Show DEAD SURE by CARLTON JAMES a associated service t A INT I 1 always told you A A bellowed pat cassidy never to accuse no one of a crime till you was sure you had em dead to rights aint I 1 belligerently he thrust forward his jaw and glowered at young jerry tomlinson detective he was a huge hulk of a man this young tomlinson with a square jaw and a squashed in nose the type of man whose picture mothers might use to frighten their children but just now the habitual arrogant gleam had left his eyes he shifted uneasily from one big foot to the other he blushed actually blushed but listen pat he argued we have got this jigger dead to rights his fingerprints prove it lieutenant pat interrupted with a throaty sound that resembled the croaking of a frog adding emphasis with a fierce wave of his hand cupl he said tellin me im wrong he thrust a finger not into big jerrys stomach and for a moment big jerrys eyes gleamed listen this here police department is in bad enough with john J public without ar an innocent man morey shoot J T roberts any moren I 1 did big jerry opened his mouth to reply but was forestalled by the voice of mr morey himself for the past 15 minutes mr morey had been sitting in a corner ol of the lieutenants office listening patiently while the two policemen argued over the justification of his arrest he was a mild mannered man this morey with bone rimmed glasses there were handcuffs on his wrists 1 I beg your pardon he said apologetically and smiled in rather a 8 dry manner im inclined to side with the lieutenant indeed what the lieutenant says is the very thing of which I 1 tried to convince my friend here mr tomlinson just here mr morey paused and favored big jerry with another ot of his dry smiles and now he went on if you dont mind id like these handcuffs removed and id like also to go home oh you would pats visage lost none of its belligerence when he turned to face the prisoner oh you would he repeated well we aint through with you yet mor ey in fact we aint got started you go over there and sit down till youre wanted big jerry grinned broadly now that he said is sense I 1 knew come to my way thinking I 1 your way nuts I 1 told you morey shoot J T roberts and I 1 meant it say are you crazy big jerry looked bewildered all right he said 1 I get it want me to show how I 1 know eh 0 K ill admit I 1 was green but this was dead open and shut now get this in the first place we found moneys fingerprints on the gun in the second place the M D gave us the bullet he dug out of roberts arm and we know it came from the gun on which we found moneys fingerprints ger prints in the third place morey admits having quarreled with roberts and in the fourth place roberts returned to consciousness long enough to tell us that morey attacked him need any more proof plenty you fathe fathead adill pat bit off the end of a cigar so with that evidence you went right over and arrested morey and charged him with shooting roberts what would you have done big jerry asked and his voice was sarcastic me said pat me why I 1 would have got more evidence investigated vesti gated things further how I 1 happened to get this lieutenants job pup by making sure he set fire to his cigar and appeared not to notice the gleam in big jerrys eyes now then tie he went on lets get this thing settled an maybe learn you something how about the fingerprints was there any others on the gun besides moneys Mo reys big jerry gestured impatiently you could see he was fast losing his temper yeah mr Wi seguy there were other prints roberts he owned the gun 0 K now how about roberts was there any other wounds on him besides the bullet hole big jerry sighed there was a bump on his head he admitted it got there when he fell against the desk after being shot the doc said so oh the doc said so eh pat chewed his cigar and eyed his inferior with his head held back to keep the smoke from his eyes his thumbs were hooked in the arm holes of his vest tomlinson thought there was a wholly supercilious expression on his face yeah big jerry snapped the doe doc said so 0 K cassidy removed the cigar from his mouth and sat down at the desk against which he had been leaning his manner underwent a change he folded his arms atop the desk and looked at big jerry but the belligerence li had gone from his face and when he spoke his voice was no longer taunting or condemning listen jerry he said youre new at the game and this time im going to show you where youre wrong however hereafter remember to obey orders I 1 mean make sure of your ground dead sure he paused picked up his cigar moneys Mo reys the man you want all right edt but you arrested him for the wrong reason I 1 knew you were working on the case so I 1 made an investigation on my own hook and checked up big jerry became uneasy again well it looked to me sure sure I 1 know how it looked to you but the fact remains you were wrong now get this mor morey ey attacked roberts that much you got straight roberts was sitting at his desk at the time when he saw morey coming for him he reached into a drawer and produced the revolver incidentally roberts fingerprints 9 ger er were as fresh as those of morey seeing what was about to happen morey made a dive for him they grappled and in the scuffle the gun went off and the bullet went into roberts arm it put him out however although he dropped the gun morey picked it up and when roberts made another move toward his desk drawer morey thinking his opponent was going after another gun leaped forward again you see morey have the guts to plug roberts so he socked him over the head with the butt of the revolver he had in his hand but he shoot him big jerry opened his mouth in a manner that suggested blank astonishment ish ment he might have spoken but lieutenant pat added now dont try to argue ive confirmed all this with roberts who has completely recovered consciousness and checked my account of what happened big jerry swallowed and said yeah well how did you know 1 I how did I 1 know well jerry I 1 was careful all he picked up the sheets of fingerprints that lay on the desk see these he said fingerprints moneys Mo reys the ones we took from the gun study em compare em with the pictures look carefully and you find find that moneys fingerprints were upside down and found only on the muzzle of the gun you see when he picked it up he ha had d it by the muzzle and when he slugged roberts he had it by the muzzle also you cant shoot a man with a gun while youre holding it in your hand by the muzzle |