10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

——__—_—___—_—_—€RIME IN THE WACKS’ MUSEUM———————_61 hand. The idol would see to it. Jarvis, what are you going to do? Man— don’t! Don’t! It’s like taking your own life.” | Jarvis laughed again, stepped very close to the idol and placed, both hands against it. With a hefty shove he top- pled the thing over. It fell with a erash. Gorman uttered a moan of agony, as though he’d been thrown to the floor himself. Post said nothing, just stood there immobile. Walker be- gan to rave about suing Jarvis. The detective faced them, wiped his hands as if they were tainted and gave some orders. “T’ll show you what a phony that ehunk of stone is. Now listen. First of all, | want an inventory made of the jade in this room. Valuables in other rooms, too. Later tonight, Ill gee each one of you and I want a full accounting. Now I’m calling in homi- cide men to see if they can prove that Granville was murdered and no silly idol was responsible for his death.” CHAPTER IV A DETECTIVE’S HEAD—IN STONE ERGEANT JARVIS visited the police laboratories shortly after midnight. From the technicians there he acquired some small, interesting articles. He went to the homicide bu- reau and talked to the men who had investigated the three murders. Captain Burke headed the squad and gave him only vague information. “The medical examiner says suicide, Jarvis. Yet evek he recognizes that things aren’t just right. No suicide notes, for instance. No methodical plenning—and those dead men were methodical in business ¢ealings. Felix Kent, for instance, had made plans to fly West to talk over some defense work with a manufacturer. Collins was thinking of accepting a govern- ment job. On the surface it’s suicide, but Pve got strong doubts.” “No stronger than mine,” Jarvis grunted, “How abeut visitors to these dead men? Who saw them last?” “In Kent’s case his servants were off for the night. Collins lived in a hotel and the staff took care of his quarters. Granville, of course, was at the museum. I don’t know yet who saw them last. Got any ideas, Jarvis?” “A couple,” Jarvis admitted. “I’m going to put them to work. See you later.” He drove his cruiser around to Walker’s home, found the man in. From him Jarvis received the infor- mation that a fortune in jade had been stolen from the museum. “In addition,” Walker went on, “there were a lot of Egyptian pieces missing too. All told, the loot must have been worth in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars.” . Jarvis whistled sharply. “Well, it establishes a motive. Maybe the three murdered men knew who took the stuff and were killed to insure their silence. Or, perhaps, the killer is only trying to pin the blame on them and establish their guilt by the use of that phony idol.” Walker wagged his head solemnly from side to side. “I wouldn’t joke about that. too much, sergeant. There are a lot of things the human mind doesn’t understand. Personally, a hun- dred thousand dollars would not have induced me to push that idol over.” Jarvis chuckled. “I’d do it again for a dime. Well, just to satisfy my- self, I’m going to spend the rest of the night inside the museum. See you in the morning.” “Tf you’re still alive,” Walker put in dismally, Jarvis went to see Willard Post next. The financier was in his study and while Jarvis repeated Walker’s story of the missing jade and curios, — Post toyed with a pencil, and seemed nervous. “So you’re going to dare the wrath of the idol?” he said when Jarvis arose to go. “On your own head then, sergeant. ’m going to suggest that. we get rid of the thing tomorrow. Sell it, give it away. Anything—except de- f K i ¥ { oO Se eel pe | "a Ne ee ee Oe Le es ner © —— ere ea =>} _ —. -—S =" = *