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Show and be r Peggy Bern r W.N.U. RELEASE right where he said the 'ghosf stood. Doesn't that prove that it isn't entirely a tall tale?" protested Megan, resenting their casual assumption as-sumption that Amos was a complete stranger to the truth. "Oh, now, see here. Bob be reasonable," rea-sonable," Larry snapped. "If Amos had hidden the knife there, would he have told about it? Look, fella, I know Amos. He would never nev-er voluntarily go near a place like that, at night especially with a murder on his mind. And if he had if he had been so frightened by what he had done that that fear overrode any other wild horses could never have made him tell a living soul about it." Look at it from a sane standpoint If he had hidden it there, the object would have been to keep anybody from ever finding it. Why, then, would he turn right around and Insist on telling me about it, and being perfectly willing to tell you? He even went with us this morning and pointed out the spot where the 'ghost' bent down. Use your head, man." Bob grinned. "Sure sure lay off, pal! I only said that I don't believe Megan caught her breath and felt as though every drop of blood in her body had congealed about her heart. Her eyes were wide and frightened, and she was suddenly conscious that Bob Reynolds was watching her narrowly, nar-rowly, an odd light in his eyes. "Of course, Annie, I'll see her," she made herself say swiftly, then steadying her voice with an effort. "If you'll excuse me ?" But Bob Reynolds said casually, with a look in his eyes that was not at all casual, "Why not see her in here, Miss MacTavish?" Megan looked sharply at him and said instantly, "But why? It's no doubt a personal matter I mean it can't possibly have any connection " But beneath the look in his eyes her voice broke. "Of course not," Bob agreed amiably, ami-ably, but still with that wary look in his eyes. "But Just the same " And behind Annie, Megan saw, with a feeling of shock, Martha Fallon, Fal-lon, short, stocky, commonplace looking. Her neat dark percale dress and the smoothness of her hair that was streaked with gray only emphasized the look of barely restrained terror in her eyes; just as the inexpert daubs of rouge and the powder that was not quite smooth only emphasized the pallor of her drawn face. She came Into the room and Annie faded out of the doorway. But Megan Me-gan knew subconsciously that Annie had only slipped back a little into the shadows and that she was listening lis-tening with almost visibly distended ears. Miss Martha nodded to Megan and addressed herself to Bob, after giving Laurence a steady, straight look. "You're the detective-fellow?" she asked Bob curtly. "Yes, Miss Fallon my name's Reynolds," answered Bob. Martha nodded and said, "Well, my name's not Fallon. I'm Tom Fallon's sister-in-law, not his sister. My name's Evans Martha Evans." Laurence unobtrusively turned a chair towards her and she nodded her thanks and sank into it with a movement that was almost of collapse, col-lapse, as though her knees were shaking violently, and she was very glad of the support the chair gave her. "So you found it," she said when she had drawn a deep hard breath and Megan, sick with pity and bewilderment, be-wilderment, saw the work-roughened hands gripped so tightly together to-gether that the knuckles were small white mounds. IP THE STORY THUS FAR: Jim MacTavish Mac-Tavish admits to Meg that .Ulcla had led him on aod made a fool of him. It bad seemed to amuse her. In their mis-cry mis-cry Jim and Megan are reconciled. It was a relief when neither one was called to the Inquest, and they waited anxiously for Larry to return to tell them what had been found. "She was killed with a knife which we found where old Amos saw a ghost burying It," he explained. Bob Reynolds, the detective, could find no fingerprints due to a heavy rain later. Old Amos was interviewed again to get - more Information on the size of the ghost, bow It acted, and the exact time he saw U. Both Meg and her father were breathing easier. CHAPTER XIV Annie chuckled richly. "Effen y'all had seed him w'en he come bustin' into de house dat night, Mist' Larry, y'all would a'knowed right den he'd seed plenty!" she assured him. "We still are not quite sure about that eight-foot-high ghost with the glaring yellow eyes," Laurence told Annie, "but Reynolds is talking to Amos now, trying to see if he can't get him to scale the ghost down somewhat, so we can feel that it was human!" He turned to Megan as Annie padded pad-ded away. "It was a knife," he an-wered an-wered the look of questioning in her eyes, and Megan caught her breath and went white as the collar col-lar of her trim morning frock. "Bob leels sure it is the knife." She did not speak, but her eyes pleaded with him and Laurence went on quietly, "There's not much possibility of fingerprints. The knife was buried halfway up the hilt, and It rained later on that night, and of course, the dews are very heavy this time of the year.' It was Just an ordinary kitchen knife, such as any hardware store sells by the gross- every year probably every kitchen in Pleasant Grove has one or two exactly like it." Megan was conscious that she was breathing a little more easily. She aid hurriedly, lest Laurence should notice that, "Then you aren't much better off than you were before so far as identification. Have you any suspects?" Laurence grinned. "You should have heard Ma Stuart at the Inquest," In-quest," he said dryly. "According to her, there wasn't a man, woman or child in Pleasant Grove who didn't have a motive for wanting the Stevenson woman out' of the way. She mentioned a few of the reasons. Some of the people mentioned men-tioned resented it quite a bit, and fisticuffs were barely avoided. The search for alibis became quite intensive, inten-sive, but except for two or three, all were eliminated as suspects. And the evidence against the two or three is slim." Megan touched dry lips with her tongue and steadied her voice to ask faintly, "Who are the ones who couldn't manage an alibi?" "Well, the Teasley boy and his wife and baby seemed to have excellent ex-cellent reason for disliking Mrs. Stevenson," said Laurence reluctantly. reluc-tantly. "It seems, according to Ma Stuart, that Mrs. Stevenson made a remark that tended to discredit the legitimacy of the Teasley baby, and that Will Teasley publicly slapped her face in front of the Mercantile a week ago." "I remember that," said Megan. "Do you?" asked Laurence quickly. quick-ly. "Do you remember how Mrs. Stevenson took it?" "Well, it was pretty unpleasant, of course but Will Teasley's a Pleasant Grove boy, and his wife has lived here all her life, except for the year she worked in town, so everybody sided with Will," Megan remembered aloud. "Alicia sort of staggered, and her face got very white, and then she laughed and said, 'What is the old-fashioned crack about a hit dog always howls loudest?' And walked away." Laurence nodded. "That checks with Ma Stuart's testimony," be admitted. "And finding the knife doesn't help a bit?" asked Megan. "Afraid not," admitted Laurence frankly. "Though if we can get any sort of description out of Amos, about the so-called 'ghost' it might help." He grinned at her and said. "No- 3tice I said 'we'? I'm sort of unofficial unof-ficial assistant to Bub because I know the town and the people," De explained. A little later Bob came In. greeted greet-ed Megan pleasantly, and lifted his shoulders and spread his hands palm upward in a gesture of discouragement dis-couragement and futility. "I can't get anything out of that old man to save my life." he admitted. ad-mitted. "He goes on saying 'hit wuz 'bout eight feet tall, boss an' hit wuz all white and jes' floated 'long and had big glaring yaller eyes like a cat dat's all I knows'." "1 wonder what Amos had been drink, ng," Laurence said lightly. "Some of that 'white mule' they brew up over at Frogiown would make a fellow see pink cows and green elephants." "That's the darndest thing of all he swears he hRdn't had a drink, and Annie backs him up," exploded Bob furiously. "I could understand his telling such a tall tale if he'd bad a few shots" "But you did find the knife there "Now, see here, Miss MacTavish, you're not going to. tell me you believe be-lieve in ghosts?" he protested. in ghosts, yet I can't picture a human hu-man being eight feet tall, wrapped in a white sheet and with glaring yellow eyes doing a murder and then picking that spot to hide the weapon. In fact, I can't picture a human being eight feet tall period! Maybe you can suggest something?" some-thing?" Laurence shook his head. "It's got me licked," he admitted. "Miss MacTavish?" suggested Bob and she had to steady herself and tell herself that she was a fool to be frightened of that question In his eyes. "I don't believe in ghosts but I do believe Amos' story," was all she could manage. Bob sighed, ran his fingers through his hair, leaving it standing on end, and said helplessly. "Well. I think we're licked, too. Though we'll keep slugging away at the case, of course, hoping that some-tiling some-tiling will turn up " "You couldn't be persuaded, of course, to accept Ma Stuart's suggestion sug-gestion that you just drop the whole matter, with the thought that whoever who-ever did it, did Pleasant Grove a great service?" suggested Laurence wryly. Megan gasped. "Oh, no, Larry did she really say that?" "She did!" said Bob laughing. "Boy, what a character! She gave the department a going over that it hasn't had since they drafted our captain for a job in the Marine Training Camp! I would like to know that lady better under, of course, pleasanter circumstances." "She's really a grand person." Megan said eagerly. "Everybody loves her." Megan hesitated and colored. "Well Alicia liked to to stir things up." she admitted reluctantly. "I think she was very bored here, and she admitted frankly that she only came here to live because her income in-come had shrunk, and because her money went farther here. And to keep things stirred up gave her well, something to relieve her boredom, bore-dom, I suppose. She did not he. that is. not to any great extent. She simply had a way of digging out truths that people wanted hidden and dropped them publicly where they would be mosl certain to stir up trouble." "She sounds like a lady who was a self-elected candidate for a murder, mur-der, at that." Bob commented Annie appeared at the door behind be-hind roni. unohi rusive. yt 1 ob inus-ly inus-ly e.eilid Her eyes were roM ng and her voice way nis:h as sh.e answered : Mcin's out siinni'ie to. k "Dry's a lady hyah M:5s Meggie rut's Mist : j Fallon s sisleh." Bob said gently, "Found what. Miss Evans?" She looked up at him so sharply that the sunlight fell harshly on the round lenses of her old-fashioned spectacles and she made a sound that was half a snort, half a sniff of contempt. "The knife, of course," she answered an-swered curtly. Bob made a short, swiftly controlled con-trolled movement, but his face was guarded, so that only if you had been watching him closely could you have noticed that Involuntary start of surprise. "Suppose you tell us about the knife. Miss Evans," Bob said gently. Miss Martha nodded. "What else do you think I came here for?" she sniffed, and abruptly she added, "Only the Stevenson woman wasn't killed with that knife, young man." "No?" asked Bob very swiftly, very politely, almost as though his interest had been too casual to make the statement of any importance. "No!" the word came explosively. "Then why was it necessary to hide it so er melodramatically?" wondered Bob aloud. Miss Martha breathed deeply and with difficulty. "Because." she told him and Megan's Me-gan's eyes were thick with tears for the stark agony that shone so clearly clear-ly in the tired, faded eyes behind those old-fashioned spectacles "because "be-cause my sister is a a mental case," she managed at last. Bob waited. Laurence was very still, watching Miss Martha, his arms folded across his chest, leaning against the big old-fashioned rolltop desk where Megan kept her accounts and books. Megan was on the very edge of her chair, her body tense and still, almost rigid, as she watched Miss Martha; and so deep, so intense was her pity and her sympathy that her own body felt some of the suffering suf-fering that stood forth so starkly in Miss Martha's tired eyes. "You mean." said Bob. after a moment mo-ment designed to give Miss Mattha a respite so that she could breathe again, "that your sister was not accountable ac-countable for her actions " "1 mean, young man, that my sister sis-ter had periods of lucidity." she said harshly. "But Tom, her husband, hus-band, didn't know that those periods were coming less frequently and lasting for shorter periods of time. I couldn't bear o tell him; he thought, poor soul, that she wa6 getting get-ting belter that there was hope for her But I didn't deceive myself. Even if 1 had wanted to her attactt on me one nipht " Her voice broke I and her face worked convulsively, but she did not lower her head, nor make any effort to hide her face from them Mocan said quietly, "That mgnt ' you fell and hurt your ankle?" i TO BE CONTINUED) |
