That is what Nick did. The next day he called at the jail, had an interview with Mannion, told him what proofs had been gathered, both of the impersonation and of the murder, and the result was that the wicked stepson of James Playfair threw up his hands and made full confession.
He had, as the great detective supposed, robbed Playfair's house in order to obtain the key to the bank deposit box. He found the key, and he found something more—the money and a package of his mother's letters in the locked drawer. The letters were used as a lure for the appointment by the river, and the murder was committed with deliberate intent, Goloff assisting by holding Playfair's arms while Mannion choked the old man to death.
The scheme of the bogus will had been concocted in St. Louis, where Mannion had, by previous arrangement, met Goloff, who had left San Francisco a week before the departure of Mannion and his wife from that city. The forgery had not been a difficult task, for Mannion was an expert in that line, and he had some of Playfair's old letters as a guide.
Asked about the notes taken from the body of Cora Reesey, Mannion answered: "I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, so I'll say that I robbed the body. I was the first to discover it. I was rowing along the shore when I spotted it. There was no one in sight, and so I took all the valuables I could find. Goloff was with me, and I whacked up with him.
"And now," said Mannion, when he had finished his confession, "it's up to you to do a little explaining. How in the name of Satan did you get out of that trunk?"
Nick Carter smiled. He could afford to. "I wasn't in that trunk more than two minutes," he said. "But it was lucky for me that help came when it did, else I should have suffocated. Do you suppose that I was such a ninny as to run blindfold into the trap you had set for me? You spoke rather sneeringly of my boy Patsy, while you had me at a disadvantage in the room. Let me tell you now that you owe Patsy an apology, for he is responsible for my presence in the court to-day and your arrest. When I sent him out in the daytime, it was not for the purpose of taking a train out of the city, but to pipe you. Now you begin to see? He bought a ticket for New York, but he rode only a few blocks, then jumped off the train and carried out my other instructions. He saw you go up the stairs—he was concealed across the street—and he saw me go up. Then he followed suit. With ear at the keyhole he overheard every word you said to me. He was too shrewd to go out and procure assistance, for he saw that the only way to block your game would be to let you fancy that you had really sent me to the bottom of the Potomac. You did send something—a trunk that cost sixty dollars, and a couple of pillows and a lot of bricks that I threw in to give the proper weight."
Mannion bit his lips till the blood came. But he soon assumed a devil-may-care expression.
"I was too anterior: I see it now. And I suppose that telegram from Chick was a plant?"
"Of course. Chick was only a few miles away, I had him at the phone before eight o'clock, and his part was soon arranged. I presume you thought the boy who gave you the telegram was a regular employee of the company?"
"Wasn't he?"