5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

58 through. In a minute he was back. The corners of his mouth turned down in a sneering smile as he said to Rick, “Simple as a telephone call. Enjoy life while you can, buster. You may not be with us much longer.” It might have been fifteen minutes or thirty or an hour. Time had no mean- ing. Finally the door to the other office opened, and Red’s face lit up with grim hope. Grunting happily, he disappeared behind the closed door of the office. In a moment the door cracked just a fraction, then slammed shut loudly. Angry, mumbled voices came from the other side. There was some kind of trouble in there. Wire-haired and Bull looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Rick got ready for the cold plunge. He lunged forward like a rocket. He grabbed Wire-haired around the neck and dug for his shoulder holster. Bull raised his knife and dove at the strug- gling pair. Rick twisted with Wire- haired. Wire-haired screamed a warn- ing, but too late. The knife plunged in- to his chest. a Bull drew back in amazed horror. Rick came up with Wire-haired’s revol- ver as the hood folded. Bull came at him again with the bloodstained knife. Rick blasted him to a stop. The door to the office jerked open. Red careened toward the room, swing- ing his automatic to Rick. An unseen gun roared from the office, and Red plunged forward as if he’d been kicked between the shoulders. He was shot in the back. Rick yelled, “Get this, Kay!” He slid Wire-haired’s revolver across the floor, and it came to a stop by the door of the room where Kay was held. Then he snatched Red’s automatic from the dying man’s hand and charged through the office. When he hit the dark, upstairs ramp, a shot whined through the blackness. Rick dropped to the floor and scrambled for the concrete stairs. At the top, he saw a dark figure rapid- ly moving toward the front of the ware- house. He squeezed off three shots, and the figure reversed its direction, duck- ing behind some boxes.. Rick started down the steps in a crouched position. A gun roared and concrete chips splat- FIVE DETECTIVE NOYELS MAGAZINE tered his face. He vaulted over the steel railing, dropped to the floor ten feet below, and weaved through boxes to the other side of the building. The side that his man was on. The side by the alley. The man probably had a car out in front, Rick thought. His problem was to keep him from getting to it and mak- ing a getaway and to keep himself from ° getting killed while doing it. A gun cracked just as a dark shadow darted out from behind the boxes. Rick’s automatic barked twice, then his heart leaped to his throat. The gun jammed. - He heard the big door in the rear bee ing raised. He sped toward it and at the same time heard a man’s footsteps beat- ing up the long alley. ‘Rick spied the black sedan that had brought him here. He jerked open the door, jumped behind ne wheel and gunned the machine into ife. With the engine wide open in low gear, he roared out of the warehouse, made a screaming turn and headed for the running man. He switched on the lights. The man threw himself against the wall and emptied his gun at the car as it bore down on him. , The windshield webbed out in front of Rick. He crashed into the wall as the man sprang away— too late. Scott Remley disappeared be- neath the wheels. GAIN Rick sat across the desk from Chief McKinney. The chief studied him thoughtfully for a moment and then said, “You completely disregarded my orders, didn’t you?” Rick shifted in his chair uneasily. His head was throbbing from the gash he had got when he crashed into the wall, and the bandage around it was too tight. Now the chief was getting ready to cut him up some more. “Yes, sir,” Rick said. ‘““However,” McKinney went on, “you did accomplish a few things. For in- stance, you didn’t kill Scott Remley when you ran him down—Just broke his legs—and since you had the goods on him, he confessed to his crimes after he was taken to the hospital, thereby re- moving all suspicion from your girl friend, Kay Ryan. That’s all very well, but the remaining fact is that you did GomiGcdoo @ SJ (C(O) mM