The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-09-28

One by one, she broke four eggs
into a mixing bowl :.
Cooking, she realized suddenly,
was a splendid tonic for frayed
nerves. The monotonous, me-
chanical detail of it was soothing
and restful. She whirred the egg
beaten efficiently. 1t was easier
to think now. 80 IT,.
She tried to analyze the situa.
ton calmly. ....-..a.r-.
Amy had kept a secret hidden
: in her heart someone feared
lest that secret become known.
He feared it so terribly that he
was prepared to kill her to pre-
vent il.
Whose secret was it? Surely
[ Amy had no connection with the
type of underworld racketeer who
stoops to murder casually. In the
few months she had been living
in New York, where could she
have come in contact with such
people? Not at the despairingly
respectable residence club. Not at
the conServatively correct offices
of Ames Wakefield.
Yet there was Harvey Ames.
Cillv reconsidered his startling re-
action to the news of Amy's
death. How could he have known
of the tragic death of girl in
Rrooklyn, when he lived in a Park
Iavenue apartment in Manhattan?
| WHY had he deliberately lied
about reading it in the morning
papers? -. :. r
If someone had said to him: 81
live in Brooklyn, and last night
girl in the neighborhood was
killed by a fall from the roof
that would have been common
Mace. He would have said TO Cilly
then: eyes, | heard that a girl
was killed last night in Brook
llvn." But he would not have
Lost his head and said: 81 read 1T
in the morning paper" What was
there in the occurrence which had
terrified him? Why did he lie?
Cilly poured little milk into
the eggs. and continued beating.
Did Amy'S secret, she wonder
ed, concern Harvey Ames IN some
way. Did he suspect that she was
in danger of her life? That would
account for his terror-Stricken be-
havior on hearing the news. Yet
ne had not been surprised at the
tragedy he had been surprlS-
ed TO learn that the girl was Amy
Kerr. his own secretary. If he had
learned about the occurrence
through some source other than
IN emorning paper, as he had in
dicated. why had he not also
learned who the girl was? :,
Cilly buttered the skillet and
poured the egg mixture into it.
1t all came back to the same
starting point. What was the
secret Amy was hiding? Discover
that, and you would discover
what people it concerned, and
which ones would benefit by her
death. But Amy's lips were closed
in death now, and who else was
there to throw any light on the
matter? None whom Cilly knew.
Cilly gathered the egg shells
and put them into brown paper
bag, to throw down the incinera-
tor. She scooped I'm some, canta-
lloupe seeds also. She picked up
the brown paper bag, and went
out into the hallway.
The incinerator door was stuck.
Ordinarily it opened out quite
easily. like a mail-box slot. You
threw the refuse into the slot,
from whence it fell into the incin-
orator shaft. The shaft rose di-
rectly through the house, between
apartments A and B on each
floor, and emptied into fiery
nit in the basement where all re-
fuse was burned. Cilly had never
found the door stuck before.
She pulled at it firmly. 1t
budged a trifle. She could tell
that something was caught IN 1t.
Something thrown from above,
probably, which had in some way
landed on this side-chute. She
tugged harder. Gradually the slot
widened, and she could look in
side and see what caused the
sticking. She hoped it would not
be garbage. No 1t was a
newspaper. An enormous pile OF
newspaper, rather, and they had
become wedged into this slot as
they fell down the shaft. Why
did someone have to throw such a
bunch at one time? Anyone could
realize that it would get stuck.
She tried to dislocate them, one
at a time. Finally she managed
to work most of the pack either
down the shaft, or out on the
floor at her feet. She picked up
her own brown paper bag and
threw it down. Then she stopped
to gather up the remaining Sec
tions of newspaper. AS she did so,
she glanced at the masthead on
one of the sheets. She stopped,
clutching the paper in her hand.
II was headed: "Bluefields,
Utah."
Quickly Cilly picked up all of
the remaining sections and car
ried them into her own apart
ment.
So there was someone in the
house who knew about Bluefields.
Someone upstairs who had been
keeping track of developments
there through the out-of-town
! newspapers, but who feared to
keep the papers in his apartment
now that the police were checking
more thoroughly.
Here was something to interest
Sergeant Dolan, Cilly thought.