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Show The WEDDING MARCH MURDER by MONTE BARRETT Copyright, 1933, by the Bobbs-Merrlll Co. WNU Service. CHAPTER XIII Continued 25 That," declared Peter, with slow emphasis, "Is the most significant point of all. Fletcher claims Franklin never kept a gun at the apartment. The man Is telling the exact truth, or else he is protecting the murderer. And yet, we can find no motive that would cause Fletcher to pursue such a course. I think the fellow might protect pro-tect the Identity of a woman who had been indiscreet, I don't think he would protect the murderer. We have i proof of it, in fact. IiJ 'as been in league with Franklin's slayer, it would not have been necessary to search the apartment, as was done. Fletcher could have accomplished such a search without any difficulty and without our knowledge. "That means that Franklin kept the weapon elsewhere. Where? At the apartment he kept for Choo Choo Train? In another possible apartment kept for the woman In blue? At his office? "Sergeant," Cardigan spoke with evident conviction, "this evidence led me, ultimately, to two clues to which I did not at first attach sufficient importance. im-portance. And those two clues, I believe, be-lieve, will prove not only the Identity, but the guilt, of the murderer. They are the revolver and the key-ring we found In the murdered man's pocket." CHAPTER XIV Introducing the Murderer "We have identified six of these seven keys," Peter continued, indicating indicat-ing the ring which Kilday was holding In his hand. "One opens the street door of Franklin's apartment building; a second opens his apartment; another fits Choo Choo Train's door; the fourth opens the door of his general offices and the fifth is to his private office. That's an end of the large keys. Of the smaller ones, the first opened his desk and the last one still remains unidentified. un-identified. Call Milo Dunbar, will you? I believe he can help us trace this key. We should have done it before. And unless I'm clear off the track, we'll know who the murderer is when we succeed in doing that." Franklin's partner was located at his office and promised to come at once. "Ask him to bring the key to Franklin's Frank-lin's private compartment of the safe," Peter Interrupted to suggest. "We'll want that, too." "I think," he continued after Kilday Kil-day had replaced the receiver, "that we can definitely abandon the Idea that Franklin maintained a separate apartment for this woman in blue. If he had done so, why doesn't the key appear on this ring? All his other keys are here. There have been times I have been tempted to abandon this woman as a clue, for this very reason, and yet she was the motive for the crime, I'm sure. No other solution fits the facts. And since I have arrived at that solution, I can see a very good reason rea-son why Franklin had no key to her apartment." " "Was it the Shipley girl?" Kilday de- mnnde 1. "I'm sure it wasn't she," replied Peter. "In their effort to protect others whom they feared were guilty, a umber of people have deceived us. That has lidded to our complications and that's why you have suspected this girl." At this point the attorney arrived. Peter Cardigan was still contemplating the slain man's key-ring when he entered. en-tered. "Did you bring the key?" "Here." Dunbar handed it to the novelist, who compared it carefully with the small, unidentified key on the ring. His examination completed, he reached for the nurse's pad on the table beside him, and scrawled a few hurried notes uuon it. "How does this key fit into the case?" Kilday could no longer restrain his curiosity. "I'm not sure," Peter directed a significant glance at his friend. "Here," he handed him the notes he had just written. "With that much to i,o on, perhaps you can make Rylie Carmody talk." "But I thought you said " "Never mind what I said before," Peter replied earnestly. "I may have changed my mind. Look over these notes and follow Instructions." Kilday shrugged and left the room. "Then you think it was Rylie Carmody, Car-mody, after all?" suggested MUo Dunbar. Dun-bar. "I must confess I don't understand under-stand how that key had anything to do with him." "We'll soon know," Peter replied shortly. The attorney walked to the window, his back to Peter and hummed a few bars of a tune. "I suppose the theory Is that young Carmody committed the murder to prevent Franklin's marriage to his sister?" "No. That's no longpr-Dui heory. w now believe that the n'Airderer killed Franklin because he discovered the latter's love-affair with the woman In blue." "The woman in blue?" Dunbar wheeled and eyed the novelist curiously. curi-ously. "That's the mysterious visitor Franklin had in the sacristy just before be-fore the crime. Have you been able to Identify her?" -That all depends on Kilday," declared de-clared Cardigan frankly. "If his errand er-rand is successful, we'Jl be able to Identify i.er without any further tnnhm "I gather that you have come to the conclusion that Jealousy was the motive mo-tive for the crime?" "Yes. Either jealousy or revenge. In his relationship with this woman, Franklin betrayed a trusted friend and that friend committed the murder, if my theory works out. And It must work out, Mr. Dunbar," continued Peter with conviction. "It's the only theory that fits all the facts." "I'm interested." Dunbar took a chair beside the bed. "I'd like to hear the whole story. Can't you take me Into your confidence? Remember, Franklin was my partner." "When Kilday comes back," promised trie novelist. "He won't be long." "May I see those keys?" The attorney at-torney extended his palm. "I'm curious curi-ous to know what they had to do with It. Why did you ask me to bring the key to Franklin's compartment of the safe? What does young Carmody have to do with that key?" "The keys?" Cardigan stared about him blankly. "They were here a moment mo-ment ago. I must have dropped them." "Yes," declared Dunbar evenly. "You must have dropped them into Kilday's hand. You're lying to me, Cardigan. Why did you give those keys to Kilday? Why did you write "Poison." him that note? What did you have to say that you didn't want me to hear?" Peter smiled into the angry man's eyes, his hand sliding stealthily, almost al-most imperceptibly toward the bell cord-on the table beside his bed. "I believe I mentioned Rylie Carmody," he was sparring for time. "Only to throw me off the track," retorted Dunbar. "Kilday didn't know what you were talking about when you mentioned him." Then, for the first time noticing Cardigan's cautious reach for the bell, he forestalled it with a deft Jerk of his elbow that sent the small table careening and knocked the bell cord to the floor. "Then I was right," he said shortly. "You win again," declared the novelist, nov-elist, his alert glance Intently studying study-ing the attorney's expression. "My luck was just as bad the other night at your office." Before replying, Dunbar locked the door. "I suspected you had guessed when you wrote that note to Kilday," the lawyer admitted calmly. "How did you do it?" His eyes, slightly bloodshot, blood-shot, returned the novelist's steady gaze. "You left a very plain trail," declared de-clared the latter. "Once It was discovered, dis-covered, we couldn't miss. The only difficulty was that there were so many trails, partly due to your efforts, that yours was obscured. We knew Franklin Frank-lin was killed by some one he knew Intimately, otherwise he would have warned Royce, who was only a few feet away ; the murderer carried Franklin's Frank-lin's own revolver ; the murderer called Choo Choo Train and imitated Fletcher's Fletch-er's voice In telling her to go to the church ; the murderer could not have been In the church, proper, at the time the crime was committed, but he had to be on the ground. "The woman In blue must have been the motive, because the guilty person took such active steps to remove all clues to her Identity, and, in conclusion, conclu-sion, Franklin's apartment was searched, not once, but twice, and I was attacked In your office. Only one person answers all these descriptions, Mr. Dunbar. That is you. "Royce looked for you at the church but couldn't find you out In front, for the very simple reason that you weren't there. Franklin kept that revolver at his office. After searching elsewhere, there was no other conclusion we could reach. You were the only person who had access to It there. You were In great haste to search your partner's apartment, immediately after his death. You told Fletcher you were looking for a will. But you and I know you were there to destroy any evidence which might Identify the woman In blue as your wife, before the police arrived. You didn't find it then, and were anxious for another opportunity to conduct the search when Fletcher wasn't present. At the first opportunity, oppor-tunity, that's exactly what you did, and that's when I picked up your trail, although even then I didn't realize real-ize who my quarry was. You used a key you found in your wife's possession posses-sion to enter that apartment. Remember, Remem-ber, too, that my assailant must have had a kev to enter your office. The trail was plain from the first, and you are the only one who fits the description, descrip-tion, In every detail." Dunbar, head on one side, lips pursed judiciousiy, had the manner of a judge weighing evidence. "All very plausible," he nodded his head. "But still only theory." "Here is some more of It," retorted the novelist. "The night before the wedding, your suspicions of your wife and Franklin aroused, you broke Into his compartment of the safe. There you found evidence which supported those suspicions. And the revolver, too. That," he admitted, "Is still only a guess. But I'll know whether or not It's a true one in a few minutes." An expression of annoyance flitted across the attorney's countenance. "Guesses I" he said. "Guesses! You're always talking of guesses ! What made you make such a guess?" "In the first place, you were the only person who fitted every possibility possibil-ity of the crime. In the second, there were Franklin's keys. I couldn't understand un-derstand why all his keys were Intact, In-tact, upon his ring, except the key to his compartment of the safe. It seemed strange that he should have kept that, of all keys, lying carelessly In his desk where you found it for us. Then the solution occurred to me andN I compared that key we found there with the one we had been unable to Identify upon the key-ring, remembering remember-ing how similar they were in size and appearance. Remember, I had tried to use that unidentified key to open that compartment. I was able to Insert In-sert It In the lock but It wouldn't turn the bolt. Do you know why? "They were both keys to that safe. When I compared them a few minutes ago, I discovered they both bore the same manufacturer's serial number. One of those keys belonged to you, Mr. Dunbar. The other was Franklin's." Frank-lin's." Peter stared at the attorney expresr sionlessly. "With that much to go on, I felt confident that I knew how. we had been duped. We were puzuled because be-cause we couldn't find any clue to the woman in blue among Franklin's personal per-sonal effects. This was now explained. You had removed those clues when you searched Franklin's compartment the evening before, to verify your suspicions sus-picions regarding him and your wife. Afterward, It occurred to you that this broken drawer might incriminate you If we discovered it. So you transferred trans-ferred the remainder of his effects to your own drawer, leaving your key in Franklin's desk. The broken drawer you appropriated for your own use. And that," declared Peter with finality, "Is what I wrote Kilday a few minutes ago. He Is on his way to your office to check up on those two drawers in your safe. Unless I am mistaken, he will discover that the key on Franklin's Frank-lin's ring fits the broken compartment which you are now using. "Simple, when you think about It, isn't it?" "You make it sound simple," the attorney at-torney replied. "The only thing that puzzled me is why you returned to your office that night," Peter continued. "You had already destroyed the evidence in Franklin's compartment." "I was afraid there might be some evidence elsewhere that I had overlooked, over-looked, and I wasn't expecting yon to hunt the murderer there." The attorney attor-ney was making no effort to maintain a pretense of innocence. "I couldn't very well go through the place in the daytime without exciting comment from the employees. I felt perfectly safe In making the search at night, however, until," he shrugged, "you appeared on the scene. None of my employees had an excuse to be there at that hour, and I knew that the janitor's jan-itor's force did not come on duty until un-til ten o'clock, so naturally I was alarmed when I heard your key in the lock. I didn't realize, or have time to consider that you might be coming there to trap some one else. I lost my head, I guess. At any rate, I determined deter-mined not to be trapped there, so I turned out "the lights and waited for you in the dark. You know what happened." hap-pened." Peter glanced at the locked door. "What's the idea?" he asked. "You can't hope to escape. By this time Kilday has verified the manner in which you switched boxes with Franklin." Frank-lin." "Oh, yes. There's always one method meth-od of escape. But don't be alarmed. That was only a precaution against Interruption." From his pocket he took a small vial. Removing the cork, he smelled of the contents. Then he smiled. "Poison," he explained. "I've been carrying It about with me for several days. Even before I killed Franklin, I made up my mind that I would never be taken alive." Dunbar raised the bottle gravely. "Before I go," he said, "I want to say I'm sorry you went through the window. win-dow. I had nothing against you. I only wanted to get out of there, undetected." unde-tected." The momentary delay gave Peter the opportunity for which he waited. With all his strength he hurled his pillow pil-low at the bottle poised In Dunbar's hand, hoping to knock It from his grasp. His aim was true, but the bottle did not fall. The fingers which clutched It were too sure of their grip. There was reproach In the attorney's attor-ney's glance. "After making this tbe only escape possible," he asked, "would yon rob me of It?" He raised the bottle slowly. "I don't blame you for anything but thai pillow," he declared gravely. "You're quite a detective, Cardigan. I should be an authority on the subject." Milo Dunbar took his only meEry of escape. fTHE F.NDJ |