The times-news., 1937-09-30
BY MARION WHITE

CAST OF CHARACIEKe
PRISCILLA PIERCE-heroine'
young woman attorney.
AMY kERR-Cilly's roommate
and murderer's victim.
JIM KERRIGAN-Cilly's france
HARRY HUTCHlNS - Amy's
SERGEANT DoLAN--offieer
assigned to solve the murder OF
Amy Kerr.
Yesterday: Mr.. johnson, the
janitor, reads strange, morbid
books, Cilly finds, and decides she
can never quite trust him fully
again. His reactions to the MUIR
der are odd, too. D.
CHAPTER XIV
/ All morning Cilly waited for
Sergeant Dolan to put in an ap-
pearance, nerVously eager to tell
him of her findings. The Utah
newspapers, she felt sure, led the
case definitely away from jim
| Kerrigan, for it proved that some
one in the house was implicated:
Moreover, she felt convinced
that it would be wise for the
police to look into the habits and
background of Mr.. Johnson. He
might be able to tell a great deal
more than he had. His sudden
recollection of a tenant from SAT-
Lake City had come naturally
enough, but had he spoken the
truth when he said he could not
remember who it was?
A sudden realization halted her
train of thought abruptly. How
ever, had she neglected to consid-
er it before? Mr.. Johnson was the
one person in the house who had
the opportunity to commit the
crimei
He had every reason to be up
on the roof at midnight, if only
to look about and see that no one
was there before he locked the
door for the night. And he was
the only person Cilly had seen
come out of the front door as she
knelt beside Amy on the ground
She had assumed, quite natur-
ally, that he had come up from ms
rooms in the basement to look
into the trouble. But was 1T not
Just as possible that he had come
down the stairs from the roof
Why hadn't she realized that
before? Based solely on circum-
stantial evidence, Cilly knew that
she could build just as conclusive
a case against the superintendent
as Sergean Dolan believed ne
could against jim.
There was, to be sure, no mo-
tive There was no apparent rea-
son why Mr.. Johnson should want
TO kill Amy. Unless - and Cllly
hesitated to admit the possibility,
even to herself-unless the man
were mentally deranged. A few
hours before she would have BAN
ished the thought, but now she
saw him in a new light.
| a&
If Mr.. Johnson were just a nor
NAL, simple working man. why
would he pore over his morbid III
erature down there alone in his
basement rooms? He was not suf'
ficiently educated to find suct
reading easy. Cilly remembered
how methodically he had spelled
out each word in the simple note
he had received from Mrs. Elliot
How much more difficult, there
fore, he must have found it to un'
derstand the technical phraseol
og.y of his literature on insanity
What curious fascination did II
have for him? What horrible, dis
torted ideas ran through his sim
pie mind as he slowly and pans
takinglv worked out paragraph
after paragraph!
However, in spite of Mr.. John
sons curious literary tastes, there
was still the matter of the news
papers to be explained. Appar
entity they cleared the superin
tendent, as they cleared jim. o.
any connection with Amy's death
The funeral service for Am!
Kerr was scheduled for tw'
o'clock. so when 1890 arrived ant
Sergeant Dolan had not put in nj
appearance, Cilly relinquished tn
hope of seeing him. She went in
to the bedroom to change into tn
dull black dress. 1t might be ina
the sergeant would stop at IN,
funeral parlors, If only to looI
over the friends and acqualnt
ances assembled. , -.
Through the window, Cilly saw
a taxi draw up to the house am
stop in front of her window. Sh
hurried across the room to puI
down the shade. 49,,
Vaguely she was conscious ina
the cars motor continued to ru'
as she combed her hair an
changed her dress. Someone i
the house must have called an
asked him to wait. Few peopl
from the apartment ever phone,
for a taxi: it was easier to wal
down to the corner and hail on
from the regular stand. You onl
phoned when it rained-or II yo
had heavy bundles. -,
Curious, Cilly raised the shad
and looked out. A woman wa
getting into the car; the drive
struggled to adjust two 6ae
which he put in after her. IW
large suitcases, to be exact. Ciil
recognized the woman as one g
the tenants from above. She dl
not know her by name, howeVe,
She thought it rather unusuf
for her to be leaving the nous
at this time with suitcases. Hadn
| Sarpeant Dolan insisted that the