Evening star., 1940-06-25

ANY OF us had a motive and YOU
know 1t. Aunt Elizabeth had even
threatened to kill him the night be-
fore last, said she'd see him dead
rather than see him marry that Rita
Star. He held you under his thumb
made your life miserable with his
chickering's. There were times when
you hated him!"
"Guy-please!" Lucy quavered.
Yes, and you had a motive, too"
he told her savagely You know
you were Just marrying Greg so
you'd get your money. Maybe you
decided to kill him instead"
oh, no, Guy, you mustn't say such
things!" Lucy cried.
Even Block there had a motive"
Guy said Historically, pointing
long bony finger at Sandy. He was
mad because Uncle Luke wouldn't
read his damned play!"
Sandy Blocks jaw tightened with
contempt at this childish outburst
of Guys. "A dead sponsor wouldn't
help my play any," he pointed out
dryly.
I'm not sorry he's dead" Guy
said. His mouth twitched. His eyes
behind the thick glasses were like
two owls eyes in his pale face. II
can carry out my experiments in
peace now, anyway, and Lucy and I
will get our money"
There's no use in getting melo-
dramatic Chalmers said gruf1y.
They were all very quiet and sub
dued. The clock licked loudly.
We'll, Tony and I may as we'll 60
now. Well have good deal of
routine checkup work to do, and
then I've gained enough information
here to run through my thinking
processes overnight, I think"
Chalmers is Baffled.
Back in his Office in town Inspector
Chalmers sat at his desk in baffled
and gloomy silence for a long time.
Tony, sprawled in a chair opposite
him, smoked cigarettes chain fashion
and waited.
Il suppose you had time to check
on Miss Stars alibi for this morn
ing?" Chalmers asked, coming out
of his absorption abruptly.
Yep" Tony answered, squirting
at his boss through a cloud of smoke.
"She has an impeccable alibi for
this morning"
Chalmers grunted, and resumed
his thinking.
ut certainly is odd the number of
people running in and out of that
study during the morning consider
ing the fact that Lucy Granville
told me her uncle was cranky about
seeing any one until after 10 o'clock
THE whole mess is pretty odd,
If you ask me-" Tony ventured.
"The woman Bertha's pathetic at
tempts to shield Mrs. Granville are
pretty obvious. The medical report
shows that death must have occurred
at about the time Mrs. Granville
made her first visit to her husband
in the study. But if she'd murdered
him, it seems illogical that she'd
come down a second time-to dis
cover the body"
Mysterious Telephone Call.
Discovering the body would be
a good way to throw us off," Tony
suggested.
Eyes, being the first to discover
the body-that's been used before
to throw off suspicion"
Block. What about him? Do YOU
think he could initiate another per-
sons voice we'll enough to fool
some one who knew them as well as
Laval must have known Luke
Granville's? And that story about
initiating Rita Stars voice over the
phone"
Yes" Chalmers said firmly. ct
think he was telling the truth. I've
heard him perform. He's positively
uncanny at it. And anyway-over
the phone it wouldn't be difficult at
all, because voices are easily cam
ouf1aged over telephone"
by the way, checked on Merit
Granville too, like you said" Tony
offered, "at the New Haven end.
He got there last night and his
alibi can't be touched. Perfectly
okay"
Fine" Chalmers said. 'You know.
Tony, I've a hunch there's another
angle to this case, something big
that hasn't come to the surface yet.
I've been wondering"
The phone on the desk shrilled
suddenly and he paused and
reached for it, saying hello" in a
rather bored voice.
Then after a moment his voice Lit
with interest and he began making
sounds of agreement and putting
few terse questions. When he hung
up his face cleaned with excite
ment.
And I think we've hit the
something big right now, Tony!"
he exclaimed. Come along, we're
going to see Granville's lawyer"
Copyright, 1910, Chicago Daily News. Inc.
Tomorrow: The lawyer has valu.
able information for Chalmefy.