Show ul 9 BL icib L E A by AMES WILLIAMS C ben ames williams SYNOPSIS barbara sentry seeking to sober up her escort johnnie boyd on the way home from a party slaps him and attracts the attention of 0 a policeman whom the boy knocks down As he arrests him professor brace ot of her vard comes to the rescue and drives barbara home on the way they see barbara a father driving from the direction of his office at 12 45 but when he gets home he tells his wife it Is 11 15 and that he s been playing bridge at the club next day sentry reports his office has been robbed and a miss wines former temporary employee killed the evening papers luridly confirm the story and sentry takes it hard mary elder daughter in love with neil nell ray young in terne at the hosp tal where she works goes 0 off f to dinner at gus loran a sentry a part ri e r with mrs loran a brother jimmy endle mr a and nd mrs sentry call on old mrs sentry and barbara alone receives dan fisher reporter who advises her not to talk phil sentry son ran at yale I 1 is d stubbed at the possible implications and suspicion of miss wines absence from her rooms tor for three days during august he goes home to help sentry is arrested and booked for murder dan fisher explains the evidence against mm bim that the robbery was a fake the safe opened by one who knew the combination changed since miss wines employment there that a back door key a duplicate of sentry s was found in the girls girl s purse and that sentry too had been away those ethree three days in august brace calls and backs up barbara in her denial that sentry could have done it because of the d s cre pancy ot of time between the slaying and their seeing sentry on the road phil show ing the police over the house finds his strong box open and his gun which only his father knew of gone meanwhile the police find ithe the stolen money burned in the furnace mrs sentry sees her husband who swears his innocence and tells her he had known of the robbery and murder the night before but tailed failed to call the pol ce and came home at 12 30 mary quarrels with nell neil ray CHAPTER V continued 12 so we might as well make friends with the other kind marry them mary repeated defiantly yes marry themi mrs sentry stood up quickly but mary cried dont don dont t say anything 1 i I 1 thought you might wish me luck but you only stare starel 1 linda urged but mary your real friends mary laughed almost tolerantly you re so young linda maybe you love phil and arid maybe you don t feel as neil nell did oh I 1 don t blame him himl he couldn coulden t marry a murder er s daughter mrs sentry whispered something but mary said in reckless cruelty oh he did it mother I 1 you 11 know sooner or later coming back from southampton last august I 1 met Is abel hedges in new york you don t know her but bat she knew father by sight and she told me she had seen you and him at a hotel in new jersey kept exclaiming about how young you looked trying to gea ge a rise out of me but I 1 I 1 mrs sentry s ears were ringing as though from a physical blow so that for a moment she heard noth ing mg then mary s words penetrated her consciousness again maybe hell he 11 wriggle out of it I 1 the police may not find out about that but I 1 won t be made to fy about it I 1 m going away I 1 mrs sentry did not protest she only murmured where yachting in the caribbean mary added contemptuously they can t serve a summons on me there therel yachting jimmy endle s taking me mr endle mary laughed I 1 don t be a par rot and don t sound so shocked mother it s perfectly respectable we re sailing at midnight jimmy s waiting for me outside and his captain will marry us as soon as we re at sea no one spoke she added in m shaken tones suddenly pitiful but I 1 wanted you to know where I 1 d gone mrs sentry at last spoke stead ily enough you re a grown worn wom an mary she said you must do as you decide she rose try to be happy dear she said and kissed her daughter now may I 1 help you pack she asked I 1 I 1 m not taking anything just go ing as I 1 am the girl said she added almost appealingly jim my s outside mother I 1 in sorry mary I 1 can t see him lum of mary nodded in curt defiance all right then that s all I 1 good by I 1 she went out into the hall they heard the front door close tires rolled away 4 when mary was gone mrs sen try looked at phil with bleak eyes and band at linda she turned then with out speaking to face the hearth where logs were blazing phil start fed toward her but linda touched i us is arm caught his eye shook her lead ead then they heard someone ome softly down the stairs bar ara a woolly bathrobe warm and soft oft over her night garments she fouled stood in the doorway her eyes clouded as though she had been sleep and after a moment she r asked who was that I 1 thought it was mary where is she phil saw his mother s shoulders move in a long shudder as a cold dog shivers to keep warm she hesi bated spoke then to her son good night phil she said linda good night she turned to her daughter barbara come upstairs III I 1 U tell you barbara s eyes were wide with shapeless fears but she did not speak only she put her arm around her mother s waist half supported her as they moved away phil and linda were left alone after a moment he asked hoarsely want to go home she shook her head her eyes deep not yet come phil sit down he obeyed her sat leaning for ward his elbows on his knees staring at the fire after a while he said bitterly well mary s gone off the deep end endl linda did not speak maybe she s the sensible one he reflected half despairing maybe she s right but I 1 didn dian t think she was a quitter I 1 I 1 you austri t blame her linda urged mary has always taken things hard phil she loved neil had a right to count on him so when he failed her I 1 he had to linda what else could he do he couldn t afford to be mixed up in a mess like this it would have followed him everywhere the things we re afraid of are never so bad when they really happen she said I 1 he s dodging shadows he was sensible I 1 I 1 don t call it that phil said gently I 1 know A woman wouldn t look at it the way a man does women lose their heads and their hearts phil I 1 P you can t argue about it I 1 suppose she smiled a little women can always find reasons to justify do ing what they really want to do but I 1 don t think reasons matter so much as wanting phil looked at her curiously you re pretty grown up in some ways linda lots older than I 1 am in the way you look at things women are always older than men he pounded fist into palm with a slow vehemence curiously elo quent he muttered gosh linda what are we going to do just live just go on living he whispered pitifully poor mary marrying jimmy endle he s rotten isn t he hea and he must be forty gosh why did she do aa linda did not answer he said mis drably I 1 thought father was pret ty grand linda of course he and I 1 never saw very much of each oth er he grinned ruefully but I 1 ve grown up thinking of us of our family of myself as settled and se cure I 1 felt as though I 1 could play around for a while all right be cause when I 1 was ready I 1 could al ways step into a place that was waiting for me he looked at lm da hopelessly she shivered folded her arms across her bosom as though she were cold it just tears me in two phil to see you so hurt he said it doesn doean t really hurt somehow I 1 don t realize it yet I 1 suppose I 1 wonder if I 1 ever will it sort of seems as though we were all dreaming or something and he said as though to speak were somehow comforting mary s right father did it you know I 1 ve known that since the day they came here to search the house inspector irons went up to my room and he found this lock box under my couch A fellow out west gave me an old revolver once a sort of relic it hadn haan t any cartridges in it but I 1 kept it hidden in that box locked away because mother hates guns but someone had broken the box open and the gun was gone and father was the only one who knew where it was that scared me so I 1 told the inspector that I 1 kept reels and things in the box told him I 1 broke it open myself you know how you do lie be when you re scared of course he went on then they found some ashes in the furnace where some money had been burned they could tell it was money they think father brought it home that night to make the thing at the office look like burglars and burned it he looked at her miserably and now this thing mary hinted that was august and miss wines was away in m august augustl he did it linda lindal phil you re giving up too aas ily I 1 gosh he protested miserably how can I 1 help it ita he took her to new jersey and he had a key to the office made and gave it to this girl probably he used to meet her there she urged but phil mary may be wrong or the girl who told her may be wrong and as for the rest of it well suppose someone else planned to kill her and wanted to make it look as though your father did it they could have stolen the gun and burned some money in the furnace and thrown the gun in the river back of the garage he echoed startled in the nv riv er was the gun in the river I 1 saw them dragging for something yes she admitted the pa pers say they found it there he shivered and she insisted again but phil someone else might have done all those things who why anyone 1 oscar or eli or some man that knew the girl or even mr loran shucks linda you re joking no I 1 m not he looked at her squarely hon est cross your heart don t you think father did it she tried to speak said then hon estly I 1 suppose I 1 do phil I 1 suppose I 1 was just trying to find some way to comfort you but phil it isn t for us to decide anyway and she urged and we can t give up you see phil we re pretty young you know the way babies are the least little thing lust just looks awfully black to them and they scream as if they were heart broken we re sort of like that probably things will straighten out somehow I 1 gosh I 1 don t see how howl I 1 and besides phil you ve got a lob job on your hands your mother has always been so proud this is terrible for her even when she s sure that he s innocent if she ever thought he wasn gasn t well you can see you have to take care of her and of barbara too phil barbara s an awfully sweet girl you austri t ever let her believe he did it phil it would just kill her I 1 see what you mean I 1 guess it s up to me all right you 11 have to be awfully good to your mother phil and she said the thing you U 11 all have to do is not think about yourselves very much think about each other you see mary just thought about herself and how unhappy she was and how her life was wrecked and she didn dian t stop to think about the rest of you and that you needed her he nodded soberly and linda went on at least that s the way it looks to me phil you ve all got to have something to hold on to and the best thing for you to do is to just set your teeth into the job of taking care of your mother and barbara she suggested maybe you can make your mother think you C 1 m F 0 amr mr loran and mr hare will help you though need her terribly and make her see that barbara does too that will help her phil said barbara s been great all along making jokes okes and beina being funny and trying to make us laugh sort of like a puppy putting on an act trying to get his master to play he asked but what s going to happen now linda what can we do to help father I 1 don t exactly know linda lind a confessed except of course you U 11 get a lawyer for him and do what ever the lawyer says his eyes widened with sudden panic linda can dan they make me be a witness against him about the gun things like that I 1 suppose they can I 1 won wont t do tl he cried pas siona tely none of us will I 1 feel so darned ignorant she said helplessly I 1 wish I 1 knew more about it mr loran and mr hare will help you though he nodded I 1 don t know how much the police know he reflected acted his eyes clouded they didn dian t know about the money in the furnace til till I 1 after they arrested him nor about the gun but they must have known something TO BE CONTINUED |