The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-06-18
Chapter 32
THE ACCUSATION.

| / T AFFERTY lit cigarette ana A- blew the smoke upward at ( sharp angle. Quit your hemmin, and having. Steve. You can make the pinch any time you please. Yor might as well make up your mind about 1t and have it over" Harper looked amused. "So you've got 1t all figured out?"
 Sure. If you really want the killer. just march up the stairs. walk down the hall. and enter the first door on the left"
 Mrs. Dufresnew
 Exactly. l know it. You know it. Dufresne knows it. too. He tried to cover up for her by hiding the gun. That's why he's been playing cat and mouse with us. afraid we'd turn up something that would up set the apple-cart. Which is just what happened"
 You're wrong, Jack" Harper said quietly. This thing is a lot more intricate than that theory of yours allows for. In fact. I'm just begin. ming to realize what Gordian knot we have on our hands"
 That's a very apt figure ol speech. Maybe you remember what happened to the Gordian knot?"
 | "Yes. Alexander couldn't unravel It. as there were no ends showing. 50 he sliced it with his sword" | Correct. I'd advise you to take the tip from Alexander. You've got your eight suspects, but if you look them over carefully you'll see how the number dwindles. take it that you are not trying to pin 1t on Mrs. Croyden or her pianist husband? Besides. they're really just visitors here.
 "Dufresne and Andrews were shut up in the Austerlitz under heavy I guard at the time. Donaghy was on duty there, too. and it isn't likely he had a chance to leave the place. Anyway, his statements are easily checked. The Whitmores were near the spot. true enough. but they didn't leave their rooms after dark last night. The snow proves that.
 What does that leave us? One person. and only one-Mrs. Du. fresne. visiting at Mrs. Creighton Morlock's.
 See what we have there. She de veloped a headache and didn't come down to dinner. Headaches, you know, require seclusion. A standard alibi. Then a mysterious outbreak of fire in the Morlock garage. Wasn't that perfect opportunity for get ting away for while, unseen, un noticed?
 By the luckiest of fukes, we have Howard Doyle's evidence, otherwise we'd be completely in the dark. make the fiat assertion that Mrs Dufresne left Mrs. Morlock's walked the mile or so to this house to keep her rendezvous and killed the man she came here to meet! And here's my bit of evidence for that. Lafferty paused dramatically. then brought forth a shapeless bundle swathed in crumpled tissue paper which he stripped away. A stained warped pair of high-heeled shoes stood revealed. These are the shoes Mrs. Dufresne wore last night" he explained. "They were on their way to the trash-bin this morning. via John Whitmore. when l rescued them"
 CERGEANT HARPER picked ur V the once-dainty slippers. their narrow brocaded sides now soiled beyond repair. They were still soggy to the touch.
 q suppose" Lafferty jeered. as Harper thoughtfully set them side by side, "that she got them in that condition just stepping into the cal at Mrs. Morlock's with Doyle and coming in here from the curb to the front door. on shoveled path. too That lady went for jaunt through the snow last night and she came here!"
 Harper paused in the charging ol his pipe, the battle-scarred com panion of many a lonely vigil ovel knotty problems. Docs Mrs. Du fresne strike you as the sort o woman who would carry on a clan destine affair. let alone stoop tt murder?" he demanded.
 Lafferty snorted. "Stevie, olt boy. years and years ago 1 gave ul trying to figure out women by look ing at them. Sister Aline and Sister Sylvia may be very sedate and dig nified wives. but in their debutantt days. as the Bartell girls. they were pair of pretty high steppers. I car tell you. Old Man Bartell left eacf of them more money than was goot for them and they had free heat