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Ep. 8 - The Taxicab Tangle · True Tales of The Secret Service

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Chapter eight, The Taxicab Tangle. We'd been sitting on the front porch Bill
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Quinn and I discussing things in general for about half an hour when the subject
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of transportation cropped up, and as a collateral idea, my mind jumped to
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taxicabs for the reason that the former Secret Service operative had promised to give me
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the details of a case which he referred to as the Trenton Taxicab Tangle.
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Yes, he replied reminiscently when I reminded him of the illiterative title and inquired
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to what it might refer That was one of the branch cases which grew out
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of the Von Yueld chase. You remember Mary mc nillison, the clue of
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Shelf forty five. Well, Dick Walters, the man who landed Von Yuld,
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wasn't the only government detective working on that case in New York, not
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by some forty five or fifty. And Mary wasn't the only pretty woman mixed
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up in it either. There was that girl at the Rennock switchboard. That's
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another story, though. What you want is the taxicab clue. If you
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remember the incidents which led up to the Von Yueled affair, continued Quinn as
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he settled comfortably back in his chair. You will recall that the German was
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the slipperiest of slippery customers. When Walter stumbled on his trail through the quick
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wit of marrying mcnillis, there wasn't the slightest indication that there was such a
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man. He was a myth, a bugaboo, elusive as the buzz of
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a mosquito around your ear. During the months they scoured New York and searched
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for him, a number of other cases developed. Some of these led to
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very interest conclusions, but the majority, as usual, flivered into thin air.
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The men at headquarters, the very cream of the government services, gathered
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from all parts of the country, weren't naturally unable to separate the wheat from
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the chaff in advance. Night after night they went out on wild goose chases,
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and sometimes they spent weeks in following a promising lead to find only blue
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sky and peaceful scenery at the end of it. Alan Whitney, who had
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put in two or three years rounding up counterfeiters for the service, and who
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had been transferred to the Postal Inspection Service at the time of those registered mail
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robberies in the Middle West, only to be detailed of secret service work in
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connection with the von Yuelt case. Was one of the bitterest opponents of this
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forced inaction. I don't mind trouble Whitney would grow, but I do hate
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this eternal strain of racing around every time the bell goes off and then finding
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that some bonehead pulled the alarm for the sheer joy of seeing the engines come
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down the street. There ought to be a law against irresponsible people sending in
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groundless tips, just as there's a law against scandal or libel or any other
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information that's not founded on fact. But just the same, al would dig
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into every new clue with as much interest and energy as the rest of the
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boys, for there's always the thrill of thinking that the tip you're working on
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may be the right one. After all. Whitney was in the office one
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morning when the phone rang and the chief answered it. Yes, he heard
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the Chief say, this is the right place, But if your information is
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really important, I would suggest that you come down and give it in person.
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Telephones are not the most reliable instruments in the world. A pause followed,
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and the Chief's voice again. Well, of course, we are always
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glad to receive information that tends to throw any light on those matters. But
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I must confess that yours sounds a little vague and far fetched. Maybe the
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people in the taxi merely wanted to find a quiet place to talk. They
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got out and were away for nearly two hours. Huh, thanks very much.
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I'll send one of our men over to talk to you about it,
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if you don't mind. What's the address. A moment or two later,
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after the Chief had replaced the receiver, he called out to Whitney, and,
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with a smile that he could barely conceal, told him to catch the
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next train to Trenton, where at a certain address he would find a miss
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Vera Norton who possessed, or thought she possessed information which would be of value
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to the government in running down the people responsible for recent bomb outrages and munition
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plant explosions. What's the idea, Chief inquired al. This young lady,
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at least her voice sounded young over the phone, says that she got home
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late from a party last night. She couldn't sleep because she was all jazzed
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up from dancing or something, so she sat near her window, which looks
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out upon a vacant lot on the corner along. About two o'clock a taxicab
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came putting up the street, stopped at the corner, and two men carrying
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black bags hopped out. The taxicab remained there until nearly four o'clock three forty
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eight. Miss Norton's watch said, and then the two men came back without
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the bags, jumped in and rolled off. That's all she knows, or
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at least all she told. When she picked up the paper round eleven o'clock
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this morning, the first thing that caught her eye was the attempt to blow
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up the powder plant about two miles from the Norton home. One paragraph of
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the story stated that fragments of a black bag had been picked up near the
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scene of the explosion, which only wrecked one of the outhouses. And the
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young lady leaped to the conclusion that her two night owls were mixed up in
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the affair. So she called up to tip us off and get her name
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in history. Better run over and talk to her. There might be something
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to the information, after all, Yes, there might, muttered Whitney.
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But as getting so nowadays that if you walk down the street with a purple
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tie on. When someone thinks you ought to be wearing a green one,
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they want you arrested as a spy confound these amateurs. Anyhow, I'm a
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married man. Chief, Why don't you send Giles or one of the bachelors
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on this for just that reason, was the reply. Giles or one of
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the others would probably be impressed by the Nortons girl's blonde hair. It must
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be blonde from the way she talked, and spend entirely too much time running
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the whole thing to earth. Go on over and get back as soon as
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you can. We can't afford to overlook anything these days. Neither can we
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afford to waste too much time on harvesting crops of goat feathers. Beat it
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and Whitney, still protesting, made his way to the tube and was lucky
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enough to catch a Trenton train just about to pull out of the station.
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Miss Vera Norton, he found, was a blonde, and an extremely pretty
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one at that. Moreover, she appeared to have more sense than the Chief
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had given her credit for. After Whitney had talked to her for a few
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minutes, he admitted to himself that it was just as well that Giles hadn't
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tackled the case. He might never have come back to New York, and
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Trenton isn't a big enough place for a secret service man to hide in safety,
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even when lured by a pair of extremely attractive gray blue eyes. Apart
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from her physical charms, however, Whitney was forced to the conclusion that what
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she had seen was too sketchy to form anything that could be termed a real
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clue. No, she stated in replied to a question as to whether she
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could identify the men in the taxi. It was too dark and too far
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off for me to do that. The arc light on the corner, however,
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gave me the impression that they were of medium height and rather thick set.
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Both of them were dressed in dark suits of some kind, and each
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carried a black leather bag. That's what made me think that maybe they were
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mixed up in that explosion last night. What kind of bags were they?
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Gladstones, I believe you call them those bags that are flat on the bottom
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and then slant upwards and lock at the top. How long was the taxi
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there, I don't know, just when it did arrive, for I didn't
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look at my watch then, but it left at twelve minutes to four.
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I was getting mighty sleepy, but I determined to see how long it would
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stay in one place, for it costs money to hire a car by the
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hour, even one of those green and white taxis. Oh it was a
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green and white Eh. Yes, and I got the number two. Miss
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Norton's voice fairly thrilled with the enthusiasm of her detective ability. After the men
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had gotten out of the car, I remembered that my opera glasses were on
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the bureau, and I used them to get a look at the machine.
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I couldn't see anything of the chauffeur beyond the fact that he was hunched down
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on the front seat, apparently asleep, And the men came back in such
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a hurry that I didn't have time to get a good look at them through
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the glasses. But the number, Whitney reminded her. I've got it right,
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here was the reply. As the young lady dug down into her handbag
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and drew out a card New York four three, three, five six eight,
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She read, I got that. When the taxi turned around and headed
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back to New York, I suppose, But what on earth would two men
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want a taxi from New York all the way to Trenton? For Why didn't
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they come on the train that Miss Norton explained Whitney is the point of your
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story that makes the whole thing look rather suspicious. I will confess that when
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the Chief told me what you had said over the phone, I didn't place
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much faith in it. There might have been a thousand good reasons for men
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allowing a local taxi to wait at the corner, but the very fact of
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it's bearing a New York number makes it a distinctly interesting incident. Then you
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think it may be a clue. After all, it's a clue, all
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right, replied the operative. But what it's a clue too, I can't
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say until we dig farther into the matter. It is probable that these two
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men had a date for a party or some kind of celebration, missed the
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train in New York and took a taxi over rather than be left out of
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the party. But at the same time, it's distinctly within the realms of
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possibility that the men you saw were implicated in last night's explosion. It'll take
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some time to get at the truth of the matter. And meanwhile, might
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I ask you to keep this information to yourself? Indeed I shall, was
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the reply, I won't tell a soul honestly. After that promise, Al
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left the Norton House and made his way across town to where the munitions factory
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reared its hastily constructed head against the sky. Row after row of flimsy buildings,
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roofed with tar paper and giving no outward evidence of their sinister mission in
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life, save for the high barbed wire fence that a closed them. Formed
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the entire plant, for their shells were not made, but loaded, and
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the majority of the operations were by hand. When halted at the gate,
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Whitney found that even his badge was of no use in securing entrance. Evidently
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made cautious by the events of the preceding night, the guard refused to admit
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anyone, and even hesitated without taking Al's card to the superintendent. The initials
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U S S S finally secured him admittance and such information as was available.
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This, however, consisted only of the fact that someone had cut the barbed
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wire at an unguarded point and had placed a charge of explosive close to one
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of the large buildings. The one selected was used principally as a storehouse.
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Otherwise, as the superintendent and indicated by an expressive wave of his hand,
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it would have been good night to the whole place. Evidently they didn't use
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a very heavy charge, he continued, relying upon the subsequent explosions from the
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shells inside to do the damage. If they'd hit upon any other building,
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there'd be nothing but a hole in the ground. Now as it is,
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the damage won't run over a few thousand dollars. Were the papers right in
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reporting that you picked some fragments of a black bag not far from the scene
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of the explosion? Whitney asked, yes, here they are, and the
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superintendent produced three pieces of leather from a drawer in his desk, two pieces
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of the top and what is evidently a piece of the side. Whitney laid
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them on the desk and examined them carefully for a few moments. Then notice
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anything funny about these? He inquired? No, what's the matter? Not
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a thing in the world, except that the bag must have had a very
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peculiar lock. What's that here? I'll show you, and Whitney tried to
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put the two pieces of metal which formed the lock together, but inasmuch as
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both of them were slotted, they wouldn't join. Damn nation, explained the
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superintendent. What do you make of that that there were two bags instead of
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one, stated Whitney calmly. Coupled with a little information which I ran into
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before I came over here, it begins to look as if we might land
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the men responsible for this job before they're many hours older. Ten minutes later,
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he was on his way back to New York, not to report at
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headquarters, but to conduct a few investigations at the headquarters of the Green and
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White Taxicab Company. Can you tell me, he inquired of the manager in
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charge, just where your taxi bearing the license number four three three five six
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eight was last night. I can't, said the manager, but we'll get
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the chauffeur up here and find out in short order. Hello, he called
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over an office phone. Who has charge of our cab bearing license number four
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three three five six eight? Murphy? Is he in? Send him up.
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I'd like to talk to him. A few moments later, a beatle
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jot and none too cleanly specimen of the Genus taxi driver swaggered in and didn't
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even bother to remove his cab before sitting down. Murphy said, the Green
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and White manager, where was your cab last night? Well, let's see,
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commenced the chauffeur. I took a couple to the Amsterdam Theater in time
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for the show, and then picked up a fare on Broadway and took him
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in the hundred and forty some place. Then I cruised around till the after
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theater crowd began to come up, and I got one more fare for Yonkers.
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Another long trip later on made it a pretty good night. Murphy cut
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in Whitney edging forward into the conversation. Where and at just what hour of
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the night did those two Germans offer you a hundred dollars for the use of
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your car all evening? They didn't offer me no hundred dollars, growled the
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chauffeur. They gave me? Then he checked himself suddenly and added, in
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an undertone, I don't know nothing about no Joymans. The hell you don't,
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snarled Whitney, edging toward the door. Back up against that desk and
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keep your hands on top of it, or I'll pump holes clean through you.
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His right hand was in his coat pocket, the fingers closed around what
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was very palpably the butt of an automatic. Murphy could see the outline of
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the weapon and obeyed instructions while Whitney slammed the door with his left hand.
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Now look here, he snapped, taking a step nearer to the taxi driver.
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I want the truth, and I want it quick. Also, it's
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none of your business why I want it, but you'd better come clean if
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you know what's good for you out with it. Where did you meet him?
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And where did you drive him? Realizing that escape was cut off and
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thoroughly cowed by the display of force, Murphy told the whole story, or
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as much of it as he knew. I was driving down Broadway around twenty
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eighth Street last night about ten o'clock, he confessed. I'd taken that couple
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to the theater, just as I told you, and that man up to
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Harlem. Then one of these three guys hailed me. Three, interrupted Whitney.
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That's what I said. Three. They said they wanted to borrow my
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machine until six o'clock in the morning and would give me two hundred dollars for
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it. I told him there was nothing doing and they offered me two fifty,
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swearing that they'd have it back at the same corner at six o'clock sharp.
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Two hundred and fifty bones. Being a whole lot more than I could
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make in a night, I gambled with them and let them have the machine,
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making sure that I got the coin first. They drove off two of
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them inside, and I put in the rest of the night shooting pool.
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When I got to the corner of twenty eight at six o'clock this morning,
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there wasn't any sign of them, but the car was there, still hot
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from the hard ride they give her. That's all I know, so help
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me God. Did the men have any bags with them? Bags? No,
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not one. What did they look like? The one that talked with
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me was about my height and dressed in a dark suit. He and the
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others had their hats pulled down over their eyes so I couldn't see their faces.
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Did he talk with a German accent? He sure did. I couldn't
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hardly make out what he was saying, but his money talked plain enough.
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Yes. And it's very likely to talk loud enough to send you to the
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pen if you're not careful, was Whitney's reply. If you don't want to
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land there, keep your mouth shut about this, do you get me?
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I do, boss, I do. And you've told me all the truth,
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every bit of it, every little bit, all right, clear out.
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When Murphy left the room, Whitney turned to the manager and, with
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a wry smile, remarked, well, we've discovered where the car came from
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and how they got it, but that's all. We're really as much in
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the dark as before. No, replied the manager, musingly, not quite
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as much. Possibly you don't know it, but we have a device on
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every car that leaves this garage to take care of just such a case as
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this, to prevent drivers from running their machines all over town without pulling down
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the lever and then holding out the fares on us. Just a minute and
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I'll show you, Joe, he called, bring me the record tape of
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Murphy's machine for last night, and hold his car till you hear from me.
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This tape, he explained, a few minutes later, is operated something
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along the lines of a seismograph or any other instrument for detecting change in direction.
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An inked needle marks these straight lines and curves all the time. The
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machine is moving, and when it is standing still it oscillates slightly. By
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glancing at these tapes we can tell when any chauffeur is holding out on us,
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for it forms a clear record not only of the distance the machine has
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traveled, but of the route it followed. Doesn't the spedometer give you the
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distance, asked Whitney. Theoretically yes, but it's a very simple matter to
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disconnect a spedometer while this record is kept in a locked box, and not
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one driver in ten even knows it's there. Now, let's see what Murphy's
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record tape tells us. Yes, here's the trip to the theater around eight
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thirty. See the sharp turn from Fifth Avenue to forty second Street, the
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momentary stop in front of the Amsterdam, and the complete sweep as he turned
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round to get back to Broadway. Then there's the journey up to the Bronx
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or Harlem or wherever he went, another complete turn, and an uninterrupted trip
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back down on Broadway. Then this cut in Whitney, unable to keep the
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excitement out of his voice, is where he stopped to pick up the Germans
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precisely agreed the other and as you'll note, that stop was evidently longer than
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either of the other two. They paid their fares, while Murphy's friends had
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to be relieved of two hundred and fifty dollars From there on is what I'm
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interested in, announced Whitney. What does the tape say? It doesn't say
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anything, admitted the manager with a smile. But it indicates a whole lot.
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In fact, it blazes a blood red trail that you ought to be
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able to follow with very little difficulty. See when the machine started, it
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kept on down Broadway. In fact, there's no sign of a turn for
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several blocks. How many that we can't tell now, but we can figure
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it up very accurately later. The machine then turned to the right and went
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west for a short distance, only stopped for a few moments, and then
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went on, evidently toward the ferry. For here's a delay to get on
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board. Here's a wavy line evidently made by the motion of the boat when
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the hand ought to have been practically at rest. And here is where they
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picked up a trip to Trenton. Evidently they didn't have to stop until they
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got there, because we have yards of tape before we reach a stop point,
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and then the paper is worn completely through by the action of the needle
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in oscillating, indicative of a long period of inaction. The return trip is
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just as plain, But Whitney objected the whole thing injes on where they went
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before going to Trenton. Murphy said they didn't have any bags, so they
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must have gone home or to some rendezvous to collect them. How are we
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going to find the corner where the machine turned? By taking Murphy's car and
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driving it very carefully south on Broadway until the tape indicates precisely the distance marked
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on this one the place where the turn was made. Then driving down that
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street the second distance shown on the tape will give you approximately the house you're
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looking for. Good Lord, exclaimed Whitney. That's applying science to it.
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Sherlock Holmes wasn't so smart after all. Al And the manager agreed that there
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was too much traffic on Broadway in the daytime or early evening to attempt the
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experiment, But shortly after midnight, belated pedestrians might have wondered why a green
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and white taxi cab containing two men proceeded down Broadway at a snail's pace,
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while every now and then it stopped and one of the men got out to
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examine something inside. I think this is the corner, whispered the garage manager
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to Whitney when they reached eighth Street. But to be sure, we'll go
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back and try it over again, driving at a normal pace. It's lucky
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that this is a new instrument and therefore very accurate. The second trial produced
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the same result as the first. The place they sought lay a few blocks
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west of Broadway on eighth. Before they tried to find out the precise location
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of the house, Whitney phoned to headquarters and requested loan of a score of
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men to assist in the contemplated raid. Tell them to have their guns handy,
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he ordered, because we may have to surround the block and search every
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house, But the taxi tape rendered that unnecessary. It indicated any one of
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three adjoining houses on the north side of the street, because, as the
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manager pointed out, the machine had not turned round again until it struck a
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north and south thoroughfare, Hence the houses must be on the north side.
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By this time, the reserves were on hand, and, upon instructions from
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Whitney, spread out in a fan shaped formation, completely surrounding the houses front
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and rear at a blast from a police whistle. They mounted the steps and,
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not waiting for the doors to be opened, went through them shoulders first.
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It was Whitney, who had elect to assist in the search of the
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Center House, who captured his prey in a third floor bedroom. Before the
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Germans knew what was happening, Al was in the room, his flashlight playing
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over the floor and table in a hasty search for incriminating evidence. It didn't
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take long to find it either. In one corner, only partly concealed by
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a newspaper whose flaring headlines referred to the explosion of the night before, was
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a collection of bombs, which, according to later expert testimony, was sufficient
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to blow a good sized hole in the city of New York. That was
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all they discovered at the time, but a judicious use of the third degree,
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coupled with promises of leniency, induced one of the prisoners to loosen up
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the next day, and he told the whole story precisely as the ta Exe
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tape and Vera Norton had told it. The only missing ingredient was the power
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behind the plot, the mysterious number eight fifty nine, whom Dick Walters later
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captured because of the clue on shelf forty five. So you see, commented
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Quinn as he finished. The younger Pitt wasn't so far wrong when he cynically
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remarked that there is a providence that watches over children, imbeciles, and the
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United States. In this case, the principal clues were a book from the
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public library, The Chance Observations of a Girl who Couldn't Sleep, and a
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piece of white paper with some red markings on it. At that though,
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it's not the first time the German agents have gotten into trouble over a scrap
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of paper. What happened to Vera Norton? I inquired? Beyond a little
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personal glory, not a thing in the world, replied Quinn. Didn't I
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tell you that Al was married? You're always looking for romance, even in
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everyday life. Besides, if he had been a bachelor, Whitney was too
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busy trying to round up the other loose ends of the yu old case number
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eight fifty nine hadn't been captured. Then you remember, give me a match.
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My pipe's gone out. No, I can't smoke it here, it's
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too late. But speaking of small clues, that lead to big things.
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Some day soon, I'll tell you the story of how a match, one
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just like this, for all I know, led to the uncovering of one
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of the most difficult smuggling cases that the Customs Service ever tried to solve.
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End of Chapter eight