Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-01-21
CHAPTER XVIII

calmly, Eyes"
Senior Otilio Lombardo, jefe del
policia, came up the Orizaba's lad
der the next day but one, followed
by DR.. Miguel Cruz On the heels
of the doctor came the barefooted,
ragged mariachis, Felipe and Pan
cho.
Il have puzzled much, gentle
men," remarked Lombardo in Eng
fish after cigarettes had been light
ed, "about the confession of Senorita
Chatfield that she killed Senior
Chesebro. l do not understand it,
and take no action. l had come
that evening persuaded that it was
better, despite your promise, that I
keep Senior Barton in Jail for the
murder of Senior Rumble. But when
Senorita Chatfield speak I am con-
fused, senior, and do not know what
is best to do"
A faint smile twitched at Rogers
lips and he looked away across the
bay to the shore where the coco
palms seemed to shoot like bursting
green rockets into the sky.
s E,o
in this affair, senor," he remarked.
'They have puzzled me too, but I
believe that 1 can explain them all
now"
II would be very glad if you
would"
-Four persons have died, Senior
Observation-Disclosures Chatfield in
California; James Chesebro, Sam
Chatfield and George Rumble, in
Mexico. The explanation must in
clude all four. 1t must be logical
and there must be proof"
eyes, of course" said Rogers.
Sam Chatfeld and his wife, Ber-
ia, arrived in California for their
annual visit year ago last winter.
They stopped at a hotel in Pasa-
dena, and, unlimited, went to spend
the night with his sister. Rather
ine-Elsa's Aunt Kitty. That night
Katherine Chatfeld was murdered.
The method used was an overdose
of morphine, to which drug she was
an addict, taking it hypodermically.
A very faint odor of chloroform de-
tected the next morning by only one
investigator furnishes the single clue
to what happened. A few drops of
chloroform on handkerchief, I be-
lieve, suddenly held to the unsus-
pecting victims nose, and kept in
place during the brief and violent
struggle which probably followed,
and the victim was unconscious.
There was necessary only to load
tho hurnlart,,io will,
of morphine and shoot it into the
unconscious victim, wipe away all
fingerprints from the syringe and
the supply bottle, and press the
prints of the victim on these things.
Simpler"
ut is most simple, Senior Rog-
ers,' said Lombardo, a serious eX-
preston upon his round, brown face.
EITHER man or a woman could
have done that. senor," Rogers be-
gan again. Nov. consider these
facts: Present in the house. besides
the servants. who do not figure in it
at all, was Sam Chatfield. He knew
that his sister was the mother of a
child. He knew that she not only
had refused to acknowledge the fact.
but had permitted his daughter, FL
sa. to be cruelty slandered, and not
only had done nothing to quiet the
gossip, but most likely had been in
strumental in circulating it.
'Also in the house that night was
Elsa, who openly and frankly at all
times, as you heard the other night,
has admitted that she hated her
aunt. Besides these two there was
Sonora Berta Chatfeld, who ever
since she married Sam had resent
ed the treatment given her BY
her sister-in-law, and who, as a
wife, knew how her husband felt
toward Katherine Chatfeld.
There, Senior Lombardo," Roc
ers continued, Il have named three
persons with motives to kill and OBJ
viously with the opportunity to do
SO. But there were others that
night who came and went. George
Rumble, who had done some pub
licity work for Katherine Chatfield.
came TO receive his pay, which was
refused him. There was an argu-
ment and hot words, and Rumble
left. But he remained in the neigh
borhood uncertain whether or not
he should return. Did he 60 back
and kill herr"
Rogers was developing very logi-
cally the facts in that first Staying,
and Lombardo followed his words
closely. Doctor Cruz sat smoking
cornhusk cigarettes endlessly, his
eyelids making mere Sits for his
eyes. Neither spoke.
THAT night, Also" Rogers went
on evenly, Reed Barton was at
Katherine Chatfield's home to give
her book sent by Chesebro. Reed |
has been very frank to admit that |