5 Detective Novels Magazine — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

IX Aaount MARGARET looked at me for a long minute, then picked up the phone and made the call. When she put down the phone, she took the cartridges out of the gun and handed it to me. “If your bluff doesn’t work,” she said, “T’ll try to stop Magnus from shooting. It’ll be ten minutes before they get here. Want to bolster your morale by reading the article about you?” “No.” “It’s a good article,” Aunt Margaret said. “I’ve got your career as a detec- tive before you went into the army, too. And J ‘idn’t even mention that you’re a werewolf on the side.” “Shut up, Aunt Margaret. I’m trying to think.” But before I could do any more think- ‘ing I heard a car stopping out front and I went over and moved the sofa out a bit from the wall and got down behind it. Four men came in. Magnus had brought his deputy as well as Pogue and Ambers. The moment the last one of them had closed the door, I stood up. Ed Magnus made just the start:of a move toward his shoulder holster, then raised his hands instead. Overho!t’s went up more quickly. Ed Magnus turned his head toward Aunt Margaret. His voice was crisp. “So this was what you wanted! Aid- ing a—” “Shut up,” I said. “She made that call at the point of agun. Anyway, al] you’re going to do is listen, Ed. I’m giving my- self up—if you still want me—in fifteen minutes. But for that length of time you’re going to listen. Just listen.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Before he could speak again I started. “There hasn’t been a madman in this case at all, Ed. But there has been a mad dog. And a fiend who took advantage of that circumstance to cover up a murder. One murder—not three. “The dog was Emperor, Pogue’s po- lice dog. Last night he got loose—prob- ably broke loose just after Dave Otis passed Pogue’s place on his way home— ran after Dave Otis and killed him. “Karl Pogue heard him get loose and 12 followed up the road to bring him back. Found him just after he’d made the kill. But Karl! still had enough control over the dog to manage him. Now comes the hard part, and if you didn’t know Karl you wouldn’t believe me, but Karl de- cided to cover up for Emp, so the dog wouldn’t have to be shot. Don’t forget Karl hated everything in the world, just about, except his brother Jeff and his dog Emp. A normal man wouldn’t do it —and in that sense there was a touch of insanity in this case—but he waited till I'd gone by, then carted that body to Janson’s barn. “And he fired the barn, knowing that then nobody would be able to prove Emp had made the kill. He must have figured that my story wouldn’t be believed, and he was pretty right on that. If nothing more had happened, you’d eventually have written off Otis as an accidental death.” “That’s crazy, Lederer,” Magnus said. “I saw Emp this evening and so did—”’ “Wait,” I said. “I’m coming to that. Something happened this afternoon that turned things inside out. It was a mur- der. Jeffery Pogue killed his boss, Wal- ter Reeder. I’ll give you part of the mo- tive. Reeder, in making an extra careful check of things because I was coming out tonight to check his radio hook-up, found out that Jeff Pogue had been trick- ing him, that those mysterious signals came from a tiny set Jeff had rigged up in the basement. He probably had it fixed up with a recording so he could turn it off and on somehow from up- stairs, so he could be right in the room with Reeder when it was going. “I figure it was in the basement, be- cause the loop antenna got best results pointing up and down. Reeder, not sus- pecting trickery, never considered the down part. “But when Reeder discovered it— well, you know what his temper was. He’d flare up. I wouldn’t be surprised if he attacked Jeff physically and that the murder was self-defense. It was done with a paper knife that was right on Reeder’s desk.” i) Gs grunted, and I plunged on. “It wasn’t premeditated. Jeff didn’t see any way of covering up, any- 4 MICLOO @) (C(O) S