Page 92 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Cat’s Paw

“Knott. Granville Knott.”
I extended my hand. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Lance O’Bleakley.”
He reluctantly shook hands. “We’re always pleased to receive any and
all comments from the reading public.” He didn’t look pleased to be
conveying his comments, so I changed the subject. “Did you know
Art Lesley?”
He looked to one side and, I am sure, would have spat, had we
been out in the country fifty years ago and he had been a user of
chewing tobacco. “As well as anyone on this street, which is to say
not at all, young man. But I was the one who found him that day.”
“Found him? You mean in this garage, dead on the floor?”
“As good as. Heard that car running and running in there. Saw the
exhaust finally when there got to be so little air in there that the
smoke was turning white. Called the cops right away. They had to pry
that garage door open with some kind of special tool. And then I saw
him, all sprawled out on the floor.”
“Fascinating.” The man was getting positively ghoulish.
“Yep. They questioned me over and over, but I couldn’t tell them
who it was had visited him earlier in the day.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I don’t see everything that goes on out here, and what I do
see isn’t all that clear anymore. Was it a man or a woman, they asked.
Not sure, I said. What kind of car was parked out here? Don’t know,
I said. Can’t see what difference it made, anyway. The man had
locked himself in there and maybe it served him right.”
“How do you figure?” I was falling into some ancient role of
prompter to the old village storyteller.
“Look around you! He was scared to death of being attacked. Or
burglarized. Don’t know what makes a man so suspicious and
precautious.”
Was that a word? I kept my mouth shut.
“Maybe he had a bad experience somewhere along the way. But he
wouldn’t let anybody in there he didn’t know, and when he left the
house, it was out of that garage in his car like a bat out of hell.
Nobody was going to sneak up on him, no sir! And then he got
caught in his own trap. Funny how things work out, isn’t it? Hee-hee-
hee.”

91