The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-08-14
CHAPTER III

Dale fingered the black bow:4tie
that stood out in sharp relief
against his white mess jacket. How
DID he know that his stepfather
had died from bullet? Lord, 1t
was hot in the room. Funny, too
The air-cooling system had been
working perfectly all evening.
'T don't know what made me
think of shooing," Dale said in
D monotone. Its just the first
thing that occurred to me. I don't
know why. I just saw him there
In that pool of blood, and the only
thing I could think of was that
he had been shot to death"
did your stepfather have any
enemies?"
Dale wondered how he should
answer that, and then he said,
Eyes, lots of them"
"He was an attorney, wasn't he?
Did he have many enemies as
result of his law practice?"
II suppose so. Every lawyer
has some"
Don't you think he might have
had more than the usual because
bf his parole rascket?"
Dale shot quick glance at the
detective. Then you know about
that?"
Sure. We've known about 1t
all along, but we couldn't stop it.
There wasn't anything we could
put our fingers on. You know
getting convicts out of prison
through crooked connections on
the parole board and making them
pay stiff fees if they didn't want
to get sent back on trumped-up
parole violations.
'Extortion, maybe. But what
could we do? Nobody squawked,
naturally. And if they had, it
would have been the word of an
ex-con against a respectable at
torney."
Dale nodded. cit might have
been almost anyone who killed
him, suppose"
Lieutenant OLeary, clasped his
par-lobe and pulled at it. Yeah,
might have BEEN" He arose and
stretched himself. Lets go back
10 the study. I may want to look
around a Bit"
The body had been removed when
Ehey entered the room. Only
large, dark stain remained in ply
steal evidence of the tragedy that
had occurred there. OLeary walked
over to Sayler's desk and seated
himself in the swivel chair. He
opened the top drawer and fingered
the sparse contents nonchalantly.
"Do you know very much about
Eour stepfather's affairs?" the
lieutenant asked.
practically nothing. He never
Eonfded in me-"
You knew about his parole
business"
Everybody knows about that"
OLeary peered a moment at
come papers he had removed from
khe desk drawer. "Tell me who
was here tonight?" he asked.
Dale leaned against the mantle
over the fireplace. Miss Leighton
and Mr.. Barbour - I told you
WDOub bA4CAl'
"who is BARBOUR"
"He was my stepfather's law
partner"
'Okay. Who else?"
"There was Mr.. Mardell and Miss
Waters, my fiancee, and myself.
Ghe servants, of course, but they
were in another part of the house"
OLeary pinned his gaze di-
Sectly on Dale. For a second, the
toung man met the stare and
then he peered uneasily at the
floor. "You said a little while
ago" the officer recalled, that
Miss Leighton was coming in here
to see Sayler when she found him
dead. What did she want to see
him about?"
hBetter ask her"
OLeary's calm expression didn't
Naver. st know this isn't much fun
FOR you, Mr.. Appleby. But it isn't
much fun for me, either. There's
been a murder committed in this
house, and I'm going to be asking
some awfully silly questions until I
get the right answer. We get pretty
curious about a lot of things that
aren't any of our business"
Dale bit his lips. I'm sorry.
I'm upset, naturally. I'll try to
help you"
Thanks, said OLeary. He
crushed the incident aside. "I'm
curious about this window next
% the desk. You'll notice that the
pot where the body lay was di-
kectly opposite"
Dale walked over to the VIM