The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-10

bility Of the murder being delayed
or arranged so that the detective
might be slain when the whole
crowd" was assembled was obvious.
The murderer had read in a late
Saturday afternoon extra copy
of which was now in Dundee's
pocket-District Attorney Sander
sons boast to the press that his Of
flee had been working on an entire
ly different theory shan that which
connected the two murders wiCh
"Swallow-tail Sammy" that Spe-
cial Investigator Dundee, expected
back in Hamilton early Sunday
Morning, had been investigating
Nita Leigh's past life in New York.
And he had limited sensational
revelations connected with the
twelve-year-o royal blue velvet
dress which Mia had chosen to be
her shroud. And in his desire to
reassure the public through the
press, Sanderson vaguely had prom
Used even more specific revelations
than Dundee had actually brought
home With him.
Prodded by reporters, Sanderson
had admitted that he did not know
himself the nature Of those revela-
tons.
The exasperated young detective
could picture the murderer reading
those sensational hints and prom
ises, could imagine his panic, the
need for immediate action, SO that
Special Investigator Dundee should
not live to tell the tale of his New
York discoveries to the district at
torney or any one else.
DUT whether he was right or
AZ wrong, Dundee determined to
give his bunch a chance. He went
INTO the over ornate bedroom in
which Nita Leigh Selim had been
murdered-shot through the back
as she sat at her dressing table
powdering her face.
If her murder had been ac-
complished by mechanical means,
how had it been done? There was
AlO llOb-dlI register mere.
From the dressing table Dundee
walked to the window, upon the
pale-green frame of which there
still was the tiny pencil mark which
DR.. Price had drawn, to indicate
the end Of the path along which the
bullet had Travelled, provided it had
travelled So far. Nothing here to
aid in a mechanical murder
But in a flash Dundee changed
his mind. For just slightly above
the pencil mark there was a small
dent in the soft painted pine of
the window frame.
And before his mind could frame
words and sentences he thought he
saw how Nita Leigh had been muir
dered.
Nothing here? Not now, be-
cause he had taken the lamp to the
courthouse for safekeeping.
He saw it clearly in imagination
that bronze floor lamp which Lydia
Carr had given to Mia Leigh, its
big round bowl studded with great
jewels of colored glass.
And in recalling every detail of
the lamp he saw what he had dis
missed as of no Importance at the
time and in the excitement of find
ing that the lamps bulb had been
shattered by the bang or bump
which Flora Miles had described.
One Of the big glass jewels had
been missing, leaving an unsightly
hole.
No wonder there had been a
bang or bump" hard enough to
dent the frame Of the window! For
the gun, wedged into the big bowl
and slightly protruding from the
jewel-hole, had kicked" just as it
had kicked an hour before, when it
had dislodged itself from the hole
in the hot-air register and clattered
down the big pipe to the heat reser-.
voir of the furnace.
That the big lamp, when he, fol-
lowing Strawn, first had examined
the scene of Nita's murder, had not
stood in front of the window frame
did not dampen Dundee's excite
ment in the least.
After Karen Marshall's scream,
that room had been filled with ex-
cited people, who had rushed about,
looking out Of the window for the
murder and doing all sorts of things
which terror-stricken people do in
such crisis.
No, the murderer-or murderesS
had found no difficulty in shift
ing the big lamp one foot nearer
the chaise Tongue. to the place it
always had occupied before.
But-how had the gun been fired
from the lamp? Electrically, of
course. Another picture flashed in
to Dundee'S mind.
He saw himself STOPPING, on Mon
day afternoon, to see if the plug
of the lamps cord had been pulled
from the socket, saw it again as
! it was then-nearly out, so that no