Now the Special English program "American Stories".
Our story today is called "The Gatewood Caper". It was written byDashiell Hammett, Here is Harry Monroe with the story.
Millionaire Harvey Gatewood had a desk as big as a bed in the middleof his office. He looked almost as big as his desk. Gatewood hadbecome rich by knocking down anyone who stood in his way. Now, heleaned across his desk and began shouting at me. "My daughter waskidnapped last night; I want you to find her and the people who didthis." "Tell me about it," I suggested. Gatewood said his daughterAudrey had gone out for a walk, the night before at 7 o'clock. Shenever came home. The next morning, Gatewood received a letter from herkidnappers. They asked 50,000 dollars for her and put one of herfavorite rings in the envelope to prove they had her. Gatewood hadcalled the police immediately, but a few minutes later he decided tohire his own private detectives. That's when he called me at myContinental Detective Agency. "Find her!" he barked at me.
I left his office and went to his home. The servants told me Audreywas 19 years old and Gatewood's only child. They said her mother wasdead and Audrey and her father did not like each other. I went to herroom where I found a picture of her. She was a pretty girl with bigblue eyes and a small pointed chin. I took the photograph with me whenI went back to my office. I decided to call the police detectives.
Elgar and Selden who were working on the case. They said that I couldtake a look at the letter the kidnappers had sent. The envelope hadbeen mailed from San Francisco on September 20th. The same nightAudrey had disappeared. The postmark on the envelope was stamped 8:00pm. While I was at the police station, a young policeman stuck hishead into the room. "Gatewood just called," he said, "He wants all ofyou in his office right away."I ran out with Elgar and Selden and jumped into one of their policecars. Gatewood was walking up and down in his office. His face was redwith anger. "She just phoned me," Shouted as soon as he saw us, shesaid, "Oh, daddy! Do something. I can't stand this. They're killingme. Then I heard a man's voice yell something and someone hung up thephone." Gatewood began banging his desk with his huge hands. "Have youpeople done anything?" We had to admit that we had discovered nothingyet. That night, I went home with Gatewood. At 2:30 in the morning,the telephone rang. I listened on the telephone downstairs whileGatewood talked on the telephone by his bed upstairs. A man's voicesaid "Gatewood, put the money in a bag and leave the house with itimmediately, walk down Clay Street to the river. You'll meet someonewith a handkerchief over his face, drop the money and go back home.
You'll get your daughter back in an hour or two." The stranger hung upthe telephone. "Do what he told you to do?" I said to Gatewood, "Anddon't try any tricks."A few minutes later, Gatewood left his house carrying a white bag ofmoney in his left hand. I followed him as he walked down the darkstreets for about 10 minutes. No one was around. Suddenly, out ofnowhere, a tall woman appeared; she was wearing black clothes andholding a handkerchief to her face. Gatewood stopped. He dropped thebag of money, turned around and walked quickly away. The woman ran tothe bag. Picked it up and disappeared down a dark side street. Theside street was empty when I reached it. I looked for an open windowor door that would show me which building the woman had run into.
Nothing. All the doors and windows were locked. I picked one door andbroke the lock. I was lucky. Inside I found a woman's skirt, coat andhat, all black on the floor near the door. I knocked on a few doors inthe building and one of the people told me that a tall man namedLytton had rented an apartment there only 3 days earlier. Lytton wasnot home when I knocked on his door. But now I understood how themysterious woman had disappeared. Lytton had put on women's clothingover his own, then he had gone out the back door of the apartmentbuilding leaving the door open. After getting the money, he ran backinto the building, locked the door and took off his disguise. Then hemust have left the apartment building through the front door.
The next morning there was no word from Audrey. We still had heardnothing by afternoon. I began to wonder about some things. I checkedwith Audrey's girlfriends and found that one of them was the lastperson to see Audrey before the kidnapping. Agnes Danger Field toldme, she saw Audrey walking down Market Street alone the night of thekidnapping between 8:15 and 8:45. I took a taxi to the shoppingdistrict where there were a lot of large department stores. I wentinto each one asking if a tall man had bought clothing that would fitAudrey. At the fifth department store I got good news. A tall man hadcome in the day before buying clothing in Audrey's size. He had boughta lot of clothing and arranged for it to be delivered to his apartmenton 14th street. He signed his name, Theodore Alfred. When I arrived atthe address he gave, I saw a fat lady leaving the building. I told herI was a private detective and asked her about Alfred. She said he andhis wife had rented apartment 202 only a week ago. She stopped talkingsuddenly as a tall man walked past me into the building. She said hewas Mr. Alfred. But I recognized him as Penny Quail, an unimportantlittle thief. I knew he recognized me, too. I followed him into thebuilding and ran up the stairs to apartment 202. I rang the doorbell,3 gunshots answered and the middle of the door had 3 bullet holes init. Those bullets would have been in my stomach if I hadn't learnedyears ago to stand to one side of strange doors. I kicked at the doorand the lock broke. As I ran into the room, I saw Quail and a womanstruggling on the floor. The woman was Audrey Gatewood. She had a gunin her hand. I grabbed it and yelled. "That's enough! Get up, both ofyou." Quail sat down in a chair trying to catch his breath, but thewoman stood in the center of the room. "You are just lucky I didn'tshoot you." She said angrily, "How did you discover the truth?" "Inseveral ways," I answered. "First, one of your friends said she sawyou on Market Street between 8:15 and 8:45 the night you disappeared.
But the postmark on the letter to your father read 8:00 pm. Quail,here, should have waited longer before mailing the letter. When youdidn't come home after the money was paid. I had an idea you kidnappedyourself, then I thought you would need to buy clothing. You left homethat night just to take a walk. You couldn't bring a suitcase full ofclothing with you. I knew you had a man helping you. I thought perhapsthe man would buy what you needed. And it turned out that he did. Buthe was too lazy to carry the packages from the store himself. So hehad the store send the clothing to this place. That's how I knew whereto find you."Gatewood met his daughter at the police station. I had never seen himso angry when he learned the truth. Gatewood told the police to lockup his daughter. But Audrey threatened to tell some of his businesssecrets to the newspapers. Gatewood must have believed she reallywould do it, too. Because he told the police he had changed his mind.
And the father and daughter left for home. I could see the hate theyhad for each other, not a very happy reunion. The police were stillholding Quail, but he wasn't worried. He knew if Audrey was free, hewouldn't be punished either. I was glad it was over. It had been arough job and a strange adventure, The Gatewood Caper. |