Read Online The Benson Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine - Free Book Online

matter of routine—
ex abundanti cautelæ
, as we lawyers say.”
    â€œBut, my word!—such technique!” sighed Vance. “Ah, well,
quantum est in rebus inane!
as we laymen say.”
    â€œYou don’t think much of Heath’s capacity, I know”—Markham’s voice was patient—“but he’s a clever man, and one that it’s very easy to underestimate.”
    â€œI dare say,” murmured Vance. “Anyway, I’m deuced grateful to you, and all that, for letting me behold the solemn proceedings. I’ve been vastly amused, even if notuplifted. Your official Æsculapius rather appealed to me, y’know—such a brisk, unemotional chap, and utterly unimpressed with the corpse. He really should have taken up crime in a serious way, instead of studying medicine.”
    Markham lapsed into gloomy silence, and sat looking out of the window in troubled meditation until we reached Vance’s house.
    â€œI don’t like the look of things,” he remarked, as we drew up to the kerb. “I have a curious feeling about this case.”
    Vance regarded him a moment from the corner of his eye.
    â€œSee here, Markham,” he said with unwonted seriousness; “haven’t you any idea who shot Benson?”
    Markham forced a faint smile.
    â€œI wish I had. Crimes of wilful murder are not so easily solved. And this case strikes me as a particularly complex one.”
    â€œFancy, now!” said Vance, as he stepped out of the machine. “And I thought it extr’ordin’rily simple.”

Chapter V
Gathering Information
    (
Saturday
,
June
15
th
;
forenoon
)
    You will remember the sensation caused by Alvin Benson’s murder. It was one of those crimes that appeal irresistibly to the popular imagination. Mystery is the basis of all romance, and about the Benson case there hung an impenetrable aura of mystery. It was many days before any definite light was shed on the circumstances surrounding the shooting; but numerous
ignes fatui
arose to beguile the public’s imagination, and wild speculations were heard on all sides.
    Alvin Benson, while not a romantic figure in any respect-had been well known; and his personality had been a colour, ful and spectacular one. He had been a member of New York’s wealthy bohemian set—an avid sportsman, a rash gambler, and professional man-about-town; and his life, led on the borderland of the
demi-monde
, had contained manyhigh-lights. His exploits in the night clubs and cabarets had long supplied the subject-matter for exaggerated stories and comments in the various local papers and magazines which batten on Broadway’s scandalmongers.
    Benson and his brother Anthony, had, at the time of the former’s sudden death, been running a brokerage office at 21 Wall Street, under the name of Benson and Benson. Both were regarded by the other brokers of the Street as shrewd business men, though perhaps a shade unethical when gauged by the constitution and by-laws of the New York Stock Exchange. They were markedly contrasted as to temperament and taste, and saw little of each other outside the office. Alvin Benson devoted his entire leisure to pleasure-seeking and was a regular patron of the city’s leading cafés; whereas Anthony Benson, who was the older and had served as a major in the late War, followed a sedate and conventional existence, spending most of his evenings quietly at his clubs. Both, however, were popular in their respective circles, and between them they had built up a large clientele.
    The glamour of the financial district had much to do with the manner in which the crime was handled by the newspapers. Moreover, the murder had been committed at a time when the metropolitan press was experiencing a temporary lull in sensationalism; and the story was spread over the front pages of the papers with a prodigality rarely encountered in such cases. 1 Eminent detectives throughout the