The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1934-01-13

SYNOPSIS

DAVID BANNISTER UNDER
takes TO find out who killed
TRACY KING, orchestra leader.
Bannister is an author and form
or newspaper man. He works ON
the murder case with GAINEY,
star reporter ON the Post.
Among those suspected are
JULIET FRANCE, blond, pretty
and known to have visited King
shortly before his death; HER
MAN SCURLACH who wrote
King q threatening letter; and
JOE PARROTT, down-and-out
vaudeville actor. 1t is also
known that MELVINA HOL-
LISTER, middleaged spinster,
had quarreled with King re-
Gently.
is found dead in wrecked auto
mobile.
Bannister persuades the police
chief to let Juliet come to his
aunt's home, ostensibly as a
guest, ON the theory that IL the
girl believes herself free they can
learn more about her.
Juliet begs Bannister to "stOp
trying to find out who killed
Tracy King" Later that day
Melyina HOLSTER is found dead.
Bannister rushes TO the hotel
where she and her brother lived
and learns she was strangled.
Matthew HOLSTER Is hysterical
and demands that the police pro-
tect him.
CHAPTER xxx
Bannister paused to buy a paper
from a newsboy, glanced at the
headlines, and then went on with
the newspaper tucked under his
arm. Buying the newspaper had
been a matter Of habit. Already
he knew the facts those columns
contained-all that the police had
learned, or been willing to disclose
about the death of Melvina Hoi-
lister.
Those facts were meager enough
The finger print experts had been
unable to add anything at all TO
the solution Of the mystery. The
only prints in the apartment clear
enough to be read were those OF
Miss HOLSTER herself ana ner
brother.
Servants and tenants of the hotel
had been questioned about events
the afternoon before. NO one coulo
recall seeing anyone suspicious
there. Mrs Russell Kennebec, who
lived across the hall from the Hol-
listers. had reported hearing voices,
one of which she thought was Miss
HOLSTERS some time during the
afternoon. Investigation had dis
closed that between and $3.50 a
bow had delivered laundry at the
apartment. The boy. whose name
was John Gregory, told police ne
had brought the laundry, as he al
WAYS did each week. He said Miss
HOLSTER had checked over the list
to be sure everything had been re-
turned, paid him and added Gas
she often had) that the price OF
laundry was "highway robbery.
So far as could be learned. this boy
was the last person to see Mel
yina HOLSTER alive. He reported
that she had not seemed disturbed
and there was nothing unusual IN
her manner. Apparently the po-
lice questioning was the first the
bow had feared of the murder.
Efforts were being made to trace
the ownership of the silk scarf
with which Miss HOLSTER had been
strangled. There was q photograph
of the scarf on the front page OF
the newspaper. It was a black
sca.f with narrow white stripes,
grouped together at intervals OF an
inch or more. The scarf appeared
, to he an old one. There was no
mark Of any sort on 1t.
The time of Miss HOLSTERS
death had been set indefinitely as
sbetween three and five o'clock"
! Matthew HOLSTERS story that ne
had been out of the building al
that time had been partially cor
roborated. The clerk at the Shelby
Arms remembered seeing Hollistel
leave the hotel early in the after.
noon and saw him rturn rev
minutes before he ran downstairs
for help.
Nothing had been taken from the
apartment, eliminating the posi-
bility that robbery could have beer
the motive for the crime.
Those were the facts. Bannis'
Ter was puzzling over them, al
he had been for several hours
when he heard his name spoken
He looked up and saw a woman
coming toward him..
David-David Bannister!" sh'
said, "You haven't forgotten me
have you?"
"Why,a of course not, Mrs Har
borough. How do you do"
The woman was short and rather
stout. She wore long coat o
brown fur and a brown hat. TIT
hat was tilted slightly. showing tn
hair beneath to be quite gray.
"Oh, I'm as we'll as usual" sh'