5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

MURDER IN FLORIDA the window and saw the bearded guy smack Ryan. He would have got away if I hadn’t come downstairs.” “Did you_see a dame around?” “When? Hell, I had my hands full.” He looked like he had. I tried another tack. “How about the briefcase?” I rapped out. “What briefcase?” “The one Ryan had stashed under the coquina block. You and Hairy-face were kicking it around when I came along.” “IT didn’t notice it.” “The hell you didn’t! Listen, guy, you haven’t been anywhere yet. You mean you didn’t know Ryan had some dough around here?” Borda’s grin was painful. “Sure, I knew. That’s what we came here to see him about. But we didn’t know where he kept it.” “What was it for?” Borda sat down weekly on the bench. “He owed us some dough because of gambling on the cuff back in Tulsa. He ran out. Hale and I followed him. We owned the Happy Hour Club and we couldn’t afford to loose sixty grand that way. We came out here when his girl- friend told us about this Last Stop Serv- ice Station.” “And he promised to pay off tonight ?” “He said he had it buried somewhere else. He began promising us that tomor- row he’d fix us up.” So far, it was straight enough. But I was wondering about the bearded guy and Valeria. I asked Borda about him. “Another wise guy, playing tramp and looking for a cut,” he explained. “That jane must be the front for the tramp. He had poor Ryan scared.” “Ryan, hell! What was his real name? It’ll come out, sooner or later, now that he’s dead.” “Oh, all right—Ryerson, then. I don’t know who the tramp is or enyns: ex- cept he beaned Ryerson.” EK WENT with me to Valeria’s house when I wanted to phone. The place was dark. If I hadn’t busted out of the closet, she and the bearded gent would have made a clean walkout. He’d shave, and there’d be no description of her until someone found me. Having a prisoner 109 wasn’t any satisfaction. Borda chuckled when I hung up, after telling the cops the whole score. “Two corpses, one prisoner.” “Buck up, Carmody,” he said. “After all, you haven’t lost sixty Gs because someone beaned a guy before you could collect. Let’s look the place over and figure out where the dame went.” This mess left me with a couple of things to think about. Having my client knocked off made a monkey of me. Then I was wondering how the cops would look at my party with the late Mr. Hale. But I didn’t have time to worry. I was too busy digging into Borda. I ended by wiring my prisoner to a chair while I went upstairs to look around. Ryer- son’s suitcase was packed. “He didn’t want to see the cops and he was checking out,” Borda said. “I was pretty drunk and sick. But when I heard a noise in back, I looked out my window. I saw that Ryerson had a knife and a flashlight and was digging. That made me wonder if he was going to pay and run or just run. Before I could holler, the tramp with the beard came up and slugged him. He never had a chance.” “So you ran down to head off the killer ?” “That’s right.” “Sick and drunk but you got going, anyway ?” Borda grinned. for sixty grand?” “Hell, I don’t know.” But there were a couple things I did know, though I wasn’t telling him. “Suppose you go to your room and wait. Don’t mess around with anything in Ryerson’s room. I want to talk to the guy with the beard.” I followed him to his door. I couldn’t tell whether he had been packing up or had just stopped unpacking. His suit- case was on a chair, full of stuff and wide open. “You looked out that window?” I pointed. “Yes, that’s the one.” I went to it and stared down. Ryer- son looked funny, huddled over the flashlight. At that distance, I couldn’t see the shape his head was in. “Too bad,” I said. “It would have been an easy shot from here.” “What would you do MICLOO 6S @) (C(O) (C(O)