Show Murder at the Telegram Mocking Fiction king House Housel By Walter WaIter Brown SYNOPSIS h A man made mode up to r resemble emble Pierre Dufresne contractor and political power and md a policeman apparently have shot each other in Dufresne's house Mrs l Dufresne has faint fainted d and cut her check at the sight Dufresne has not yet arrived from his downtown downtown down dawn town hotel Sergeant Harper however how ever cannot quite believe that the shots were fired as the evidence seems to indicate CHAPTER 13 Further investigation was temporarily tempo interrupted by the sounds of a anew anew anew new at th the house Harper went out into the holl boll to find out who it was A tall tali figure wearing an enormous enor enor- fur coat strode toward him Dr Ulrich be inquired The tall man mm nodded curtly Arc you Sergeant Harper The Thc detective nodded Mrs Du Du- Dufresne fresne is in her room Ill I'll go up with you What are nil all these policemen doIng doing do do- Ing around here here and and that ambulance outside Ulrich demanded W Wi found the bodies of two men in inthe inthe inthe the breakfast room here one the policeman po from this district The evidence evidence evi evi- dence seems to indicate that they killed each other but we haven't had time enough to go into the details The doctor stopped dead In his tracks his eyebrows arched in sur sur- prise So that was WM the little trouble you ou mentioned over the telephone Who Vho Ie is the other victim Harper shook his head He had taken an instant dislike to the sive Eive ive patronizing manner manner of ot the medical medical med med- ical man No Rough Stuff The detective had left him and was way halfway down the stairs when Dr Ulrich coatless and with his shirt shirtsleeves shirtsleeves shirtsleeves sleeves rolled up came striding after him and seized him by the arm You damned clodhoppers he blazed glaring glaring glar glare ing down own at nt Harper from the height of his seventy odd inches What have you been doing to Mrs Dufresne If II youve you've been trying any of ot your dirt dirty third degree methods on her Ill I'll see sec that you answer for it Harper pushed the restraining arm I blustering aside Theres no use around here doctor This place happens happens happens hap hap- pens to be in the hands of the police and I am in charge You will please confine your efforts to your patient When that is done Ill I'll be glad to answer an an- saver any questions questions' about Mrs Dufresne's Dufresne's Du Du- fresnes fresne's accident With an m angry growl Dr Ulrich ran down the steps and seized the tele tele- phone Harper returned to the breakfast break break- last fast room where Carlin was once more absorbed in studying the mark markon marko o oh on the wainscoting left b by the spent bullet The detective revolved slowly around that strange corpse in the chair studying the body from all an angles A few minutes later Dr Miller appeared ap ap- Dr Ulrich has sent for a l nurse he announced He says it will willbe willbe willbe I be best not to move Mrs Dufresne What does he say about the cut healed without He thinks it can be leaving a scar but Mrs Dufresne will 1 have an uncomfortable time of it for fora a few days Shell She'll have ha t to be fed through a tube and she wont won't be able to talk or move about Any sudden jolt or movement of her jaws would open up the cut and undo all the work He warned me that she is not to be examined cross d or annoyed in any way Why is he so hot under the collar collar col col- col lar He seems to have an m Id idea a that weve we've been grilling her about this business The Time of Death Harper frowned Ive been wondering wondering wondering won won- dering why he jumped to that conclusion sion slon so ro readily At the moment I see no necessity for lor que questioning Mrs Dufresne Du Du- fresne about anything I only hope that it turns out as he expects Im I'm more than sorry it happened at all alland alland and I cant can't help feeling that I am partly to blame Miller declared it uit Nonsense ewe Dr wasn't want your fault All right doc doe lets let's drop it Ill I'll have something to say about that later Lets Let's get on with this before there thre are any more delays Youve You've examined examined exam exam- ined the bodi bodies 5 Dr Miller nodded Superficially of course but I doubt that the autopsy will tell us any more than we can see with the naked eye Matter of form ina in ina ina a dried cut case like this Well lOWell I want a complete postmortem tern tem report Just the same and an analysis sis als of ot the stomach contents It might be helpful to know when and what he had last eaten and the amount of alcohol alcohol al al- cohol consumed Just a matter of record record rec- rec ord ord doc is it possible that this could have been a double suicide or murder and suicide Impossible possible The nature and location Joca loca tion of the wounds make that r r rs s t SiF 1 gl t 1 i p z 1 I 1 n I The Thc Strange Corpse impossible Besides there ar arno are areno areno e no powder burns They shot each other and dropped in their tracks Can you fix the time of death Nothing Nothing- Wrong The police surgeon surgeon approached the murdered stranger He moved the dead mans man's arms slightly bent the fingers lingers and tilted the head a little to toone toone toone one sid side He went through much the same performance with Officer Hamill's Hamill's Ham ills ill's body Id say that death occurred somewhere somewhere somewhere some some- where between 7 and 9 o'clock As you OU know sergeant rigor mortis sets in anywhere from three to twelve hours after death depending on the surrounding temperature the physIcal physical phys ical condition of oC the subject and so on In each case the muscles muscle are just beginning to set This tallies with the coagulation of the blood at the wounds Harper nodded Weve not had much of a chance to trace things he explained and of this one man we know nothing whatever We do know that Officer Hamill pulled his hs box at 8 3 8 His failure to ring up at 9 led to the discovery of the crime The search party that went out after him heard the door of this house banging in wind the the wind and Investigated That was about 10 o'clock or a few minutes after Dr Miller tucked away his watch That fits in all right Yes it is my opinion that they died at the same time Well then what about this doc doe Carlin thinks that the wound In the head could only h have we been made by a 45 caliber steel jacket bullet The one we found was a 38 blunt nose Nonsense he snorted in contempt You cant can't tell offhand that way Bullets Bullets Bul lets are tricky things no matter what the caliber When they strike a bony surface theres there's no telling what cour course e they'll take Besides youve you've got the bullet haven't you Yes we have it We assume that its it's from Hamill's gun gun That ought to settle the argument Millers Miller's voice took on a shrewd pitch Have you ou turned up anything that looks fishy No uNo I II I. I haven't Harper was forced to admit Copyright 1934 by Walter C. C Brown To Be Continued |