The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-02-27

ID UTErS head spun with conjec-
~ lures.
If Borden had opened that bottom
drawer on Saturday afternoon, after
her departure, and before Rita's ar
rival, was it not possible that he had
done so to get the gun, to protect
himself against some threatened
trouble-trouble arising from that
mysterious telephone call which had
kept him so long that he had missed
his train?
But Bill Cowan had testified that
Borden h&d been connected with
Jack Hayward's number! Had Nc
Mann, whose ability she was be-
ginning to respect as much as she
feared it, arrived at the same con-
clusion?
If SO, he had again arrived at
Jack Hayward as the most likely
suspect. Ruth forced her mind
away from that too terrible pos
sibility.
Surprising Borden, fearful of an
attack of someone who had not yet
come into the neutrality-suspicious. she
herself was convinced that Jack had
not talked to Borden over the phone
or across the airshaft-had taken
the gun from her desk.
When Rita came-Ruth went on
building up her suppositious case
the gun was on top of Borden'S
desk, handy for his defense against
the person from whom he undoubt-
edly feared visit.
Else why should he have planned
to remain all afternoon in his Office
instead of spending the hours be-
tween trains with Rita?
But that, she told herself des-
pairingly, was built on the theory
that Rita was telling the truth about
the agreement between her and
Borden to make the later train.
Why suppose Rita had told the
truth? She had lied SO much! No.
it was better to hold tight to facts.
Borden had undoubtedly opened the
bottom drawer Of the desk.
In all probability he had done so
to get the gun kept there, Rita had
come. She had quarreled with Bor-
den. She had seen the gun on his
desk.
She had shot him to get the
money he would not give her. Then
Rita had robbed the body. !.
Perhaps she was telling the truth
about the pastor part truth.
who could say how Rita's mind
would function after she had killed
Borden? The bill was all important.
1t was torn in two. In an Office
there would be paste. She had
hunted for the paste in the outer Of
fee, and in the meantime the black
pigeon-or one of his flock-had
flown in through the open window,
dipped his tiny feet in the fresh
flowing blood of the dead man,
leaving tell-tale tracks behind.
But why had Rita come back into
that death room to close the win
dow? Ruth knit her brows III a
terrific effort to think straight.
Then light burst upon her.
Rita had heard the f1utter Of the
pigeons wing or the sound of its
body caroming again the glass of
the upper sash and had run back
into the private Office, frightened
half to death.
She had seen the pigeon-or may
be several of them-On the window
ledge, and had a sudden horror
of the feathered creatures pecking
at Harry Borden's dead face.
Cautious instinctively, even in her
panic, she had closed the window
with her gloved left hand, so that
there were no f1ngerprints.
Ruth started to draw a deep
breath OF relief, when suddenly the
whole structure toppled and fell,
stricken by one question which her
relentlessly logical mind insisted
upon asking: If Rita had done all
this, where did Jacks missing au-
tomato fit into the picture?
= Il
TT~HEN hope thrust up its head
4 again. Why try to fit Jacks gun
into any theory of the murder?
1t was missing-true But wasn't
it entirely possible that Jacks gun
had been stolen by a petty thief,
prowling through the almost desert
ed office building, glad to lay his
hands on anything of value?
The long arm of coincidence, of
course, but wasn't real life full of
just such amazing condolences?
But Ruth knew, even as she con-
soled herself with this philosophic
reflection, that Detective Sergeant
McMann would emit loud roar Of
derisive laughter if she told him her
theory.
He might be trying. with true po-
lice conScientionusness, to bully
Rita Dubois into confessing to both
murder and robbery, but Ruth was
sure that in his heart McMann be-
lieved that the dancer had done
nothing worse than rob a dead
mans body, after Harry Borden had
been killed by Jack Hayward, in a
| jealous rage.
The newly discovered evidence
that Borden had had Ruth's gun in
his possession that Saturday after
noon would do much, Ruth realized
sickly, to confirm McMann's suS-
piciens against Jack.
He would argue. undoubtedly, that
Borden and Jack had quarreled
over the telephone-that Mexplica-
BILE one-sided conversation of Bor-
den's which Bill .Cowan had over
heard when he had called Jack
Hayward's number at ten minutes
after twp--ard that consequently.
fearing an attack upon his life.
Borden had possessed himself of
Ruth's gun, had gone to the open
window with it in his hand. and
had been shot down bv Harvard