FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  
't get into the apartment until after ten o'clock. It might 'a' been done any time up till then." The eyes of Kirby and Rose met. They had private information about who was in the rooms from about 9.55 till 10.10. The cattleman corrected his statement. "All right, say between 9.30 and 10.05. During that time Hull may have shot my uncle. Or Olson may have opened the window while my uncle lay there helpless, killed him, stepped outa the window again, an' slipped down by the fire escape. All he'd have to do then would be to walk into the Wyndham, replace the rope on the roof, an' next mornin' leave for Dry Valley." The detective nodded. "_If_ he cut the rope. Lemme find out from the landlady whether it _was_ cut that night." "Good. We'll wait for you at the corner." Ten minutes later the detective joined them in front of the drug-store where they were standing. The hard eyes in his cold gambler's face were lit up for once. "I'll say the man from Missouri has been shown," he said. "I let on to the dame at the Wyndham that I was after a gang of young sneak thieves in the neighborhood. Pretty soon I drifted her to the night of the twenty-third--said they 'd been especially active that night and had used a rope to get into a second story of a building. She woke up. Her clothesline on the roof had been cut that very night. She remembered the night on account of its being the one when Mr. Cunningham was killed. Could the boys have used it to get into the store an' then brought it back? I thought likely." "Bully! We're one step nearer than we were. We know Olson was lookin' in the window from the fire escape just outside." The detective slapped his thigh. "It lies between Hull and the Swede. That's a cinch." "I believe it does," agreed Rose. Kirby made no comment. He seemed to be absorbed in speculations of his own. The detective was reasoning from a very partial knowledge of the facts. He knew nothing about the relations of James Cunningham to his uncle, nor even that the younger Cunninghams--or at least one of them--had been in his uncle's apartment the evening of his death. He did not know that Rose had been there. Wherefore his deductions, even though they had the benefit of being trained ones, were of slight value in this case. "Will you take the key back to the Chief of Police?" Kirby asked him as they separated. "Better not tell him who was with you or what we were doin'."
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  



Top keywords:
detective
 

window

 

killed

 
Wyndham
 

escape

 

Cunningham

 

apartment

 

slapped

 

comment

 

absorbed


agreed

 
nearer
 

remembered

 
account
 
brought
 

thought

 

lookin

 

knowledge

 

slight

 

benefit


trained

 

Better

 

separated

 

Police

 

deductions

 
relations
 

reasoning

 

partial

 

Wherefore

 

evening


younger

 

Cunninghams

 
speculations
 

landlady

 

nodded

 

Valley

 

statement

 

corner

 

corrected

 

cattleman


mornin
 
opened
 

slipped

 

stepped

 

replace

 
During
 

minutes

 
neighborhood
 
Pretty
 

drifted