‘Does Mrs. Dedrick — Serena Marshland know about this?’
‘She does now.’
He drew down the corners of his mouth, lifted his fat shoulders in a shrug of resignation and waved his hand.
‘Go ahead, but don’t expect me to believe it’
‘A lot of this is guess-work,’ I said, shifting forward to the edge of my chair. ‘Some of it can be proved; most of it can’t. We do know for certain that Barratt was the boss of a smuggling ring. Lee Dedrick and Lute Ferris were his aides. Dedrick took care of the Paris end and Ferris smuggled the stuff in from Mexico. We have proof of that. We also know Dedrick was married to this girl here’ — I waved to Mary Jerome — ‘who had no ides what his racket was. He deserted her, married Serena Marshland and returned to New York. All he wanted was Serena’s money. Now this is where I start guessing. Souki found out who Dedrick was. Maybe be tried to blackmail. I don’t know. It seems possible he threatened Dedrick who saw his plans to get hold of Serena’s fortune blowing up in his face. He murdered Souki to shut his mouth. To cover the murder and to get as much money out of Serena as he could, he faked his own kidnapping. The idea worked. No one suspected he had killed Souki, and no one suspected he hadn’t been kidnapped. Barratt helped him. He kept under cover in Barratt’s apartment while Barratt collected the ransom and framed Perelli for the kidnapping. It was easy enough. Perelli had an apartment opposite Barratt’s. Barratt hated Perelli. He hid the fishing-rod, some of the r ansom money and the gun in Perrelli’s room and tipped the police. They moved in grabbed Perelli.
Brandon glanced over at Muffin and snorted.
‘Know what this sounds like to me?’ He thumped the desk as he glared at me. ‘A typical Malloy pipe-dream. You’re thing to get Perelli out of a jam. Nothing you’ve said yet convince me he didn’t snatch Dedrick. What else have you got?’
‘A reception clerk named Grace Lehmann who work at Barratt’s apartment house saw him with the fishing-rod. tried to blackmail him. Dedrick went to see her and murdered her.’
Brandon gave a scoffing laugh.
‘Who did you say killed her?’