Show TAM T A over aver but the e I 1 11 A f hll PAP i richard powell shooting L 1 I 74 A AN N INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY r STARRING r T I 1 ARAB ANDY BLAKE aiu 5 THE STORY THUS VARI lt andy blake of 0 operations was joined in wash ington by till his wife arab who took a job with ordnance after an exciting time on the bus bug a chase in which andy was wag kno knocked clied out arab secured a room where the she had reasons to believe that enemy agents were at work at the houke hoube andy got into a light fight with one ot of we the met the landlady whom he had previously known in paris arab told andy about a girl that had bad disappeared from rom the bouse tio iise and looking out the window they saw a newly erected bird house they aliey noticed that the bird house built la in the ho backyard tree hid from rom view a window in a nearby near by house arab thought it was there them to hide something omet lung CHAPTER V I 1 slipped into the shrubbery or the house on Q street after au all I 1 was still responsible tor for arab I 1 walked quietly through the grounds until I 1 came to the pin oak it had one low hanging branch and I 1 had no trouble scrambling up to the crotch which held the birdhouse the thing had been put up recently all right there were spots where feet had crumbled bark the birdhouse was new and the nail heads were shiny there had been rain the night of the crazy bus ride II if the birdhouse had been up then the nail heads would have started to rust I 1 sighted along an imaginary line from arabs window through the crotch of the tree she had been right from her window one of the second floor windows of the next house would show through the crotch like a target in a V sight I 1 climbed down took a last look at her window and camp came close to clearing out for good silhouetted against the drawn shade was arab fixing jocys necktie the only thing which kept me from leaving was spotting a light on the first floor it was in the room where I 1 had dumped joey last night the shade down all the way and I 1 felt curious I 1 slipped over to the house and peered in the window I 1 took a final look around there was a coat on the bed A white raincoat with acorn shaped leather buttons I 1 would have known it anywhere arab was playing cop in a very tough neighborhood she was safe only as long as nobody knew she was playing cop she was upstairs laughing and having fun while down here on jocys bed was the white ralA coat she had worn two nights ago the raincoat which would label tier her as the girl who had heard too much on the bus and beside the raincoat was a pencil paper and tape measure joey was getting ready to try the coat on somebody for size an idea tiptoed shyly into my head end I 1 pounced on it before it could die of loneliness it a great idea or even a good one but it was worth trying I 1 shut the window quietly took the coat and crept out into the first floor hall I 1 had to have the raincoat altered arab was unavailable and I 1 could take a chance on only one other person in the house sadie the maid she already knew we were suspiciously in te rested in paula thompsons Thomp sons disappearance pe arance it if she happened to be working against us we were already sunk if she were friendly this was a good time to find out I 1 sneaked down the hall and through the big dining room to the door of the lighted kitchen sadie was in a rocking chair knitting the chair squeaked like boards in a haunted house A black cat was curled at her feet staring at me from candle flame eyes A pot bubbled on the stove sadie said without looking up you want something I 1 gulped yes I 1 said 1 I want you to help me urn um I 1 stammered tor for a moment and then happened to glance at the cat and got angry no cat can look at me with a man or mouse question in its eyes 1 I need your help and I 1 need it badly I 1 said 1 I want a couple inches taken off of the skirt and sleeves of this raincoat it has to be done so it wont show it has to be done fast A halt half hour from now might be too late 10 too late to fo what 11 I 1 was in this too deeply to try to be cagy now too late to keep somebody out of trouble I 1 said big trouble she got up took the raincoat and studied it you come in hi through Ra eders window an got this sho she stated right but it his its sit down she said an dont tell me bily anything thing mo me I 1 aint interested she went into a small bedroom opening oil off the kitchen came out again and spread the raincoat on the kitchen table scissors gleamed in her brown hand it if I 1 just took up the hem an sleeves she said you could tell what was done she straightened out the bottom crease and nd showed me that it was marked by a discolored line so wo we got to cut ut it off there the elle said handing me the raincoat she had folded the raw edges up inside the new hems end and had sewed them into place you might be able to tell that the coat biad h ad been shortened it if you looked carefully but nobody would know when it had been done and it would no longer be the right length for Arab id uke like to pay you tor for this I 1 said aid sadie shock her head I 1 thanked her and hilp help asking going on in this house 1 I dont know an I 1 dont want to know she said 1 I see things I 1 dont understand an keep my mouth shut like the way mis reynolds keeps playing with one of the fingers on her left hand like she was used to having a wedding an in engagement ring on it and was used to turning them so the stones would be straight but of course she aint married well I 1 said ashes really 1 I dont want to know just tell her to leave that ring finger alone now maybe you better hurry burry I 1 tried to thank her again but she rocked in the chair and look tit ot me or speak and the chair was sounding like a board in a haunted house again so I 1 left I 1 slipped back to jocys room and found that he returned yet maybe I 1 should have considered myself lucky but I 1 there anything unusual about guys not breaking away from arab any sooner than necessary back in philadelphia I 1 almost had to wave good night with a gun to some of our bachelor friends if I 1 were having luck tonight it was the kind you run into when you find a four leaf clover in a bed of poison ivy I 1 left tile the raincoat on the bed in the room I 1 was tempted to do some snooping among his things but it worth taking a chance renee fielding or 15 4 i 1 I want you to help me one of the girls might happen by to see if joey had a headache and needed his forehead stroked I 1 returned to the hall and let myself out the front door I 1 feel very successful maybe I 1 had kept arab out of one kind of trouble but it if she went on encouraging joey she was headed for or another kind and I 1 do anything about it A warning would be useless women dont seem to recognize trouble when it comes wrapped up in a six foot package of husky blond virility sure she could be putting on an act maybe she thought that by encouraging joey she could pry some interesting te bits of news out of him how she might figure at the start but otter after encouraging him for a while she might find herself enjoying it more than she had planned she be the I 1 first dame in history to fall for a guy she started out to take I 1 started trudging toward my bus stop perhaps to some people the stars overhead looked like diamonds on black velvet but for my money they were moth holes during the next morning I 1 had to fight against the desire to call arab in ordnance department I 1 to make sure that she was all right I 1 won the fight but feel very proud about it at eleven thirty arab called me her voice sounded wistful she asked do I 1 always have to be the one who telephones I 1 sorry I 1 mumbled A J lot of work piled up on me im sorry about last night andy about giggling I 1 mean all right my fault ive got to break myself of getting mad when people laugh at me please dont take it that way darling 1 I really laugh at you I 1 was laughing at the whole situation yeah sure I 1 know uh did everything go all right after aate 4 1 I 1 left have any trouble getting rid of f joey there was a pause and while I 1 waited for her answer my lungs began to ache as if I 1 get enough oxygen this was the time for her to tell me about driving with joey it if she confessed things bad yet but if she ter tell me why no she said carefully mild did you worry about anything oh no no just wondered if i you had bad any trouble with joey why I 1 why no 1 I just wondered that was nil all can we have lunch together today andy im supposed to go in fifteen minutes the air I 1 breathed seem to got get to the bottom of my aings I 1 would take a deep breath and my ribs would bulge but the suffocating feeling went right on I im pretty busy I 1 muttered oh well be around early tonight wont you or why cant we have dinner together instead of me going back to Q street for dinner we could go to things are piled up here oh 11 you know how things cm can get yes yes I 1 do she said brightly well give me a call sometime andy wont you after ill all we have a few things in c common c m dont we like a marr marriage g license and all that sure ill give you a call I 1 went out anu and caught a bus into washington it if I 1 had to be miser able I 1 might as well be miserable ble hanging around the house on Q street waiting for arab to get into ajam a jam it was past eight when I 1 arrived I 1 wandered along the street and spotted jocys roadster seeing it there gave me a senseless feeling of relief the guy could be making as much time with arab inside the house as in his car evidently joey had been one of the smart boys who bought cars just before the freeze because his car was quite new and had white sidewall dewall sl tires judging from the treads it had been driven hard and far in less than a year I 1 peeked at the speedometer he had racked up miles of course he could have put that tha t on before gasoline rationing started stalled last may although it would have meant a lot of concentrated driving but I 1 was curious the door was unlocked I 1 opened it and looked aroun around d inside lighting matches to study dark corners I 1 was looking for the tag which lots of gas gag stations put on a car when they change oil a tag showing the mileage on the date the car was in for servicing there was none inside the cai car I 1 lifted the hood and found a tag wired to a rod above the oil intake the figures were interesting they might even had seemed fascinating to jocys ration board the oil had been changed at a washington service station two weeks ago and the speedometer reading had been joey had driven more mord than a thousand mil miles es in the past two weeks on a four gallon a week aboard I 1 wouldn it have thought you could get that kind of mileage from anything bigger than a ei cigarette garette lighter I 1 crossed the strict street to the shadows hiding biding the horse mounting block and settled down to keep an eye on ti lings there were a lot of lights in the house on Q street but the shades were all down I 1 wondered what arab was doing maybe she was trying to telephone me at the crowleys Crow leys maybe she was feeling bad about our scrap it was a still night my ears were tuned to catch wisps of cil sound the rustle of leaves seemed as loud as the turning of newspaper pages esMy my watch ticked like a grandfathers clock and so when the silence was ripped apart for a split second secona my ears cars tingled across the street in the shaggy aroun grounds do of the house on Q street a woman woma n had screamed she screamed long something had stopped slopped her stopped her as fast as if her vocal cords had snap snapped pod on the foerth fourth or fifth vibration but she had put everything into that splinter of sound I 1 ran across the street and plunged into the tangled garden fifty feet away a shadow moved ou out t of sight behind the pin oak which masked arabs window I 1 sprinted toward the tree I 1 have acted more brainlessly it I 1 had been a puppy charging a cat A man stepped out from the shelter of the tree he was short and squat but moved like a panther I 1 swerved too late trees and sky and ground pin wheeled around me I 1 yanked my body into a tight ball hit the ground and rolled most of the shock out of the impact when I 1 scrambled up he was waiting for me waiting in an odd hunched forward position it reminded me vaguely of the way jimmy londos used to wait for a chance to slap a flying more mare on a chaU challenger enger for his wrestling title but there were a lot of diff differences erencen between this anan man and londos the man facing me carried ais as much fat as muscle and he was oft off bal balance ince way off nobody could produce brodice power from a stance like that nobody except 1 I shivered my memory really been trying to dig up jimmy londos it had been groping toi for a picture id seen once A picture done on shiny rice paper there had been a short fat man in chis his same hu hunched ached pose he had been naked except for a G string and his belly had seemed enormous in the background the artist had painted a tiny white capped mountain fujiyama this was the way i jap wrestlers wrest lers waited the picture flashed through my mind as I 1 sidled toward him I 1 watched his hinds hands his fingers were stroking the te air in front of him bun feel ing I 1 it t almost uke like a pianist getting the feel of keys I 1 flicked out a jab TO BE CONTINUED |