The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-28
oV s. s. VAN DINE a

while was waiting for him to turn
the corner, SpotSwoode came out of
the house and jumped into taxi
cab that had just driven up. .
my plan had been thWarted-I
had waited too long. Suddenly I
seemed to awake as from some ter
rible nightmare. I was almost in a
state of collapse, but I managed to
get home. That's what hap
pened-so help me God!"
He sank back weakly in his chair.
The suppressed nervous excitement
| that had fired him while he spoke
had died out, and he appeared list
less and Indifferent.
He sat several minutes breathing
stertorously, and twice he passed
his hand vaguely across his fore
| head.
He was in no condition to be
questioned, and finally Markham
sent for Tracy and gave orders that
he was to be taken to his home.
Temporary exhaustion from hyS-
teria," commented Vance indiffer-
emily. "All these paranoia lads are
hyperneurasthenic. He'll be in a
psychopathic ward in another
year"
That's as may be, Mr.. Vance"
said Heath, with an impotence that
repudiated all enthusiasm for the
subject OF abnormal psychology.
What interests me just now is the
way all these fellows stories hang
together"
Eyes" nodded Markham. "There
is undeniably a groundwork of
truth il their statements"
But please abserve," Vance
pointed out, that their stories do
not eliminate any one of them as
a possible culprit
Their tales, as you say, syn
chronize perfectly; and yet, despite
all that neat coordination, any one
of the three could have got into the
Odell apartment that night.
For instance: ManniX could have
entered from Apartment 2 before
Cleaver came along and listened;
and he could have seen Cleaver go
ing away when he himself was
leaving the Odell apartment.
"Cleaver could have spoken to the
doctor at half past eleven. walked
to the AnSonia, returned a little be-
fore twelve, gone into the lady's
apartment, and come out just as
ManniX opened Miss F'risbee'S door.
Again, the excitable doctor may
have gone in after Spotswoode came
out at half past eleven, stayed
twenty minutes or so, and departed
before Cleaver returned from the
Ansonia.
mo; the fact that their stories
dovetail doesn't in the least tend
to exculpate any one of them"
And" supplemented Markham,
chat cry of oh, my Godp might
have been made by either Mannix
or Lindquist - provided Cleaver
really heard it."
"He heard it unquestionably, "
said Vance. "Some one in the
apartment was invoking the Diety
around midnight. Cleaver hasn't
sufficient sense of the dramatic to
fabricate such thrillin' tale"
But if Cleaver actually heard
that voice" protested Markham,
then he is automatically elimi-
mated as suspect"
mot at all, old dear. He may
have heard it after he had come out
of the apartment, and realized then
for the first time, that some one
had been hidden in the place dur
ing his visit"
Your man in the clothes closet,
I presume you mean"
"YeS-of course. You know
Markham, it might have been the
Mortified Skeel, emerging from his
hiding place upon a scene of tragic
wreakage, who let out that evan
gelical invocation"
Except" commented Markham,
with sarcasm, "Skeel doesn't i'm
press me as particularly religious. "
ooh, that?" Vance shrugged "A
point in Substantiation. Irreligious
persons call on God much more
than Christians. The only true and
consistent theologians, don't y
know, are the atheists"