The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781932009880
Publisher: Crippen & Landru Publishers
Published: 2010-11-12T21:00:00+00:00

V The Clever J. Barclay

The distinctive diamond pendant and the necklace reposed in the coat pocket of The Patent Leather Kid, as he returned to the Bradbury Arms Hotel. There was no untoward excitement on the part of the guests; nothing that would indicate that the latest outrage upon the Stanberrys had been discovered. But The Patent Leather Kid did not underestimate the brains of the criminologist, so he waited until he saw J. Barclay McGann entering the tea room for his cup of afternoon tea before he took the elevator to his own suite, then ran up the stairs to the suite occupied by the Stanberrys.

It took him but a moment to open the door of the suite with his pass key. Silently as a shadow he stole into the room and opened the purse which lay upon the dressing table in Mrs. Stanberry’s bedroom. Then he slipped out once more into the corridor. The gagged and blindfolded figure lay exhausted on the bed, having ceased to struggle against the bonds that had been tied with such sailor-like efficiency, and the blindfolded figure had no inkling that The Kid had slipped into the suite and left it.

The Kid ran down the stairs to his own apartment, and put through a telephone call to Bill Brakey who was waiting in a public telephone booth some three miles from the hotel. Brakey immediately, upon receiving The Kid’s flash that everything was okay, rang up Police Headquarters and made a report, speaking in a swift monotone to the desk sergeant at headquarters.

“Just to tell you that there has been another hold-up at the Bradbury Arms, and Stanberry and his wife were the victims. The thieves took the ten thousand dollars that Stanberry was carrying as reward money to be turned over to the crooks who surrendered the gems, and they also robbed Mrs. Stanberry of approximately three thousand dollars in cash. It was money that she was carrying in her purse and her purse was on her dressing table. That’s all. Good-by.”

And Bill Brakey did not hang up the receiver, but left it dangling on a cord, so that there would be no difficulty on the part of the police in tracing the telephone call.

It took him three taxicabs and some thirty minutes to arrive at the Bradbury Arms Hotel. The Patent Leather Kid was waiting for him in their suite. “Did the police get here?” asked Brakey.

“Just got in,” said The Patent Leather Kid. “It took them a little while to trace your call, try and apprehend you, make an investigation here, and then come up. They inquired at the desk, and the desk referred them to J. Barclay McGann. There was a conference and they went up in the elevators. Within a few minutes we should be able to go up and see what’s happened without arousing undue curiosity.”

“It’s not going to be very safe,” said Bill Brakey. “That man, McGann, has a certain amount of brains.”

The Patent Leather Kid simply chuckled.

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