10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

-106—__——-10-STORY DETECTIVE “Did he have anything to do with Elkins’ death, Ben?” “T dunno, Cap. I’m still working on that. ’'m going to keep on working on it, but I'll be around the building somewhere when the wagon gets here. Look, what was the result of the ex- amination on Billy Elkins?” “Killed instantly. That was a nar- row shaft, and he hit his head on a couple window sills on the way down. We found blood on them. If you want a list of all the bones fractured—” \ “T don’t,” said Ben. “T’ll take your word for it. What all was in his pockets? Did he have any money or was he broke?” “Just some small change. But he sure had a lot of other stuff in his - pockets. Want to hear the list?” “Sure,” said Ben. “Read it, will you?” EN listened closely, and whistled. Then he put the receiver back on the hoek and looked up the phone number of the Indiana Hotel. A sleepy voice answered. “Mitzie Elkins, please,” said Ben. “She checked out today.” Ben said, “That’s funny, I had am appointment with her. Did she say where she was going, or give any for- warding address?” “No. She left rather hurriedly this morning and said she’d give us an address later. If she gets in touch with us, who shall I tell her called?” “Her husband,” said Ben. “This is ' Billy Elkins. Sure she didn’t leave any message for me?” “No, she didn’t.” “Funny,” said Ben, and he put the receiver back on the hook. It was funny. Mitzie Elkins must have learned this morning that her hus- band was getting out of jail in the afternoon. And if she was still in love with him, she’d taken a funny way of showing it. There was a decanter of whisky on the table. Murro hadn’t offered Ben a drink, but he figured Murro weuldn’t mind now. So he had one. It made him feel warm inside and that made him realize how cold and wet the outside of him still was. Dammit, why couldn’t he make up his mind that Billy Elkins had simply fallen down that airshaft? It made sense. But the farther he got into this case, the farther there was to go. Now he’d have to find out why Mitzie had run out this morning. Maybe have to go sloshing out in the rain again, hunting her. And he’d have to see Frankie Ho- berg and ask him— Hey! How about those papers that were in Murro’s pocket? Maybe there was a lead there to the Elkins busi- ness. Ben went over and got the papers, glanced through them. There were leads, in those papers, to lots of things that Cap Rogers would find interest- ing. Things that— Then, on the second last one, he caught a glimpse of the signature, “Wm. Elkins.” Ben read it carefully, and said, “I’ll be damned. Right on the head!” And he wondered vaguely if he’d been psychic. He’d taken a random shot in the dark by asking Murro if Billy Elkins had paid him off in ma- terial for blackmail against Hoberg. It had been a bull’s-eye. The paper he had in his hand was a confession signed by Elkins, which - ineriminated Hoberg as the fence who handled everything Billy had stolen. Signing that confession, then, had been the price Billy had paid for Murro’s services in getting a ten-year sentence divided by ten. Did Mitzie know he’d signed? She must have. And Hoberg would know, of course. That knowledge would have cost him plenty of sugar. Then Hoberg did have a motive for killing Elkins. The paper still in his hand, Ben strolled over to the window and stared out into the rain. Maybe Hoberg had— The Black Maria was pulling up, out in front. Two men with yellow slickers over blue uniforms got out and ran co comic