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Show " " $mthetic Gentleman 1 L CHANNING , 7 pollock- iff- V PVRIGHT, CHANMNG POLLOCK WNU SERVICE ' He leaned forward across the desk. "I couldn't see any link between the two. And then I remembered that Pat's mother was your wife's sister. Tat told me her mother was brought up in a little town called Warrenton.' That meant your wife came from Warrenton, too. .And Morano had told me he came from Fauquier county. I went to my atlas. Warrenton's in Fauquier county. coun-ty. There used to be a military school there. Mrs. Winslow ran away with her first husband while he was a cadet in a military school." Peter leaned forward, too. "And Morano " he began tensely. "I don't know whether Morano went to a military school or not. "But George Selby did. "Morano and George Selby were the same man, weren't they?" "Yes, the same," Peter said. "I was sure, of it," Barry resumed. re-sumed. . "The papers reported that Selby was drowned in Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. But the body they identified had been in the water two weeks. Fresh water. So that identification didn't amount to much. Violet Fane "I was coming back for her when I got out of jail." "Your dope on the old man was all wrong," Winslow commented. "He has been cold and hungry. Trucked on a dock once. And as to being 'nuts about anybody,' can't you see that's why he went into reverse re-verse when the boy disappointed him?" He opened the right top drawer of his desk, probing its inscrutable jumble for something to play with "You had a close call, though. Rld-der Rld-der knew what he owed you. People Peo-ple forgive what you do to them, but rarely what you do for them." "You've done an awful lot for me, all right." "Nonsense!" The top drawer hadn't yielded anything promising and Peter picked up his little red magnet. "It's all ended well," he remarked; re-marked; "even for Luis Morano. He cheated the chair, and that's what he wanted to do." "I thought you were so sure of his innocence." "His Innocence of this crime, yes," Peter answered. Then he rose and touched the magnet to his thermometer. "When are you sailing?" "Wednesday." "Good luck," Barry said, extending extend-ing his hand across the desk. Peter turned to take it, freeing his own hand by trying to slip the magnet over the hook from which the thermometer hung. The magnet promptly fell into the open desk drawer. "Damn!" Peter exclaimed, probing prob-ing again. He retrieved, It at last, from somewhere near the bottom of that astounding accumulation of rubber bands, pen-wipers,' and what not. Clinging to the metal, held by its magnetic attraction, was another bit of metal As Peter dropped the magnet onto his desk, that other bit of metal detached de-tached itself, and fell almost at Barry's feet. Barry picked it up, looked at it, looked again, and then looked at Peter. Peter was staring at him. Barry took a notebook out of his pocket. "A 60152," he said. "Yes, that's Kelly's latch-key." Peter nodded. "I must have thrown It here weeks ago and forgotten it." "I'd throw It somewhere else now," Barry advised. "Somewhere just a little bit safer. Well, good luck, again, and good-by." He had reached the door when i i I I ' J ii i . . fj : H ''A f ' m-v vt 1 mY&m s "f CHAPTER XI I Continued 4yS;r 16 the,' i( it matter so much to you?" er to'-d then was sorry he'd said it. Pt,k'e've all been long on eaves- Fra;-ping," ne uueu- lk'kly- "01d .-vj'er, your father " 'e've all had good reason." j j., e was standing beside the long ttiiou-asked If it mattered to me," said. "Don't you know?" c ft Af should it matter?" o!! ori't you know that?" ! 0 ,Ve've been good pals " he be- was staring at him fixedly. on't talk nonsense," she com Sflled. fj'jrry sat next to her. ITjIlsten," he said. "You're a re laid her hand on his arm. I Jve only one question to ask," Sdeclared, "and I count on your ering that honestly." ou can." Ifjlon said to Ridder 'I stayed, ''rst, because I was nuts about VEIi.rl.'" ilESti'es." orfas that true?" romim es." SjVlio was she?" told you a month ago." Inder considerable stress. And -tMlnever repeated it. Are you still Slvi about her?" ie used the absurd colloquial-H(aui,as colloquial-H(aui,as gravely as though It were fljjfiespearian English. li invisible hand clutched at y's throat. k-3 ieie was a lump there some- g that had to be swallowed lra-f lra-f lately. He felt an hysterical ,re to laugh, or to cry. Then, V won't talk about that now," "'' aid, calmly. "Play acting," Ridder snapped. "I observed that you'd feathered your nest. I was wrong. Why didn't you say so?" "I did." The old man was looking at Barry's Bar-ry's check. "Can you write?" he asked. "I don't know." "Harwood thinks you can. He just left here. He says you earned what we paid you. Well, you'd better bet-ter go on earning it." "You mean I'm hired " "Hired?" Ridder repeated. "You were hired two months ago. Who ever fired you?" There didn't seem to be any answer an-swer to that. "Mr. Ridder wants you to work with Jack," Mrs. Ridder remarked. "Keep an eye on him." "You're going to take .Tack " "We're taking him home tonight. And Peggy. We hope you'll come out sometimes." "I want Jack to carry on," Ridder Rid-der declared, "when I'm through." He was back at his desk now, and he looked up, almost smiling. "You said I was a tough bird," he told Barry. "I heard you. Don't apologize. The world needs tough birds. You don't win battles with pigeons. Somebody's got to do a little clear thinking. Somebody's got to know what he's about. We're a soft race. Coddied. Self-indulgent. We need hard going and discipline." dis-cipline." . His voice was crisp and sure. "What's the matter- with this young generation? It's fathers had too much money. I was a tough bird because I knew the fight Jack had made, and I didn't help him. I'd tried that, hadn't I? The other way was my only chance to make a man of my son." "I Doped That Out, Too." had told me Morano bought the house down town because he was 'married onct,' and he and his wife lived there. The sob-story I dug out of the tabloids said Selby was 'blissfully happy' with his bride in a house he'd rented down town. Obviously, the same house. Sentimental? Senti-mental? Yes, but Morano was a sentimental cuss. So sentimental There was no lack of emotion in his tone now. "And you. How did I know you weren't just a cheap swindler? By listening to a lot of warm-hearted generalities? How did I know you weren't a blackmailer until I saw you were going to give yourself up without squealing?" "Then you were play-acting?" "Not on your life. I was watching watch-ing you like a hawk, but there was a cop out there, and I thought you had a date with him, until I saw your face when I asked you why you sent that wireless to Mrs. Ridder." Rid-der." Again, he almost smiled. "There was a cop waiting behind that door, -and a girl behind that one. A nice girl. I had to be sure I wasn't messing things up for her." He glanced at his watch. "Four o'clock. You people have got to get out of here. I can't fVhy not" h couldn't answer. "yVas that pretense, too?" ' iddenly, he couldn't bear It. yi'ou know damned well It jjn't," he burst forth, Inexcusably. 'ieia 'now exactly how I feel, sela ve fl,ways known. Everybody's jys known everything about It seems. I'm as much a fall-jjtfj fall-jjtfj at faking as I am at every-aLkg every-aLkg else. What's the sense of iisslng it now?" his may be our last chance to l!uss it." iey were both standing. Look-fck Look-fck straight at each other. !jien, Pat said, "I love you." Wor God's sake listen I'm the "Sof a ne'er-do-well." 1: love you." ""'m a bum and a vagabond." love you." lefore night, I'll be a jail bird." love you." -'at" f'll wait for you," Pat said. "And , JL we'll both start fresh." e was smiling now. JVlll you marry me, Mr. Gil- ss'" -S3tr answer, he caught her up in nrms. 'wfe was still holding her when pjold man came through the door. VIM you step in here, please?" jt old man asked, as unemotional unemotion-al as though he had seen people jM-aelng one another In this .jrt room every day of bis life. ' I'lllumt replying, Barry released Jhon he pressed her shoulder, re-iringly, re-iringly, and followed Ridder. t the big desk, Mrs. Ridder was ED I'l'lng. lie recognized her at i, though she was younger and Teller than he had expected, rty," Barry guessed, glancing at wavy, dark hair, and then real-this1'- that she must bo more than f She looked very much like luate: son, Barry thought. Curious, they -1 Wl,s tlle stronger strain, then, prttf1 t,,0lgh she seemed as soft and Peter said: "Wait a minute." Barry waited. "How long have you known?" "That you killed Mike Kelly?" Barry asked. "Since last Thursday. Thurs-day. I was on the train coming in from Southampton, and I'd just read of Morano's death. 'One of my suspects was guilty,' I thought. 'Peter Winslow can't laugh that off. " ' ne was back in the room now, " "I remembered," he went on, "how you did laugh when I suggested Morano. Mo-rano. And how sure you were that I was wrong about every one else. But you never said anything thai might've started me on the right track. On the contrary, when I asked you if there was a Mrs. Kelly, you answered, 'Yes. She sued for divorce recently and withdrew with-drew the case.' You'd just read that in the Herald Tribune, and the same sentence revealed that, at the time of the murder, Mrs. Kelly was in Harlem. But you didn't mention men-tion that. Why? Only one explanation explana-tion occurred to me, and that was your willingness to keep me on the trail of some one who couldn't possibly pos-sibly be convicted." Barry sat down again, the other side of the desk. "Go on," Peter urged. "I'm very much Interested." He was sitting, too, now. "My Interest," he continued, "is strangely Impersonal. Almost wholly professional. I think it is. That's very curious. I'm just a criminal lawyer Interested In a crime." Ills weariness explained that, Barry thought. As Hambidge had been, and Morano, and Barry himself him-self when talking with Ridder, Peter Pe-ter Winslow was "glad it's over." "As a criminal lawyer," Barry said, "and a shrewd one, you'd be surprised to know how much you overlooked. Bits of evidence that fitted like a jig-saw puzzle the moment mo-ment suspicion started anyone putting put-ting them together." "As. for instance?" that he might have died rather than have it discovered that your wife was really his wife." Barry saw Peter wince, but went on. "Of course, he had another reason rea-son for resisting arrest that 'hot spot' with which Kelly" threatened him. If Morano had been arrested, and finger-printed, they'd've learned that he was George Selby, and wanted for murder. Morano made certain of that. The 2:12 train he caught at the Penn station went to Philadelphia. That's where he was all the next day checking up on the finger-prints taken when Selby was sent to the State penitentiary, and, perhaps, trying, through underground under-ground channels, to have them removed re-moved from the files. "I had the motive for the murder now. "Kelly knew Morano was Selby, and so that your wife was technically tech-nically a bigamist That was the threat he held over Morano, and Judge Hambidge. The threat that persuaded the. Judge to write a 'crooked decision.' The paper Kelly Kel-ly had in his pocket was a marriage certificate, or something of the sort, he'd found somewhere." "In an old trunk," Peter said; "in the house he bought at 24 Jefferson street" Barry nodded. "I doped that out, too. Both Morano Mo-rano and Hambidge had plenty of reason to kill Kelly. "But neither had as much reason as you had. "If you knew of the existence of that paper. "And you did, didn't you? That's where Morano's telephone message came in. That's why he called you up from the Cocoanut Bar. To tell you he'd seen the paper, and Kelly had it." "Right," Winslow said, simply. "My inquiry was narrowing down to you and Morano. But how did either of you get in to Kelly? And then I remembered that, the day Jf;' I w I first saw Mrs. Kelly, she came into that house and left her key In the door. I did the same thing this week. Anybody mipht. Especially a drunken man. That would explain ex-plain why the key wasn't on Kelly's hotly. It would explain how our third caller entered while Kelly was talking to Judge Uambidge." "Right," Winslow repeated. "Was the third caller you or Morano? And then I remembered two things. Morano took the 2:12 to Philadelphia to cheek on those finger-prints. He wouldn't've dune that if he'd known Kelly was dead. The house was dark and silent when Morano got to Sixteenth street. He thought Kelly'd g..ne to bed, and so he went to rhi';i'lcli.liia. I was sure of that. And I was sure that the man who killed Kelly wore gloves. (10 DE COyTlMT.D) .,; "ll nusoaiui was hard llj ' ilonil necrlnc the c- t(tt Wils a smn11 woman, with w Jip arms, and tiny wrists and S'ai h's. She had kirge, brown eyes. nifiy shallows under them. They ,eW; shown suffering, those eyes. ualf'i'Sh tlioy were bright enough ty,f'. "Snappy," Barry described hi. S1.v wife," Kidder nodded toward . curtly, ,',he came forward, her hand ex-1M ex-1M lo Barry. 1 "nnl to thank you," she said, leiure H;i,.rv C,,K1 ,uiswtr Ki,. listed. "Wliy didn't you tell me ..(til',, ',fl "lis Ht Southampton?" 'P,A" what?" ' (j;iY,"r '""nls." Mrs. Ridder ex-pl ex-pl ' ' "I'-vans gave them to me s ni,1K. m , llilln,t p t,lp lCt "' Then I tt'-'Wi, ,. S"':'id" " Mr- rudder." sfSi this mummery about M:ini,i,i,.(, .. ':.r ",,,,'i',e was !.-? uiiiinuei T' 1 9 Then, Pat Said, "I Love You." spend the day being a sentimental idiot." "You're neither," Mrs. Ridder said. "Neither what?" "Neither sentimetal nor nn Idiot. You're a 'tough bird,' but 1 like 'em that way." She was holding on to his arm when Harry closed the big door behind be-hind them. Harry thought she was crying. "She" is my mother, afier all!" Barry thought. "She's all the mother moth-er I ever had." He told Winslow most of it, late that same afternoon. I'otor sat at his desk, looking i est loss and tired, but happier than ue had seemed in some time. Tat said she was going to propose pro-pose to you," he smiled. "Meant it, too; we knew that. Women are funny. Snooted you while things were going right, didu't she?" Barry laughed. Barry smiled. "You told me Morano phoned you at one o'clock the morning of the murder 'to say that one of his girls was In jail.' and would you 'take the case.' But Teggy wasn't in jail, at one o'clock. She'd been released hours before, and Morano knew it. I knew that he did phone you. What about? Why, about Kelly's visit to the Cocoanut Bar, of course, and the threat of something In his pocket that was not only a menace to Morano but Kelly's hold over Judge Hambidge. A paper every one seemed to want, and that had disappeared when the body was found. "What had that paper to do with yon? "If this were a detective story, and you read it, you'd find twenty answers to that question. Judge Hambidge said r.e couldn't tell the truth because of a woman. Pat said the woman was her dead moiher. And plainly, that had something to I do with Morano." |