The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1940-04-19

When she was Is. GAIL MEADOWS
TRENTON saw her father un1ustiy
imprisoned on q jewel theft charge.
Gail nov 40. and known as Gail
Meadows. promised her mother, ANNA,
not 70 marry until she cleared her
fathers name. She declines BILL
HORGAN'S proposal OF marriage and
he introduces 70 her handsome young
CHRISTOPHER REID. son OF the man
who sent her father to prison. Gail
obtains a Job In the Reid jewelry store
and suspects all the employees who
have worked there for more than five
years. The brunei bookkeeper. HELEN
STILES. Is too alooi. and blonde
spinster AUNT BELL reprimands her
for assooiating with Chris. and leaves
.nsuited when Gail answers her per-
tinently. The girl promises her
mother she will not date Chris after
that night. When Chris asks Gail to
marry him. she tells him that At her
mothers request she cannot even see
him again. Anna and Gail invite Bill
Morgan to dinner. Bill takes Gail
riding and says shes in love with
Chris Gail admits she likes her
employers son. In an after office
hours conversation with BUZZ. the
store janitor. Gail learns he suspect
ed Helen Stiles OF the theft for which
her father was penalized. Buzz says
he saw Helen kiss TOBIAS WENT
WORTH. the store manager, about
the time OF the robbery.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Bill and Gail were on their way
to a hockey game. The night air
was crisp and cold. Pedestrians
scurried along the streets pur-
sued by a relentless, biting wind.
Newspapers warned that there
were only Is days left for Christ
mas shopping and the Reid store
had entered into its busiest season
of the year. Gail was tired.
The effort of putting Chris
topher Reid out of her life seemed
to have exhausted her. She sat
beside Bill without speaking until
he asked, ANY new clues?"
Nothing except that the janitor
thinks that Helen Stiles may have
had something to do with it."
shes the bookkeeper, isn't
she p"
Eyes. Buzz insists that she is
in love with the manager. But
can't put much faith in anything
Buzz says. His imagination is big
ger than the facts. I've watched
Helen stiles constantly but I've
never seen her give the slightest
sign of being interested in Mr..
Wentworth. Not only that" she
sighed, as if weary of the sub
ject, "but Mr.. Wentworth has only
been at the store since the robbery
occurred. Buzz insinuated that
Helen might have thrown the
blame on my father so that the
man she loved could obtain the
position but it. sounds too far
fetched"
"And the blonde hair?" Bill in
quired, keeping his eyes on the
swiftly moving line of traffic.
Buzz thinks she put it there
! to divert suspicion from herself"
Strange Truth
Bill said cheerfully, well, I've
always understood that the truth
was stranger than fiction but it
does sound as if your friend Buzz
has been reading too many detec-
tive stories"
They had entered parking
station and Bill stopped the car
as he asked, mot ready to give
up. are you?"
Yes" she answered modify. "I
am, but Mother won't let me.
Everyone admits you see that it
was an inside job. There were
only two keys to the safe and il it
wasn't my father as we know it
wasn't, who was it? That's her
argument and of course she is
right. But what she can't under
stand is the impossibility of prov