Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1913 — The Cases of Alice Clement [ARTICLE]

The Cases of Alice Clement

True Stories of the World’s Greatest Woman Sleuth as Told by Herself to Courtney Riley Cooper

The Clue on the Keys

CCopyrigbt,.by W. G. Chapman.)

Vi suppose,” I had begun, “chance often plays a big M part in the catching of criminals.” Miss Clement and I were (■rff J chatting between acts at one of the theaters. She allowed her eyes to narrow a bit “Chance has a great deal to do with it, in a way,” she answered. “There is many a time when chance will give you the lead to a criminal, but it tabes the detective instinct to worltthe case up to where the man or woman may be caught.. And it is not everyone that will take advantage of the chance when it is offered. That is why there «re so few really great detectives. Not. every person can see the opportunity in a small chance. And then again,” ehe added, “there are those who •can.*’ : y “Including yourself,” I supplemented. “Well,” she laughed, “I had no busi~*ess in the case, and to tell the truth,. I've never been credited with it over *t headquarters; What’s more, I don’t -care to be. When I know I’ve done my best, what’s the difference? But bere’s the story. “It was about four years ago, just before I went on the force as a regular detective. I had been taking a few assignments from the office, and ■on this particular night I was looking for an army deserter. I had the information that he was going to meet a girl in a parlor of one of the small hotels, and so I made up my mind that 1 would be waiting about the same time. “Well, I went and waited. No one came. I wandered around the room for a while and finally sat down at the piano. I had just started, to play when something on one of the keys caused me to stop. I looked closer. It was a tiny spot of blood. But that had no connection with my deserter, nor was there anything else to cause any excitement So I went on with my playing, waited an hour or so for my deserter to show up, and then gave up the quest until I could get some new information. I was just leaving the hotel when I met one of the men from the central office. ~ “ ‘What are you doing over here?’ he asked. ‘Working on the killing, too?’ “‘What killing?’ I asked. It was news to me. “ ‘Woman found dead up in her room here about 6 o’clock tonight. Skull fractured by a blow. Some chantey singer or something like that, but we haven’t been able to find out her name yet. Don’t you know anything about it?’ - “ ‘No,’ I answered, ‘but I think I’m going to find out something mighty soon. I’ve got a little tip that may help you. What did you say her business was, case singer?’ “ ‘Yes, one of these chantey girls that work around the country singing in chop suey cases. What do you hnow?’ , “I laughed at him. - f ‘"I may know a whole lot,* I answered, ‘and then I may not know anything. How long had the girl been dead?’ v '.• “‘About two hours when she was found.’ " "That would fcake.the killing about four o’clock. All right. Let’s see some of the house managers.’ “The central office man followed me rather blankly when I went to seek the house managers. I did not tell him what I had seen. I asked that all the bellboys who had been on duty that afternoon be summoned. When they arrived, I began to a"k questions. “ ‘Was the piano in the upper parlor played this afternoon?’ I asked. “One by one the bellboys thought it over. At last one answered in the affirmative. “ ‘What time was it?’ I questioned. ' “ ‘About four o’clock.’ * “ ‘Did you see who was playing?' “ ‘No.’ “ ‘Can you remember what it was that was being played V “For a good many moments the boy struggled with his memory. Then his lips puckered. “‘Can’t name it,’ he said, *but I think I can whistle it’ ‘“Go ahead.' He whistled a few bars then stopped. “ ‘That’s all I know.’ * ‘That’s enough,’ I turned to go. ‘I guess I’ve got about all that's get-, table. ' Don’t you think so?’ I looked at the central office man. “1 can’t see that you’ve got anything,’ he said. ‘I can’t see where piano playing’s going to help us out any. Now stop that smiling and tell me what you’ve got up your sleeve.’ “I was smiling, too, because I had made up my mind to act mysterious with him. But at that, I had figured out a few facts in my mind.” “ ‘l’ll make a little bet,’ I said, ‘that the room wasn’t robbed.’ “ ‘You’re right there, but how—’ "TH bet also that a man did the work.' “‘Why, he had to. A woman couldn’t have struck the blow that he did.’ * ‘And I'll bet that he stayed la this

hotel fully ten minutes after he had killed the girl. But we’ll have to prove that later on. When you get him, you’ll probably find him of a jealous, hysterical, emotional temperament Want to make a few bets?’ "My Central Office man was staring at me with bulging eyes. “ ‘Say, he asked, ‘what are you trying to do, kid me?’ , “ 'Not a bit of it I’m just figuring out a few things.’ ‘“But you’re not wise to all this stuff?’ " ‘I just said that I was figuring out a few things. A woman caa sometimes do that, Jim. I’ll tell you, for your own information, that the music the bellboy whistled was Quand L’Amour est Mort.’ “ ‘Whatever that is.’ « ’“lt’s .French for "When Love Is Dead,” Now are you beginning to see?’ “‘Plain as mud.’ “I allowed myself to grow serious then. 1 knew that I was working on a mighty slim amount of evidence. That bloodstain might have come on the keys in a hundred different ways—and yet, there was that peculiar coincidence that the room was not robbed, making the motive for killing something besides greed; there was the fact that no doubt the killing was done by a man, and if it was donq_.by him, the motive must have been vengeance of some kind, or jealousy. And bo, in sjpite of my misgivings, I felt rather certain in my own heart that tiie man who had played the piano was the same one who had killed the girl. But with that, I had not progressed so very far, and I knew it. So I turned to the detective. “ ‘Jim,’ I said, 'l’ve got a little hunch on this thing. It may be right, and then again it may all be wrong. I’m going out to look up a little angle. You go ahead and see what you can find out and then we’ll get together again, later on.’ “It was still early, too early for the work that I wanted to do, and so I started to my house to attend to an important duty of the night, the tucking away in bed of my little kiddie, and giving her the good-night kiss. That’s one thing I never can forget, my home life and the little kiddie there. It keeps me from risking many things that I might risk—and the keeping away from those risks has saved me more times than one. It’s not best to be top foolhardy in this business. “And so I went out home, stayed there and sang the little girl to sleep and then I hurried downtown again. It wag far after ten,by this time and my work was about to begin. “I had changed my dress. I had rouged my cheeks and blackened my eyebrows. My lips bore a coating of carmine. I was a burlesque ‘queen,’ in from a long run of ‘tank towns’ and taking a first good look at a big city after many months of absence. And, of course, I was traveling as fast as was possible. "The loop district was my first stop. Qafe after case I entered, to linger a while, watch the crowds and listen to the music, and then take my cab again for another place. Gradually the loop district was worked. I started south, down toward the line of cafe4 which fringed Michigan avenue and lower State street A moment or two I spent in each place, but finally there came one at which I lingered, “The piano player was ol a different type from the ordinary men who worked In the orchestras. There was something about his eyes that a veritable craze for music. Tall, slender, yet strong, his body swayed with the rhythm of the melody he played, his head shook with the thumping of the keys, while his whole soul seemed entwined In the music he was pounding forth. Something within my brain snapped. I suddenly became nervous as I watched him. I felt that I was shaking with a Sensation I could not fathom. There was something about that man which made me desire to seize him, to drag him from that piano and force him to a police .station. I guess there’s a lot of intuition In me, I don’t know. Just the same, I felt that the cabman outside, would not havd“ to carry me any farther; If my theory was any good at all, here was the person to try working it out on. p “ ‘Waiter,’ I called, and handed him a slip of paper, ‘take this to the pianist, please.’ “The waiter obeyed. I watched the man at the Instrument as he turned quickly and received the message from the negro. He gazed at the words I had written and started slightly. Then he raised his head, looked in my direction and smiled. I could see his lips move. It seemed that they said ’certainly.’ On, the paper I had written ’Please play‘“Quand L’Amor est Mort”' “He hesitated a moment as be turned to the piano again, and it seemed that there swept over him a feeling of revulsion. Then, almost by force, the hands were placed on the keys and the music began. For a moment it seemed ragged and untimely. Then,

as the swing broke its way into his heart, everything changed. Pealing, almost thundering forth at times, plaintive, appealing, the notes trickling out like tiny brooks at other moments, he brought from that tinpanny piano a harmony that was almost divine. The loud chatter and brazen laughter of yhe case ceased. Men and women turned in their chairs to listen and td watch the better. Half drunken men leered silently; others who had gone farther into the cups that sometimes cheer and sometimes breed melancholy, began to -weep ,on each others’ shoulders and to apologize for all past misdeeds, real and fancied. Bar after bar, on went .the music. Stronger, then .weaker, rising and falling, the piece was played. It seemed that the pianist had lost every bit of knowledge of the World around him. He was now buried within himself, in a sphere apart I looked at his face. lined and furrowed. The eyes had in them the appearance of intense suffering. I believed’ that I saw a tear drop to the keys. Silently, I rose from my table and left the case. “It was nearly midnight when I found my man from the Central office. He had learned nothing new. Clues there were, qf course, but those already investigated had turned forth nothing. He told his story and then looked' questionably at me. ” ‘What do you know?’ he asked. “‘I know our man, Jim. I feel sure of it,’ I answered; ‘but he’s a queer one, just as I said. And. I think there’s only one way to make him own up. You can’t start his passions much otherwise. I’m afraid that we’re going to have to act a bit theatrical. That room up there where the girl was found dead has not been, changed much, has it?’ “ ‘The body has been taken away.’ ‘“I know that, but otherwise?* “’No. Why?’ “‘See if the room next to it is var cant And find out if there is a connecting door.’ “T know that already.’ The detective grinned. ‘And you can bet that all the rooms around it are vacant What do you want?’ “‘I want a piano moved Into the room where the murder occurred, and I want some one who will be brave enough to stay in there and play it Can you get him?’ “His eyes bulged again. “ ‘What are you trying to—’ “He looked at me blankly a moment, then moved away. In ten minutes he was hack. “Tve got It all fixed. Now, what do we do?’ “ ‘Make the arrest. Come on.’ “On the way I explained things, and in an hour we had our musician in the room adjoining the one in which the murder had been committed. We had taken him into the hotel in a manner that left him in the dark as to exactly where he was going. It was plain that he did not recognize the surroundings. The door to the # girl’s room was closed. Jim began on him. “ ‘Now, my friend, what’s your name?’ N ‘“Thomas Withers.* “That, of course,” explained Miss Clement, "wasn’t his name. One thing I do not like to do is to tell the real name of a man whose case has been through my hands. Of course, he can’t be hurt, hut there are others who have remained behind whom It can injure, and so”—she studied the face of a woman in a nearby box and went on —"well, I just don’t like to do it. “Jim continued: “ ‘They say at the case that you came to this city from Pittsburgh. Is that true?’ “ ‘Yes, but I don’t see why you are questioning me, or. why # you have brought me here. If you’ve got any charge to make against me, why don’t you take me to a police station. I ’ “ ‘That’ll be about enough of that,’ Jim interrupted. *You’ll see the inside of a station soon enough. Now, where’s that girl that came here with you?’ “Withers whirled. Then his face set. “ There wasn’t any girl,’ he snapped. “ ‘Wasn’t there? Are you sure about that? You came here with her, then you? told her that you didn’t care for her any more and that she could go. Isn’t that the truth?’ “Withers did not answer. “ ‘You told her that you were fond of another and that she could get out of the way. Answer me!’ "Still no response came from the man before us. Jim fidgeted in his chair. “ ‘You’re going to talk before I get through with you,’ he threatened, ‘and you might as well make up your mind to that right now. What was that girl’s name?’ " There wasn’t any girl.’ ‘“You've said that before. Now I want something different. What was that girl’s name?* “ There ’ “ ‘Don’t start that again. You know there was a girl and that you quit loving her and that she balked on the game. She knew something on you, didn’t she?’ Withers seemed to shift in his chair a bit. ‘She knew something on you and she was gelng to tell the other woman about it Isn’t that the truth; isn’t itr “Withers looked at Jim with dull eyes. His hands clasped and unclasped nervously. He ran his tongue about bn his dry lips. He raised his head as if he were choking. But be gave forth no sound. Jim's face grew red. " ’You’re going to tell me the truth,’ he bellowed. ‘And you're going to do it right now. Now, you answer my questlonsl’ “Withers again looked at the detective and then looked at me.