The squeaker by Edgar Wallace

 Also known as “The sign of the leopard” and “the squealer”.

An interesting one, engaging and mysterious, I quite liked it. As if often happens, Imy only problem with it is how bluntly it ends, as soon as the last mystery is revealed, you read The End. What happened then, to the other characters involved? Well, at least to one, that was not one of the leads, but still, he tried to help Leslie any way he could, and he also was a bit hurt that Leslie appeared to be an ex-convict; there’s a line towards the end that says that his next action brought him to ruin, or something… and I would have liked to know if that was true,if something bad happened to him… because we see nothing bad, and he helped the good guys after all, even if he didn’t know it, but he helped Leslie, wanting to help him.

But we have no real ending, so we can only guess.

It’s a story of… well, many things, where to start…

The police periodically receive informations on criminals, anonymous letters that are always pretty spot on, and have let the police put a lot of people behind bars.

This Deep Throat may have helped the police, in a way, but he did it for his own gain, as revenge towards someone who didn’t want to sell to him, who didn’t accept what he offered, or maybe to get someone out of the way… 

Barrabal is a mysterious policeman, the chief inspector that everyone talks about but few have ever seen.

Larry Graeme is a criminal trafficking jewels, among other things, and after he refuses to sell to a guy who offered too low a price, he’s busted by the police because of a letter by Deep Throat. He goes to prison, and vows vengeance, but when he’s out and has found out the identity of the man who betrayed him, he is killed before he can get his revenge.

Then we are at the Sutton Company:

Frank Sutton is the boss, and everybody seems to love him, because Sutton is cordial to everyone, always nice, always speaking well of everyone, alwasy wanting to help… he hires ex-convicts saying that he wants to give them a second chance.

Beryl Stedman is his fiancee, but she spends most of her time with an employee, Leslie, because since they met they just clicked, I think I could say.

Captain John Leslie works there but has fallen in love with Beryl very fast. He is an ex-convict, ery sarcastic, nobody but Beryl likes him in that company.

Millie Trent is Sutton’s secretary. She has a really bad attitude, and is not a nice person.

Lew Friedman is the man that raised Beryl since she was little. He was friends with her father, they used to steal together, until the man died. Beryl’s mother died because she couldn’t bear the truth, or something like that, he says. And because of that now he insists that Beryl will not tie herself to anyone who’s been in prison or who isn’t an honest man. Because of this, he practically forces Beryl to marry Sutton, because he says that Sutton is an honest man…

Friedman does everything he can to put a stop to the love he can see growing between Beryl and Leslie. He lies to the man saying that she’ll get married in a week, and then he has her marry the next day, I think. 

She’s very conflicted because Lew is of course very important to her, but she’s also in love. When Leslie is arrested because they found stolen jewellery in his office, and they say that he is Deep Throat, Beryl is shocked and devastated, she can’t believe he could have been the man who betrayed and ruined so many people. 

So, Beryl gets married, and is very sad and numb.

The police let Leslie go after barely a few hours, and here starts the final showdown.

When they get married, Friedman gives Sutton quite a lot of money, for Beryl’s dowry and also to help his company. Afterwards, Lew overhears him talking to Millie Trent (we don’t know that he’s listening yet). Millie is very angry because every other time he got married to steal dowries he immediately left the girls, right outside the church, while now he’s in their house and planning to go on his honeymoon the next day. Millie is his wife, the first and real one. Sutton is the real Deep Throat.

Leslie hates him and had promised to kill him if he marries her (and let’s say here that Wallace does his very best to make us believe that he did it all, everything…)

The leopard club is owned by Bill, a man that managed to buy it with the help of Lew Friedman who gave him the money, or something. That’s why Friedman is one of the two man that mean the most to him. The second he doesn’t really know, but this man saved his life when they were at war together, and for some reason used to call him Percy. Maybe Bill couldn’t talk and so he chose a random name.

Anyway, he feels a bit hurt when he sees him after so many years, and learns that he is an ex convict. He thinks that Leslie might want to have revenge over Sutton and he is afraid but he still helps him. When he thinks that Leslie shot Sutton, he lets him escape and then goes to him to offer him the money he has, and whatever help he can.

Leslie doesn’t say anything about the murder to Beryl, but Lew does, admitting that it was him, after what he learn about the man that he had given to his beloved Beryl, he couldn’t stand it. He even goes to confess to the police, only to learn that he didn’t kill him, nobody did, the shot was heard and the man was on the floor, but barely unconscious because he was so nervous or something that he drugged himself with the drug that he intended to give to Millie, plus he had drunk a lot.

Plus, there’s Joshua Collie who is a reporter for the Post-Courier, while Arthur Tillman Jones works for the competition, the Megaphone. It’sa secret till the end who Tillman really is, but it was not difficult to guess.

The final reveal at the end, is about Leslie - who apparently had a personal grudge against Sutton because he also married his sister, stealing her money. She got over it, eventually, and got married again, but still.

Now we learn that he wanted so much to catch Sutton and Deep Throat that he went to prison for it, meaning that since he knew that Sutton only hired ex convict, he got himself arrested.

His full name is John Leslie Barrabal.