5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

28 he’d been thrown clear of the car—he and Loreen. She was not more than ten feet from him, and was lying very still. The car stood on its hood, its rear wheels pointed up the hill. It was burn- ing brightly. Bennett was not visible. Ted managed to whip enough fight into his sore body to pull himself away from the side of the hill. He stood up, swaying drunkenly. Loreen’s gun was shining in the late afternoon sunlight a couple of steps from where he stood. He stumbled over, picked it up, thrust it in his belt. Then he went looking for Bennett and found him mouse-trapped under the car. The FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE Ted helped raise her head, so she was able to see the burning car. “In there. He was dead by the time I came to.” She groaned a hollow, “Oh” and struggled to pull herself up. Ted held her, said, “You’d better lie still. You have a broken leg. I don’t think you’ll be in any hurry to leave.” | She fell back, breathing rapidly, shal- lowly. Her teeth showed between her thinly drawn lips. She said, “Why— why don’t you go for help?” Ted shrugged. “No reason to knock myself out, baby.” He pointed to a ranger station on a hilltop across the valley. “By now, he’s spotted our smoke. Next Issue: man SINISTER by TALMAGE POWELL Plus four other novels of violence and mystery fire had already passed over him. It must have been a sheet of flame when the gasoline tank ruptured. Ted turned around. Loreen was mov- ing, one arm fluttering helplessly. He struggled up the loose gravel, knelt be- side her. From the way one leg was bent, there was no question about its being broken. He could see the bulge of her thigh-bone pressing almost through the flesh. He moved it to take the pressure off the muscle. She groaned and ground her teeth, drooling like a hungry animal. She stared at him, terrified. Ted shook his head. “Take it easy, honey,” he said. “I know I’m no eye oe but you’re not so beautiful, your- self.” Her lips trembled. She shut her eyes, opened them again nervously, search- ing his face. “What happened, Ted?” He grinned. “I ran us off the road. I thought maybe, if all three of us were gone, the world might be a happier place. There was a slight miscalcula- tion; two of us are left.” She asked, through clenched teeth, “Bennett? Where’s he?” There'll be a fire party up here before I could scramble to the road.” He sat down in the gravel beside her, pulled a crumpled cigarette out of the pocket of his jacket, lit it and took a deep drag. : Loreen said, “I’d—I’d like a cigarette, 00.” He looked down at her. She was try- ing to make with a big, brave, wet- eyed smile, which didn’t come off. It didn’t go over worth a damn with Ted. He saw her slipping behind Betty, the stocking in her hand, ready to choke out a life. He saw her setting Steve up for Bennett. : He took another drag on his cigarette, then stuck it in her lips. “You know, Loreen,” he said, “I think you’re lucky to have a broken leg. I never heard of anybody being wheeled into the gas chamber.” She gagged on a lungful of smoke. Ted Owen grinned bleakly. “Don’t take it so big, honey,” he said. “You’ll have a friend in Quentin when they bring you over for the ceremony. I'll be paying off, too, for what we stole from the company.” e@ @ @ GOImMiGbdoo (”) S (C(O) mM