Evening star., 1938-12-04

a lOt OF tnngS ne tOlQ me. DuL
there's one thing I won't ever for
get. 1t was an iron rule with him,
this: Don't ever throw anything away
if it's connected with murder case
that isn't solved"
The Captain leaned over in his chair
and opened drawer in the desk Out
of the drawer came a button around
leather thing with tag attached:
"See this button? Well. that buttons
gonna burn guy some day. Got it
four years ago - out of dead girls
hand - and I'm keepin' it."
He paused for second and sur
veyed the button Then he continued:
-Four years ago they found Elsie
Browns body - she was just IL
out along the Brickyard Road -
shortcut across to South Street and a
place no girl should ever walk after
dark. not even now.
''She was dead - her head crushed
with brick - but she'd died fghtin'.
The ground was kicked up all around.
"They took Elsie's body over to the
morgue and held an autopsy. She
hadn't been robbed - her pocketbook
with couple of dollars in it was near
the body - so we figured the motive
was assault. But it wasn't And all
we could make out of it was that the
guy who did the job was scared when
he saw what he'd done and run away.
1T was after the autopsy they
found this" He held up the button.
Student undertaken opened her right
hand - both the kids fists were
closed tight - and discovered it. She
musta pulled it off the guys coat in
the struggle.
See. it's a leather thing" the Cap
tain went on, land it's kinda new, so
the coat couldn't have been very old
1t wasn't any trick to find the manu-
facturer of the buttons, but he'd made
million of them, more or less, and
SIlppNu Gil oNCI tIlC
Well. that gave us job runnin' down
the coatmakers that bought 'em, but
we'd got our minds made up that
here's one bird we gotta get and if you
went into that next room now like as
not you'd find Sergeant Bill Waters
still goin' over lists of coatmakers and
typin' letters.
Funny thing - and it makes it
look like maybe we might never get
anywhere, too - is that there wasn't
a coat sold in this mans town with
these buttons. Leastaways we never
found any store that ever had 'em.
THAT leaves US thinkin' maybe the
guy we want is floater and maybe
he's in San Francisco or Hong Kong.
But even floaters come back some
times, and we're hopin."
Captain Manning leaned back in his
chair and turned his attention to the
tag attached to the button. 1t told.
briefly, grim story: Elsie Brown
murder, June II, 1884"
II made a rule then" the Captain
resumed, that every time they
brought in any guy in morals case
in this precinct he had to be brought
up to me. And l ask 'em all the same
question: Where were you on the
night of June II. 1934?' l figure the
bird that killed Elsie Brown is the
kind that'll get himself caught some
day in some girl case - if he's still
around here"
The Captains young visitor spoke
for the first time But, Captain. you
wouldn't t expect the girls murderer, if
he is brought here on another charge.
to tell you he did it,"
The big man smiled. mot in so
many words, son. Most of the guys
I've asked that question have laughed
at me. Most of 'em didn't remember
where they'd been on the seventeenth
of the month before, let alone June II,
1884. Just the same
The Captains phone rang. Cap
tain Manning" he said. then listened.
Finally: Followed the waitress into
the kitchen - she was the cook. too,