The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-03-11
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THIS HAS HAPPENED
HANDSOME HARRY" BORDEN
Is shot between one and four Satur.
day afternoon. RUTH LESTER, sec.
rotary, finds his body Monday morn
ing. sprawled beneath tho airshaft
window OF his private office.
McMann, detective sergeant, qucs.
lions the following suspects: Ruth
MRS. BORDEN, Borden's estranged
wife and mother Of his two children
RITA DUBOIS, night club dancer
with whom Borden was infatuated
and JACK HAYWARD, Ruth's fiance,
whose office is across the narrow air.
shaft from Bordcn's.
McMann's belief In Jacks guilt is
strengthened by the testimony of ele-
vator boys MICKY MORAN and
OTTO PFLUGER, and of BILL
COWAN, Jacks friend. who says he
heard Jack threaten Bordcn's life
Saturday morning when he saw BOr-
den struggling with Ruth in the oppo-
site office. McMann sends detec-
tives to bring in CLEO GILMAN. Bor-
den's discarded mistress and JAKE
BAILEY. his bodyguard.
Meanwhile he questions BENNY
SMITH. Borden's office boy: ASHE,
his manservant: MINNIE CASSIDY
and LEFTY MILLER, seventh floor
scrubwcmen. McNlann shows Ruth a
fresh scar in the wall outside Jacks
window; also flattened bullet found
in the cement seven flights below. He
says Borden fired this bullet too late
1t his murderer who stood in Jacks
window.
That evening at Ruth's apartment,
she and Jack try to fit into the sOr-
did puzzle Ashes and NIinnie's testi-
mony about some mysterious woman
with q contraIto voice whom Borden
feared. Jack recalls a MARTHA
MANNING with such q voice who
called on him about insurance and
who was strangely interested in Bor-
denis office across the airshaft. Ruth
wonders II this is the mother of Bor-
denis illegitimate son. and makes a
joking promise to Jack to take charge
Of the investigation herself on Tues
day.
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
CHAPTER XXXV
Perhaps 1t was because she was so
tired and suddenly SO sleepy that the
prayer for help which Ruth Lester
addressed, with childlike faith, to her
Heavenly Father, ended in an ex-
tremely unorthodox manner, de-
signed to confound less understand
ing God than the One in which she
believed.
For her last words, before sleep
settled upon her. like smothering
eiderdown comfort, were: please
come back to me daddy. I'm not
clever enough to save Jack without
your help. It's just the kind of case
you always loved. You could make
all the pieces of the puzzle fit. Come
back and laugh at me for being SO
stupid-stupid-"
And with miraculous suddenness,
part Of that drowsy, naive prayer was
answered Suhconsciously, Ruth Les
ter knew that she was dreaming, that
her actual body-aching with fatigue
was lying on her couch bed in her
tiny bachelor-girl apartment, that
her adored father, Colby Lester
always referred to as "the famous
criminal lawyer" was dead. But her
prayer was being answered. and what
did 1t matter that it was only a
dream? But she mustn't wake up too
soon. -.
The dream was a kindly one, not
fantastic or absurd She was back
again in her fathers library, curled
kittenwise in his arms, watching
with fascinated blue eyes as his long
slim fingers arranged and rearranged
bits of q jig-saw puzzle spread out
on the desk before him.
what is that big, square-shaped
piece, daddy?" she heard her own
voice inquiring. as those expert fling
ers made q quick Encouragement OF
the pieces of the jig-saw puzzle.
THAT, infant?" She distinctly heard
his beloved, familiar chuckle. why
that's the prchid-tinted letter, Of
course"
Perhaps, Ruth mourned later, II
she had not cried out SO sharply al
that she would not have awakened
would have seen the complete solving
of that jig-saw puzzle under the ex-
pert manipulation of Colby Testers
fingers. But she did wake up, with
her own exclamation of self disgust
and her fathers last words ringing
in her ears.
With the sharp clarity of mino
and memory which comes in the
small hours Of the night, Ruth re-
called every detail Of scene which
she had forgotten throughout the
dreadful first day of the police in
vestigation into the murder Of Henry
P. Borden.
She saw again the large, square
orchid tinted envelope. with its dis
tinctive, angular handwriting in vio-
let ink, saw herself seated at hel
desk in the outer office of Borden's
suite, sorting Saturday mornings
mail, laying aside unopened the ex.
otto missive marked Personal" saw
later. the gesture of repulsion ant
anger with which Henry Border
flicked the unWelcome letter across