OCR Text |
Show The ' I Fiction BEST ALIBI Richord e'Wilklnso Corner shoes. Carrying the shoes he returned to the study and asked Firbush if they were his shoes. "Why, yes,' said Firbush. "Why? Where did you get them?" "Out of your closet. I searched the closets of all the servants till I found a pair of shoes with some mud on the soles. It was you who committed com-mitted the robbery." "You're crazy. That's a cockeyed cock-eyed theory. The robber came up the ladder." "No," said Inspector Beatty, "that's only what you expected us to believe. That's why you put the ladder there and left the window open. The robbery was committed before you placed the ladder there." "How do you know that? You can't prove it." "I won't have to. What I can prove is that no one came up the ladder. It rained last night. There was mud. There's mud on your shoes. The shoes fit the footprints at the foot of the ladder. Yet there is no mud at all on the rungs of the ladder. If there had been I would have probably been fooled and not been sure that some one inside committed com-mitted the theft. Besides you had the best alibi. I checked with the man with whom you said you attended at-tended the movie. He broke down and confessed everything." MacDougal was amazed. Afterwards After-wards he said to Beatty: "I didn't know you checked with Firbush'i friend. When did that happen?" "It didn't," said Beatty. MAX SANDERS' home had been robbed of jewels valued at $50,000. The jewels were kept in a wall safe behind a picture in Max's study, which was located on the second floor of his Beverly Hills home. Inspector Ray Beatty was assigned as-signed to the case. Leo MacDougal, a police officer, I who had been 3 'Minute summoned from Clot; his beat, showed F'Ctl0n Inspector Beatty the evidence that had thus far been discovered. First there was a ladder placed against a window that opened into a second floor hall. This window had been discovered open. Inspector Beatty told MacDougal to summon all the servants. Then he questioned t them. They all had good excuses. Sid Firbush, a secretary, secre-tary, had spent the night at the movies with a friend. Edwards, the butler, had read in his room until un-til Mr. and Mrs. Sanders returned from a party,' when he admitted them. It was right after that, that Mrs. Sanders went to the safe to replace the jewels she had worn, and found the others gone. Martha Greene, the housekeeper, had been in her room all evening. Her room was located on the second sec-ond floor. She had gone down to the kitchen about 10 o'clock for a bite to eat and found Viola Mat-son, Mat-son, the maid, there with her boy friend. Returning, Martha had passed Edwards' room and seen Edwards Ed-wards sitting by his table, reading. INSPECTOR BEATTY dismissed the servants and went back to the study. He examined every inch of it. Then he went into the hall and examined that. He also examined ex-amined the window and the ladder and the ground below the window. It had rained a little the night before be-fore and he found some footprints beside the ladder. They looked like men's footprints. Inspector Beatty sought out Sid Firbush. He asked the secretary if Max Sanders held business conferences confer-ences in his study. Firbush said that he did. "The chances are, then, that he's had occasion to open the safe when others were present?" pres-ent?" "It's quite likely." "I want as complete a list as you can make me of all the people you've known to be in the study during the past month." Inspector Beatty left Sid Firbush making out the list, summoned MacDougal and went down the hall. He entered one door after the next, first knocking to make sure the room was empty. Presently he returned re-turned to the hall, bearing a pair of |