Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, December 1956 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

“It’s Liz Peterson,” he said. “Know her?” . I knew her. Twenty-five or six, married twice, divorced twice, a drinker, a party girl—the town *tramp. ©. “Couldn’t be sure at first,” he continued, “’way her tongue and -eyes are stickin’ out, but it’s Liz all right. Hung herself on. the closet door in one of the guest rooms upstairs.” He looked at me sourly. “Bartel is here, makin’ like Dick Tracy. He looks kinda’ rough. Wife’s outa town right now, visitin’ some folks in Denver. Bar- tel’s. probably been tom-cattin’ pretty late these nights.” I nodded. Charley Bartel is the Devensville Police Chief. “Only three, dudes stayin’ here right now,” Sim said, “an’ they’re all in the same party. A woman an’ two men. They got: separate rooms—if that means anything. The woman’s a real looker, an’ one | of the men looks like an actor. rage one’s an old codger, fifty or ” Sim looked at me and the ex- sae on his face was wink-sly. “Charley’s been snoopin’ around the woman like a bird dog.” I grunted. Despite the fact that _ he’s a married man, Charley Bartel is proud of his carefully cultivated “lady-killer” reputation. Sim threw his cigarette outside and began at once to build an- other. “Mrs. Donald found the body. They'd been a party last night, I guess. Bottles an’ glasses strung out all over the place. She’d | tidied up downstairs and went up © to the guest rooms. Most of ’em empty this time of year, but this bein’ Saturday she dusts ’em any- way. Later, after the guests is Up, . she. usually goes back upstairs an’ straightens out their rooms. “Anyhow, Mrs. Donald barges right into this room that’s sup- posed to be empty an’ that’s how the body..was found. Hangin’ on the closet door an’ damn_ near lookin’ Mrs. Donald in the -eye.” _ He paused long enough to light his. cigarette; then, holding . the dead match in one hand and. the live cigarette in the other, he leaned back and sighed loudly. - “Oh, lessee. What else? Oh! Yeah. Well, Charley comes out here by hisself and sorta takes over. After he damn well felt like it . . . that’s around seven-forty-five or so.. he calls me up an’ asks am I up yet? Then he said that it looked like he had to do all the police work that’s done in this county, an’ asks if I’d mind callin’ the sheriff an’ gettin’ him out of bed an’ gettin’ him out here to do his job like he was elected to do?” Sim exhaled a stream of smoke. “That’s when I called you. And that’s about it. I called up Pete. Hardy, told him I had a coroner. job for him an’ to get hisself out. to the Williamson place. He says, ‘I know, I know all about it’, -but he ain’t showed up yet which shows. how people listen to me.” 24 | ‘ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE COMMICLOOCKKS. EO