The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-03-23

hand. At that familiar touch Rita
raised her head and gazed at her
husband with incredulous hope.
You're not mad at me any
more, Ramona" she asked, in a
wistful voice. "You wouldn't really
have killed Rita, would you, Baby?
Honest-there wasn't any other way
to get the money but to string Ror-
den along. 1 didn't ever mean to
come across with hin1-I was going
to give him the slip as soop as l got
my hands on the cash, Honest to
God I was, honey
4 CROSS the table Ramon
IA Romero leaned as far as his
manacles would permit, and lifted
his Wife'S hands to his lips.
"I go with you now!" he said
arrogantly to Detective Casey.
you're mighty right you will"
McMann agreed grimly. Take this
dancing sheik down to headquarters
and book him on a charge of carry
ing firearms till we know more
about his comic opera past" he
added to the detective and the
patrolman.
May I go with him?" Rita
begged. springing to her feet as her
husband was being led to the door.
Sure! If you'll come across
with a confession that you robbed
Borden's dead body" McMann re-
tcrted, grinning cruelty. Maybe
they'll give you a cell right next to
'Baby's'-"
"Oh, my GaWd, can't you lay off
that?" Rita cried with weary scorn,
as she wilted into her chair again.
please, Mr.. McMann," Ruth
d-~ed suggest, in the painful silence
that fell upon the group remaining
after Ramon Romero had been
taken away, cts way after four,
and the cleaning women are on
duty now. You're going to have
Lefty Miller in for further question
ing, aren't you?"
Lefty Miller?" McMann gave her
an harassed, puzzled look.
Don't you remember?-she's the
woman who cleans Jacks offices,
and the one who admitted Mr.. Bor-
den Friday night with her pass
key" Ruth explained meekly.
ooh, yes!" the detective agreed
YEARLY. You hat some fantastic
theory about the scrubWoman's
having left Hayward's door unlocked
Saturday afternoon, SO that any one
might have walked in and used his
phone and his gun.
won't do any harm to ask her,
I suppose. And 1 might as well
check Martha Manning's story about
having been here Friday night. If
the scrubWoman says she was still
working in this corridor and didn't
see or hear anything of the Manning
woman. Get her for me, won't
you, Birdwell? I'll stay out here
and answer the phone if it rings"
The detective sergeant had to
make good that promise less than
a minute after the door had closed
upon his departing subordinate. He
to Benny's desk. lifted the re-
ceiver and growled into the mouth
Hello! McMann speaking.
Who? Oh, Carlson! What?
Lost her! Well, I'll be- What the
hell do you, think I had you shadow
ing her for? How's that? ;"
Ruth, listening intently to the
one-sided conversation, saw a thun-
dercloud settle on the detective SER
geant's face. After a long pause, in
which Carlson was evidently talking
fast to put himself right with his
chief, McMann groWled disgustedly:
well, find her! D'you hear? And
dont~come back till you dol"
LIE hung up the receiver and re-
IL layed the news to Ruth Les
ter. his voice harsh with disgust
and anger: THAT was Carlson
the blankety-blank fool of a detec-
tive I detailed to keep an eye on
the Manning woman.
"And now he calls up to whine a
long alibi as to how he lost her.
Says he followed her to the door of
the ladies' rest room of a depart
ment store at a quarter to four, and
she gave him the slip somehow,
though there's only one door.
HE got suspicious when she'd
been in there twenty minutes, and
sent the maid. in charge to look
for her. Not a trace of the
woman, though he'd had every
female in the rest room paraded be-
fore him Well, Birdwell?" he
snapped, as his assistant opened
the door.
THE Miller woman will be here
in a minute, sir. I found her in"
"All right" McMann interrupted
impatiently, as he flung himself in
to a chair opposite Ruth and be-
side Rita Dubois, at the big table
in the center of the outer office.
L We SOU W bLllIlk, IUS ItuOOCIGQ ~,
and proceeded to do SO, in frown-
ing silence.
Ruth, whose chair faced the
open door between the outer office
and Borden's private office, so that
she had an oblique view of the all
important airShaft window be-
meath which she had discovered
Harry Borden's body cold in death
and through which McMann obsti-
nately believed that Jack Hayward
had shot the promoter, sat silent,
too, but with a tiny smile Juggling
at the corners of her lovely mouth.
AS the silence continued unbrokep,
she saw the black pigeon alight
upon the sill of the open window,
then, made bold by the absence of
human beings in the private Office
and the utter silence of those in
the outer room, the bird which
Ruth, in a bitter moment, had
christened Nemesis" auttered to