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Text 4. The public career of Mr. Seymour Harrisburg
Seymour M. Harrisburg put away dishes’ and looked at the clock. He went to the bedroom, put on his coat and hat,
looked at his wife who was still in bed and went to the door, of the apartment. Opening the door he looked down and saw,
lying on the floor, the half-clad body of Beatrice Delvin, the chorus girl, who lived next door to him. Thus, began tae public
career of Seymour
M. Harrisburg.
Miss Delvin was dead. Part of Miss Delvin’s jaw had been torn away by a bullet or bullets, but she had not been disfigured
beyond recognition. Mr. Harrisburg saw that there was some clood on his hand. Hе wanted to run away. Then he decided to return to
his apartment.” He telephoned for the police and sat down to smoke a cigarette. Then he went to the bedroom and shook his wife.
“Get the hell out of here,” said Mrs. Harrisburg.
“But, Ella,” said he. “The girl next door, the Delvin girl, she’s been murdered.
Mrs. Harrisburg sat up and looked at him.
The police arrived. They questioned him, frankly suspicious until the officer in charge finally said: “Aw, we can’t get anything
out of his answers. He didn’t do it anyhow.” Then he asked: “Are you sure you didn’t hear anything like shots? Nothing like that?
Now think!”
“Nо, I didn’t hear a thing.”
Shortly after the officer finished the preliminary examination, the medical examiner arrived and announced that the Delvin
woman had been dead at least four hours, placing the death at about 3 a.m.
Mr. Harrisburg was taken to the police station, and submitted to further questioning. He was permitted to telephone his place of
employment of a cinema-producing corporation, to explain his absence. He was photographed by young men from, the press. Then he
was allowed to go home.
His wife also had been questioned by the police. She thought that the police had implied that there might have been a liaison
between her husband and Miss Delvin. She looked at him again and again аs he began to make dinner. To think
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a man like that cop
could have believed for one minute that a woman like Delvin would have anything to do with Seymour...
At the office next morning Mr. Harrisburg realised that, the power of the press has not been exaggerated. J.J. Slotkin, his
colleague spoke to Mr. Harrisburg in the elevator. “Quite a thing you had at your place yesterday,” said Mr. Slotkin.
“Yes, it sure was,” said at Harrisburg.
Later, after he had seated himself at his desk Mr. Harrisburg was informed that he was wanted in the office of Mr. Adams, head
of the accounting department.
“Quite a thing you had at your place yesterday,” said Mr. Adams.
“Yes, it sure was,” said Mr. Harrisburg, “I’ll never forget it.”
Mr. Harrisburg described in detail all that had taken place the preceding day.
“Well, you sure get in all papers this morning, I noticed,” said Mr. Adams. “Pictures in very one of them. I guess it’s only a
question of time before they get the men that did it. So any time you want time off to testify, why, only say a word. I guess, they’ll
want you down at headquarters, eh? And you’ll have to appear at the trial. I’ll be only too glad to let you have the time off,” said
Mr. Adams with a smile.
Through the day Mr. Harrisburg could not help noticing
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how often the stenographers found it necessary to go to the pencil
sharpener near his desk. They had read the papers, too, and they didn’t miss the hints in two of them that Mr. Harrisburg knew more
than he had told the police. Hardly a moment passed when Mr. Harrisburg could not have looked up from his work and caught the eye
of a young woman on himself. Everybody was respectful and attentive when Mr. Harrisburg was telling his story. He gave many
details which he had not told the police.
The week that followed Mr. Harrisburg made several public appearances at police headquarters. He was photographed each
time. The publicity increased Mr. Harrisburg’s prestige at the office.
Then one day the police investigation began to have results. A Miss Curley
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, who had been one of Miss Delvin’s friends, told the
police that Miss Delvin had telephoned her the night of the murder. Miss Delvin had been annoyed by her former husband, one
Scatelli
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, who had made threats against her life. The night of the murder Miss Delvin had said over the telephone to Miss Curley: “Joe
is around again, and he wants me to go back and I told him ‘No’. He’s coming up tonight.” Miss Curley explained, that she had not
spoken earlier in the case because Scatelli was a gangster and she was afraid of him, Scatelli was arrested.
Mr. Harrisburg appeared before the Grand Jury, and when he was leaving the Grand Jury room, he first suspected that his news
value had suffered as a result of Miss Curley’s disclosuгеs. For when he read the next day’s newspaper he found only the mention of
his name in one newspaper. Miss Curley, on the other hand, was, all over the papers.
The baseball season had become interesting, and Mr. Harrisburg noticed that, at lunch on the following day his colleagues spoke
only about baseball teams.
Then he was called to Mr. Adams office.
“Now listen, Harrisburg,” said Mr. Adams. “I think we’ve been pretty generous about time off. So I, just wanted to remind you,
this murder case is all through as far as you are concerned, and the less we hear about it, the better. We have to get some work done
around here, and I understand the men are getting pretty tired of hearing you talk and talk and talk about this all the time.”
Mr. Harrisburg began to feel that all his colleagues were against him, and this so tip set him that he made a mistake which cost
the company two thousand dollars. “I’m very sorry, Harrisburg,” said Mr. Adams. “I know it’s difficult to get another job in times like
these, but you’re just no good to us since that murder, so you’ll have to go.”
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