10-Story Detective Magazine, April 1946 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

—————MERCHANT OF VENGEANCE—————-——_——_19 suicide letter. Also he found a driver's license in Fane’s billfold with Fane’s de- scription on it under the name of Charley Reeball. Later the doctor told the police how he and Fane had worked a neat little racket on innocent motorists. It had been worked by Fane stepping into the front fender of a moving car, then falling onto the street. They’d always pulled the trick at night. It had been easy for Fane to avoid being hurt, letting the fender merely stub him. When the driver stopped and came back he always found something ugly, because by that time Fane had thrown his joints out of socket —his old acrebatic trick—and was play- ing dead. The doctor collected then, promising to remove the body of his associate for a nice, fat sum, Most motorists paid off. dake Romine had, Slawter put Rodney’s letter in his pocket, then returned to the car. In few minutes Sergeant Treckess arrived with an ambulance in tow. Driving to headquarters from the hos- pital, where Treckess had left a man to guard Merryway and Useman, Slawter told the sergeant everything. There was no interruption until he came to the place where he gave his theory on how Georgie Stawse was poi- soned at Useman’s café. “You say that Stawse poisoned him- self?” Treckess asked, doubt rattling his words. “Ves,” Slawter said. “Fane, Merryway, and Useman had if figured to show as murder and suicide. Ownmond had paid them a lot of eash for getting rid of Stawse. It was worth plenty to him to get Stawse off his young wife’s mind. Stawse was to be poisoned by Pell, then Pell was to be a suicide. Stawse had been sent to the Yellow Bottle to poison Use- man, just as Rodney had. I'll bet all I own that Stawse was told Useman had been squawking to Ownmond about him and little Lola. Stawse had a thousand bucks in his clothes when he died. Also traces of poison were found in his coat pocket.” ‘You're playing a guessing game,” said Treckess bluntly. Slawter went on. “Stawse poisoned his own beer when the lights went out and passed his glass to Useman, Useman was ready for it, and worked it so Stawse got his own glass back, when he thought he was getting Useman’s. But Pell-fooled Useman. He didn’t attempt to trade glasses with anybody in the dark. The simple fact that Rodney is still alive proves it.” ; “It’s no good, Slawter.” Treckess said. “It’s up to you to play it right with your client. The kind of business you’re in you’ve got to. And you're right about the stiff being Stawse, also about Sam Ownmond putting up the dough for the fade. Ownmond’s under arrest now at a place in Florida. We identified Stawse’s body long before Mrs, Pell tried to snatch her son from the hot seat by saying it was Rodney’s. So your best out is to fell me where to find Rodney so I can take him in.” Slawter told about Merryway’s suicide clinic, about Fane going to Rodney with his arms out of socket when Rodney was doped and hiring him to poison Useman. “Don’t you see,” he said, exasperated, anxious to have this murder business done with and get back to Vale, “Rodney was not hired to kill Stawse, but Useman, Actually, though, Rodney and Stawse were set—it had undoubtedly been fixed that way by Fane—to poison each other. Neither of them could have dreamed it might turn out that way.” Treckess nodded. “Sure, I see,” he said, his voice cold with doubt. “Rodney was hired to kill Useman, being doped first. But how do you know Stawse was hired to kill anybody?” “Because,” said Slawter, and he should never have said it, “he tried to kill Fane afterwards.” “Fane?” Surprise wiped the doubt from Treckess’s voice. “That’s right,” Slawter went on. “Stawse left the Yellow Bottle feeling sick, maybe suspecting he’d been poi- soned. He passes Jake’s place and sees Fane inside eating soup. Then he sees the lights go out. It’s a chance. Sick like he is he’s beginning to put two and two together. He still has some poison left after poisoning the beer. He goes inside in the dark, puts the poison in the soup, thinking Fane will finish eating it when the lights come on. Then Fane runs into him and smacks him with his umbrella.” Treckess said, “Not bad. Not bad aft all—for you.” Mockery was in his voice now, “Only last night you didn’t mention Ccomilcoooks (©