5 Detective Novels Magazine — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

76 the rug, flat on his back, with the breath knocked from his body. It all took place so rapidly that the sheriff’s men had had no chance to move. Harrigan dusted off his palms, stooped and lifted the prostrate man by the coat collar. “Let that be a lesson to you,” he said as he hoisted him to his feet. Gar Thomas cleared his throat an- grily. “Where the devil do you think you are?’ he demanded of Harrigan. “You can’t go around tossing people over your head that way.” A loud argument at the door prevent- ed Harrigan’s answering. The dark, slender man who pushed his way into the room scowled at the two Gaudels and then went directly to the girl. “Ray—” his tone was so low that it barely reached Harrigan’s ears—“‘this is terrible. You didn’t kill Ed, did you?” “Of course not.” Her voice was steady, composed. The man smiled, and it seemed to light up his dark features. Harrigan made a note that he was handsome and a nice guy besides. He wondered vague- ly why that thought made him uncom- fortable. Why shouldn’t the girl’s mouth- piece be a good guy? He listened with only half his attention while she ex- plained to Scott what had happened. Then Harrigan found himself shaking the lawyer’s hand. “Glad to know you, Harrigan.” Scott’s voice had a hearty sound as if he really were pleased. “Ray needed help, and you certainly gave it to her.” “She'll need more help,” Harrigan told him in a low voice, “more help than I can give here.” “She’ll get it,” Scott assured him, and went over to see Thomas. | aaa could see them arguing at the far side of the room, then Scott went to the phone and talked a long time. Finally he came back with a worried look on his face. “T’ve just been talking to the D.A.” FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE he told the girl, “and it’s going to be tough. He’s coming over here himself, and I think I can arrange it so that you'll be admitted to bail.” The color faded from her face. “You mean that I’m going to be held for mur- der?” He shook his head. “Not that, but he feels that you are a material witness and that you should be kept in the jurisdic- tion of the court. The bail will probably be high, around ten thousand, depending on the judge, and I don’t know where I can raise that much. If you know some- one—” She brightened. put it up.” Harrigan frowned and moved toward the door. He guessed that he was no longer needed here. He’d have to talk Thomas into letting him go, but with Scott taking care of the girl and Hilly Wright putting up her bond— The name of Wright made him frown deeper. What did a nice girl like Ray Gaudel know about Hilly Wright, the gambler? “Hilly Wright will il J OE HARRIGAN was catching it. That it was coming over the phone made it easier to take, since all he had to do was hold the receiver away from his ear to cut down the volume of his chief’s angry words. He gathered that the Gaudels, father and son, had complained about his ac- tions; that the sheriff’s office had also complained; and that the district attor- ney had called and threatened to lift his license. All in all, he decided that he was not very popular. He replaced the phone and glanced at the watch on his broad wrist. It was a quarter after twelve, and he knew that he should be asleep. He went toward the bedroom door, in- tending to turn in, but he had not reached it when the apartment buzzer sounded. He hesitated, wondering who could be calling at that hour. It certain- ly could not be a friend, since he seemed to have no friends left, and then he MICLOOKS (C(O)