The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-10
CHAPTER NINETEEN

A THOUGH Bonnie Dundee had
N taken Captain Strawn's none
to-gentle parting gibe with good
grace, it was 3 very thoughtful
Young detective who set about lock-
ing himself in the house in which
Nita Selim had been murdered, and
which he had promised to guard
until midnight.
Captain StraWn had beaten him
TO the Job that evening by at least
twenty-minutes. Had the old de-
tective stumbled upon something
which Dundee, for all his spectacu-
lar thOroughness, had overlooked, or
had been unable to turn up because
Strawn had suppressed it?
Only his optimistic faith in the
old detectives willingness to CO.
operate with him, now that he was
no longer a member of Strawn's
homicide squad, had kept him from
asking Strawn pointblank if the
death chamber" as the newspaper
would be calling it, had yielded up
gome tangible. unmistakable clue.
What if Strawn's parting boast
was not an idle one, and he really
had "the goods on Ralph Ham
mond? Had the old chief been
laughing up his sleeve during the
farce of playing out the death
hand at bridge" and during the
merciless quizzing of old Judge
Marshall?
But his native connlonsensc
quickly routed his gloom. Captain
StraWn was too direct in his meth
DDS, too afraid of antagonizing the
rich and influential, to have permit
ted even special investigator
from the district attorneys Office to
torment those twelve people need
lessly.
Probably Strawn, feeling a little
hurt at having played second fiddle
al evening, simply had wanted t.
get him fused, even now wa5
chuckling over the effect of his
parting boast.
Much cheered, Dundee fingered in
The dining room, where he had
made the windows fast against any
intrusion, so that his task CT
guarding the house alone might be
minimized.
AS he glanced at the table, with
its silver plates heaped with tiny
sanwiches of caviar and anchovy
paste. its tiny silver boats of olives
and sweet pickles. he discovered
that he was very hungry indeed
A S he munched the dxying
"A sandwiches and slipped charged
water the various liquors Tor
cocktails on the sideboard offered
q temptation which he sternly re-
siSted-Dundee' thoughts boiled
and churned, throwing up picture
after picture of Mia Selim, alive
and then dead; of Penny Grain
bless her!-helping him at the eX-
pense of her loyalty to lifelong
friends; of Flora Miles. lying des-
perately and then confessing to a
shameful theft; Of Karen Marshall
CALAMITY playing out the death
hand" of Karen's stricken. child
ish face when she learned that her
elderly husband had met and at
least fiirted with Mia Selim at 2
chorus girls party.
At that last picture Dundee
flushed. Had he made fool OF
himself, or was he right in his sus-
picion that Hugo Marshall had
given Mia Selim this cottage rent
free? That point should be easily
settled, at any rate.
Ruefully rejecting that appe-
tiers do not make satisfactory
meal he betook himself to the dead
woman's bedroom. Yes. his
memory had served him well. Here
was her desk-a small. feminine af-
fair Of rosewood, set in the corner
of the room nearest the porch door
The desk was not locked. A,
Dundee let down the slanting lid
whose polish was marred with many