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Show jThc weddbng march i mSlL 11 MONTE PRECEDING EVENTS IN THE STORY )': Wniting: in the minister's study for his wedding to Doris Carmody, kim Franklin, lawyer and politician, Is stabbed to death. Franlclin, while ''aitin, had many visitors, among them his mistress, an actress, "Choo ::hoo" Train; his Intended wife's fnther, Ambrose Carmody; her brother, T tylie: Daniel Bullis, well-known politician, and an unknown woman in a due frock. Sergeant Kilday, with Peter Cardigan, novelist and amateur detective, begins an investigation. Rylle Carmody admits trying to stop he wedding, after being informed by a friend, Webster Spears, that o;?ranklin was still friendly with Choo Choo, despite his approaching niar-J niar-J 'iage. Kilday secures the dead man's keys. Callis Shipley, whose actions n the church and Immediately following the discovery of Franklin's body ave appeared furtive, is questioned, but the Investigators learn nothing ft-f importance. An interview with Daniel Bullis is also fruitless. Webster ' Spears admits informing Rylle Carmody of Franklin's relations with Choo hoo, for Doris Carmody's sake, in the hope of preventing the wedding. :Ie and Doris had had a boy-and-girl love affair. Fletcher, Franklin's Tir;nan-servant, Is reticent, and Milo Dunbar, the dead man's law partner, )ij;an shed no light on the murder. ,t : , CHAPTER IV Continued "Then he hadn't broken oft with S;hls woman?" I'eter made no effort ;o stifle his surprise, 'i Dunbar shook his head. "I think tant. I believe his quarrel with Choo ;Choo Train, over a wedding Invitation, Invita-tion, was the first intimation he had cthat it was going to be difficult to J'-plaj the dual role of lover aud dbrklegroom." is: "But Choo Choo was art the icwoman In blue." It was cot a question. Peter was merely think-::ing think-::ing aloud. "That means there is abound to be another woman. She's the one we must find. Are you un-able un-able to give us even a hint as to Tier identity. Mr. Dunbar?" J "I'm sorry," the lawyer admitted. , "I can't. Of course, I know there have been other women. Quite a number of them, In fact. But I'm afraid I can't be of any help in find-Jlng find-Jlng them." Kilday appeared engrossed in the ...cigar he was lighting, and his voice was casual as he asked, "Find anything any-thing of Franklin's will yet, Mr. Dunbar?" "Not yet. I have been to his apartment, but it wasn't there. I'll probably locate it at the office in the morning." "You haven't looked there yet, then?" :! "Not yet." 3 "And you didn't find anything else at the apartment anything at . all that might help us in our search " for this other woman. Mr. Dunbar?" t "Not a thing, Sergeant. You ! might have a look at the apartment, though. As a matter of fact, I was only looking for the will. I might -have overlooked something that , would help vou." i: - "I don't think you did," the de-i de-i tective replied ruefully. "We've s already been there." He offered the - key-ring for the attorney's lnspec-2r lnspec-2r tion. "Can you identify any of :' these?" - i "A couple of them are probably . office keys," Dunbar replied, after 'A r1 $LX nifr'M "Find Anything of Franklin's Will Yet, Mr. Dunbar?" ft cursory examination. "I could tell, of course, by trying them." "How about the little ones? Do they look like keys to the Dies there, or to his desk?" The attorney shrugged. "I couldn't say," he admitted, "but if you'd like to try them for yourself" your-self" "I would," declared the detective. "Do you object to going to your office with us now?" Milo Dunbar hesitated. "My wife lsu't well," he said, "but if you think it would really help, of course I'll do It." . On the way down In Kilday's car, the detective explained the importance impor-tance he attached to the Identification Identifica-tion of the keys. "And another thing," ie added. "It's quite possible we may find some clue to the identity of the woman In blue, If we can locate lo-cate Franklin's personal file. Some where, nearly every one has such a file letters they want to save memoranda of various natures all sorts of things." "Jim wasn't much of a hand to keep such things," said Dunbar. "But we'll 'see." It turned out that the attorney was right. Nowhere in his office were they able to find papers of a personal nature that even hinted at helpfulness. A careful search of the desk yielded yield-ed nothing. It looked like a stalemate. stale-mate. "Where else could he file papers pa-pers of a personal nature here?" the sergeant asked vexedly. "I'm afraid we've looked about everywhere." Dunbar glanced soarch-ingly soarch-ingly about the room. "How about the safe?" suggested the novelist. "Could it be there?" "We only file papers of rather unusual importance in the safe," Dunbar demurred. "I don't think it likely that we'd find what you are looking for, there." "But didn't he have a private compartment, anywhere In the safe?" Peter was reluctant to admit ad-mit defeat. "Yes," said the lawyer. "We each had a compartment in the safe for our own use. He had a key for his, and I had one for mine. Wait and I'll show you." Kilday and Cardigan followed him into the corridor, which separated sepa-rated the partners' offices, to a large wall safe. The attorney twirled the combination knob, and presently present-ly flm U 1 1 ly. He indicated a smaller door to the novelist. "That's Jim's compartment. Here, you open it." He pressed the key into Kilday's hand. The sergeant was elated. For In a subsection of the compartment, he found evidence that Franklin had used this as his personal file. There were letters there, signed "Choo Choo" In a round immature scrawl. But there was no hint here of any other woman, nothing that would help in the identification of Franklin's mysterious visitor in the study that afternoon. Both Peter and the detective were disappointed. disap-pointed. "I'm sorry," declared Dunbar. "I hoped that I might be of some help." "It Isn't your fault you weren't," declared the sergeant ruefully. "Franklin was just too methodical. We found the right place, but he had destroyed the evidence, before we got here." They were successful, however, in identifying three more of the keys here. With the two identified by Fletcher, this made five one to the apartment building one for the apartment itself a third to the other office of Dunbar and Franklin Frank-lin a fourth to the slain man's private pri-vate office. One of the smaller keys was found to fit his desk, which had, however, been unlocked. For a moment, Kilday thought he had identified the other small key. It was very similar to the one, found in the desk, which opened Franklin's private compartment In the safe. It seemed to fit, when inserted in-serted in the lock, but it failed to turn the bolt. "That would have been too much luck, I guess," the detective grumbled, grum-bled, pocketing the keys. Only two of the seven now remained re-mained to be identified, however, one large, like a door key, in addition addi-tion to the one he had just failed to identify. Peter suggested a call on Choo Choo Train after they left Dunbar; but It was late, and a telephone call to her apartment elicited no response. re-sponse. "That'll have to wait till morning, morn-ing, I guess," Kilday complained. "If you aren't tired, drop by the office. Something new may have turned up. And," he added, "I'm going to have those license plates checked tonight, to find out who was calling on Webster Spears." On their way, they reviewed the evidence as It had developed I bus far. Of the eight people who had seen Jim Franklin at the church, at or near the time of his death, most could be proved to have had a motive for the crime; Ambrose CarmiMly to prevent his marriage to his daughter, after discovering Franklin's relationship with Choo rhoo Train; Kylle Carmody for the t:me reason; Choo Choo Train lie cause of Jealousy; Daniel Bullis because be-cause of the Investigation Franklin had been conducting Into the political po-litical scandal and which was proving prov-ing menacing to him. The mutive for the woman in blue seemed to have been jealousy, but all efforts to Identify her so far had met with failure. There seemed to be no motive, mo-tive, as far as Nick Itoyco was concerned, con-cerned, but the investigation had brought out the fact that Itoyce was aware of the situation existing between Bullis and Franklin. Fletcher had revealed that. Nor was It logical to believe that Doctor Doc-tor Abernatby could have had a motive for the murder. At most, he might have refused to Identify Callis Cal-lis Shipley as the woman In the blue dress. Neither of the men was able to Identify this girl's place In the drama which had resulted In Franklin's murder. Admittedly, she bad been in the sacristy once. Had she been there twice? She had worn blue. Was she the woman In blue whem the rector had seen? She had apparently known of the murder mur-der at a time when it seemed Impossible Im-possible to have possessed this Information In-formation without having had some guilty knowledge of the crime. She had admitted lying to them, when they first questioned her. In view of this admission, how much of her later testimony could they believe? In addition, they had questioned Fletcher, who seemed reluctant to talk concerning his master's affairs; Milo Dunbar, the slain man's partner, part-ner, and Webster Spears. The latter, lat-ter, also, might be shown to have had a motive for the crime If he still loved Doris Carmody. Certainly Cer-tainly he had attempted to halt the wedding. Of course, he denied having hav-ing been the author of the anonymous anony-mous telephone call informing Ambrose Am-brose Carmody concerning Choo Choo Train. Yet neither of the men was sure he had told the truth. He denied, too, the story told by Callis Shipley concerning his remark re-mark that Kylle would have stopped the wedding had he been present. How to weigh his evidence remained a puzzle. "The trouble," complained Kilday, "Is too much evidence. Usually we're groping around In the dark for it. This time we've got too much." At headquarters, there was one important bit of evidence. Examination Exami-nation of the revolver found in the rectory garden had revealed a thumb-print on the barrel. "Good," grunted the sergeant. "Now look up these license numbers right away. I think perhaps the owners of these cars had something to do with it." It did not take long. An assistant assist-ant returned with the information in a very few minutes. One car was registered under weoster spears name, xne otner belonged to Callis Shipley. CHAPTER V Choo Choo Train. WITH the exception of the mysterious mys-terious woman in blue, whom they had been unable to identify, Cardigan and Kilday had questioned every one known to be connected with Jim Franklin's murder, except Choo Choo Train. Her apartment was their destination destina-tion the following morning. The actress was having breakfast break-fast in bed and, upon learning their errand, had the maid usher them in without formality. Before her, on the coverlet, was a confusion of newspapers. She brushed them to the floor, and leaned forward, her chin cupped In a slender hand. "I was reading about Jim," she said. "Tell me what happened." Kilday sat uncomfortably on the edge of his chair. "I guess you know as much as I do if you've read all those papers." The actress shrugged impatiently. "If I believed them," her tone was contemptuous, "I'd believe he was murdered by a dozen people, including includ-ing myself. I see I'm supposed to be the woman in the case." "You've been reading Topics," declared de-clared Kilday. "Half a million other people have, too." Choo Choo clenched the coverlet. cov-erlet. "My press agent thinks It's a great stunt." "And what do you think?" Peter inquired gravely. The woman shrugged. "I guess I'm not supposed to think," she said slowly, with no attempt to disguise her bitterness. "Me, I'm just a show-girl. A dead lover isn't supposed sup-posed to mean a thing in the world to me but front-page publicity and more customers at the box office. "I'm just the woman in the case," she repeated, with an ache in her voice. Both men were silent. Kilday, sitting sit-ting very erect, was looking out the window, plainly reluctant to gaze upon the woman's pain. Peter was uncomfortably aware that he had not expected anything like this. The Choo Choo Train he had pictured as Jim Franklin's mistress the woman who had quarreled with her lover in Doctor Abernathy's study had been very different in his Imagination. Imagi-nation. The clink of china, as the maid brought additional cups and another anoth-er pot of coffee, was a welcome in-intorruption. in-intorruption. "Good girl. Marie." their hostess 1 praised the maid. "You made that entrance Just In time. I was about to emote." She held out her cup for more coffee with a band that did not tremble. "And now," she continued, "after the maid had left, "let's have It. What did you want to see me about, Sergeant Kilday?" It was Peter who look up the questioning. "You went to the church to see Franklin yesterday," he said gravely. "Why? We need to know that, first." Choo Choo shrugged. "Wanted to see the ' wedding," she replied i IK "I'm Just the Woman in the Case." simply. "If you were a woman, you might understand.. I'd never been to a wedding like that. Aud then, you see, Jim Franklin was my man. That made a big difference, too. "Oh, of course," she hurried on to say, "I could not have stood out in front with the crowd. But I wanted want-ed to see the whole thing wanted a grandstand seat. After all, that wasn't such a lot to ask." "I see." Peter thought he did see. "And Franklin didn't want you to be there. Was that It?" The woman nodded her head. "Then how did you happen to go? You must have discussed this with Franklin, before the wedding, didn't you ?" "Yes, we had talked about It, of course. Jim couldn't understand why I should want to go, unless it was just to humiliate him. There were a lot of things he couldn't understand un-derstand about me, I guess." "But Just the same you went, yesterday." yes-terday." "Yes, I went. But he asked me to, or at least, I thought he did. Yesterday , afternoon, Fletcher that's Jim's man-servant phoned to say that Jim had changed his mind, and I went." .out wutu you uriieu, reier continued, remembering the story that Nick Royce had told, "Franklin was angry. Evidently he was not expecting you. Is that correct?" The actress nodded reluctantly. "I went to the side entrance, Just like Fletcher told me to. Jim was standing stand-ing just inside. Nick Royce was there, too. " 'What are you doing here, Choo Choo?' Jim said. 'I thought I told you to stay away from here.' " 'Yes. but I got your message,' I told him. " 'What message?' Jim demanded. It was easy to see how angry he was. "And then of course I told him about Fletcher's telephone message, and he was angrier than ever. He told me I was lying. After that, I lost my temper, too, I guess. We were talking pretty loud, both of us, because Nick stopped us. He said he was afraid they could hear us Inside the church. 'What do you want to do, stop the wedding?' Nick said. " 'That's exactly what she'd like to do,' Jim said. But he knew better bet-ter than that. I wasn't trying to stop the wedding." "But after that you went into the study, didn't you?" Peter made no attempt to disguise his interest. "We went into the room behind the one we were In," replied the actress guardedly. "I'm not sure whether It was the study or not." "What happened then?" "Nothing. Jim swore that he hadn't told Fletcher to telephone me. He said somebody was just trying to play him a dirty trick. By that time, I guess I had cooled off a little, too, because I finally promised prom-ised to come on home, and I left That's the last I saw of Jim." "How did you leave? The way you came?" "No, I went out a door at the back." "Why?" . This time it was Kilday who asked. "Because Jim asked me to. He was afraid I might be seen If I left by way of the side door." The detective pulled the key-ring from his pocket, bouncing it in his palm, where the actress might see it. "These were Franklin's," he said. "Does one of them fit this apartment?' apart-ment?' "He had a key. I suppose It's there." "Mind if I try it?" Choo Choo shrugged. "Nice of you to ask," she said. There was a trace of bitterness In her voice. "I've already told you he had a key. I'm not hiding anything." (TO BE CONTINUED. |