15 Story Detective, April 1950 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

72 orders I went back there. One bottle had broken out in the street and it had been cleared away. Large fragments of the other bottle were still in the gutter, un- touched. I collected those fragments and brought them back to the lab. From them they found two prints. One was of Mr. McBride’s little finger on his right hand. The other was a half-print of his middle finger. The other prints were too smeared to identify.” “Well, Leeds?” said DeWitt. Doc smiled. “That must have happened when he made a grab for me over the bar. I think he got his hand on the first bottle - before I pulled away and threw it.” “You didn’t mention that in your story.” “Tt must have slipped my mind.” The phone on the table rang. DeWitt said, “Pardon me.” He walked over and picked up the phone. “DeWitt here. Yes. Yes. About what time? Ten minutes ago, eh? Out of danger. Good! What? He did, eh? Yes, we can use that. Thanks, Al, : DeWitt hung up. He turned with an odd smile on his face. “That helps us a lot. Stackie Coults rallied and ten minutes ago he regained consciousness. The doc- tor says he’s out of danger. And the doc- tor permitted a few questions. You seem to be in trouble, Leeds, Coults says you killed his brother. And he says you ‘hit him, not McBride.” Barry watched Doc. The man was good. He cocked his head on one side. “That does put a different complexion on it, Captain.” He chuckled. “TI guess I’m going to have to straighten my story out. While the boy was in bad shape, I was trying to pass the buck to McBride for hitting him. Now that he’s okay Tl admit that I did hit him. But he’s wrong when he says that I killed his brother. When I came into the tavern Si Coults was on the floor at the foot of the stairs. McBride straightened up just as I heard _association. and the Commissioner decided the cheap- 15 Story Detective Stackie call something from the head of the stairs. I admit that McBride and I look nothing alike, but when you are look- ing down on a person, height can be de- ceiving. Besides, the light is bad there. I don’t think you can use him as any kind of a witness, Captain.”’ DeWitt pursed his lips. “You might be right. But why did you hit young Coults? Self defense?” “T wouldn’t exactly say that,’’ Doc said, still smiling. DeWitt shrugged. “Too bad you didn’t. Stackie died about an hour ago, Leeds.”’ The room was full of a deadly stillness. All eyes were on Leeds. Twice he opened his mouth to say something. “Well?” DeWitt asked, still calm. Leeds’ voice was a harsh whisper. deal, Captain. A deal.” “Ask Tobert,’’ DeWitt said. Tobert said briskly, “We'll listen. Take your own chances. But make it good,” Leeds licked his lips and swallowed. “Si Coults wanted to take over Deever’s area. He had to have help from topside, or the house would stomp on him, So he made a deal with the Commissioner over there. The Commissioner has the biggest ‘cA ‘slice of the house, but he was willing to take more. They tried to scare Deever out with the fake yarn Stackie gave the Deever wouldn’t scare. Si est way out was to have Deever killed. They’d gotten to me two months ago. They met my price and I killed him, fram- ing it on McBride, because he was the logical one. I had a chance to grab his gun when Deever sent us to install a re- corder in McBride’s room so McBride could clear himself by trapping Stackie. Then Jerry thought up a way to help clear McBride and went to him. Stackie was the weak link. I went there this morning to kill Stackie. That was on my own initiative. But when I found out how {Please continue on baae 129) EORNICOOOLK< (E@)