5 Detective Novels Magazine — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

Mellani’s death. He sighed, “Oh.” “Is that all you can say?” asked the girl sharply. “You can’t even deny he murdered her?” Kelly rubbed the side of his jaw with his knuckles. “Yes, I can deny it,” he declared simply, adding, ‘“‘You’re Doris’s sister ?” “Yes, lam. I’m Ellen Mellani.” “T see.” Kelly nodded. “Now, do vou mind telling me why you say your sister was murdered? After all, the coroner, everyone else, is satisfied it was one of those things. An accident.” “I’m not satisfied at all!’ Ellen snapped. “Doris was murdered. I won’t stop until I prove she was. You can tell Mr. Starr that, if you’re afraid to let me say it to him.” “But, look,” Kelly persisted. “You haven’t answered my question. What makes you believe your sister was mur- dered? You weren’t here. Believe me, I was. I saw your sister’s body. I know the circumstances. I’ve been a cop a long time, Miss Mellani, and I wouldn’t kid you or myself. If there was any ques- tion of this being homicide, even Baron Starr doesn’t have enough money to keep me on his pay-roll to cover up for him.” Page MELLANI sat very straight, occupying two inches of the front edge of her chair. She said, “What would you think, if that’”—she indicated the newspaper clipping on the desk in front of Kelly—“what would you think, if that was the first information you had that your sister had been killed?” Kelly slouched a little lower in his chair, shrugged. “I’d probably say my sister should have carried more identifi- cation.” Ellen bristled. “Jack Terry knew where I could be reached.” — Kelly nodded. “Fine. Who is Jack Ter- ry?” “Why—why—” For the first time, Ellen Mellani wasn’t sure what her next words were going to be. “Why, he got Doris the job here.” Kelly wagged his head. “Your sister FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE wasn’t working for us, Miss Mellani,” he said. “She came to see about a job, but she hadn’t been hired yet. In fact, © I’m not even certain there was a job for her, although that isn’t my department.” The girl looked as if she had been fouled. She half bent over, her eyes dart- ing around the edges of Kelly’s face. Kelly Wilson decided the most merci- ful thing he could do was finish this right here. He said, “Besides, honey, that’s a weak excuse for the accusations you’ve made.” She didn’t finish. She came out fight- ing. “All right, then,” she said. “May- be you can explain why there was such a rush to cremate Doris’ body. They didn’t even wait to see if anyone would claim it. What were they hiding, if her death was an accident, as you Say ?” Kelly felt suddenly feeble, light-head- ed. “You—you’re sure they—” he stam- mered. She nodded decisively. from the coroner’s office.” “TI don’t know why the body’ was cre- mated,” Kelly admitted, “unless it’s some kind of a local practice when re- mains aren’t claimed immediately. I don’t know. I can find out for you. Be- lieve me, Miss Mellani, there was noth- ing about your sister’s body which—” “Of course, I have to believe you— now—don’t I?” The girl’s eyes bored into his. Kelly got to his feet, said, “Look, Miss, make yourself comfortable here for a few minutes. I want to check on a cou- ple of things. I’ll be right back.” He left her sitting in the office, told the desk clerk to stay out of there, leave her alone until he returned. Kelly stopped at the public telephone booths in the corner of the lobby and phoned the county seat. He spoke to the man who ran the crematorium, asked him who paid the bill for Doris Mellani. The man told him he had been in- structed by the coroner to bill Baron Starr. Kelly said, “Thank you,” and hung up. He established some kind of a record “T just came MICLOO Comic ‘iS