The Washington times., 1936-03-17

Don't become a sob-sister,
Juliet"
I flushed. He went on:
"I know, it is q hard lesson for
youth to learn that all is not fine
that is physically clean and at
tractive. I think it is a good one,
however diSillusionlng. Now Bruce
was engaged to Miss Sinclair. Yet
they had had a miSunderStand-
ing. They did not see each other
quite so much those last weeks. He
did not come at once when he
must have read Of her death; he
refuses to answer questions, to
give any alibi for Thursday night.
All we know IS that he tried to
phone her from Sacramento on
Wednesday, and that he didn't
get her"
But he did send her flowers,
hardly thing man who planned
to murder her would do," feebly
defended him.
"I don't know. A clever man
might figure you and I and every
one else would think that. Then,
too, he may not have planned it.
Probably most murders are COM
mitted on the impulse of one pas
sion or another"
well, it seems to me that there
are an awful lot Of loose ends"
Fright you are, Julie. Having
built up the cases against each of
these, we can now tear each of
them down. # Mrs. Darlington
did it, why would she be so con-
cerned over the divorce that she
would run the chance Of being dis
covered? Why not slip on over
into Mexico until this dies down?
If Melvin did it, why did his shot
not arouse Mrs. Sardoni and
Hymn? Or If he had q Silencer,
where Is it now? Why do five ex-
pertS agree that his gun is not the
fatal one? If it was Perkins, what
was his motive? If Rym. why
does he admit finding her dead?
Looking at him, you wonder how
he could have screwed up enough
courage to fire q shot. Where
did he get a gun? Most Filipino
murders are knife affairs. If it
was Bruce, he had a very short
time in which to arrive have any
argument or discussion with the
girl which would lead to q killing,
a bare IS minutes"
"Then there are other ques-
tions," I chimed in excitedly.
"Who made the telephone call?
Where did the fountain pen go to?
Why didn't Mrs. Sardoni hear Mr..
Perkins come and go? And why
would Bruce send Connie flowers?"
'Those are still on your mind,
aren't they? Well, there is a ques-
ton there for me, too. I would
like to know which one Of them,
Miss Sinclair or Bruce Lloyd, was
responsible for the rift between
them. Which one Of them wanted
to end the AFFAIR.""
T knew the answer to that, and
suddenly knew the answer to the
flowers. hesitated, for I knew I
would pile up the evidence against
Bruce. But after all, I was there,
in Inspector O'Brien's office, in
the most confidential Of situa-
tions. He trusted me, and I was
working for him.
"I think I know that. He told
us something Of his romance with
Connie. It was he who felt it
ought to end. She tried to carry
it along, hoping he would change
his mind. But he made a decision,
he said. I think the flowers told
her what it was. You see that
summer, they had used flowers as
a sort Of code to get around her
cross old aunt. Pink meant they
would have to change their plans
somewhat; white that they would
carry them out just as they in
tended to do"
But the flowers he sent her
Wednesday were yellow roses"
"Yes," and I almost cried as I
said it, yellow meant the plans
were over; he was backing out"
I felt pretty badly about Bruce,
about having to betray him as it
were, to the Inspector. I just
couldn't believe, no matter how
Shabbily he had treated Connie,
that he could have killed her.
Yet O'Brien had been quite i'm
pressed with my revelation. In
fact, he had said, Miss Julie,
you'll solve this thing yet If
you just keep on thinking!"
Ito BE COntiuued)
(copyriEht. 1885. King Features