Evening star., 1923-12-28
ABOVE SUSPICION
BY Robert Orr Chipperield.
1uihor Of "The Second Bullet" "Unseen Hands,
"The Trigger OF Conscience" Etc.
Copyright. by Robert 4
BY Robert Orr Chipperiield.
/. Then Detective

offered a comment. Then Detective
Lyons spoke.
"And you're carpentering and mixing
concrete out here In the sticks! Say,
Peters, let me take you to the Old Man
at headquarters and he'll put you right
into the bureau! You'd make one of the
best dicks on the force! One word to
him about what you've done
"Ain't done nothin'"' Geoff inter-
rupted in alarmed haste. II work at
| my trade and l aim to mind my own
business, only kinder got mixed UP in
this through Doc Hood"
You called the turn on this friend
ship between Lane and Bernhard thai
| has kept the whole financial world
guessing for almost a year," Lyons ex-
claimed, adding generously: 'Tm an
1 old hand at the game but you've beaten
me to FRAGILE so far on the case.
You've established the notive--"
But there amt a speck of real evil
| der nor where he was" There was
| a shade of repression in Geoff's tone,
however, and the trained ears of the
detective were not deaf to ii.
You've got another one. Of those
What's the idea?''
'Tain't hunch. exactly" Geoff
| took off his cap and scratched his head.
Il went to the city this mornin' on
little business o. my own and ] never
realized afore how ar-fired big 'tis'
almost got lost and l reckon folks could
| i've there for their huh lives and you'd
never hear tell o. 'em down at your
headquarters if they didn't do some
| him agin the law or have it done to
| EN-. Seems to ME 'twould be like look
ng for needle in a haystack II You
was to try to find just one lady. even
! though she did have a kinder funny
"A lady, Doctor Hood repeated,
amazed
who's the woman" Lyons demand
/ ed. What's her name?''
We'll, l amt go no idee that she's
| mixed UP in this case herself, no
noren the thousands o. folks who
,ould a-read bout 1T in the papers"
| ieof replied cautiously. ''1 was just
wonderin' whether you'd ever heard tell
. a lady named Dawn-Zoey Dawn
Zoe DAWN" The detective laughed.
she hasn't any police record, if that's
what you mean, but up to two or three
years ago she managed to, keep herself
pretty we'll in the public eye without
.rying to: the spotlight was the last
hing in the world she wanted. There
IRE different reports about her, some
hat she came from fine old southern
eamily and others that she drifted east
| srom the Barbary Coast. / got a flash
| At her once when she came down to
headquarters to identify a diamond
necklace which had been stolen from
1er and she's some queen. But what
| made you ask about her, Peters,"
81 was kinder Gurus to know what
| she looked like. How did she git afore
| The public? Seems to me / heard tell
she wasn't in what you might call So
{ ciety."
Not so you'd notice it since the last
scandal! 1t was about four years ago
when she came to headquarters, and
she might have been thirty then,
| though she didn't look it; a magnifi-
Gently formed woman, big like a statue,
t4N n..t ~
brown hair as natural as her COM
plexion and great hazel eyes with
! reckless, laughing devil in them. 1t was
her voice as much as her beauty that
must have made some of the biggest
men in the country fall for her; It was
deep and soft and rich, with a note like
a bell" Lyons paused. II don't get
any possible connection between her
and this case; politics was her game.
played from the inside and for big
stakes. She only came to New York
when Washington got too hot for her
and certain foreign powers threatened
communication with our State Depart
ment."
81 don't read nothin' but our Week
ly Clarion. so she might be the Queen
o Shelby for all I'd a-heard tell re-
marked Geoff. "Just give me a general
idee o. what she done and where she is
now
CAS- remember. she blew into Wash
ington about eight years ago as rich
young widow. She was we'll supplied
with money, had smart little estab-
lishment and plenty of servants and
managed, without making any stir at
first. to edge in with the political and
diplomatic set. She was a mystery,
but no one could get anything on her
until a certain South American envoy
committed suicide because she refused
him: she had kept him dangling after
her so closely that his mission herr
failed, but nobody could connect her
with those who opposed it. Then a
bill was rushed through the Senate
when the man who had been put in
office to kill it Was idling in her draw
ingroom. and after a few more little
things like that an ambassador from a
European country went dippy about her
and some tremendously valuable doc
uments disappeared. He was recalled
and the affair hushed up, but it was
then that she moved to New York and
lived very quietly without breath of
personal scandal. She dropped out of
the newspapers except for that Jewel
robbery and nothing more has been
heard of her for two or three years, as
/ said. I'll have to get in touch with
our secret service to locate her; they
will have kept her under observation,
of course"
There amt nothin' in all that agin
her moral character, SO far as I kin
see." Geoff had listened carefully to
every word. Them foreigners and that
TOOL senator may nave lost their heads
over her but that was their own look
out, and if she got nice little rake
off for gummin' their games 'taint been
proved. She lived proper and respecta-
BILE, you say?"
"Sure. That was part of her tactics.
never heard of her falling for any of
the big guys who forgot their careers
for her. But let's get down to busi-
ness. What's she got to do with either
Bernhard or Lane? You've got some
thing up your sleeve. Peters, or you'd
never have spoken of her Come clean
and give me the straight dope"
'"S far as know she amt got rlothin'
to do with either o. EN-" Geoff dis
claimed, but he added with a chuckIe:
IF this here Secret Service has a-been
keepin' an eve on her, though, they'll
likely be able to tell you somethin' I
couldn't that might s'prise you, and if
she don't live any too far from Lanes
garage and he didn't come back here
that night after all and so amt the
man were lookin for, l got a kinder
notion 1t might've been in front o. her
house, or nigh it, that his car stood
most o. them four missin' hours"
CHAPTER XIII.
The Woman scorned.
Geoff completed his work on the