The Washington times., 1933-09-02
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underworld lawyer and has been
Tilted by Sue Leonard, p pretty
society girl. He has been drown
ing his sorrow. Layton, his
faithful valet, has been politely
demonstrating with his hand
some young master, StreSsing
the evil of excessive drinking.
However, Durant orders "a stiff
one"
Durant reads in the afternoon
papers of the murder of Mimi
Montague, Broadway night club
singer, for which Thomas Sid
ney, wealthy young broker, has
been arrested. Durant'S former
fiancee calls and pleads with
him to defend Siddall, to whom
she is now engaged.
Durant agrees to help save
Tommy" He phones Tony
GazOtti, Public Enemy No. /,
whom he had defended success
fully on homicide charge
recently, and makes an ap-
pointment to meet him. He
also gets in touch with Sid
dalS cOurSel who politely
declines his assistance because
of his "get- the guilty off" rep
utatiOn. They fear Durant
would compromise Siddall'S de-
fenSe...
He is now interviewing Police
Lieutenant Stevens who is di-
vulging details of the murder
which had occurred the night
before on the terrace of a
penthouse occupied by Jim
Crelliman, Public Enemy No. 2,
who was throwing a party"
there. Mimi the victim had
returned to Crelliman after Sid
dali had broken off with her
following his engagement to
Sue. The police officer is talk
ing:
NOW CONTINUE
CHAPTER v
"He claims he hadn't seen
Montague since he broke with
her some months ago. He says
they parted the best of friends.
He frankly admits that he made
settlement on her, and main
tains she was perfectly satisfied.
She certainly should have been;
a hundred grand is heavy sugar
these days. He says that they
parted because he fell in love
with Miss Sue Leonard. He
tried like hell-I'll say this for
the lad-to keep Miss Leonard'S
name out of it, but inasmuch as
the engagement had been an
nounced last week, her name
had to come into it.
"He says that his telephone
rang about midnight. He was
in bed, but his valet had the
night off, so there's no cor
roboration for that. It's true
that his bed was rumpled up as
though some one had been in it,
but that seems immaterial.
Anyway, he says that Miss Mon
tagne was on the phone and
asked him if he wouldn't come
over to Crelliman's apartment
to see her. She said according
to Siddalls story-that she
wanted to see him about some
thing important,
"He tried to get her to tell
him over the phone what it
was, but she refused. He says
he didn't know what to make of
it, but thought it best to see
her. She'd always been a
square shooter, but he didn't
know what was in her mind.
Maybe she'd planned some sort
of trouble, now that he was en-
gagged.
"He went over there, think
ing, of course, that she was
alone-this is his story-and
was surprised to find a bunch
of people there. He says that
Montague made no reference to
having phoned him, and that
she was careful not to let him
get her in a corner. So finally
he asked her to 60 out on the
porch with him. She went out
and he asked her what she
wanted. She denied having
telephoned. He says he couldn't
understand this"
Siddall Claims
Durant, who had been list
less, leaned eagerly across the
table. Does he insist that it
was Montague who phoned?"
he asked.
"That's the first screwy thing
in his screwy story" replied
the lieutenant. "He says he
thought it was Mimi speaking
over the telephone, and still
thinks so. But, he says, she
was so insistent that she hadn't
sent for him that he can't be
sure"
"What else did they talk
about?" asked Durant.
"Ie says she wished him hap
piness in his coming marriage.
She told him that she had seen
him with Miss Leonard at Mont
Blanc, the restaurant and night
club where she was singing
until last week. She congratu-
lated him on winning such a
nice girl. And right in the
middle of her congratulations,
she put her hand to her heart.
took it away, and he saw that
it was covered with blood. He
seems to remember having
heard a shot, but he can't be