The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-02-26

get 1t changed?" and McMann
raised his broWs and smiled his sin
lister, crooked smile at Rita Dubois,
who was leaning toward him, her
lovely face white and drawn with
suspense.
Listen, captain, is the clubs
manager there now? All right,
ask him if he remembers whether
the bill had been torn half in two
and pasted and pinned together"
The words were uttered with slow,
dreadful significance, the detectives
eyes never leaving Rita's stricken
face. The answer, when it came,
brought grunt of satisfaction from
the detective, who quickly concluded
the conversation.
"Well Rita?" McMann grinned, as
he hung up the receiver.
Suddenly he leaned forward and
addressed the pitiably frightened
dancer, his pencil tapping staccato
periods on his brief sentences: mo
use wasting time! Saturday morn
ing Borden gave you half of a $500
bill. He kept the other half. He
had bargained to give it to you
when you had kept your promise to
go to Winter Haven with him.
"In addition to the torn half of
a $500 bill, Borden had more than
$500 in small bills to pay for the
weekend jaunt. No money was
found on his body this morning!
"You say you did not see Harry
Borden Saturday afternoon, yet
Saturday night, when the Golden
Slipper opened at IL o'clock, you
were there with a $500 bill which
had been torn in two and pasted to-
gether, 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
I want to know iS-hoW did you get
the other half of the $500 bank
note? Come clean, Rita-and no
hySterics!"
"VES--it's all true. I lied. I did
l. see Harry Borden Saturday
afternoon"
Dead or alive-or both!" Nc
Mann pounced.
Rita'S voice was the monotone of
a woman who is restraining hyster-
les. "Alive. I didn't kill him, if
that is what you mean. He was
alive and we'll when I left, after
having been with him only about
ten minutes
THANK God!" Ruth cried, in a
voice shaking with laughter and
tears. "At half-past two, when Rita
left Mr.. Bofden-alive, aliVe?-Jack
and I were in the lobby of the
Princess theater, Mr.. McNfann!"
And the curtain did not rise I'M
til 2:45," NTcMann reminded her,
but almost absent mindedly. "Of
course some one may remember see
ing you and Hayward there at half
past two. Did you ask the box Of
flee man when the matinee was to
start?"
mo, of course not" Ruth admit
ted reluctantly. "There was sign
in the lobby giving curtain time,
so we just walked about for ten
minutes, as Jack told YOU"
IT remember" McMann granted,
that twisted smile on his lips
again. But Rita has the floor now.
We'll, Rita, how did you get in Sat-
urday afternoon at about seventeen
minutes after Q? Did you use the
key Borden had given your"
Ruth gasped her surprise, and the
dancer, apparently, was no less
startled. CT didn't have key"
she retorted defiantly, her agitated
hands instinctively gripping her
handbag.
"Oh, yes, you 8did!" McMann
laughed harshly, as he rose, strobe
to the girl and forced the expensive
alligator bag out of her desperately
clinging hands.
Ruthiessly, without apology, he
dumped its contents upon the desk
top, until a key clattered upon the
polished surface. "Ard here it is!
You amateurs are always so s1op-
py," he reproved the dancer jocu-
larly. can old hand at the game
would have remembered to throw
this thing away.
How did you know I had key
to Harrys Officer" Rita demanded.
Because of a little mono 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 I'M
doubtedly believed that the pro-
nnoter 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 desper-
ate need for money, robbed the body
If only Rita had not had a key,
could not have entered unless Bor-
den had been alive to admit her
then Jack Hayward would auto
matically have been eliminated as a
suspect But Rita was answering
and Ruth forced herself to listen.
.
LIE forgot to ask me for the key,
Il I suppose Rita retorted de-
family. Anyway, he made a date
to meet me at the station for the
5:32, the next train for Winter
Haven. He wouldn't have needed
/ 49, eiYpp