10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

sure of it. ““There’s an obscure law in New York State that very few people know. When a man is divorced here —— he is not permitted to remarry in this ea state except by permission of the court ae after three years of Sone con- es duct.” ee “What’s that got to de with me?” # His pale eyes had the brittle glitter of me bits of wire. = “Plenty. You never got that per- go mission from the court. Your mar- = riage to Diane is null and void. Hol- loway was a lawyer. He knew that. He’s been blackmailing you, threat- ening to destroy your little setup here unless you greased his palm. That’s why you got me to come up here, to = get some evidence against Diane, to ee ic force her into a cash settlement, With Se that in hand you could tell aera to whistle. ss “But something went wrong. He a ‘wanted a big piece of money Hecame up here this week end to get it, and he brought Winnie with him as a double threat. He probably threatened to sell eut to Diane. And so you had to kill him. It’s as simple as all tha UKE GLYNN put the Banker’s Special into his hand and faced -us from the doorway. His mouth was thin, wrenched down at the corners, suddenly haggard. “You’re smart, Criqui, too smart. But they’ll never take me alive. They'll never sit me in the chair, Not Duke Glynn, they won’t. I’m getting out of here. I'll blast the first one who tries to stop me.” He whirled and rushed down the stairs. I walked to the window and looked out. I saw him race down the flagstone walk. I had the big Colt in my fist. I drew a bead on his leg and Ee ealmly squeezed the trigger. He was eo beautifully outlined by the moon. He jerked up short, his elbows went ~ out and away from his body. He hit the walk full on his face and lay there, Uy b) fey ~ > abet aoa r. i Sans * sh _. a at 7 _ 4 mee = Se i a = “he me de | = 45 — tears: an Ber te esis ae = . oe: a? b ys Zaks. - ae ae Bets = ied Bry ee tan af eon eed ae ae a wes — a wa ees ante leas Connecticut tomorrow, Winnie.” ~ oe writhing and twisting with agony. = Be gi Sag : I told the butler to go out and =e him. Bs He got only as far as the door. We == a heard another. shot. It was the | Banker’s Special and Duke Glynn had made good his promise never to be taken. Spe Diane said woodenly: “He's dead, eS he’s dead.” She put her hands to her cheeks and started to laugh, thatsame = ~~ hysterical laugh. ee This time it was Speer whb smacked her across the cheek, She shut up and just looked at him. “But why did he try to kill me?” Winnie asked a half hour later, We were sitting on the glider out on the terrace, waiting for daybreak. It was still a wonderfully bright night. We had decided that sleep was out of the question. “Because Duke wasn’t sure whether you were working with Holloway or. not. When his suicide gag backfired and it showed up to have really been murder, he got scared. He was afraid you might give him away by spilling the blackmail story. So he had to get rid of you. He must have been nuts to think he could get away with it. But then all murderers are a little nuts, that’s why they do it.” Winnie was silent for a moment. “You’re not angry with me, Sam, are you, for having been married to Duke?” I grinned down at her. “No,” I said softly, “I was erika once myself. We all make mistakes. — I played the gentleman and let my | wife get a divorce. That’s how I hap- pened to know about that remarrying — law. The lawyer warned me about it.” “Dees—does that mean you'll have — to be a bachelor the rest of your life?’ I lifted her chin, “Not at all. [ ean — get married in any other state. There are forty-seven of them, you know.” ~_ She said, “Oh,” very softly. oe “That's why we have a date in She started to say, “Oh,” a : ss ie ~ er ee eis ag: comicbooks. com