The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-02-26

emu J6uHC. mo money was 1OunU VI
his body this morning! You say YOU
did not see Harry Borden Saturday
night, when the Golden Slipper open.
ed at II o'clock, you were there with
a $500 bill which had been torn in
two and pasted together, and which
you had the club manager change
into smaller bills for you. Now
that's all true, and there's no use
your denying any of It. What want
to know is-how did you get the
other half of the $500 banknote !?
Come clean, Rita-and no hyster-
ics!"
"Ycs-it's all true. lied. I did
see Harry Borden Saturday after
noor."
dead or alive-or both!" Nc
Mann pounced.
Rita's voice was the monotone Of
woman who is restraining hvster-
les. "Alive. l didn't kill him, If that
is what you mean. He was alive and
well when l left, after having been
with him only about 10 minutes"
"Thank God!" Ruth cried, in a
voice shaking with laughter and
tears. "At half-past two, when Rita
left Mr.. Borden-alive, alive!-Jack
and I were in the lobby of the Prin-
cess Theater, Mr.. McMann!"
"And the curtain did not rise UNI
til 2:45," McMann reminded her, but
almost absent-mindedly. "Of course
someone may remember seeing you
and Hayward there at half-past two.
Did you ask the box office man when
the matinee was to start?"
mo, of course not" Ruth admit
ted reluctantly. "There was a sign
in the lobby giving curtain time, so
we just walked about for 10 minutes,
as Jack told you"
II remember" McMann granted,
that twisted smile on his lips again.
But Rita has the floor now. Well,
Rita, how did you get in Saturday
afternoon at about II minutes after
two? Did you use the key Borden
had given you?"
Ruth gasped her surprise, and the
dancer, apparently, was no less
startled. I'll didn't have a key"
she retorted defiantly, her agitated
hands instinctively gripping her
handbag.
"Oh, yes, you did," McMann
laughed harshly, as he rose, strobe
to the girl and forced the expensive
alligator bag out Of her desperately
clinging hands.
Ruthlessly, without apology, he
dumped its contents upon the desk
top, until key clattered upon the
polished surface. "And here it is!
You amateurs are always SO slop-
py," he reproved the dancer ocular
". IAN old hand at the game would
have remembered to throw this thing
away"
"How did you know I had q key
to Harry's office ?" Rita demanded.
Because Of a little memo that
Borden jotted down on the envelope
that held his railroad tickets" Nc
Mann enlightened her. Get key
from Rita Now, Rita, why didn't
Borden get key from Rita If he was
alive when you entered these offices
Saturday afternoon
Ruth saw only too clearly the
drift OF McMann's questions. He un-
doubtedly believed that the promoter
was dead when Rita arrived, that he
had been shot Immediately after his
telephone conversation with her, in
which he had told her to come to the
office, that she had arrived, knocked,
received no answer, entered with the
key Borden had lent her, had found
her would-be lover dead, and had, in
her desperate need for money
robbed the body.
# only Rita had not had a key,
could not have entered unless Bor-
den had been alive to admit her, then
Jack Hayward would automatically
have been eliminated as a suspect
But Rita was answering, and Ruth
forced herself to listen.
= = =
"He forgot to ask me for the key
suppose" Rita retorted defiantly
Anyway, he made q date to meet
me at the station for the 5:32, the
next train for Winter Haven. He
wouldn't have needed the key before
then anyway, since he told me he
was going to stay in his office al
afternoon.
"Hed given me the key Friday
when I was having lunch with him
breakfast for me, lunch for him.
was to meet him at the office abou,
six Friday evening and 60 out tt
dinner with him, and he said as hi
might not be in when l got there
I'd better take the key and let my.
self in with it, SO would not have
to wait in the hall. Later he phoncc
me to meet him at the Crillon, in.
stead. and did, and forgot to give
urday-didn't even remember ! had
it. I knocked and he let me in. HI
was expecting me, Of course, but be.
i