this trip out of turn, and I am assured they have the highest rating the company can give. As to the stewardess we have from Cheyenne to Reno, I can’t get up much alarm about her. Among other things, she is a graduate nurse, as all their stewardesses are.’

  Darrow said, ‘A match, Michael?’ and offered him a cigarette lighter. ‘These aeroplane companies do it up brown, don’t they? But won’t this ship-changing thing interfere with your plans? I should think it might.’

  ‘No,’ the smoker smiled, ‘that’s arranged, too. By the way, did you know the amount of authority these senior pilots have? While they’re in the air, they are just like ship captains on the high seas; whatever they say goes, including landing or not landing, regular stops or irregular, make ’em or skip ’em, or do anything else they judge best. They have more authority than ship captains, really, for there isn’t even a traditional code about anything as yet, except, of course, the safety of the ’plane and its passengers. But they’re fully authorised to sacrifice one, or some, for the rest, in a hypothetical case. Pretty absolute.’

  ‘H’m. Might effect you, mightn’t it, if your criminal should manage to persuade one of them to land somewhere or do something else?’

  ‘They are to be instructed to accede to no requests or demands from any passenger unless I have passed on it first, this time. For the rest, their authority is higher than mine while we’re in the air, but my opinion is that their judgement is likely to be pretty trustworthy. They are armed, of course, because these ’planes carry United States mail. In a pinch I can’t think of any class of man I’d much rather have with me.’

  There was silence for some minutes. Both were thinking, trying to seek out some point that might have been overlooked; and neither could do so. Darrow stirred, finally.

  ‘I can’t think of another thing,’ he confessed. ‘Your own party, the passengers, the crew. If there is a potential criminal among any of them, it must be in Cutter’s party.’ A frown appeared on his forehead. ‘And I still think there may be; there probably is. I don’t believe that note was a hoax. God knows we’ve seen enough of them here to be able to judge,
and I believe that that one was no fake . . . Well, you’ve got two jobs. The first, naturally, is to protect Cutter. And the second is to bring in the person who threatened him. But Cutter first, of course.

  ‘Now, here’s what has been done. On the foreign theory, which does appear a little far-fetched to me – but I’m no stranger to the unlikely – your route will be patrolled and your ’plane guarded from outside all the time; you’ve arranged for an extra careful inspection of the ’planes themselves and, when you start, it will be in a ’plane that has been substituted for the one that would go out in the ordinary course of events.’

  ‘The relay ’planes will be substituted ones, also,’ Lord cut in.

  ‘Good again. Furthermore, the Secret Service will continue to work on this theory and take any measures that may suggest themselves. Certainly that angle is covered. As to what we can call the domestic theory, your fellow passengers could scarcely be less dangerous for a trip like yours. We have done our best with the note Cutter got, but that’s blank. We have turned up what we could on his own group of people, in the time available; it isn’t much and there, if anywhere, lies the risk. But they expect to go out by train now and, if any plans have been made, they have to be changed hurriedly at the last minute, which will hardly be an advantage to the planner. We shall send you anything more we can get, but in any event you will be in the ’plane yourself, watching them. In a small cabin, where everyone has to sit almost all the time in two lines of five chairs each, I don’t see how much opportunity for a crime can arise, if you’re on your toes. And I happen to know that you will be.’

  Across the flood-lighted desk Darrow and Michael Lord looked at each other steadily.