Show synthetic 7 az th et ic ulen gentleman CHANNING cz CR C R jl IL POLLOCK PO L LO C K r ic it L COPYRIGHT POLLOCK 1 02 CHAPTER XII continued 21 miss nam hambidge bidge was 1 ID D mummery play acting ridder snapped 1 I observed that fen feathered your nest I 1 was wrong why you say so sol 1 I 1 did the old man was looking at barrys check i can you write he asked 1 I don dont t know II fl arwood thinks you can lie ile just left here ile he says you earned what w we e paid you well better go 0 on n earning coming it you mean im hired I hired llred ridder repeated you were viere hired two iwo months ago who ever fired you there seem to be any answer to that mr ridder wants you to nork ork with jack mrs remarked keep an e eye e on him youre going to take jack 1 were taking him home tonight and all peggy we hope come out sometimes 1 I want jack to carry on ridder de declared lared when im through lie ile was back at his desk now DOW and he be looked up almost smiling you said I 1 was a tough bird be told barry 1 I heard you dont apologize the world needs tough birds you dont win battles with pigeons got to do a tittle little clear thinking got to know what hes about were a soft race coddled self indulgent we need hard going and discipline ills voice was crisp and sure the matter with this young generation its fathers had too much money I 1 was a tough bird because I 1 knew the fight jack had bad made and I 1 help him id tried that ha int I 1 the other way was my only eh chance acce to make a man of roy my son there was no lack or of emotion in his tone now and you ilow how did I 1 know you just a cheap swindler by listening to a lot ot of warmhearted warm hearted generalities erali ties how did I 1 know you a blackmailer until I 1 saw you were going to give yourself up without squealing then iou were play acting not mot on your life I 1 was watching you like a hawk but there was a cop out there and I 1 thought you had a date with him until I 1 saw your face when I 1 asked you why you sent that wireless to mrs ridder again he almost smiled there was as a cop waiting behl behind nd that door and a girl behind that one A nice girl I 1 had to be sure I 1 wa ant messing things up for her ile he glanced at tits his watch four you people have got to get out of here I 1 cant spend the day being a sentimental idiot youre neither mrs said neither what neither sentimental nor an idiot youre a tough bird but I 1 like era em that way she was holding bolding on to his arm when barry closed the big door behind them barry thought slip slie was crying she Is my mother after all barry thought ashes all the file mother boeer 1 ocer bad 11 lie told winslow most of it late that same afternoon peter sat at t tit his desk looking restless I 1 and tired but happier than lie he had bad seemed in some time I 1 pat said she was going to propose to you lie smiled meant it too we e knew that women are funny atio scooted td you while things were ere going ri right she barry laughed 1 I was coming back for tier her when I 1 got cot out of jail your dope on the old man was all wrong winslow commented lie ile has been cold and hungry trucked on a dock once and as to being nuts about anybody cant you seo see why he be went into reverse when the lie boy disappointed him lie he opened the light tup top braer of his desk probing its inscrutable jumble for something to play with you had a cloe call though ridder knew lint he owed you people forgive what you do to them but rarely what you do for them youve done an awful lot for me all right nonsense I 1 the top drawer yielded anything promising and peter picked up ills his little red magnet its all ended well he be remarked even for luls LUIS morano ile he cheated the chair and what he wanted to do 1 I thought you were so eo sure of ills his innocence ills innocence of this crime yes peter answered then lie rose and touched the magnet to tits thermometer when ore you sailing good luck hick barry said extending his hand across the lie desk peter turned to take it freeing his own hand ban by trying to slip the magnet over the hook from which the thermometer her mor neter hung the magnet promptly fell into the open desk drawer damn ieter probing again he retrieved it nt at list hist from somewhere near the bottom of that astounding accumulation of rubber bands pen wipers and eliat hat not clinging to the metal held by its magnetic attraction was a another not 11 er bit of metal As peter ieter dropped the lie magnet onto his desk that other bit of metal detached itself nril and fell almost at bar ba rys feet barry picked it up looked at it looked again and then looked at al peter peter was starin staring at him barry took a notebook out of his is pocket A he said yes res kellys latchkey latch key peter nodded 1 I must have thrown it here weeks ago and forgotten it id throw it somewhere else now barry advised somewhere just a little bit safer well good luck again and goodby good by ue ile had readied reached the door peter said walt wait a minute bany waited illow how long have you known that you killed mike hike kelly carry barry asked since last thursday I 1 was on the train coming in from southampton 61 in I 1 N j T ff 1 I doped that out too and id just read of death one of my suspects was guilty I 1 thought peter winslow cant laugh that oft 1 ue he was back in the room now 1 I remembered lie he went on how you did laugh when I 1 suggested mo ilo rano an and how sure you were that I 1 was wrong about every one else but you never said anything that started roe me on the right track on the contrary when I 1 asked you if there was a mrs II 11 rs kelly you answered yes she sued for divorce recently ond and withdrew the ease case just read that in the herald tribune and the same sentence revealed that at the hie time of the murder mrs kelly was in harlem but you mention that why only one explanation occurred to me and that was your willingness to keep me on the trail of some one who possibly be convicted barry sat down again tin the other side of the lie desk go on peter urged im very much interested rie lie was sitting too now my interest lie he continued is strangely impersonal almost wholly professional I 1 think it Is very curious im just a criminal lawyer interested te in a crime arfine ills weariness explained that barry thought As had been and morano and barry himself when talking with wilder peter winslow was glad its over As n criminal lawyer barry said and a shrewd one be surprised to know how bow much you overlooked bits of evidence that fitted like a jigsaw puzzle the moment suspicion started anyone putting them together As for instance barry smiled you told me morano phoned you at one the morning of the murder to say that one of his girls was in jail and would you take inake the case but peggy in jail at one shed been released hours before and morano knew it it I 1 know that he did phone you what about why about kellys visit to the cocoanut Coco anut bar of course and the threat of something in tits his pocket that was not only a menace to morano but Kel kellys lyls hold over judge hambidge A paper every one ne seemed to want and that had disappeared disappear 41 when the body was found what had that paper to do with you if this were it detective story ant and read it find twenty answers to that question judge said bald he tell the truth because of a woman pat said the woman was her dead mother and plainly that had bad s something om ething to do with morano Sl orano 1 ile he leaned forward neross across the desk 1 11 I see any link between the two and then X remembered that pat anta mother was your cifes sister pat told me tier her mother was brought up in a little town called warrenton that meant your wife came from warrenton too and morano had told me he carne came from fauquier Fau quler county I 1 went to my atlas Warren tons in fauquier con county fity there used to be a military school there mrs winslow ran away with her first husband while he wis g cadet in a military school peter loaned leaned forward too ton and morano he be be began an tensely 1 I dont know whether morano went vent to a military school or r not cut but george selby tit morano and george georga spiny selby were viere the sanie same man ih aliey it was as after six now the outside offices were deserted and silent client but the noise of traffic tr illic drifted up from the street for almost a that th it was the only sound in the ilie ronni where here these two men sat fixing pach other then peter sald said yes they were the same man 1 I was sure of it barry resumed the papers that selby was wa drowned in philadelphia but the body they identified had been in the water two weeks fresh water so that identification amount to much violet fone fane had bad told roe me morano bought the house down town because he was married and he and his wire lived there the sob story I 1 dug out of the tabloids salo said selby was blissfully happy with his bride in a house hed rented down town obviously the same house sentimental yes but morano was a sentimental cuss so sentimental that be might have died rather than have hare it discovered that your wife was really his wife barry saw peter wince but went on oa of course he had another reason for resisting arrest that hot spot with which kelly threatened him if morano had been arrested and fingerprinted r they dve learned that he was george selby and wanted for murder morano morann made certain of that the train lie he taught caught at the penn station went to philadelphia where he was all the next day checking up on the aln fingerprints finger er prints taken when selby was sent to the state penitentiary and perhaps trying through underground channels to have the them removed from the files 1 I had the motive for the murder neif now 71 or kelly knew morano marano was selby and so that your wife was technically a bigamist that was the threat he held over morano and judge e the threat that persuaded the judge to write a crooked decision the paper kelly had in his pocket was a marriage ariage e certificate or something of the sort hed found somewhere in an old trunk peter said la in the house lie he bought at 24 Jefre jefferson street birry barry nodded 1 I doped that out too both morano and flum bidge had plenty of reason to kill kelly cut but neither had as much reason as you had it you knew of the e existence of 0 that paper and you did you w where b e re telephone message came in why he called you up from the cocoanut Coco anut bar to tell you hed seen the paper and kelly had it right winslow said simply my inquiry was narrowing down to you and alborano ll orano but how did either r of you get in to kelly and then I 1 remembered that the day I 1 first saw mrs kelly she came into that h house ou s e and lert left her key in the door I 1 di did d the same thing this week anybody might especially a drunken man that would explain why the key on kellys body it would explain how our third caller entered while kelly s was talking to judge night winslow repented repeated TO HE BE CONTINUED i |