5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

DANCE, PRETTY MAIDEN “But why? He had no reason. On the other hand, the man who engineered the swindle had an excellent reason to get the phony records and destroy them be- cause they were the proof of his swindle. Also they might have given clues to his identity. For the very same reason, our defense lawyer might say, the master- mind—I. Tezcat, or whoever he is—had an excellent motive for murdering those gir] musicians. He would, in fact, have been forced to it, by the fact that I had that Ochpaniztli Chant broadcast. Up to then, they may not have known there was any connection between the murder of Liria Baeza and the strange music they had been hired to make secretly at those gatherings in Monteverde. But once they heard that recording broad- cast, and the appeal from the police, they would have known, and might quite likely have come forward to iden- tify, not only Azul, but the man who was Azul’s boss, too. So you see, he may have killed Azul, and then the girls, to silence them.” Siddington said, “Well, you’re giving us some good hints to build Hil’s de- fense on. Only I don’t quite see how the murder of Liria Baeza fits in.” “We could make a guess,” Ollin said. “We could imagine, for instance, that Liria was not originally in on the swindle. Her mother mentioned that she hadn’t seen Fausto Azul in years but met him again a few weeks ago. At that time, Liria might have learned about the way Kern was being taken in. She may then have threatened to tell Kern and demanded money to keep quiet. She may have kept on demanding money from our mastermind until, last night, instead of making further pay- ments, he decided to kill her and did.” “And Kern didn’t see him?” “Kern had to go outside to the end of the hall to the telephone. You might assume that the killer had been watching the place, that he had with him the Jaudanum which he had perhaps in- tended to use in silencing Liria. But suddenly, Miss Ferry arrives on the scene. The lurking killer sees her start to go in, then change her mind and go to the telephone booth at the corner. He naturally guesses that she must be call- ing Kern. He knows where the telephone a9 is; he also knows the girl’s apartment, and how to get in by the back stairs. He hurries up. The girl is not alarmed; she knows him and, perhaps, thinks he has come to pay her more hush money. This gives him a chance to slip the drug into the drink. Then he kills her; she has only a chance for one short scream. He hurries out then, knowing that the first thing Kern will do, when he returns and finds the girl dead will be to grab a drink to steady himself. He will get the drugged whiskey and become so crazed by it that he may not even be able to remember later what happened—wheth- er he himself had killed the girl or not. Even if he should remember, his actions while under the drug will have incri- minated him deeply.” “Is this just an hypothesis?” Sidding- ton asked. “Or do you believe it?” “T think it’s very probably what hap- pened,” Ollin replied. “It’s why I’m hoping Kern may be able to recall something about last night, which might help put the finger on the real killer.” “Let’s hope so,” Siddington said in a low tone. He stepped toward Kern. ROM beneath lowered lashes, Kern saw Siddington kneel beside him in such a way that his body shielded Kern’s head from the others. Siddington’s hand came out and stroked his brow; he spoke gently, ‘Hil, old boy, maybe there’s still a chance for you—” Then Kern glimpsed, in Siddington’s left hand, a small oblong of paper with a pile of white crystals in its fold. It was being shoved toward him, it was almost touching his lips— Kern stiffened in panic. His hands were bound behind him, and he did not know how quickly he would be able to move without their aid. If the white crystals were cyanide of potassium, as he guessed they were, a lethal dose might be between his lips before he could fling his head away. And if he opened his mouth to cry out— But he had to risk it. He gathered his breath and yelled what Azul had yelled before he died. It sounded like “Shee-pay! Don’t—” Siddington jumped back as if he had been slapped. The white crystals spilled to the floor, and the professor’s right CoOnniclooo nn S (C(O) mM