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Show oooooooooooxooooooooooo I The Gottlieb 6 Murder Case g 6 By S. DAN VYNE O00000000000000000 (CopyriRht.) I FELT a premonitory shlrer pass down my spine as Vilo Phance and I entered the drab boardiiig house where we had been summoned by District Dis-trict Attorney Parkliam. Evidently ; Phance shared my feelings for hn turned to me and murmured. "Like comin' Into a tomb, Dnn, don't y' j know?" j Parklmm called from the head of the stairs, "Uight up liere. gentlemen." j When he had mounted the steps. ' the full horror of the situation burst suddenly upon the two of us. i Stretched out upon the floor of the 1 hallway was the form of a man and ' It needed no second "glance to prove that he was dead. Herman Gottlieb was his name, Parkham told us. ! "Something tells me that there has been murder here," Phance muttered. I "What did you think It was sul-) cide?" a sarcastic voice broke In. I at once recognized Sergeant Copse j of the police force who had been as-J signed with Phance to the famous "Oriole" murder case a few months j before. Fhance nodded with a light j air of aloofness. "Tut, tut, sergeant, " he drawled. "It might be suicide at that. You 1 never can tell." j He reached into his pocket and, j from a leather case, slowly and care- j fully selected a gold-tipped cigarette. "I wish," he continued reflectively. as he lighted the cigarette, "that the man wasn't dead. T might get him I into a poker game, and see if he had any Inclination toward suicide." (Phance was referring to his in-1 vestlgation of the "Oriole" murder case, during which he enticed the murderer mur-derer Into a poker game and deter- mined from his actions, not only that he was guilty, but that he was con- j templatlng suicide as well.) His gray eyes fastened suddenly on the prostrate form, then glanced at the open door behind it, and back once more to the bathrobe about the murdered man. "Just come out of the bathroom eh, what?" he ejaculated. "Sergeant, what does that suggest to your mind?" "Nothing," replied Copse facetiously, facetious-ly, "unless he'd enraged some one who was In the habit of using the bathroom bath-room about six o'clock In the morning morn-ing which Is the hour when the doctor says the murder happened." Phance smiled pleasantly out of his gray eyes. "Really, sergeant, I'm gettin' fonder and fonder of you every case we're on. A most Interestln' and valuable suggestion. Would you mind callln' the landlady?" A moment later she was before him, proving to be a slatternly woman with a Cockney accent. Phance flicked the ashes carelessly from his cigarette before speaking. "Was this man Gottlieb who's Just been killed, In the l.nbit of usin' the bathroom more than seemed necessary?" neces-sary?" he asked at last. "I give you my word, sir," she answered, an-swered, "that there was a bit of complaint com-plaint among the lodgers about his locking the door Just at the time they wanted it Mr. Tyng said once, I heard the old devil slngin' In his barth, like a bloomln' linnet. Just at the time when 1 wanted to shave V" "What ones of your lodgers go to work about six o'clock?" Phance asked quickly. "There's only Henry Young, sir, the taxi driver," she said. Phance turned with dramatic suddenness sud-denness to Sergeant Copse: "Call headquarters and order them to arrest Young?" he directed. "There's your murderer!" It developed, however, that the arrest ar-rest was never to be made. In the afternoon, when Phance and I were. In Parkhain's ofllce. Copse entered and told of Young's death In a cab wreck. "Lucky for you, Parkham," Phance remarked. "You'd never have convicted con-victed him In spite of his guilt Can you picture a man enraged at what he felt to be a diabolical plot to keep him out of the bathroom each mornin' Just as he was gettin' ready for the! day? At last, he could endure the 1 situation no longer. Unfamiliar with bathroom technique, he lay in wait and slew the man he believed con-spirin' con-spirin' against him. Cold-blooded, premeditated pre-meditated and all that, but could you find a Jury that didn't have at least one member who'd experienced that sort of thing In his own board-In' board-In' house? Yes, It's lucky for you that you didn't have to attempt conviction." convic-tion." He lighted a fresh gold-Upped cigarette. cig-arette. "A most ama.In' case," he resumed dulcetly, "but the sort In which no jury would ever return any other verdict ver-dict thnn Justifiable homicide." |