10-Story Detective, September 1941 — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

Two cagey killers thought they had figured all the angles ina... Design for a Headstone By Edward James T WAS a bare shelter, hidden ‘{ deep among the mass of towering |‘ firs, rotted boards slapped together into walls and a roof. Ben Starkey, big, hile heated with a black beard- stubbled face, sat on an overturned soap box and twirled the dial of a tiny portable radio. Music and talk squeaked from the box as he sought a news broadcast. His companion, a: bony man with bulging myopic eyés Kept pacing about the room in short jerky steps. Smoke drifted back from the cigarette which drooped listlessly from the corner of his petulant mouth. Rabbit-ears Hal- lock was a hit-and-run killer. He liked to get his money in advance, do his job, and blow the city before the echo of his compact Colt automatic had died out. His services could be bought by any racketeer throughout the country who desired the elimination of some annoy- ing competitor. This was his first job of smoking out somebody big, some- body top line—a well-known society matron. The heat was on, but he couldn’t leave. He had to hang around and it was getting him down. He didn’t like it and— Ben Starkey’s little radio captured the local station. There was something about a convoy. sinking and then the newscaster was saying: “Tragedy struck swift and terrible last- night against one of our most illusttious Back Bay families. Mrs. Lennox Hynes, wife of the well-known banker, was brutally shot and killed during a holdup of the Hynes limou- sine. “Mr. and Mrs. Hynes were return- ing at midnight from the Society Club, and had just pulled up before their Essex Street mansion, when two | thugs darted from the shrubbery skirting the lawn, pushed pistols into the car and demanded Mrs. Hynes’ jewelry. “The chauffeur tried to start the car again and several shots were fired, one of which struck Mrs. right temple, instantly killing her. The chauffeur was fatally injured and died on his way to the hospital. “The police have.cast a dragnet over the city and environs. Police Chief Garson expects to report a capture within twenty-four hours. According to the story given by Mr. Hynes, who is under a doctor’s care for severe mental shock, the gunmen were very young, evidently inexperienced boys committing their first crime. It is—” Ben Starkey flipped the switch and laughed aloud. “Boys pulling off their first crime,” he mimicked. “That’s hot, ain’t it, Rabbit?” A smile tugged at Hallock’s lips. “Yeah, calling you a boy, eh, Benny, when you’ll never see forty again.” TARKEY chuckled complacently and slid back against the wall, feet outstretched. Rabbit-ears Hallock re- sumed his nervous pacing around the room. Starkey said without moving his lips: “Jeez! Sit down, can’t you?” Hallock paused and the cigarette jerked as he dragged hard. “No. This place gives me the willies. Why’n hell Hynes in the. Conn (Cc NOOK (©