Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 118, No. 6, April 16, 1938

It was childishly simple.

Penny Pim opened his eyes, saw a laughing guard looking through the cell bars at him. Raucous sounds came from either side up and down the cell block. The sounds came from prisoners watching him wake to consciousness. Penny blushed. He knew he’d been proposing to Naomi in his dreams. That he was proposing aloud to the edification of a group of bums surrounding his cell was apparent — and embarrassing.

“Thinkin’ of the girl friend?” sneered the guard. “You’d better shut up. My boarders don’t like too much noise.” His laugh was echoed by the frowsy prisoners.

Penny looked at his wrist watch. He groaned. He knew Naomi long ago had left for her apartment. And he was in jail! He had tried to aid the police. He couldn’t help it if he saw things, remembered them. It was part of his makeup. His job depended upon his keen eyes and a prodigious memory. And he was chief inspector.

When he was with the Department of Commerce he had kept hundreds of thousands of things in his incredible brain. Now, with the Treasury, he must scrutinize every bill coming from the tiers of presses, immediately recognize a hairline smudge, a microscopic blob of misplaced ink or hundreds of other minute errors. And while doing that he had learned to add the serial numbers on the bills. It made the hours pass quickly, gave his brain as well as his eyes something to do.

Another thing Penny Pim knew was hot money. There were thousand’s of bills throughout the country listed as “hot.” These bills had been stolen or paid out as ransom kidnaping cases, and the numbers recorded. But often the money got back into circulation because bank clerks would fail to note the numbers. The bills would become worn, eventually to return to Washington for redemption and to be destroyed. It was also Penny’s job to look over this worn and tattered currency to see if any of the numbers were “hot.” If hot money was found then it was traced back to the bank sending it in and an effort made by the G-men or T-men to see if the crooks were still in that locality. Penny Pim had helped capture several criminals in that manner for he had memorized all the vast series of numbers on the hot bank notes. It was an exhilarating task for his peculiar type of brain.

Penny looked up as he heard footsteps coming along the corridor. He saw Detective Captain Linn motion to the jailer, heard keys jangle. The next instant the door swung wide.

“I don’t know how I ever can apologize, Mr. Pim,” Detective Linn said seriously. “I made a mistake, that’s all. I’ve been looking you up, have checked your superiors with the Treasury. By checking the time you left the printing office against a normal rate of walking, I find you could not possibly have been in with that gang. Everything you’ve said is true. You’re free, Mr. Pim.” He grinned.

“All right,” Penny grated out. He was very angry and the laughter of the jailer and the prisoners a while before hadn’t helped him. “It’s easy enough for you to say that. But what about my... my girl friend who waited for me? How about her? She’s mad now, probably went off with... with—” Penny was making it harder than he knew it was, “with some other fellow! And all on account of you stupid police just as set down in that note!”

“Yeah,” Linn snapped, angry now. “I still don’t understand that note. It’s got your name in it twice. You should feel damn’ lucky to get off at all. You’re still under suspicion, my buckaroo! Now beat it before I change my mind.”

“I don’t know anything about that note, Linn,” Penny snapped, pale face taut. “I... I did see it on the ground, wondered why you or that park policeman didn’t see it first. I... I wanted to help solve the case, pull the note out here at headquarters and show it to you. I... I suppose it looked like I was in with the gang for you saw the note after all. And the color of the sedan was black, not red like that dumb cab driver says! Now that you’ve treated me as you have I’ll just let you work the rest out for yourself. I’m pretty sure I could lead you right to the murderers, but now I’ll let you find them!”

Penny turned sharply on his heel, walked out. Strangely, his brain now was clear, was racing along with blinding speed. He knew exactly what procedure he was going through to find the murderers of Carveth!