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Show Ill SMART . (A Short Story) By RICHARD HILL WILKINSON '..' TT LOOKED TO ME LIKE a pret- ty hopeless case and I said so. "That's because you ain't a detective," de-tective," Moriarty said. "Thank the Lord!" I told him. "See that!" he said, pointing to the imprint ot an automobile tire In the soft earth. "Sure," I said. "I've been looking look-ing at It for a couple of hours. "So've you and nine other coppers. cop-pers. So what? Jack Newbury is still dead and the killer's still at large and you're stuck as to how to catch him." "That's the Imprint of a Brimstone Brim-stone tire," said Moriarty. "We know that whoever killed Newbury brought him here in an automobile and left him, figuring the body wouldn't be discovered for weeks. He figured wrong. He forgot that the hunting season was open and that a couple of sportsmen might happen along and find the body." "Smart," I said. "Where do we go from here? I don't Imagine year that were registere around Hayden. It nam list of possible suspects 250. Even so, the next tlm Moriarty I snorted at him. got a fat chance of collec guy," I said. "Suppose I from out of town? which i Suppose he came from Di some place like that? Ho blue Chalmers of that yeai think are registered In '. Oh, my I Or suppose he bi the car or stole it or some "We've already got the g said. We went Into the inspect fice. The inspector was the v two other coppers that I kne ly well. We sat down and and pretty soon a couple ol clothes guys came in brinj big husky, good looking cha them. The husky was mad dignant. He yelled a lot aba being an outrage and his as a taxpayer and that s thing, but you could see he quite sure of himself. None of the coppers said a They just sat around and star him. Pretty soon the h u stopped yelling and looked one fase to the other, and could see he was scared. I sorry for him. He asked in a quiet voice they'd brought him here for, the inspector said for the mu: of Jack Newbury, and opened his desk drawer and took ou hammer and laid it on his desk "This was the hammef -4. 'T killed Newbury," he said. " found it in the tool-kit of your c Your fingerprints are on it." The husky stared at the hamnr. a minute and then leaped out his chair with a yell and beg running wildly for the door. "We figured he'd break ill that," Moriarty told me late "You have to try different sy stent on different guys. This one w easy." "Smart, aren't you?" I saW "Now teE me h you did it?" TPhy, it ni asy," said rlarty." It was that Brimstone tirtf mark. We simply gave out the story that the Brimstone people only made tires with that pattern for a particular year and that Chalmers automobiles of that year were equipped with them. Blue Chalmers. Then we waited." "Waited for what?" I said. "You mean that story you gave out wasn't true?" Moriarty shrugged. "I dunno. We gave it out anyway, and the paperi printed it. Then we kept our eyes on all the paint shops around, and after awhile a guy with a blue Chalmers with Brimstone tires that fitted the pattern came In to have his car painted. And that'i how we happened to pick up this jigger." He grinned. "Smart, aren't you?" I snorted. "Yeah," said Moriarty. And we both erinned. "See that?" he said, pointing to the imprint of an automobile tire in the soft earth. there's more than 10,000 automobiles automo-biles in the city of Hayden and surrounding sur-rounding country using Brimstone tires." "Well, we know the automobile was blue," said Moriarty. "See that tree. The car scraped It and rubbed some of the paint off." "My, my," I said sarcastically. "Blue's such an unusual color. I'll bet not more than 5,000 of those 10,000 cars using Brimstone tires were painted blue." The next morning the murder was spread all over the front pages of the papers. I read the account and discovered that Moriarty had been holding out on me. The son-of-a-gun! He had checked up and discovered that there was only one particular year that the Brimstone people made tires bearing the pattern pat-tern that was found In the imprint near the body. And that year the Chalmers automobile company had equipped all their cars with Brimstones. Brim-stones. The order was a big one and, coming unexpectedly as it did, the Brimstone people weren't able to meet the demands of retail dealers. Hence, in that particular year only Chalmers cars had Brimstone Brim-stone tires, and most all of that model were blue. It was easy, of course, to find out ail the blue Chalmers of that ...I,,,,, 1 IH..-III iiwi in" |