The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-09-24
OUT Of the NIGHT
Copyriqht, 1897, MEN SerVIee, INC

II should say. Daughter teaches
school. The old lady, from the
look of her, never could pick up
a body and throw it off the roof"
"No," Dolan agreed, it wasn't
the work of woman"
"A Mrs. Wheeler lives in 4-B.
Lives there alone, she tells me,
and Johnson confirms it. Smart
looking woman, in her 30s. I'd
say. A widow. Has a young niece
that often spends week-ends with
her, but she was all alone this
Sunday
Sergeant Dolan shook his head
negatively as he listened without
comment to Martins report. Cilly
could almost read his thoughts.
One by one, he too was dismiss
ing the tenants from considera-
ton. In his hand he still held
the crumpled note Jim had writ
ten to Amy.
"On the fourth floor, there's
nobody we can pin the case on"
Martin was saying, "and I'd say
we could check off the fifth floor
too. In 5-A there's a man and
his wife named Hunter, n mid
dle-aged couple. But he's a help
less cripple, paralyzed from the
waist down. Sits around all day
in q wheel chair. Johnson says
he's never been out of the chair
in the four years they've lived
here"
"That let's him out" Dolan
commented. what about 5-B?"
Vacant"
"Um-m-m-m." Dolan shrugged
his powerful shoulders. He took
wallet from his inner coat
pocket and slipped Jim's note in
to it, alongside Of the Southern
Pacific timetable he had found in
Amy's bag. Carefully he put the
wallet back into his pocket and
rose to his feet.
Lets get going, Martin" he
said: ave still have several other
angles to check"
Cilly rose too. Gust a minute,
sergeant" she pleaded, what
about those vacant apartments?
Anybody-a vagrant, for ex-
ample-might have hidden away
in them"
Dolan turned to his assistant.
IL - Monti,, 80
eve thought of that, Serg.
Johnson showed me 5-B. In the
first place, the door was locked,
and he has the only two keys to
it. In the second place, he's get
ting it ready for some new tenant
moving in on the first, and Satur-
day the floors were scraped and
shellaced. Anyone coming down
from the roof-which is covered
with tar and SCOT and dust
would have left some tracks on
that newly polished floor. There's
not a sign of a footprint"
"What about the other vacant
apartment?" Cilly asked him.
"The one on the third floor?"
eve found it locked" Martin
said. johnson is the only one
that has a passkey to it,"
"Someone might have come
down the fire escape" Cilly sug-
gested. "He could have passed
5-B, which is vacant, and Alb,
without awakening Mrs. Wheeler,
and climbed into BIB"
Martin shook his head mega
lively.
escape was latched. He couldn't
have opened it from the outside
without breaking a pane Of glass.
Besides, from what | hear, before
the young woman fell, there was
a scream-loud enough to awaken
the neighborhood. 1t awakened
Mrs. Wheeler. If any man passed
down the fire escape, she would
have known it."
Cilly wondered where else q
man might have hidden. Nobody
came out of the house immediate.
ly after the accident, Cilly knew
that. Amy had fallen directly in
front of the house, less than 10
feet from the front entrance. AS
Cilly knelt on the ground beside
Amy's body, she would have seen
whoever came through the front
door. Only one person did. Mr..
Johnson, the superintendent. He
had come up from his apartment
m the basement to see what had
happened.
Suddenly n new light dawned
OH the problem, and for the first
time the strands of the terrible
web of circumstances and coin
cidence which was encirclinp her
loosened their hold.
Jim must have come down from
the roof before Amy fell: if he
had come down after the acct
dent, Cilly would have seen him
go out the front entrance. Or
the policew ould have found him
still on the roof. jim couldn't
nave been up there when it hap
pened! mop
,;o She almost .wept for sheer re-
There was a new ring of .csonfi-