A WALLET FULL OF money and a missing dispatch case, Tully thought, as he sat in the car with his notebook in front of him, and the Jaguar’s exhaust smoke still in his nose. He tried to blow it out. Roaring little stenches, he thought. They must tell as much of the man who owns them as, say, his handwriting. His own bet of the moment would be that the General’s hand was no firmer than smoke, than it had been when he was thirteen years old.
He opened the notebook to a fresh page and began making a timetable from his notes, beginning from where he, of his own knowledge, could begin. He wrote:
Thurs. Mar. 15, 8:15 PM—Water St. Brooklyn.
" " " 8:50 PM—2nd Ave. & 60th, Manh.
He drove then to the General’s club, and again was let know they found him a nuisance—because, he thought, in his day the General had been such a nuisance. But this time he saw the people he had missed in his early morning call. He was then able to proceed with his timetable:
Thurs. Mar. 15, 10:40 PM—club, 39th St. near Madison
(clerk put dispatch case in club safe)
Thurs. Mar. 15, 10:45 PM—whiskey at club bar.
(conversa. with Webster Toll who caught 11:13 train for Darien)
About 11 o’clock to card room.
Friday, March 16, 12:45 AM—left call at desk for 9 AM
(can safely presume went to bed)
9 AM—took call.
9:05 AM—refused call fr. Broker’s office.
9:30 AM—breakfast in dining room. (waiter gave him papers, apologized not latest edition.)
9:50 AM—left club, on foot.
11 AM—returned to club.
1. Call to Nyack.
2. Call to Plaza exchange.
3. Refused call from broker, but gave message—will call.
(note order)
12 noon—took dispatch case from safe.
12:20 PM—checked in Mulvany.
Needed to wait in lobby few minutes till room ready. Thought to have made phone call.
Requested switchboard not to allow calls through till he said so.
4:45 PM—call to Eldorado exchange.
4:50 PM—left hotel with dispatch case, wearing tweed suit.
(took bath afternoon sometime)
Near the end of a busy day, Tully thought, looking over his record, and just as near the end of a busy life. There was only one big gap in the timetable—from 8:50 when he was at Second Avenue and Sixtieth, and 10:40 when he was at Thirty-ninth and Madison. How did he get from one place to the other? He might have had time to walk, but probably not the inclination. At headquarters, Tully requested a man be put on the cab possibility. He checked with Homicide on what the lab had turned up in the General’s car. Nothing, not even the smell of Brooklyn; in fact less than nothing; on the handle, right side, there were no hand or fingerprints at all; clean, wiped clean.
Very, very curious, Tully thought. The General had driven Mrs. Norris in from Nyack Thursday morning, and Tully would give heavy odds that she was a door handle clutcher. Even if she weren’t, there had to be some prints on it; the handle of the other door was a smear of them. Someone had deliberately wiped the right one clean.
Which again raised the question of where the General was in Brooklyn. Out of bounds for him at the present, Tully decided, and drove downtown then to see Mr. Webster Toll at his Wall Street office.