The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-24

as only a dog can look dead. Rine
knew then, without knowing how,
that some day he would connect
with the man who had done this
the man who had laughed like that.
Patrolman Rine had in his throat
that which made 1t difficult for him
to reply. But his reputation was so
that his partner gave
him no benefit of doubt, saying
scathingly: II bet you saw it, huh?
The guy that'd hit a dawg like that'd
hit blind man wheelin' a baby car
riage-l" To which Patrolman Rine,
recovering his voice, replied sue
cinctly: $50 what?"
He walked off without further
conversational exchange. He went
back to the station house and took
down all the alarms carefully.
Everything. Holdups, stolen cars,
hit and runs, etc, noting all de-
scriptions meticulously. He pre-
served the records of that night, and
the records of many nights to come.
Ir the ensuing months and years he
and ross-referenced
them, but nowhere could he find any
allusion to a laugh like that which
he had heard from the car that ran
down little Ninety-a laugh that was
to ring in his ears for the rest of
his life.
DATROLMAN Rine ceased to con-
i centrate on his arches. He was
on duty "a hours of every day, and
he frequently strange places in mis-
quest. CabaretS and burleycues,
farces, amateur nights and penny
arcades-all of which was exceed
ingly young and ingenious of him.
as he realized later,
BY and by Patrolman Rine found
turning into a policeman
He met people, he saw people and
by and by he got to be interested
in people, as behooves a policeman.
To watch thir faces and their &C
tons and to get used to the idea
that putting two and two together
does not necessarily make four, but
is likely, in criminal calculation, to
come out three, or five.
And in due course he made an
overwhelming number of excellent
and merltorious arrests which had
nothing whatever to do with the
demise of Ninety, the dog. But
Patrolman Fine prospered according
to his just desserts. He was promot-
ed, and again, and yet again Be-
fore he had been seven years on
the job he had been made a first
grade detective.
Now, by this time, of course, you
have surmised that Patrolman
Rine's awakening to a full and
proper sense of his duty as a public
servant brought about the most
sensational capture of the most
notorious criminal ever recorded in
the annals of the New York's Finest,
and you are correct. Patrolman
Rine-or rather, Detective Rine, ap-
pretended and brought to justice
the notorious Poker Pan Donlon,
slayer of five and co-slayer of nu-
merouS others whose unsolved mur-
ders had linked che department for
years.
1T was for that arrest, and right
l. ly, that Detective Rine was pro-
promoted to first grade. But it left
something in him deeply unsatis-
fed. For he hadn't been looking
for Poker Dan Donlon all these
years.
The man for whom Detective Rine
had been looking for years was the
man who, in hitting the cog, Nine
ty, had hit home-the man with the
hyena laugh who had run over a
little dog on Post Ninety on the
night of Jan II. seven years ago.
No, Detective Rine was not Who'll
ly satisfied with the greatest and
most meritoriouS arrest of his ca
reer, that of Poker Dan Donlon.
Rine had. to be sure, entered a
house in which Poker Pan Donlon
and four of his henchmen were
firmly entrenched with three ma
chine guns and an arsenal of minor
lethal weapons, and Detective Rine
had performed this feat practically
without benefit of gas bombs and
very nearly alone and singlehanded
That was pretty good, Rine had to
admit. himself. But the following
morning at the lineup found him
wan and depressed because he was
no nearer his goal than he had been
seven years before.
LIS detection was acute by the
4 Il time the trial Of Poker Pan
Donlon had exhausted the resources
Of all concerned. and Poker Pan
Donion and his cohorts we're headed
for more deaths, this time their own.
in the electric chair.
But Detective Rine was downcast.
When the prisoner. Poker Pan Dom
lon, rose to receive the verdict of the
jury, Detective Rine wasn't even
thinking about the case any yucre.
Dimly he heard The words: Guilty
Of murder in the first degree"
There was an instant of acute
silence. Then a wild, unholy laugh
ter tore through the crowded court
harsh. hraggart laugh. void
Of decency. strident yowl with
queer flip at the end.
Detective Rine swung about con-
vulsively to confront the source of
that laughter for which he had
been seeking these many years. 1t
came from Poker Pan Donlon shout
no defiance AZ his doon,