10-Story Detective Magazine, April 1946 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

é __ UN ERCHANT OF VENGEANCE——————___13 He was a nervous guy, all tight and ready to snap. Slawter wondered if this could be Rodney Pell. _ Dr. Merryway pushed by him, his mon- strous figure blending darkly into the shadows of the hall. “I want to see Mrs. Pell,” Slawter said. “Mother isn’t seeing anyone just now,” came the reply. “Tell her who I am and she'll see me. Tell her it’s Tommy Slawter come to visit.” » “J’l] tell her it was some snooper look- ing for trouble,” said the young man. “G’wan, beat it, you!” He banged the door in Slawter’s face. A cab stopped in the street as the de- tective came back down the steps, and Betty Romine rolled down a rear window. “Yoo-hoo,” she called. ““Yoo-hoo, Mr. Slawter!” He walked over to the cab. Betty pushed open the door and introduced him to Rodney Pell. “That fellow you were just talking to is Rodney’s brother,” she said, This time he knew she wasn’t kidding. “How does it feel to have a stomach full of poison?” he asked Pell, not hiding the irritation in his voice. Pell grimaced stubbornly and didn’t speak. Betty said, “Things are different now since I’ve found Rodney. I promise never te give you a wrong cue again.” She gave with a warm smile, moved over. “Get in, Tommy.” He sat down beside her, putting her between him and glum-faced Rodney. “Thanks for tipping me off about Ser- geant Treckess.” She smiled sofily, mischievously. “Ser- geant Treckess is looking for you. I met him on the street, and he wanted to know if you were in your office. But we made up that stuff about the vial of poison being found in the booth at the café.” “That stuff about the bus driver, where’d you pick up that dope?” He guessed he sounded pretty sore, because a hurt look clouded her eyes for a mo- ment. “Rodney knew his mother talked to you last night. He saw her give you his letter, It’s one he wrote when—when this trouble all started.” She looked at Rodney as if she ex- pected him to stop her. He didn’t. “You see, Rodney got the idea you’d poisoned silly. He said it wasn’t. He had news- paper evidence to prove that you had it in for certain — of the gang wanted to see if you’d get panicky and run,” Tommy said, Georgie Stawse?” Rodney cleared his throat and grudg- ingly told him. “He was the guy who ran the Comet Park dance hall for Sam Ownmond, He’s also the guy who was found dead in the café.” “He was sweet on Ownmond’s wife, the Comet Park trick dancer ealied Leia,” Slawter said, using imformation he’d gleaned from the crazy cabby. “Some things you do know,” said Red- ney. “Yes, Lola was playing wp te hiss. ~It was burning old Sam Ownmond down to watch it, too.” “Ownmond probably poisoned him. Fed him the poison somewhere eise, then Stawse came into the café, and—” He stopped, That wouldn’t do, Stawse had been slugged inside the café, and died from the poison while he was wuncon- scious. “He didn’t go anywhere after he was slugged,” Pell said. Betty said, “Anyway there Was poison in the soup, and Daddy didn’t put there. Besides Sam Ownmond and Leola have been in Florida for aver a week.” “Just who is—was IGHT then Tommy was thinking that Mrs. Pell might have given him a letter. A letter might have been rolled inside the piece of newspaper, He dis- tinctly remembered puttmg tke rolled piece of newspaper in his overcoat pocket. Then when he’d found it it had been in his suit coat pocket. He said, “I think I lost the letter Mrs. Pell gave me. I—” The sudden change in Rodney’s face checked him. It was like turming on a light behind a dark curtain. A look of gladness was a flail beating the gloom of his map. Slawter went on, “I think Jake Romine must have taken it from my coat at the café.” In that second a wilder, sicker gloom moved in and crowded the gladness off GComichoo S - CO