5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

48 in a cramped position on the hard floor. Someone was speaking. He recognized Siddington’s voice and lay still and listened. : ee — “. ,. no use trying to deny his guilt now, I suppose,” the professor was say- ing, “but he should be taken to a mental hospital at once.” “Not so fast,” a gruff, official voice replied. “I’m not ready to admit it’s a mental hospital he should go to, after all. I did think so after the apparently senseless killing of those girls tonight. But when we found the dead body of Fausto Azul in that room where the faked recordings which were sold to. Kern seem to have been made, things began to look different, more rational. Finally, when it turned out that those girls were members of the orchestra which the swindlers used, I began to think an insanity motive wasn’t needed.” “But even,” Siddington said, “if you assume he killed them in revenge for being swindled, how do you explain the murder of Liria Baeza? You assume she was in on the swindle, too?” “Don’t know. She could have been.” “Well, but Edna—why should he at- tempt to kill her if he’s sane?” “We don’t know,” Ollin said slowly, “that he did. It may be that Miss Ferry was so terrified at sight of Kern that she swallowed those pills without wait- ing to learn his intentions. Luckily you were near enough to have her rushed to the hospital at once. By the way, why were you so sure that Kern would come here that you were willing to wait out there in the dark for hours, as you say ?” “Just a matter of understanding his psychology,” Siddington said. “He was in love with Edna all along, of course. It was her rejection which turned him to the other girl. But sooner or later a man in his mental condition will come back to the object of his real love, only he may come in hate, blaming her for what he feels she has driven him to do.” The words hung in the air while the inspector appeared to be considering. Kern lay still, anxious to hear the rest of it. From beneath lowered ‘lids he could see that a number of men, some in uniform, were in the room. He was thankful they had got Edna to the hos- FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE pital in time; that was the one thought which sustained him now. Siddington was speaking again. “But the point is, Inspector, that Hilary may need medical care at once. I insist on: calling an ambulance. I will stay with him every moment and vouch for his. not escaping. Since there was laudanum found in that whiskey last night—” “Oh, ves, that laudanum,” Ollin said. “It’s a point that hasn’t been cleared up. Why do you suppose that the bottle and one glass—one only—contained lauda- num while the other glass contained pure whiskey? Also, why were no fin- gerprints, except Kern’s, found on either the bottle or the glasses?” “I don’t know,” Siddington replied, “and it seems a trivial—”’ “Not so trivial,” Ollin said quickly, “that a good defense lawyer couldn’t make something of it. For instance, he might say that Kern didn’t put the lau- danum into the whiskey, that is wasn’t in there at the time the pure glass of whiskey was poured, the time, that is, when Kern and the girl were drinking together. He might say that somebody else came in while Kern was outside at the telephone, that this somebody killed the girl, put the laudanum in the bottle, then wiped the bottle and both glasses just to make sure his prints weren’t on them. Then he might say that Kern came in, poured himself a drink from the drugged bottle, and became so crazed he didn’t know what he was doing.” “But who could this someone be?” “Well, there’s still this fellow I. Tez- cat, who sold Kern the recordings.” “But I assumed that Fausto Azul was doing that, using the name Tezcat, and a forwarding address in Mexico City.” Wi a nod of agreement Ollin said, “Someone here was using a for- warding address in Mexico City, I’m fairly sure, and Azul must be the man who directed the making of the music. But I can’t quite picture him as know- ing enough ancient Aztec history to fool a specialist like Kern. Whoever did that had to know the Aztec language, too. Also, could Azul have got the combina- tion of Kern’s safe, in order to steal the records?” | “Kern must have done that himself.” CoOnniclooo SJ (CO) mM