Show 0 GERALD BROWN FEATURES detective it Is investigating n duko mccaig private vesti gating the murder ot of curt callb court who was nai about to marry veronita veronica bigelow Hl to thirty million dollars fhe bhe Is tho the principal et macale lea learns r ns ot of a deep plot to keep control of 01 the treat great fortune bortuna in ilk the family through 11 sharl shari lynn a deal with i former wile wife Is shot to death someone tires at bl mccale ecale wounding hint him in tho the shoulder mccale hur bur i ties rles to the tha bigelow mansion where sybil veronicas veronicaa Vero nicas mother has been slugged slie site was VIM learch tnt in an old trunk mccale finds a large black anit ban in the trunk that puzzles him aliss ml ado laide li is not ablo able to place it either CI lArTER XVI ile he fingered it feeling the coarse pun pull of the silk A signal seemed to gow flow from tho the material in hla his hand i i along his arm into his brain ills hla thoughts clouded then gr grew eny bright ft as they played nide and seck with tho the infinitesimal shadow of an idea y ile he sat on his haunches rooted to the spot unwilling to let the imago image go suddenly revelation poured over V hit mind like ilke a searchlight ile ho jumped up placing a firm hand on miss Bige lows arm he guided her surprised and bewildered to the tha stairway tf we must go down immediately y he said Is everyone at home s you said christopher storm was H hero here yes they are all here some where must you see them all not yet ile he strode ahead of her on the tha third floor hall ile he reached tho the door of the second floor drawing room before she was halfway down the second stairway As he went vent in karen stopped tl playing sho she sat cold and austere austera at tho the plano piano letting her long ion fingers rest quickly on the keyboard sho she turned toward him as ho he quick ly crossed the room to her side i you drew at your bank this morning In orning ile he hurled tho the statement at her why A sullen smile turned up one cor ner iner of her mouth she shrugged rugged Bh y ile ho waved a hand in exasperation Ve vernwell very well you dont talk you do know why the murderer did not s kill sybil this After afternoon noori 11 ile he was aware that sho she drew away from him that was a mistake it not finishing tho the job she set her mouth in a hard line lie ho looked his exasperation ile ho shrugged shrug Bh rugged ded then and turned to tho the door where stood a startled led miss in affie he library once more mccale called his own number Il hullo lullo boss did edid you get those pictures A list read them off okay coming through A cou con plo football of toot boll players somo some guys guy a enla in a canoe a petty of fleer a jockey I 1 no horse I 1 a marine kind ot of do de ejected looking an army lieutenant end and whoops an acrobats acrobat lP uh uh just what 1 I 1 thought okay hop on over here where aro arc you oili forgot to tell you tho the mako make it snappy this is IN the ihn kill ile he dialed headquarters asked for donlevy Don Donlevy leyy i im a af the can you got get over deroon herd on tho the double quick ive solved the Vallain court lynn business proof ot of course ive got proof yeah in twenty minutes sooner it if you can good byo involved motives are arc unravelled it if caos ca os lie he held tho the receiver mcelver a moment too long nt at his car ile he heard donlevy put down his instrument then so nearly after it that the sound was almost simultaneous came another soft click as someone elso else carefully cradled a receiver I 1 mccalf and miss bigelow were in the library ile ho leaned against the mantlo and spoke in a soft ruthl ruthless esq voice this Is th the end miss fil gelow it will be e all over in a few minutes tho police are on their way strange ho he said doth both you and I 1 saw the murderer tho the after 1 noon of curt Vallain courts death besides that all tho the clues have pointed in the same direction 1 I at pleast least should have remembered tho the i complete picture of that afternoon clues pointing to vt she shook her head yes a figure in the tha dark outside y the house that afternoon sybil bathed in sharry in order to I 1 drown out what she saw A visit by karen to the abbey club the night before A picture missing from the collection of sharl shari lynns admirers A revolver in a family where to knowledge a revolver had never been owned and last but not least not at all the least this 11 ho he drew the black silk chandker hand ker chief from his pocket her brow wrinkled wrinkle ct but but I 1 still dont understand ile he went on softly inexorably the trouble in solving this crime lies in the fact that in the failure of the original plot everyone had a motive you are aware by now of the laic plan to gain control of the bloc low millions through curt vallain court st stephen ephon met curt lechl in achl cage through victoria or vice veras curt and Vic victoria victoira toila had bad an at fair even though he was married to sharl shari lynn at the time ile he and sharl shari probably had some sort of arrangement for the only business Vallain court practiced was preying on wealthy women miss chin came u up P she sh e seemed to be steeling hermeli herself for what she know knew was to come VallaIn court probably intended to marry victoria until ho he found that the bigelow fortune was con trolled strolled by you to be passed on to veronica at her marriage to veronicas veronicaa Vero nicas husband mr mccale yes yes ile he held up his hand how ho he obtained that information Is theory but not illogical theory in view of the nonchalance of his character at that time and the open too worldly outlook of both victoria and stephen it Is not wrong to assume that in a moment of raillery they told him possibly they mentioned that ho he was barking up the wrong tree that while you allowed vicky and stephen generous allowances the real gold bags were ver anicas oni cas with your and sybila ap of course yes the whole thing must inest havo have been hatched be fore victoria and stephen come cams home to prepare the way for in the tha meantime Vallain court had to dl di 4 w 0 IL i V you vou sure this Is the be guy duke ducco vorce shari lynn no doubt promising that when he got his hands on tho the money and had salted away a low few million he would renege and remarry sharl shari how horrible she shuddered but stephen and victoria what would they havo have gained while mccale talks the murderer escapes thata where tho the real machiavellian touch come came in victoria no doubt thought curt would marry her eventually and that thai they would on veronicas veronicaa Vero nicas money you see there were two women Curt tooled fooled 11 fooled of course dut but to go back al a bit victoria brought curt homo home ns as a friend sho she had run into in now new york ito ho wooed veronica who forgot tier her clil childhood lahood romance with christopher storm overnight in tho the excitement of the biological spell Vallain court was able to cast everything ery cry thing was going fine th the wedding over a few months for curt to manipulate tho bigelow money and victoria would have curt stephen would havethe thought Karen miss bigelow closed her eyes in anguish mccale continued in a rush ot of words eyen Christopher Storm was convinced of VallaIn courts sincerity lie ha had met curt that morning and in a rush of boyish feeling had deeded the nest the house lie he had built ito tor r veronica and himself that left the others out in the cold better now that veronica should marry storm sion n than Vallain court it helas he was going to turn his back on them storm at least would see that they had their allowances maybe something more but curt in his canh complete about face could not be ba relied upon ile he might cut them off completely in disgust with himself and them too you cant take chances with a ie reformed formed rake lie ile Is liable to become very self right bous and unapproachable you see curt had to die miss Bige lows eyes remained closed she was breathing heavily mccale hurried on of course had told I 1 only veronica to whom he had made full confession and chresto pher storm because he was forced to and snarl shari lynn sharl shari lynn fatalistic in all things probably yi more so about the enigmatic curt burtn set out to do a little blackmailing knowing that he hadnot come clean to the four who were in the I 1 plot she started plans tor for extortion sh sha got in touch with kareta karen and threatened to lot let the cat out of the bag before the wedding bells rang although they all knew that something was wrong thit there was a rat somi somewhere where karen decided to ba 0 on n the sate safe side she took with he her to the white abbey tor for lynn that night she surprised vallain court with her and believe me surprised was the word for curt il was utterly nonplussed nonplus sed when karer walked in sho she was observed by my secretary and myself by her hei husband who was there on his owr account probably to watch for foi snarl shari lynn sybil was there too sho she and karen met on the steps no doubt she was upset over the rumor r that curt had been seen with tho the lynn woman and in her muddled muddied way wanted to see for heri her self hard bunches showed against jauline and his face looked relentless in the shadows the next afternoon curt vallain court was shot on your doorsteps miss bigelow sat up straight shaking herself out of her reverie saw the murderer she whispered yes yea he answered slowly think back what was it we saw why she faltered there was wag a woman with red hair veronica it no he said not veronica that was snarl shari lynn in a red wig she gave a cry of 0 surprise then no she did nat not shoot him she was not near enough sho she saw who did and tried to blackmail after ward to her sorrow then it must have been theoph the othor other one the other woman the one in the raincoat that was sybil she saw the murder but in her contu confusion sion did not recognize the murderer then think miss bigelow Bl gelow when we looked out of the window two or K three times in those few minutes before the sho think there someone lomeo someo ne else there someone already waiting he picked up the black kerb kerchief hief and dropped it in her lap she stared at it blankly for a long horrible moment then she understood yes yes she said finally awful tor for sybil oh godt godl she burled burled ber her face in quivering itil vering hands in the silence that followed heard a soft footfall outside the door someone was tiptoeing quickly furtively toward the service stairs in a flash it came to mccale that during the time he had spent in preparing miss bigelow for the coming arrest his lengthy explanation his gift of gab had given someone the needed few minutes to plan escape for a moment he felt panic not knowing what to do next where to turn excitement raised the tha hair on the back of his hands lie ile controlled himself with a titanic effort of will not stopping to explain to the old lady who sat motionless he raced out into the hall threw open the front door lie ile was in a frenzy ile he ran down the front steps into blinding sleet for a moment he was utterly befuddled fudd led anger mounted in him like a flame anger at himself chehad he had lost he turned to retrace his steps when ho he heard a sound near him ile he looked into the dark wetness and saw a form materialize out of nothing and walk toward the curb lie ha recognized the snug fitting pants pea jacket and round hat of a sailor ile he stopped stepped up to him quickly fumbling for a cigarette and said got a light buddy A match flared suddenly and looked up over the flame to stare into the dangerously narrowed blue eyes of stephen bigelow Bl gelow the man gave a growl malting making a quick gesture with his right hand 1 I would tit do that mccale said his voice harsh this block is lousy with police better come quietly every one of 0 them has a gun got a bead on you right now shoot to kill then bigelow said not before I 1 got get you they dont ile he tumbled fumbled in his coat and laughed hysterically 1 7 I should have noticed that sailor in that instant macales Mc Cales knee came up with all the force he could muster bigelow gave a s sharp ha rp cry c ry of p agony and doubled up on the sidewalk tripping mccale as he went down it was not until that moment that rocky loomed up out of the fog goehl mccale heard rocky hocky say as he gripped the fallen m man an under the shoulders bringing hl him M upright the naval you sure this is the guy duke no less mccale gingerly felt the wounded arm on which he had fallen mr stephen bigelow in the uniform of uncle sam he joined tho the navy once remember lie he must haye have saved his suit oh yes and his pistol by the way see if his black kerchief is missing it was bigelow mounted the steps between rocky and the of lIcer all the fight was gone from him A squad car slid up to the curbstone us as mccale turned to follow the trio lid he walked over to it and opened the door with a flourish welcomed Wel comel ile ho bowed as donlevy stopped stepped out late as usual lieutenant i TO ITO BE CONTINUED |