Evening star., 1951-04-12

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dered girl for fear some one
might be out to kill Tania. She
returns to the city toith him.
recalling an underStudy she
once had by the name OF Nina
Hardiuicke, ,uho looked very
much like Tania. Locating
Nina's hotel, Mickey takes Tania
there and she poses as Nina. In
the girls room, she finds a diary
explaining that Nina had de-
cided to pose as Tania. As she
reads the telephone rings.
Tania jumped, then ran to
answer the telephone, sure it must
be Mickey. Yet. as she lifted the
receiver, she thought, "I'd better
not talk until I know it's Mickey" !"
Hello" she said huskily.
From the other end deep, mas
culine voice demanded, "Nina?"
"Yes." She prayed her voice
was right.
"This is Bill" A note of angry
contempt edged his words. Isn't
it too bad your pretty little racket
is finished, darling? How un-
fortunate that your double had
to get herself killed! I've changed
my mind about never seeing you
again. 1 want to talk to you, you
cheap little chiseler. Meet me in
the cocktail lounge downstairs at
5 o'clock. Be there!"
There was a click as he severed
the connection. Tania stared
fearfully at the phone. Bill-who
was Bill? Obviously, whoever he
was. he knew of Nina's plan to
impersonate Tania Lynn. Also.
obviously. he had no liking for
Nina.
Her eyes glimpsed another tele-
phone tucked into a shelf of the
night table beside the bed. Ex-
amining it. she saw it was a
private phone. Nina must have
had it installed for calls she
didn't care to have go through
the hotel switchboard. Quickly
Tania dialed Mickey's number and
felt relieved to hear his voice.
She told him about the private
phone and gave him the number,
then she told of the evidence she'd
found and of the call from the
unknown Bill.
"It-ir looks as if you were
right, Mickey" she admitted. "The
girl must have been Nina. She
was impersonating me that night
at the theater. What shall I do
about this Bill?"
Better see him or he might get
suspicious and make trouble, u
Mickey advised. do the same
thing Nina did. Impersonate her.
Make yourself up to look as much
like her as possible. She probably
only tried to look like you when
she was up to something-the rest
of the time she was herself, except
for the hair, and she must have
dyed it red. Copy her photo
graphs, wear the glasses on some
excuse. and let this guy do all the
talking. We might find out some
thing about her"
do you think he might
have"
mo" he said. HE wouldn't
have telephoned if he thought
Nina was dead. Listen, kid, when
you leave the room, leave the door
unlocked. I'll sneak up there and
get that evidence and take 1t toI
my place. 1t isn't safe having it,
around"
"All right" She tried to keep
her voice steady. yet it shook.
When she hung up she looked at
her watch. Nearly 4 o'clock.
Better not wear the watch. This
Bill might notice it. was different
from Nina'S. II
In the bathroom she found all
sorts of makeup and, following al
full face photograph of Nina, she
went to work. She used a dark
tan makeup which covered her
freckles: she widened her eye
brows and applied eye shadow;
she made her mouth thinner and
wider Then she parted her hair
as Nina's was parted and combed
1t around her ears and into bangs
over her forehead. When she fin
ished she looked like Nina Hard
wicks, a girl who resembled Tanla
Lynn, but not exactly.
Nina's clothes were little large
for her, so she chose a dark blue
wool with wide gold suede belt
she could pull in, and found pair
of blue shoes with straps. They
were a size too big. but the straps
held them on.
Luckily, Nina had a dark blue
hat with a veil clear to the chin,
and a beaver coat, an expensive
new one, with a standup collar.
Tania decided that. with the veil.
she could risk going without the
glasses. AS she transferred artl-
cles from her own purse to one
of Nina's, she counted her money.
Thirty dollars! How long would
that last? What would she do
for money? She couldn't write a
check, or go to her bank. Per-
haps Mickey would lend her some,
Oh, it was a mess, horrible,
frightening mess! She didn't dare
think. If she did she would have
Mysteries! But she did think sud-
denly of Jeremy Knight. In his
egotistic, self -centered fashion he
had loved her, probably as much
as he could love any girl. He
might be feeling shocked and sad
by the news of her death. If only
she could let him know she was
alive. -.
81 don't dare" she thought.
mot yet, at least. Nina must have
been passing as me last night.
Whoever stabbed her must have
thought it was me. I don't know
who, or why, but Mickey's right.