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Show I it R n n i7 n r n r Lb Uu liU Ls Li 03 I --- By DEil LimES UllLLiniUS OXINOFSIS Barbara Sentry, seeking to sober ud tier escort, Johnnie Boyd, on the way home from a party, slaps him, and attracts at-tracts the attention of a policeman, whom the boy knocks down. As he arrests ar-rests him, Professor Brace of Harvard comes to the rescue and drives Barbara home. On the way they see Barbara's father driving from the direction of his office at 12:45, but when he gets home he tells his wife it ls 11:15 and that he's been playing bridge at the club. Next morning, while Barbara ls telling her mother about her adventure, an urgent phone call comes from Mr. Sentry's office of-fice after his departure. Arriving home ,th9Jat1 afternoon, Sentry reports his office has been robbed and a Miss Wines former temporary employee, killed. CHAPTER n Continued 4 "Not much here!" Mr. Sentry said; and then: "The police think she was one of the robbers. They're looking for a young Italian who has been paying her some attention; a wild youngster whose father is one of our customers. They found a key in her pocketbook that fits the lock on the back door." He spoke to Ray again. "There are back stairs," he said. "Mr. Loran and I use them on Sundays or when the place isn't open for business. This back door admits to the stairs and our offices. She had this key." Mrs. Sentry realized that Arthur somehow found comfort in thus detailing de-tailing the day's events; and she felt a dry scorn at Neil Ray's obvious ob-vious desire to escape. "Afraid of being compromised," she thought; and she thought defiantly that a good many people would be maliciously mali-ciously pleased because the old firm of Sentry and Loran was thus involved in-volved in sudden sensational publicity. publici-ty. . Ray had nodded uneasily, and Mr. Sentry went on: "She must have remembered the combination of the safe. It's just an old iron box, bought in my father's time. We never had enough cash on hand to need a real one; and a safe-cracker could have opened this easily enough. But it was opened last night by someone who knew the combination. She probably learned it last summer when she worked for us." He hesitated, added then, "The police seerri to think she let this fellow in, opened the door for him, and opened the safe, and then for some reason they quarreled and he shot her." Mary said: "It sounds like the sort of ruthless, reasonless things a cocaine addict might do. Don't you think so, Neil?" Ray did not answer. Mrs. Sentry said, "Don't be so medical, Mary!" She thought: Mary is playing a part! Pretending! I wonder why. And she added: "The office telephoned, tele-phoned, Arthur, just after you left this morning. I suppose it was about this?" "Yes," he assented. "Miss Randall Ran-dall found her, when she got there at eight o'clock." Mrs. Sentry wondered, shivering in spite of herself, whether any of the women at the Furness luncheon had known; wondered whether they had been watching her to see how she took it. "It must have been just a few minutes past when they phoned," she said. "Didn't anyone hear the shot?" Mr. Sentry shook his head. "No. Or at least they haven't found anyone any-one yet who did," he amended. "You see, she was in the hall on the third floor. The hall has no windows, and there's a brick wall between it and the next building, and if the office doors happened to 'be closed" He added, "And of course there aren't many people around on the streets down there till early morning. Mary said: "The poor girl! I hope I they get the man. Father, did she !have any family?" "Not in Boston. She came from Dennis; but she'd been living in a room out in Somerville, in a private home, where the husband was out of a job so they had to take in boarders. board-ers. She'd had work at odd times, : a day here, a week there, filling in; but no steady job. The police say she'd been running around with this young Italian; and he was missing today. His father claims he's up in Maine buying cider apples, but they haven't located him. And apparently apparent-ly there were other men with whom she was intimate, too." Mr. Sentry shook his head, poured a' cocktail, said, as though thinking think-ing aloud: "I suppose she was hard up, and desperate. If we'd had any idea, we might have made a place for her, given her something to do. That's the tragic thing about living in a city. Terrible things happen all around you, perhaps even to people you know; and till they happen, hap-pen, you never even suspect. People Peo-ple are all actors, aren't they? They wear a mask, put up a good front, pretend that everything's all right-till right-till suddenly everything is au wrong!" , "No need to make speeches, Arthur!" Ar-thur!" Mrs. Sentry commented dn- ly'"It has disturbed me a lot," he confessed. . T( Mrs. Sentry said: "Nonsense! It doesn't concern us! It happened in your office, of course; but it might as well have happened anywhere. It doesn't concern us at all!" She was speaking more to herself than to him. "We know no more about it than anyone else," she declared, shaping for herself the attitude she would present like an armor to their friends. He nodded, said no more. Doctor Doc-tor Ray moved toward Mrs. Sentry to say good-by. But before he could speak there were voices in the hall, and Mrs. Sentry recognized Barbara's. Barba-ra's. Then Barbara and Linda Dane appeared in the wide doorway. Barbara Bar-bara had an afternoon paper in her hand. When the sempstress was done with her that morning, Barbara went home with Linda Dane for luncheon. These two and Phil SentryMary, Sen-tryMary, the older sister, had always al-ways held herself aloof from then-cheerful then-cheerful exuberances had since childhood been much together; and now that Phil was at Yale, Barbara and Linda were devoted. They went after lunch, in Linda's car, to a moving picture theater; and later "And father, too!" Barbara shivered shiv-ered uncontrollably. "Golly, Linda, I'm scared." "Bless you, there's nothing to be afraid of!" Barbara nodded. "Of course not! I'm not afraid. It's just upsetting. I'll have to cheer them up at home. They'll be pretty low! Linda, come in with me when we get there. We'll have to put on an act, make them laugh somehow, make them see the funny side " "Steady, Barb! You're trembling!" trem-bling!" "I can't help it. And my teeth keep chattering!" "You poor kid!" "For Heaven's sake don't sympathize sympa-thize with me or I'll bawl! I've got to laugh or I'll scream, Linda. I am scared, I guess! Golly, I wish Phil was home." "He'll come when he sees the papers. But Barb, it's nothing. A week from now everyone will have forgotten it. Of course it's pretty tough right now, though." And Linda Lin-da urged: "Throw that paper away, Barb. Don't look at it any more." Barbara began to cry without a sound, sitting bolt upright, her eyes "I Hope They Get the Man. Father, Did She Have a Family?" they met Bill Cates and Rod Hepburn Hep-burn at the Ritz for tea. When they came out on Newbury Street afterward, screaming newsboys news-boys pushed extras in their faces. Barbara saw a headline: PRETTY TYPIST SLAIN One of the boys bawled: "Produce House Murder! Read all about it!" And Bill Cates looked at the paper which the boy held, and said softly, in a startled tone, "Hullo!" He bought a paper, folded it in his hand, said: "Barbara, Linda, come along. Let's get out of this." They followed him toward Linda's car, and Barbara asked gaily, "What is it, Rod? Why the big mystery?" mys-tery?" But he did not laugh. He opened the paper again and looked at it, and they all looked over his shoulder; shoul-der; and Barbara as she read felt something inside her body contract into a crawling, shuddering knot. She thought she was choking, and her eyes ached; and Linda's hand was tight in sympathy and reassurance reassur-ance on her arm, and Bill said, "Gosh, that's rotten!" Barbara when she spoke did not recognize her own voice. She said, "Give it to me. Bill." She took the paper, read -the unbelievable lines again. "Steady, Barb!" Linda whispered. "It's all right." Barbara was husky. "I've got to go home, Linda. Mother will need me. She'll be wild. Can we, please?" "Of course. Here's the car." Bill and Rod helped them in. Bill said lamely: "Don't let it get you, Barb. Just the damned tabloids, making a sensation out of nothing!" Rod said, "Keep smiling, Barb." "Of course," she told them. "Thanks for a lovely tea. See you soon." The car was moving. "Good-by!" "Good-by!" On the way home, Linda drove and watched the traffic, and Barbara Bar-bara read the story in the paper, reciting to Linda the essentials. But she was cold with terror at her own thoughts. When she and Professor Brace emerged from the Tunnel last night, her father had passed them in his car, coming from the direction of the office. The dead girl had been found in the office this morning. Killed when? She could find in the paper no answer to that question, and her eyes blurred so that she could not read. Linda said: "Don't worry Barb It just happened to happen there!It might have happened anywhere Mother will be just sick! Barbara Bar-bara whispered. "She's so proud. Linda! And she hates newspapers! "They'll forget all about it in a day or two." streaming, the paper in her hands. "That's it, go on and cry," Linda approved. "Then you'll feel better." And when presently they came within with-in a block of the Sentry home she stopped the car. "Now, powder your nose," she directed. "You can't go in looking like a wreck!" Not till she was satisfied that Barbara Bar-bara had repaired damages did she drive on Outside the door Barbara pleaded: "Come in, Linda. Back me up. Mother will be just sunk. I'll play the idiot, till I either make her laugh or make her so mad at me she'll forget this mess. Ready?" "Well if you want," Linda said doubtfully. They went in; they came to the living-room door. But Barbara, when she saw her father here, remembering re-membering last night, was shocked and still for a moment, stammered doubtfully, "Oh, you're home, father!" fa-ther!" She saw the Transcript in his hands. Mrs. Sentry said stiffly, "Don't be obvious, Barbara!" Barbara hesitated; but then she became suddenly animated. "You've seen the papers! Darn it, I wanted the fun of telling you!" She cried: "Isn't it all thrilling? Mother, don't you think it's the most exciting thing? We came out of the Ritz with Bill Cates and Rod Hepburn Hep-burn and there were two newsboys just screaming and pushing papers into our faces, and Rod saw your name in one of the headlines, father. fa-ther. So we bought the paper. I think it's perfectly exciting. Did you know her? Is she as pretty as her pictures? I love murders, they're so gruesome! hink of having hav-ing one right in the family! Look!" She opened the paper, read the headlines aloud: " 'Pretty typist slain. Police seek missing lover of dead girl. Robbery and murder ' " Her mother said sharply: "Barbara! "Bar-bara! After all, it's not 'right in the family'!" "You know what I mean, mother!" moth-er!" Barbara protested. "I mean we're well, probably we'll all be witnesses at the trial. I know I'll be scared to death. I wonder if he's good-looking. Father, did you ever see him? his Italian?" She came to sit on the arm of his chair. "You don't need to pretend you're all so calm. I'll bet you're as excited as' I am, really." No one spoke for a moment. Then Neil Ray said uncomfortably, "I really must go." He rose; and Linda cried as though relieved: "Heavens, it's after aft-er six o'clock! So must I!" Mary went with Doctor Ray into the hall. Barbara looked beseechingly beseech-ingly at Linda; but Linda shook her head, so Barbara and Linda followed fol-lowed the others. Mrs. Sentry and her husband were left alone. He twirled the cocktail glass In his hand, looking at it fixedly, not meeting Mrs. Sentry's eyes. She heard the good-bys at the door; heard Mary and Barbara hesitate, and whisper, and start upstairs. Then she heard Mary say in a low, indignant tone: "You're outrageous, Barbara! This isn't a joke!" "I know," Barbara agreed, softly. "But you all looked so glum! I tried to put on an act, cheer you up" Their voices trailed away. Mrs. Sentry thought that was like Barbara, Bar-bara, to seek to make a jest out of this. And in very poor taste, she decided. She said to her husband, "Arthur, we must just ignore this!" "I don't know why it should hit me so hard," he confessed. "But she looked so little and pitiful, lying there. And of course there were police, po-lice, and photographers, and reporters report-ers around all day. Gus is in New York, so it all fell on me. It wore me down." "In New York? Mary's going there to dinner tonight." "He went over yesterday. Didn't expect to be back till Sunday." Oscar came to say that dinner was served, and Mrs. Sentry remembered re-membered that an afternoon paper was delivered to the kitchen, so the servants already knew; and everyone every-one would know, either tonight or in the morning. All their friends . . . She said quietly: "Will you call the girls, Oscar? They're upstairs!" He disappeared, and she asked her husband, "Are you ready, Arthur?" "I'll wash my hands," he decided. She had not, since returning from hearing Sarah Glen, had time to order her hair; and she went to do so, and she thought she and Arthur might go down to their summer home in York Harbor in the morning, morn-ing, and stay till this sensation died. But it would be better not to seem to run away . . . Mary sat with them while they dined, waiting for Jimmy Endle to call for her. She proposed making excuses, staying at home; but Mrs. Sentry said: "Of course not, Mary! After all, this doesn't touch us! Certainly Cer-tainly not any more than it does Mr. and Mrs. Loran, and they're giving the dinner." (TO BE COKTIM ED) . |