5 Detective Novels Magazine — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

BLOOD, SWEAT AND JEERS for scaling Starr’s private hill. He was sweating, winded, when he got there. He was also temporarily blind in the darkened house, after the desert sun- light. The air-conditioned, damp air he was breathing seemed to stick in his throat. He was in great shape to pin down the guy who paid his salary. Starr let him gasp for breath almost a minute, before he demanded impatient- ly, “Well, Kelly, what is it?” “I’ve got a scoop for you, Mr. Starr,” BRACELETS “He gave me a bright pair of bracelets. With his own hands he fastened them on me, And I went with him without question,” She babbled. “He certainly won me.” She was boastfully listing her conquests And her wearings of love’s jewelled tether, But she failed to explain that the bracelets Were the kind that are fastened together. —Clarence E. Flynn Kelly finally managed to strangle his words out. “We’re in trouble. Serious trouble.” Right away Starr became concerned about Kelly’s failing wind. He indicated a chair, with a movement of his hand. “Sit down, Kelly. Sit down. Tell me about it. Don’t hurry yourself.” Kelly lit a cigarette, took a couple of gratis puffs before he‘tried to say any- thing else. “There’s a girl at the hotel,” he said at last, “who’s after your hide. Name’s Mellani. Ellen Mellani. Doris’ sister. She kicked her cause off by an- 19 nouncing to everyone in the lobby that you had murdered her sister. By the time I caught up with her, the day clerk had sidetracked her to the office. She’s waiting there for me now, while I get the straight of who gave the order to have Doris’ body cremated.” It ELLY watched the boss mix himself a Scotch and soda. He didn’t offer to pass his liquor around to the help— which was all right, too. Kelly wasn’t anxious to have this call disintegrate into a cocktail party. The old man punctuated his answer by dropping ice cubes in a tall glass. “I had nothing to do with the disposition of Miss Mellani’s remains, if that’s what you wish to know.” “Then you'll be delighted to hear you’re paying her bill at the crema- torium. I spoke to a man up there a few minutes ago, on the phone, and he said the coroner had instructed him to in- voice you.” Starr’s thin shoulders rose and fell ° under the loud fabric of a Hawaiian sport shirt. He sighed, “I suppose we'll have to fight that out with Coroner Lie- bert. He’ll probably cry poverty, say the county has no funds to take care of these things and no Potter’s Field for burial of unclaimed remains. I wouldn’t be sur- prised if, for a finish, I was stuck with the price of the service.” Kelly knocked the ashes off the end of his cigarette as he rose, walked to a win- dow. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you were stuck, period,” he said. “This girl is Suspicious of the whole deal. If she starts to scream, down Los Angeles way, she can build herself into a beautiful nuisance. It’s impossible to throw a rock within a mile of the City Hall without hitting some lawyer who’d be wild to take her case.” Starr moved the length of the room, toward a large carved oak desk. He set his drink down, opened a drawer, took out a check book and did some scratch- ing in it with a pen. He tore off a check, waved the strip of pink paper at Kelly. MICLOOKS (C(O)