5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

86 up on you,” she said suddenly.” Oscar’s over by the bar now, watching.” I turned my head. The narrow-faced cop she had called Oscar was standing at the end of the bar. I grinned. The name Oscar fitted him. Then I stopped smiling. “Look, sweetheart,” I said to Kate, “he’s been on my tail all evening, and I don’t like it. Is there a back way out?” She told me that there was, that the washroom window opened on an alley. “Look, Mike”—she sounded serious— “forget the Garrons and get out of town. You won’t, of course.” Her voice changed, and she spoke lightly. ‘Well, good hunting. They live at Three-thirty- eight Maple Drive, in the West End.” I rose. “Thanks, kid.” She had brains, and I liked her, but I didn’t trust her. When I got to the washroom door, I looked back. She had moved over to the bar and was talking to Oscar. That might be to cover my retreat—or it might not. There was a bolt on the inside of the washroom door. I shot it into place and crossed to the window. It was an easy drop to the alley outside. I moved along it, missing the rubbish piles, and paused to peer around the corner into the side street. I didn’t see Oscar or anything else that looked like trouble. But as I stepped out from the shadow a shot hammered from across the street, and a bullet crashed against the brick wall not three inches from my head. I jumped backward as a second slug whined down the darkness of the alley. This was getting hot. I turned and ran. I didn’t know who was shooting at me and I didn’t wait to find out. When I came out into the lights of the next street, I ducked around the corner, lis- tening for pursuit. There was more. Down the street I saw the lighted sign of the newspaper office. I went to- ward it, and once inside, I didn’t waste any time. There was a young fellow in overalls behind the high counter. He was the only one there. I pretended to be from a Chicago paper and that Van mee had sent me down to look at the es. For an hour I read all about Petie Smith and Charley Garron and the mur- der. I was surprised to find that Smith FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE had a wife, an invalid who lived in a private sanitarium. I was also surprised at other things. Rummaging around in a desk and file cabinet in the room where the newspaper files were kept, I found a photostat of a marriage license and a full list of the oil holdings of Worth, Dean Hawkins, Smith, and the other big operatives. Several of those fellows were pretty well broke. If that informatiqn had ever managed to get into the papers, the public would have run them ragged. peess was a young, good-looking guy in the front office, talking to my overalled friend when TI finished. I waited for him to leave before I came out. “Who was that?” I asked. The overalled one shifted tobacco from one cheek to the other. “That was Lawyer Cliff Reed,” he informed me. “He wanted to see Van Doan.” I asked where Van Doan was, but he didn’t know. TF thanked him for his trouble, went out into the street after looking carefully around, got a cab and gave the driver Judy Garron’s address. The Garron house was white, a ram- bling old affair, set back in a full acre of tree-filled yard. There weren’t any derricks around. There hadn’t been any for a dozen blocks before I reached the place. That didn’t surprise me. Oil pools are funny things. You can get sand or salt water within a hundred feet of a producing well. I went up on the wide, old-fashioned porch and knocked. There was no bell. I was waiting, planning what I was go- ing to say when the door opened, and Judy Garron stared out at me. I knew she was scared the minute I saw her, and I didn’t understand why. Why should she be afraid of .me? For a full minute she stood there, then she started to shut the door. I had my foot in the way, and it wouldn’t close. “Waita minute, Judy,” I begged. “I’m here to help.” . She acted as if she didn’t believe me, and I fumbled around for a minute, hunting words. I didn’t want just to hand her the package and scram. After reading the newspapers, I had a hunch AMICLOOO@ (CO) SH (C(O) mM