Chapter 11 Bandits of Wright Township in the Robbery Sector

Wright is a lackluster New England industrial town in the middle of an uninteresting farming county.It was founded in 1701 by a man named Jezreel Wright, and more than two hundred and fifty years later it had a population of just over ten thousand.Some areas are twisted and narrow, others are filled with flashing neon lights, and most are quite dark.In other words, Wright is a pretty typical American town. But for Ellery, it was Shangri-La, the promised land. If he was pressed to explain why he took a phone call and headed to Wright, Ellery would say that he kind of liked the cobbled, dingy village with its round square and Twin Hills cemetery, Junction on Route 16, and smoky burgundy at the "Mahogany" bar to the north.The mix of noise and buttered popcorn from a band night behind the Our Children Memorial is, in his opinion, perfectly proportioned and relaxing!He would also say that the sight of old-fashioned peasant families coming to town with prim joy on a Saturday afternoon gave him positive momentum, and so on.

But if Ellery is to be honest, he has to add that Wrighttown has always been generous to him when it comes to interesting crimes. On a recent trip, he got off at Wright, expecting a leisurely week at Bill York's cabin on Balder Hill.Ellery longed to flit like a bird over the second-rate ski slopes, then sit by the campfire afterwards, sipping toddy contentedly with the town's athletes.It turned out that the closest he had been to the cottage was at the Hollis Hotel on the square. He piled the skis into Ed Hotchkiss' taxi and turned to shake his big hand.Just then, Ed brought him bad news.There wasn't enough snow on Balder Mountain this year, Ed sighed, to give Bill York's six little ones a good game.But now that Mr. Quinn is here, why not take the opportunity to see what happened to Ed's distant cousin Mamie and her son...

Ellery checked in at the Hollis Hotel, took a shower, went to Grove Tudor's cigar stand in the lobby, and bought a copy of the Wright Town Chronicle.By this time he was almost ready to learn about the case of Delbert Hood, Jr.Delbert is now out on bail pending trial.According to Ed Hotchkiss, his cousin Mamie said her son had nothing to do with the case. The Great Detective is intrigued by several elements in the events.First, the victim of the crime seemed to be the villain; second, one of Chief Dakin's bright young men, Sergeant Kip Yokin, was lying in Wright Hospital in plaster from the left hip down; Three, everyone in town except Ed Hotchkiss and Mamie Hood Wheeler was convinced that the kid Delbert did it.

That last point alone is almost enough for Ellery.Hollis and the Upham Hotel were having an orderly luncheon, he had rooted among the ladies he knew in Wright, he had spoken to Commissioner Dakin and the rest of the motley crew, and he was apparently determined to go head-on. up. According to the dictation of the ladies, the background of the case is as follows: One morning the people of Wright suddenly learned that Anson K. Wheeler was marrying Widow Hood. It would be a revolution, for Anson Wheeler was from Hill Road and Mamie Hood was from Foothill Village. Besides, Mamie Hood was not young and pretty.She is forty-six years old, with ordinary features.

One of the women also claimed that Tessie Lupine, the foot of the mountain beauty shop celebrity, never had a facial on her, and her face did not look like it had been done!As for Mame's figure, the ladies asserted, it was broad in the upper body and in the middle;And she obviously doesn't know how to dress at all. As for Anson Wheeler, he came from one of the old families in the neighbourhood.Wheeler House on Hill Road is a tourist attraction.The Wheeler family has always been proud of their blood, they save money and behave well.Anson Wheeler still drives his father's old Pierce Silver Arrow.They never installed modern sewer lines.Old Mrs. Wheeler wore a corset and a gold watch to her death, but insisted on picking pickles for herself.Although Anson K. Wheeler owned a huge farm machine shop near the airfield and employed several hundred people, it was still run in the most traditional and conservative way of his father's way, using the 1910 bookkeeping method.Every Friday morning, he went to the bank to collect the wages to be paid by the factory.

Anson served twice as first executive and was president of the Wright Historical Society.A senior parish councilor in what has been dubbed the "St. Paul in the Valley," he scoffs at those who don't call the rector of Chicklin a "priest" and tend to demean the church.His grandfather, General Murdoch Wheeler, was the last Confederate veteran in Wright.First cousin Uriah Scott Wheeler (nicknamed "America") was headmaster at Gunnery School in Pfeiffer and was a top intellectual near Wright. Anson Wheeler never married because of his mother.He took good care of Mrs. Wheeler, who was seriously ill, and it became a good story for a while.And when she died at eighty-nine, he was like a fish out of water.

And she naturally took advantage of the situation at this time, using her feminine voice and gentle and considerate behavior.Anson Wheeler is the best target in town, and his butler, Mamie Hood, has him! Mamie Hood wasn't just his housekeeper—in fact, his domestic servant—she was raising a grown child.Delbert inherited his father's dirty blood. The old Alf Hood had been eccentric, aggressive and erratic.When Alf was a student at Merrimack, he'd fired stoves, waited, and more menial jobs; you always felt he'd do anything for a few bucks.When he opened his law firm on State Street, he might have made it if he played his cards right.At the time, Louise Grannis was so obsessed with him that she just wanted to elope with him.In order to silence the people in the town, the Grannis family had to accept him, and he could take this opportunity to rise to the top.But what did this idiot do?He dumped Louise and married Mamie Brobeck of Whistle Street!From then on, he was naturally finished.He never got a single customer from Hill Road or Hilltop Village again - a good thing the Granniss did.

Alf, who is omnipotent, lives on the street for a job.It was 1931, the Great Depression, and Charlie Brady hired him despite the circumstances.Eventually Brady caught him trying to break into Logan's Market at 3am to steal some groceries - and he picked the best brands!Charlie took him to the old prison cell on Plum Street, and they found him the next morning with both wrists slashed.The week after the funeral, Mamie gave birth to a son. Delbert is simply the reincarnation of his father.Mamie worked outside during the day, so the kid had grown into a typical street punk in a foothill village.He has no respect for private property, and is as ignorant as Alf was back then.He even develops a hatred for Wrighttown, vowing to avenge what they "did" to his father!

Such a child is bound to get into trouble.The Korean War should have made him more sensible, but in less than a year he came back with a chest wound, even more brazen than before.By this time, Mamie had become Wheeler's butler.Delbert sat in Wheeler's kitchen all day long, sneering at the big family on the hill.For Mamie's sake, Anson Wheeler let him into the factory. Delbert only worked for three weeks.One day during his lunch break, Anson found himself addressing a large group of workers, declaring that it was incomprehensible that they could endure the conditions in the factory.Naturally, Anson had to fire him on the spot.

How Anson Wheeler was able to marry Mamie Hood after that was the biggest mystery of the whole thing, the ladies said.Anson, who asked for guilt, got two cracks in his skull and was robbed of fifteen thousand dollars.When will this horrible kid be sent to where he is supposed to be - which is state prison - when will they be able to sleep peacefully. "I'll take you up the hill to see Mamie and Del," said Ed Hotchkiss eagerly. "Wait, Ed," Ellery said, "who's Del's lawyer?" "Morton Danziger. His office is near his father's stationery store, near the Pijou Hotel at the bottom of the hill."

"I'll go over to Morton's, and you'll have your cousin Mame bring Delbert. I'd rather talk to them in friendly territory." "Who says it's friendly there?" Ed muttered, driving the cab away at twice the legal speed. "I don't know, Mr. Quinn," said Ben Danziger's bald-haired son worryingly, in his modest office at the foot of the hill, "the evidence against him is so strong that I can't understand it Is he guilty or not... I begged Mamie to find another lawyer, but she just locked me in—” "Mott, who's trying this case?" "Judge Peter Preston. The Prestons on the Hill," said Morton Danziger gloomily. "If Judge Peter hadn't been sick this winter and had a busy schedule, I couldn't have kept the trial so long. Long." "How did you defend it?" Danziger shrugged. "No positive evidence. No money. It's all negative stuff, what else can I do? The kid has no alibi - he says he's wandering in the woods by himself at Granchon Falls - and he's trying to escape That's how poor Kip Yorkin ended up in the hospital..." The young lawyer looked hopefully at Ellery, "Do you think Del Hood was wronged?" "I don't know," Ellery said. "Dell helped me on a case once, when he was a waiter at the Hollis Hotel. I remember him as a bright, nice boy. Mott , who is going to bail him out?" "Anson Wheeler." "Wheeler?" "The child's mother is Anson's wife, isn't she? You know how stubborn and invariable those people in Old Hill are." "But...why did the Wheeler family sue him again?" "That's part of the rules, too," said Morton Danziger dryly. "I ain't gonna pretend I know . . . oh, come on in!" Mamie Hood Wheeler was a buxom woman who looked like an American mother of any age, dressed up for the occasion.She was wearing a well-timed hat and a Persian lamb coat that looked as if she had just bought it from Boston.But Boston could not save her hands; they had labored day and night, and it was too late. (She wears gloves though) Judging by the state of her eyes, she has been crying non-stop since September, and now it's January. If she hadn't cried, Ellery thought, she would be an attractive woman.That being the case, why did those women say that? "There, there, Mrs. Wheeler," he said, shaking her hand. "I can't promise anything." "I knew you could get my Del out," she sobbed.She has a soft, surprisingly refined voice. "Thank you, thank you, Mr. Quinn!" "Mom." The tall boy who came with her looked embarrassed.He was thin and toasty looking, with a sluggish, sullen smile. "Hello, Mr. Quinn. What do you want from me?" "Dell," Ellery said, looking him in the eye, "did you steal your stepfather's wages on Ridge Road last September twenty-first?" "No, sir. But I don't expect you to believe me." "That's true," said Ellery cheerfully. "Tell me, Del, how do you explain that handkerchief?" "I was framed. I haven't used it in weeks - in fact I thought I lost it." "But he didn't mention it to anyone," Inte Danziger said. "It got more complicated again." "I told you I was framed, Mr. Danziger!" "And this, Del," Ellery said, "why did you run when Officer Yokin arrested you?" "Because I was freaking out. I knew they'd put it all on me. Not just about the handkerchief, I've had a lot of fights with old Anson before." "Dell," cried his mother, "don't say that about yours—don't say that about Mr. It doesn't matter." "Mom, what do you want from me?" the tall boy called. "Does he want to send me to jail and I have to kiss his feet? He's been after me since the day he caught me explaining to the workers in his factory how stupid they were. I should have Settle accounts with him!" "You've been out on bail for months," Ellery said. "Why haven't you settled with him yet?" The boy's face flushed. "I'm not one of those big bastards. He bailed me out, and besides, my mother had to live in this town. The only thing I'm sorry about is that I lost my mind when Kip Yokin tried to take me away. " "You're still living at your stepfather's house, aren't you, Del?" "It's my mother's house now too, isn't it?" Delbert said defiantly. "She must have some rights as his wife." "Dell," Mamie moaned. "But isn't it embarrassing, Del, for you and Mr. Wheeler?" "We just ignore each other." "I think," said Ellery, "that your stepfather was exemplary in several respects in this case." "Come on!" cried Delbert Hood, "I'll give him my Purple Heart!" That was one of the reasons Ellery loved the case.The wicked are like saints, but the good deserve to be kicked. "Well, Delbert, there's only one way to get you out. If you're innocent, someone's guilty. Take your mother home and you stay there. I'll get in touch." Ellery walked across the square to the Wrighttown National Bank and asked to see the president, Wolfert Van Horn. The old wolf has not changed.He just looked older and weathered and more wolf-like.He looked at Ellery's hand as if something had happened there.Then he sat back, grinding his dentures like a predator. "I won't cooperate, Quinn," said the top banker in Wright, his voice sharp as a knife, "that kid is guilty. Anson Wheeler is one of our bank's best clients. You want an account ?" "Well, Wolfert," Ellery said reassuringly, "all I want to do is get the facts of a deal almost five months ago. Tell me, over the years, Anson Wheeler The payday is always the same, why did it change this time?" "Nothing worth mentioning," growled Wolfert Van Horn bitterly. "The teller always settles Anson's salary on Thursday afternoon. Every Friday morning, Anson's first thing is Picked it up at the bank on the way to the farm. One Friday morning last year in mid-September, a man with a handkerchief over his face tried to hold him hostage on the Ridge Road. Anson hit the gas and got away. So the next week—” "A matter of timing," muttered Ellery. "Mr. Wheeler held a war conference at home that night because he was nearly held hostage. In the study, I suppose? Who was there?" "Anson Wheeler, Mamie, Chief Dakin, me, and my chief cashier, Orrin Keckley." "Delbert Hood is here." "It's true that he wasn't in the study, but he was reading the comics in the living room. The transom between the living room and the study was wide open, and he must have heard it all." "Delbert was still in the living room when you left after the meeting?" "Yes," Wolfert said, beginning to feel amused. "I'd swear on the stand, and I'd say it." "It was decided at the meeting that unless the masked man was caught first, next week Keckley would settle Wheeler's salary on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Wednesday night, Keckley secretly brought the salary to your house. Mr. Wheeler To pick it up at your house on the way to the farm on Thursday morning. All of this was kept secret by those present. Am I right, Wolfert?" "I know what you're thinking," Van Horn grinned, "but the number one piece of evidence in this case is the handkerchief, and it's not mine." "Tell me, whose idea it was to move the payday forward from Friday to Thursday this time?" Wolfert jumped up. "What does it matter?" he said skeptically, "and I don't remember!" "Can you get Orin Keckley?" Van Horn's chief cashier was a haggard gray-haired man in a tie who looked cowering.Keckley, Ellery recalled, had been a pleasant fellow, with a candid eye, back when the bank belonged to John F. Wright. "Proposal for another date?" repeated the teller, looking quickly at Wolfert Van Horn.The banker was impassive. "What's the matter, I don't remember, Mr. Quinn." Wolfert frowned. "Unless," said Keckley quickly, "unless it's me. Yes, I think—actually, I'm pretty sure I suggested it." "Well, Olin, I think it was you," said his employer. "You're very clever, Mr. Keckley," said Ellery.Chief Dakin had told him the offer came from Wolfert Van Horn. "So on the following Wednesday night, you sent your salary to Mr. Van Horn's mansion as promised?" "Yes, sir." "Salary in the usual canvas bag?" "No, sir. We thought, since the idea is to fool the robbers, we'd better wrap it in paper. In case," said Keckley eagerly, "in case the robbers watch the bank, or something What's the situation?" "What kind of paper is it?" "Plain brown wrapping paper." "Is it sealed?" "Yes, taped, sir." "I see, Mr. Keckley. You didn't tell anyone about the plan, did you?" "No, sir! I didn't even let the other cashiers see me sorting Wheeler's paycheck on Wednesday afternoon." "I don't think you've leaked anything, Wolfert," said Ellery, as the teller slipped away sweating. "I know, I know. Never mind. That Thursday morning, Anson When did Wheeler come to your house to get the money?" "A quarter past seven." "That early?" Ellery sat up. "Did he take the Ridge Road directly to the farm?" "The farm starts work at eight o'clock." "But Wrighttown National Bank," muttered Ellery, "doesn't open until half past nine." He stood up suddenly. "Goodbye, Wolfert!" Ellery had Ed Hotchkiss drive him down the valley.At the end of the cobblestone street, Route 478A also turns east to the beech-covered Twin Mountains, which is where the Ridge Road begins.The road goes north, around the wooded hills above Wright, and then west into the valley. Ed slowed the car down. "That's where all the dirty work is done, Mr. Quin. There's nothing here but roads and woods—" "Ed, we'll be back to investigate the crime scene later. Let's talk to Anson Wheeler first." The Wheeler Company occupies a row of low, black-brick buildings not far from the Wrighttown Airport.To Ellery's daylight it looked as ugly as the old machine shop in the foothill village.The interior of the building is poorly lit and ventilated; the floor is depressed by heavy machinery, and the condition is worrying; the walls are covered with old ash.The workers worked silently.Ellery, already fond of Anson Wheeler, suddenly hated him. He found his boss in a bare, cold room in his scratched golden oak office.Wheeler is a middle-aged man of average height, with a stern complexion, pale cheeks, and dull eyes.There always seemed to be a long, spiteful note in his high voice, almost like a whimper. "I know, I know why you're here, Mr. Quinn," he said bitterly. "Van Horn called me. Well, I consider myself a fair man. I don't want you to think I persecuting him. But I tell you, that kid did it. If I'm not sure, do you think I'll sue? I—I like Mrs. Wheeler very much, but she has to see Delbert for who he is. He's a Troubleshooter, he's a thief! It's not about money, Mr. Quinn. It's...it's about people." "But Mr. Wheeler, what if you learned that Del didn't do it?" "Then I couldn't be happier," snorted Anson Wheeler, before his thin lips tightened again, "but he did it." "The first time—the unsuccessful one. Did you take a good look at the masked man before running away?" "Oh, he was quite tall and thin. He had a silk handkerchief over his face. I was so excited I didn't notice anything else, but looking back I realized it must have been Delbert." "I think he pointed a gun at you?" "Yes. The kid has a gun. He brought one back from North Korea." "He didn't try to fire when you stepped on the gas?" "I don't know. They didn't find a bullet hole in the car. I almost ran into him. He jumped into the bushes." "Of course you know, Mr. Wheeler, it's probably some other tall, thin person..." "You think I put the blame on him!" cried Anson Wheeler. "And what about the handkerchief? The Thursday after that?" "Tell me the details, Mr. Wheeler," said Ellery sympathetically. "I picked up my paycheck early from the Wolferts that morning and took it to Ridge Road as always." Wheeler's high-pitched voice grew louder. A tree was lying across the road. I ran into it on a turn, so my only thought was to slam on the brakes, and grab the bag of money, and try to run over...he—he hit me. Right in the when I got out of the car." "Dell hit you, didn't you, Mr. Wheeler?" Ellery mused. "No, I didn't actually see him, I had my back to him. But wait! The blow to the head only knocked me out for a second or two - he must have missed aim. I tried to fight him," Wheeler's glassy eyes suddenly flashed into flames, "But he's a strong kid, and he's in the military - he knows how to deal with me! He put his elbow on my throat from behind, and there's nothing I can do. I reached up and tried to grab his face. I felt something silky between my fingers and he hit me in the back of the head. When I came back, Officer Yookin was already doing CPR on me. Money It was all gone, but I grabbed the handkerchief. It was Delbert's handkerchief." "You're pretty sure it's his handkerchief," said Ellery. "It has his initials on it! It's a silk handkerchief I gave him when he married his mother. I gave the kid all the gear from head to toe!" Ellery left Anson K. Wheeler in a squalid office.Anson's stern face was pale, his fingers groping the back of his head. Officer Yookin lay in the men's ward of Wright General Hospital, gnawing unhappily on a crumpled apple.His left calf and thigh were shrouded in thick plaster casts, trapping him like a maze of medical equipment. "I feel like some Frankenstein invented something," said the young cop morosely. "I've been stuck on this thing since last September! If they don't give the kid ten years, Mr Quinn, I'd break his neck myself." "Still tough, Kip," sighed Ellery, sitting on the edge of the bed. "What the hell is going on?" Young Yoojin spat out the core. "The Ridge Road is in my area—I own the whole north side of the village. After Mr. Wheeler was nearly robbed, Chief Dakin ordered me to keep an eye on him. So Wheeler withdrew the money at the Van Horn's that morning, I just drove the patrol car and followed behind his old Pierce. "Once he turned into Ridge Road, the robber might try again. So I stayed behind to avoid alarm. That's how the kid got away. By the time I got to the turn, it was over. Wheeler was unconscious. Woke up with blood streaming from his head. A tall, lanky figure jumped into the bushes east of the road." "He went east?" "Yes, sir. I fired several times in his direction and hit nothing. By the time I parked the car where he had run off, he was out of sight. So I radioed to the Headquarters, and Go take care of Mr. Wheeler. He's not dead or badly hurt. "I saw right away the silk handkerchief in his hand with the initials DD embroidered on it. Everyone in town recognized that handkerchief—it was Little Del's first handkerchief, and he kept showing it off—so I You'll know right away who did it." "How did he hurt your back?" "I hurt it when I was chasing him." The young officer spat out another apple core. "Dell walked into the house while I was taking Mr. Wheeler home to bandage his head. A tattered man, said he had just come back from a trek through the woods. I told him what had happened, showed him the handkerchief, and said he must be arrested. Immediately he jumped up—through the middle of the window. I was chasing up the hill next to Wheeler's house and tripped over a tree root and fell into a ditch and hurt my back. Miracle I didn't break my back. Del dragged me out. Maybe he saw me fall in , want to be a good boy once." Young Yoojin frowned and looked at his left foot, which was wrapped as tightly as a mummy, and threw the apple core over. "Well, what a mess this case is, Mr. Quin. I wish I didn't have to testify." So Ellery returned to Headquarters, sitting in Director Dakin's swivel chair next to J. Edgar Hoover's portrait.He said, "Let me think it over again, old friend?" "Think about it." Dakin growled, standing in front of the window, looking at the town street. Ellery concluded by saying, "My head doesn't seem to be working. Dakin, have you thought of any other possibilities?" "Thinking like crazy," said the Commissioner helplessly, "but who do you think this case could go to? The only people who know about the change in paydays are Wheeler himself, Mamie, Wolfert Van Horn and Orrin Keckley. "Of course, if it's a million or two, it might be Wolfert Van Horn. But I don't think he's old enough to risk jail for fifteen thousand dollars. You Say Keckley? In some cases, a guy like Olin might grab something from the counter, but armed robbery? Masked? Head-beating? Jumping into the bushes?" The officer shook his head. Lin, he will fall first by himself." "Some of them must have lied!" "Maybe. But they all say they don't." "Damn it! I want to save that kid." Ellery bit his knuckles. "And the wages, Dakin. You didn't find any, did you?" "Not a dime." "Where did you find it?" "Wheeler's house, yard, everywhere in and out of town where Del Jr hangs out. He must have been hiding somewhere. Probably right after the robbery, of course." "Have you ever looked for a grove?" "You mean, maybe it fell off while Yookin was chasing him, or was planned to hide near the site? Yes, we did," said Chief Dakin. Comb it over, Mr. Quinn." "Only the east side?" Dakin looked at him. "That's the way the robbers went." "But why can't it be west? He may have crossed the road somewhere out of the jeep's sight!" Dakin shook his head and said, "You are wasting your time, Mr. Quinn. Even if you found the money, it would be good for Anson Wheeler, but how can you help little Wheeler?" "The clue is broken." Ellery said irritably. "Dakin, no one knows how to connect the broken clue, and I have ruled out all other possibilities. Come on, help find it." Not fifty yards west of Ridge Road they found Wheeler's stolen wages.It was on the extension line of the site where Anson Wheeler was robbed last September. Director Dakin was extremely annoyed. "I think I'm a fool!" "You don't have to," Ellery said, kneeling on the ground. "Last fall the woods were so lush, and finding this thing was like looking for a needle in a haystack. In January, the trees are all bare and the ground is clean. It's a different story." One thing." The bag of money was originally buried in a shallow hole in the root of the tree, but the wind and rain had already taken away the dust and dead leaves covering it, and the two of them discovered the very abrupt bag on the ground at the same time. Nature hadn't been merciful to Anson Wheeler's wages, and the brown wrapping paper had crumbled under the influence of the dirt and the elements.Apparently, critters and birds gnawed at the moldy banknotes, and insects also helped.Most of the banknotes have become a tattered pile, fused into one and unrecognizable. "If there are two thousand dollars left including the silver coins, Anson will be lucky." The police chief of Wright Town muttered, "But it seems that there is not." "That's because it's terribly hot in the summer months, and it's very warm in the winter," Ellery muttered. "The money is pretty much destroyed before the ground hardens." Ellery stood up. "Lucky." "Who is lucky?" "Del, Hood. This pile of junk will keep Delbert Jr. out of jail." "what!" "Before I just hoped the kid didn't commit a crime, now I know he's innocent." Director Dakin looked at him, and squatted down to check the salary in confusion, thinking that he had missed some evidence buried there. "But I can't see—" "Let's talk about that later, Dakin. We'd better use my coat to collect the filth now. It's evidence!" All arrangements were made according to Ellery's instructions.Ellery looked around and said: "There was a beautiful quality of 'simple' to this case. Lo and behold - the robbers attacked Mr. Wheeler on Ridge Road and took his salary wrapped in paper. Shortly thereafter, he left the parcel at a distance from the robbery In a shallow hole less than fifty yards from the scene. This was last September. "There are only two possible reasons for a robber to bury the stolen goods immediately after stealing. One is as a temporary hiding place-until the first word of it dies; the other is as a long-term hiding place, until the case is forgotten. , or when he comes back from his round-the-world tour, or after he gets out of prison. So, is our robber looking to use the hole in the woods as a short-term or long-term hiding place?" "Short term," Ellery answered himself. "Obviously no robber in his right mind would bury fifteen thousand dollars in paper-bound bills indefinitely. With a little common sense, he'd know he'd look at it when he got back." What—that's what Chief Dakin and I saw—was a soggy, half-gnawed, earth-eaten, disintegrated pile of garbage. If it was going to be buried for a long time, he'd find a A solid container for the natural climate, at least metal or hard wood. "So our robber didn't think so. He buried his salary wrapped in perishable paper in a shallow hole, which also tells us that his intention was only to leave it there for a short time. .Maybe just a few hours, at most a few days. "It turns out he left it there for almost five months - as you can see, it's ruined. I ask a logical question: why was it left in place when it was planned to be retrieved for a short time? Rotting there? Apparently for the past five months he's always found a safe time to dig it out. Nobody's under guard—not even Del, who's out on bail. The site is sparsely populated, in the woods, far from the road Here. I ask again: why didn't the robber come back for his loot? Why didn't he take the money out and spend it, or move it elsewhere, or at least re-wrap it?" Ellery smiled unhappily.He said succinctly: "If he should have come back for his salary, and there was no risk in doing so, and he didn't, it could only logically be because he couldn't. It's coming from the ward," Ellery said, turning to the young police officer sitting on the hospital bed, "this is for you, Kip, to confront the men and women you've hurt, and the young men you've tried to frame— — Yes, and confronting the honest police officer too. He trained you, believed you, and never saw you clearly until now for the first time. "Yokin, you are the only one involved who cannot return to the hideout in the woods. “你通过达金局长了解到出薪日的改变，他安排给你的工作是在巡逻车中尾随惠勒先生。但那天早上，约金，你并没有开车尾随惠勒先生。你已经在选定的地点——和上周一样的地点——埋伏好了。你的警车在路旁某处藏着。 “你从后面袭击了惠勒先生，并且故意将德尔的丝手帕——这解释了德尔为什么会'丢失'了它——留在惠勒先生的手中。即使他没有从你的脸上扯下来，你也会把它留在他手里或着旁边。在他不省人事的时候，你冲进树林飞快地将那一包钱埋好。你扮演了两个角色，所以时间十分宝贵。你本想在那天晚些时候回去，或者第二天没有危险的时候回去。然而，在你将惠勒先生带回家，并为自己犯下的罪行庄严地宣布逮捕德尔伯特时，那孩子跑了。你追赶他，弄伤了腰，他们将你送到医院里，于是你一直困在石膏中不能动弹！你不光是个贼，吉普，在警察这一经常被低估的职业中，你也是一项耻辱。我将逗留在莱特镇，等待你在牢中不能动弹的那一天。” 埃勒里转向床中一动不动的男人时，他发现在某种奇怪的角度看来，没有人理会自己。达金局长面对着墙壁；玛米·胡德·惠勒完全沉浸在自己的世界中，高兴得哭了出来；安森·惠勒站在她后面，脸色兴奋得发白，不断捶着德尔·胡德的胸口。德尔·胡德也疯狂而友好地回击他的继父。 于是埃勒里静静地离去了。