Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 118, No. 2, March 19, 1938
- Автор: Clark Dale, 12627 Convict
- Год: 1938
- Язык: английский
- Год: The Red Star News Company
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 118, No. 2, March 19, 1938». Краткое содержание книги:
“Cooper. I belong here.”
The policeman walked up to meet Cooper. He was a young cop with broad, blocky shoulders and a rolling walk. He was wearing the uniform of the District Park Police that limited his jurisdiction to the Mount Vernon Highway, but he had the aggressive manner of a man who, having blundered into something, intends to see it through.
“What’s it all about?” he said. Cooper shrugged.
“I don’t know yet myself. Our Japanese servant shot someone running away. He got shot himself doing it.”
There was another car pulling into the driveway. Three men piled out and entered into conversation with the policemen down on the grounds. They were Scoutmasters visiting Washington for the Boy Scout Jamboree and while one of their number stood guard to keep curious persons off the grounds, the other two helped Cooper and the two policemen to get the wounded men into the house.
The second wounded man was George Arlington, master con man.
He smiled grimly with pain-taut lips when he recognized Cooper. “I thought we said ‘No hard feeling,’ Cooper.”
“That’s right. But I didn’t shoot you. And the senator hadn’t been murdered then.”
“Murdered?” Arlington’s small eyes opened wide. Cooper stared hard at him. The blocky policeman straightened from his examination of Hito’s wound. He was the senior cop of the patrol and his name was Brennan.
“What’s this about a senator being murdered?” he said.
“Bradford Weller. He was stabbed in his bed,” Cooper said grimly. “By a person or persons unknown.”
“And this guy was running away?” The policeman jerked his thumb at Arlington.
There was a commotion at the door and Mildred Harney broke away from Vi Dawson and Tim Weller. She threw herself down on her knees beside Arlington and would have put her arms around him if the second policeman, a lean youngster with red hair, hadn’t gripped her shoulder.
“He didn’t do it,” she said. “He didn’t do it.”
Brennan turned to the Scoutmasters. “We need some authority here,” he said. “Be good guys and get us a couple of medicos and some law from Alexandria.”
The Scoutmasters saluted and went out on the double. Brennan ran his hand through his hair. “How do you know that he didn’t do it?” he said.
Mildred Harney looked up defiantly. “Because he didn’t have any reason to do it. And he was in my room all night. That’s why he ran away.”
She was like a tigress at bay, her eyes flashing. Brennan looked embarrassed. He looked to his partner for suggestions but the red-haired youth didn’t know what to do, either. Tim Weller sank into a chair, his eyes on Mildred Harney’s face. He looked very old and tired.
“You had promised to marry my brother,” he said accusingly.
She looked at him and laughed bitterly. “I didn’t,” she said. “Your brother was careful about that. He didn’t make any offers that he didn’t have to make.”
“But you would have married him.”
“I couldn’t. I’m married to George.” Her voice caught in a sob and the fight went out of her. She tried to put her arms around the injured con man again. “Are you hurt badly, darling?” she said.
The red-haired policeman kept her back. “He’s just nicked, Miss. Thigh and shoulder. He’ll be okay.”
Greg Cooper had been bending over the Japanese. Hito decidedly was not okay. He had been hit in the chest and he was bleeding internally. There was froth on his lips. His eyes, however, were alive. He seemed to be vitally interested in everything that was being said in the room.
“I am fidelity always,” he whispered. “Missy scream. I shoot.”
“You were right about that, Hito.” Greg Cooper’s voice was soft. “Take it easy.”
George Arlington was speaking to the blonde girl. “Sit tight and keep your nerve,” he said. “We’re in the clear, see?”
Mildred Harney nodded. Vi Dawson came over beside Greg Cooper. “Is there anything I can do, Greg?”
“Yes. Try to keep Hito comfortable till the doctor comes.”
Cooper rose slowly to his feet. George Arlington was looking at him with narrowed calculating eyes. The blonde girl watched him with open hostility. Tim Weller had his chin on his chest. The two policemen were standing awkwardly, charged with responsibility but lacking authority. Greg Cooper looked slowly around the room.
“Somebody here murdered Senator Weller,” he said gravely.
Tim Weller lifted his chin from his chest. He stretched out one thin arm. “Wait,” he said. “Let me ask this girl a question.” He leaned forward in his chair.
“You couldn’t marry my brother,” he said. “So you had no chance of collecting his insurance. He had a lot of that and it was all that he did have after you let him burn up his money. What did you stand to gain?”
The girl looked at him and laughed. “Suppose you guess,” she said defiantly.
Greg Cooper measured her with his eyes and there was no friendliness in his face. “Suppose that I do the guessing,” he said. “What you stood to gain was exactly one hundred and fifty-four thousand, seven hundred and sixty-five dollars.”
The girl stiffened and George Arlington ignored the pain of his wounds to come up on one elbow. Tim Weller was staring haggardly as though only dimly comprehending what was said. Greg Cooper shifted his stare to the con man.
“I couldn’t figure out your business with the senator,” he said, “until he pulled his grandstand act about burning up his fortune. Then I guessed. I knew Bradford Weller for too many years to believe in that gesture. It would break his heart to burn up a single dollar. And he didn’t burn a single dollar — not one.”
The room became quiet. “The senator wanted to eat his cake and have it, too,” he said. “He wanted his relatives to think that he had no money — and he wanted money to throw away on blondes. He bought hot money or badly made, unpassable counterfeit money and he substituted it for the real thing before that big show of his. And you, Arlington, sold it to him.”
Arlington winced but Mildred Harney managed a laugh. “How silly!” she said. “Why those bills that he burned had your tags on them.”
“Sure. And the senator had plenty of time alone in his study while I was down town to take those tags from one set of currency and transfer them to another.”
Mildred Harney tried to laugh again but the laugh did not quite come off. Cooper’s voice was relentless. “You two swindlers could have clipped the senator for every dime of that money and he wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it,” he growled. “His fortune no longer existed legally. He had burned it before witnesses. He could never have accused you of stealing what he had burned. It was the perfect con game.”
Big George Arlington found his voice. “You don’t arrest people for what they might have done,” he said. “Mildred and I had nothing to do with killing him. We had no reason for killing him.”
Greg Cooper’s face looked drawn. “That’s right,” he said, “and I don’t believe that either one of you did kill him.”
Big George and the blonde girl relaxed visibly. The room was very quiet and Greg Cooper seemed reluctant to say more. Hito, the little Japanese, was watching every one of the tense actors in the scene, his eyes unnaturally bright. He coughed to call attention to himself.
“I kill him,” he said. “I kill the senator. All okay now.”
Chapter X
The Motive
Greg Cooper whirled to the sound of Hito’s voice. He stared blankly at the little yellow man who was struggling to sit up against the support of Vi Dawson’s arms. Two cars stopped outside and there were strangers entering the room. Brennan was explaining the case.