5 Detective Novels Magazine — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

24 He was certain Terry had lied. If this could be proved, if Kelly could discover the source of Doris’ sudden wealth on that last day of her life, he thought he’d be pretty close to the answer for her death. He stopped at a counter lunchroom, treated Ellen to coffee and a hamburger. Then he led her by the hand to the lunch- room’s public phone. He had her stand so she could hear every word he said. He called Baron Starr’s private number. He said, “Mr. Starr—Kelly. I thought you'd want to be one of the first to know Doris Mellani’s death wasn’t an acci- dent.” “What’s—what are you _ talking about?” gasped Lucky, his voice sound- ing like an old Edison cylinder record- ing. “Are you drunk? Where are you?” “Relax a second and listen to this,” Kelly said. “I just got back from L.A. I talked to a man down there who gave Doris Mellani five hundred dollars be- fore she came to see you. He says he gave it to her because she was broke. I think that’s for the birds. I believe she was paid to make a play for you because somebody wanted the two of you alone in the house. She probably drugged your drink. When you passed out, she let this party or these parties into the place. Whoever they were, they made her un- dress at the point of a gun, probably gun-whipped her silly before they shoved her down the stairway. Does this sound like anyone you know?” There was a long silence on the other end of the wire. For a second, Kelly thought he had been disconnected, had been saying all this to himself. Then he heard the old man sigh, “I can’t say it does, Kelly. Look. I want you to drop the whole matter. Forget i ag Kelly replied, “I’m sorry, Mr. Starr, I’m not about to.” “T thought you liked your job, Kelly,” the old man said. “I did,” cracked Kelly Wilson grimly. “But I’m turning in my suit. Good-by.” He hung up, met Ellen’s eyes levelly. FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE “Are you satisfied?” he asked. She looked confused, a little hurt. “I didn’t ask you to give up your’ job,” she said. Kelly nodded. “I know you didn’t. I meant, are you satisfied I’m playing this straight, that I’m not going to double- cross you?” She said, “Yes. Yes, Kelly, I am.” “Good. Then, I’ll tell you what you’d better do. This may get a little rugged. As we were driving into town, I saw one of the motels is advertising a vacancy. It’s on the right-hand side of the road. Suppose you hop in your jeep, go on out and register. Stay there until I come by for you. I hope I’ll have some good news. I think I will.” He went to the car with her, stood at the curb until she had made a U-turn and driven off toward the edge of town. Then he went back in the lunchroom and called the local cab company. As it turned out, Kelly threw the cab- bie a lot of business. First, he stopped by Coroner Clarence Liebert’s home. It was dark, and no amount of door-kick- ing raised anyone inside. _ Next, they hit the night spots in town and a few scattered around the desert. He asked a lot of people if they had seen Liebert—bartenders, hostesses, even a couple of cops. It would’ve been tough on anyone who picked that night to die. He finally decided to give up until morning. Kelly had the driver take him to the motel where he had told Ellen to wait. He saw her coupé parked in one of the carports, figured everything was all right with her, and paid off his cab. There was still a vacancy advertised. Kelly went to the office and signed for it, then he dropped in on Ellen. He had a little morale-building speech prepared to take the sting out of the fact he hadn’t been able to locate Liebert. He never got to deliver it—the speech. V He sry knocked on Ellen’s door, waited. At first, there was no answer from inside. Then he thought he heard GOMmMiGcbdoo <=)