Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-06


member who she Is or anything about
her past life. Has several aliases she
uses at will"
How interesting-and how sad"
Neither interesting nor sad-to me.
We handle lots of cases like this
They're durable. You'll be good enough
to regard this interview as strictly con-
| hdenttal, Of course. It would be very
| embarrassing for the girl If news of her
unfortunate predicament should leak
out, for, Of course, after her mind has
| been restored to its normal functions
she will have no memory Of the period
in which she has been lost. I know a
doctor that will fix her up in jig time"
And after he's done that" the
banker suggested, "have a plastic sur
geon fix up her nose. She used to be
as lovely as violet"
Sorry about the nose" Mcnamara
| lied, but I've had the best plastic sur
geons in town examine 1t and there's no
hope" He held out his hand. Thanks
for your courtesy. You've been a great
help. Meanwhile. don't send out any
dead checks. NUNS the word"
| Back in San Francisco, Mcnamara
went directly to the city prison and
looked over the blotter to see what
| strange fish his men had brouGht in
during his absence.
| He found a woman, an old offender
| booked for drunkenness, and ordered
her sent to his Office. When she ar
rived he locked the door and finger
printed her on the appropriate card,
| after which he lectured her on the
error of her ways. Then he went up
stairs to the Identification bureau and
asked the filing clerk to have pointed
out TO him the filing cabinets contain
ing criminal records for the years 1914,
1915 and 1916.
| He was searching for a face that was
| photographed on his remarkable men,
| DRY, and at last he found it. 1t was
that of young woman, black-haired
and with a saddle" nose, but not quite
so badly deformed as Nance Belden's,
nor did the contour of the face resem-
BILE Nance Belden's. However, since. the
original of that photograph had, TO
the chiefs knowledge, been dead six
months, he decided it would do. He
slipped this record into his breast
| Here he carefully removed the three
photographs from the card to which
they were pasted in a row across the
top. Below the row of photographs
appeared the typewriter criminal his
tory of the subject and in appropriate
| spaces on the reverse of the card APP
peared the subjects fingerprints.
Mcnamara picked up the fresh card.
upon the reverse of which he had fin
| gerprinted the woman who at times
drank too much. He placed this card
in the typewriter of his secretary, who
had gone for the day, and carefully
filed 1t in with Nance Belden's Grim
inal record. Then he pasted over the
top of this record the three photo
graphs of the dead woman he had
talS,n from the old files. carefully
bur~ed all the evidence of the substitu-
ton went upstairs and handed the
recoii to the clerk, who replaced it in
the i'ies
Promptly at $3.50 a knock sounded
on hli door, and to his hearty come"
MessrA p. Flynn and A. Angelloti en-
tered
IT sent for you two boys to tell you.
In no uncertain terms. to lay of Miss
Rebecca Lanning,' the chief began.
However, I owe it to you, to tell you
why. Miss Lanning is a friend of mine
of long standing, and know she is
worthy and dependable woman and alb
solutely truthful. She isn't interested
in this girl Nance Belden. 1t hap
pened this way. regarded that girl as
a NUT see-and haven't any conf
dence in the bone that does our medi-
co-legal work. So took Nance up to
see DR.. Stephen Burt. Miss Lanning is
his nurse. She was very kind to the
girl-'very understanding -and the Bel
den brat got stuck on her. She has an
affection complex, understand"
Flynn and Angellotti had had to
listen, many a time and Oft to Dan
McNamara's dissertations on completes
in prisoners. They nodded langlidly
now
Apparently" the chief continued,
Nance hasn't any friends. The poor.
lonely kid remembered Miss tanning, so
she wrote and asked her to visit her in
the pen-ard now the warden swears
she Struggled out of San Quentin let
ter with Nance's plan Of escape. Well,
maybe she did, but if she did, Miss
tanning didn't know it.
Now, when the Belden girl came to
Miss Lannirg's home she realized she
couldn't harbor her. Within a minute
after the girl entered Miss Lanning had
me on the phone.
I've just heard thump out in the
hail. says she. I think the girls
tainted. Better Pet me put her to bed,
chief, and have D.. Burt come over to
bandage her wound; then the ambu-
lance can call for her in the morning.
Il thought that was a good idea.
When she came back Nance was just
going out of the door. Miss Lanning
| tried to stop her, but her boy friends
were still waiting and grabbed her and
beat it. The trouble was that Miss
Lanning thought the girl was uncon-
scious, but Nance heard her and beat it.
Now it's up to you two to find her."
How long have you known Miss
Lanning?"
quite a while" Mcnamara lied.
We'll, even if she is friend of yours,
chief she's no clinging vine"
We'll, leave her alone from now on
and don't waste Vollr time watching her
house. The Belden devil won't come
back there again. Another thing We
have criminals loose in our midst who
are more important than a poor nut of
a girl that only swiped mess of silk
| stockings, so don't get excited and waste
much time That will be all, boys"
(To Be Continued)