5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

DEATH ALL AROUND ME chewed on her lower lip for a moment, sat down heavily and crossed her legs. The one on top moved up and down. I said, “It’s no use, Cora. You lied to the cops, and I want to know why.” “You,” she said, “are a plain stinker. Get out of here.” “Somebody either paid you to lie for me or threatened you,” I said. “I killed a man in self-defense. Someone doesn’t want it to seem that way. I don’t know — why. Maybe they want the kill pinned on a drunken woman who ran away at myself a little whisky over the ice cube left in my glass on the theory that the cube shouldn’t be wasted. Then I went to the bedroom door and knocked on it. “Good night,” I said. “I’ll see you again soon. Think over what I told you. I’ll listen more sympathetically than the cops.” There was no answer, so I walked out. When I reached the street, I hailed a cab and had myself driven to the tenement house where all this had started. I wasn’t sure why I was going back but ———— FINANCIAL BRAINSTORM ——— ILLIAM STUART holds the honor of being Connecticut’s first counter- feiter. He would buy counterfeit money and travel around the country passing it. One day, as he looked at a genuine dollar bill, he got a brainstorm. He noticed that there was a circle on it with the figure I. “All I have to do is to put a 100 in that circle and I can make 99 dollars profit.””’ So he and his pal, Joseph Mills, started to do this simple trick and got rid of many of these altered banknotes. This started havoc with the banking institutions in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It was tough to explain io a cheated man, “Yes sir, you have a good note on this bank. But it is only. for one dollar.” So they got up new plates and printed their notes with the words written over the face as “One Dollar.”? And that finished the brainstorm. —Sam Brant rather than back up my story or maybe they’re protecting her for some reason. I don’t know, but I intend to find out, and you know part of the truth.” “IT have no idea what you're talking about,” she said. “Yes, you have. No nice kid like you would state publicly that I had picked you up and slept with you, not even to save my life—unless it happened to be true, which you and I know it isn’t. If you won’t talk now—to me—you will later to the cops when I get enough in- formation to convince them this is a rotten deal all around.” She suddenly jumped to her feet, marched across the small living room, entered the bedroom, and slammed the door. I heard the key turn in the lock. I’d been summarily dismissed. I poured I had a feeling there must be something there to give mea lead. Mostly, I hoped to get a line on where Joan Haven might have gone. I started going over the whole thing in my mind. Joan Haven wasn’t much but she liked and appreciated good things, which indicated she’d probably once had them. According to the barber, she frequently borrowed money but always paid it back. She had promised to pay something on the dishwasher but be. fore making that promise, she wanted to know what the date was. I’d told her it was the fourteenth, and she’d said to come back the next day—the fifteenth. Was it possible she received some kind of an allotment on the fifteenth of each month? If so, it must have gone uncol- lected this time. CoOMmiclooo A S (C(O)