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Show 6i jBM S AVW it"v GERALD BROWN jjW Dak McCale, private detective. If In-eestliating In-eestliating the murder of Cart Villain-to Villain-to art, who was about to marry Veronica Big elow, heiress to thirty million dollars, lb U the principal suspect. McCale scsUont members ol the family and ob-tains ob-tains Important clues, uncovering a deep plot to keep control ot the treat fortune la the family, through a deal with Val-lalncourL Val-lalncourL McCale decides that Sharl Lynn, Vallaincourt's former wife, holdi the key to the punle. He hurries to her apartment, only to And that she has been shot dead. On looking around, be notices no-tices that a picture Is missing from the waU of her apartment He later talks to Veronica about her love for Villain-court CHAPTER XIV But how can I be sure iff the emptlnesi of lost love? It'i more like oh " She broke off, burying her head In her arm. "I don't know." "I think I understand," he said quietly. "It hits you sort of In the stomach Instead of In the heart." ."Yes, yes. That's It." But she grimaced as though the thought so stated was a trifle vulgar. She brushed a tear from the corner of her eye. "About the scrap of letter you found a letter to Curt" "Yes, that I was sure it was from Vicky. She's always been so funny about Curt Her attitude teemed to be that because she had known him first, she had priority rights over him. Something like that. I was shattered by that note and what It Implied. And when I accused her, she was so hard in spite of her denial. In a foolish moment I gave It to Aunt Addy. I was so upset" "I know that," he said. He hesitated, hesi-tated, not sure whether to go on; then decided to risk her shock at what he had to say. "It It cruel perhaps, to tell you now," he began, be-gan, "but necessary. We hBven't nuch time. The Inquest It the day ter tomorrow and" Oh, but do. I'm able to stand lining after" she shuddered ter this afternoon." tfou see," he said bluntly, "the K you suspected, the plot to gain Ato of your inheritance, wat fA. It was a diabolical plot all . w were in It" , 1 He expected her to cry out or to huddle away from him. He wat nearly bowled over hlmtelf when the almost laughed, laying, "But no no. You're WTong. Mr. McCale. Oh, I don't mean about the plot. You're wrong in thinking I didn't know about it I wat to horrified . . . Well. I went first to Chris and. . "You went to Chrlt Storm?" A signal flashed through hit mind He clamped hit teeth together hard. "Yet. He was furious, ot course. He wanted to have It out with Curt then and there, but I persuaded him not to. I tald it wat my Job and that ! would do It" "And did you?" . "Yet. I went right to Curt before be-fore the rehearsal, the day before before he died. But you see, I was wrong In one thing. Curt confessed to the original plot That was true enough, but" "But what?" McCale't mind wat working furiously, conjuring up all kinds of absurd visions. He pulled himself up abruptly. "You tee," she said carefully, a tremor in her voice, "Curt loved me. He really did. Oh, I know. He'd been a hellion all right He told me a great deal about himself that day about hit past about Sharl Lynn. But for once, it was the real thing with him. He could hardly understand It himself, but there It was. He wat truly in love for the first time In hit life. He wat going to turn his back on them all. We were going to be happy together. togeth-er. There wasn't anything they could have done after we were married." mar-ried." "Had he told them?" Hit voice wat soft insistent "Oh, no. I think he realized the dancer, because someone was watching him." "You mean" I "Yes. He told me we'd have to be cartful right up to the hour ot the wedding. He Joked about It a lot because he considered it funny. He said. 'Set a thief to catch a thief. or "When thlcvet fall out' Things like that He supposed they were suspicious because he'd been teen with Sharl Lynn. The papert had got hold ot it, you know." "Didn't he know who wat following follow-ing him about? Did he tay whether wheth-er it wat a man or woman?" An Attempt on McCalc's life "No. He tald I wasn't to worry about it That wat all." She began to cry toftly. He helped her out and paid the driver. He didn't tpeak until tht taxi had driven off. "That afternoon the one before yesterday when you and Curt came into the living room, he Dashed you a lUnnl with hit eyes." "You noticed that?" "Yet. What did it mean?" "It meant that everything wst all right that he'd destroyed everything his letters, his associations, everything ev-erything that had tied him to the past It wis as If he seld"-hT voice broke "as if he said. Ixvk. darling, the past Is all finished. I'm clean.' H MTale blinked hlt'eyet. clesrtd his throat "All right." he said. Then, "I'm not going in with you. Things to do. Lots of them. Chin up, now. I'll see you tomorrow. Good-night." "Good-night." She made an attempt at-tempt at a smile. "And thank you." Ot one thing he was sure. Curt Vallaincourt had really loved Veronica Ver-onica Bigelow. Start with that fact. He had burned his bridges, carefully care-fully and conscientiously. Including Includ-ing Sharl Lynn? He thought so. Funny what love will do for a guy. But he must have been aware of his antagonists of their viciousness If what he intended doing became known. He wss certain that he knew of his danger. He had woven his spell with the blackest of arts and had been caught at it. That was his undoing. He must have been conscious of playing a long chance those last few days. But he went to his. death blithely all the same, even welcoming it in the knowledge that something fine had happened to him that had never happened before. He had been betrayed, be-trayed, however, by hope. McCale was silently deriding the philosophizing he had been indulging indulg-ing in when he came abreast ot his own doorway. Just when it was that the first warning came, he couldn't afterwards recall. He had just looked up to see the lights of his office gleaming faintly. He wat He didn't hear Ann icream. only a few feet from the doorstep when it came that Intuitive message mes-sage from his nerves, hit glands. Call it what you will, it reachet up out of the vastness of our primeval beginnings to warn ut. It gripped him now, thrusting Icy claws down into hit diaphragm. He started to turn; then thought better of it Then he began to run. The report came like a firecracker, firecrack-er, hard by on his right. He heard the sound of running feet He felt a ghastly blow near his heart He reeled, stopped in his tracks. A low whisper escaped hit lipi. His knees buckled as ' a pain shot through his side. He climbed up the steps somehow. He thought, "Oh, God.' this is how Curt Vallaincourt Val-laincourt died. I wonder what went through his mind crawling up those endless stairs?" After a thousand years, the door swung open. Ann stood there. She seemed far away in the dark. He forced a smile. "Hello," he said, conscious of slobbering. "You're tight," she said. A Narrow Escape From Death "No." His own voice sounded different dif-ferent and from way back somewhere. some-where. "I don't drink. You know that I've been held up." "Yenh all the way home, I'll bet What have you done with Veronica Bigelow?" "Don't tell me you're Jealous of her." He swayed, hardly aware of this Insane stalling. It must have been then that she saw pain glaze his eyes, bare his teeth. She moved forward, sudden terror striking her. "Dukel" she gasped. His legs gave way again. Slowly he slid to his knees, crouching there. His face twitched a moment and ha made a mumbling noise befort he pitched forward. He didn't hear Ann's scream. Once during the night, he became conscious. It was like being dragged up Into the light from the depth and darkness of a great well. He felt a breath of cool air and opened his eyes. He realized his throat was parched. He asked for water and a phantom floated Into view. It was Ann. She held a glass of water tor him. Her eyes, he noticed, were big and filled with love for him and fear fur him. too. "That's Ann." he thought "I'm sirk and she's worried about me. She loves me and sh(' worried. That's great That's fine." When the black curtain of mar phis lifted again, It was another day The room was light. The first thing he saw was big blnrk letters. They formed slowly out of the mist that still clouded hi vision some what They read: DETECTIVE SHOT. His mind struggled with this and he made a slight motion with his head. A golden blonde angel an-gel leaned over and kissed him lightly on the brow. "Where am I?" He mouthed con-fused con-fused thoughts. "Why. darling, this Is Ann. You know where you are." "Uh huh." Fuzziness began to leave the edges of his brain. "This is heaven. Do that again, angel." He started to put an arm about her. Pain seared his shoulder. He groaned a bit coming wide awake. "Behave yourself." Ann said. "You're In no condition to become amorous. Good lord, did you see that?" She flung the morning paper pa-per on the floor. "The papers have you at death's door. Here, let me lift you up a little." She propped a pillow behind him and sat down. There were deep shadows under her eyes. "Have you been here all night?" he asked. "Sure, why not?" "Why didn't Rocky make you go home?" "Do you think I'd leave you to the tender mercies of that behemoth? Every time you asked for a drink, he reached for the bottle of Scotch." She scowled. Just then the door opened and Rocky stuck his head In. He grinned broadly on seeing McCale awake and sitting up. "Doc Preble is here, nurse." He dropped a curtsey to Ann. "Preble!" McCale howled. "The coronerl What Is this? I'm not dead or am I?" Ann chuckled. She did not look too tired or harassed now that she smiled. "When you fell in the doorway last night, you looked pretty dead to me. I fainted. Rocky had the two of us In his hands. Of course, he limply let me lie there. With the door wide open, I wasn't unconscious un-conscious long. I came to and stumbled stum-bled up the stairs to find he had stretched you out on the office desk, too much like a corpse for me to think of anything else. What with Rocky beating his own brains out and cursing that someone had bumped off the boss, I dialed headquarters. head-quarters. The homicide iquad, down to the last legman, were here in three minutes flat" Preble was short and thin ana past middle age and sported a goatee. He had the typical medical man's all-seeing eye. He looked McCale over shrewdly, examined the wound, and reban-daged reban-daged it In short order. "You'll do," he tald. "Stay in bed for twenty-four noun. Don't want you running a temperature. You're a lucky guy. The bullet wat deflected by the cigarette case you carry In your upper vest pocket." "Wai it a forty-five?" "Undoubtedly, from the nature of the wound. It it hadn't been for that cigarette case, It would have ripped you wide open. Well mind what I say now. This girl needs tome ilcep." He turned to Ann, harumphed, and went off, giving Rocky the stare of an anthropologist anthropolo-gist ignoring an interesting but inferior in-ferior specimen. Donlcvy Calls And Talks A half hour later, McCale wai Interrupted In-terrupted In the middle of exasperated exasper-ated resentment at the "light" diet ordered by the doctor and carried out to the letter by Ann. The telephone tele-phone rang. Ann, provoklngly placing the bedside telephone out of his reach, and with a tmug expression ex-pression on her face, went Into the outer office to take the call. "That was Veronica Bigelow," she tald matter-of-factly. "I had the devil of a time before she'd trust me with the message. She's upset no end. It seems that Don-levy Don-levy has arrested Christopher Storm." "When?" "Last night or early this morning. morn-ing. She's been trying to get the office ever since, I suppose." "You suppose?" "Weil, I-I stuffed blotting paper in the telephone bell last night I thought tht ringing might disturo your rest the doctor said" "God Almighty. Between you and the doctor, I might as well be a corpse. I was all hopped up with morphine, wasn't I?" He turned himself around with a painful effort. ef-fort. "Now, Duke, you're not to excite yourself. You'U raise a temperature." tempera-ture." "To hell with my temperature. Get Donlcvy on the wire." Obediently she called police nead-quarters, nead-quarters, only to learn that tht homicide man was on his wsy them at that very moment McCale patted her hand, feeling ashamed of his Irascibility. He resigned re-signed himself to waiting for Donlcvy. Don-lcvy. In less than twenty minutes, the lieutenant strode In, In the wake of Rocky. The two of them so bi, but so different bulked hugely in the doorway, Donlcvy, with a muttered mut-tered greeting to McCale, flung him- ' self into a chair. Crevices of fatigue and worry lined his face. 1 (TO UK ")NT1NIED |