SIXTH INSTALMENT
SYNOPSIS: A card game is to
session in Elmer Henderson's
penthouse atop a New York sky
scraper. The players are: Hender
son, Police Inspector, Flaherty,
Martin Frazier, Archie Doane,
Max * Michaelis and his friend,
Williams, a stockbroker.
They are waiting for Stephen
Fitzgerald. When he falls to ap
pear, a telephone calls bring the
information that he l£ out with a
girl. Fitzgerald and Henderson
are both romantically interested
in Lydia Lane, the famous act
ress, but Archie Doane reveals
that she is engaged to marry him.
Doane leaves the party early
when Fitzgerald fails to appear. A
short time later he telephones In
spector Flaherty with the frantic
news that he has found Fitzger
ald and Miss Lane dead in Lydia
Lane's penthouse apartment.
When Flaherty and the medical
examiner reach the apartment,
they find that Miss Lane Is still
alive. She is rushed to a hospit
al where blood transfusions and
care promise to restore her.
"Why such a thought never en
tered my mind. I suppose I could
have done that, but it would never
have occurred to me."
"I thought I knew what you
would say," said Michaelis. He
turned to Inspector Flaherty.
"Your man has made a thor
ough search for a weapon here,
hasn't he, Dan?"
"What about it, Tony," asked
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the Inspector of Detective Marti
nelli. "Find anything?"
"Not a trace, chief,", replied the
young detective. "I've looked into
every place where a gun could be
hidden and there isn't a sign of
one. Ether the guy that did the
shooting took it away with him,
or else he threw it away. The
snow would hide it, you know."
"We'll keep that In mind, too,"
replied Inspector Flaherty, as he
led the way to the rear of the
apartment.
Under the beams of the pocket
searchlights of Detective Marti
nelli and the other men from
Headquarters, the deep rear roof
garden of the, penthouse apart
ment showed the same unbroken
expanse of fluffy snow as the nar
rower space in front had exhibit
ed. The white surface was broken
only by the footprints of a man,
which led from the janitor's roof
door around the elevator shaft
and the kitchen extension of the
penthouse, to the French door
which gave access between Miss
Lane's bedroom and the roof.
"I want a photograph of these
footprints, and of the whole
roof," said Inspector Flaherty to
the camera man. "You've meas
ured them?" he asked the Bertil
lpn expert.
"Yes; and I've compared them
with Mr. Doane's overshoes," was
the reply. "They are his foot
prints, without doubt."
"I'd like to inspect them care
fully," said Max Michaelis. He
borrowed Martinelli's searchlight
land as soon as the camera man
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had set off his flash and obtained
his photographs, he scrutinized
the tracks for several minutes.
Then he stood up and threw the
searchlight beams on the rungs of
the iron ladder to the penthouse
roof, and the coping which bor
dered the main roof on all sides,
and upon the chimney stack
which projected above it, seven or
eight feet high and some twenty
feet to the rear of the doorway in
which they stood.,
"I'd like to call your attention,
Dan, to the footprints more par
ticularly," he said to the Inspec
tor. "They bear out Archie's story
that he approached this door, over
the roof, paused here, backed
away a step or two, then returned
to the door and entered. There
are no tracks pointing away from
the door, except those which your
camera man made just now.
"I'd also like you to note that
the snow ridges on the edge of the
coping, on the rungs of the lad
der and on the edges of the pent
house roof and on top of the
chimney are unbroken. Nobody
has gone up or down the ladder,
over the edge of the roof at any
point, since it snowed."
"I don't know what that proves,
Max, but I've noted it," respond
ed Flaherty.
"It proves that if Archie did the
shooting there are only two places
where he could have hidden the
gun," replied Max MJchaelis. "He
could have stood here by the door
where we are now, his feet point
ing toward it, and tossed the pis
tol up on this penthouse roof, or
he could have stood in the door
\ ay and thrown it beyond the rear
edge of the main roof into what
ever courtyard there is between
the high walls all around us.
"Now, I suggest that, if there is
no reason for leaving the snow on
the roof garden undisturbed, that
we go to the end of the roof and
see what the snow below in the
courtyard looks like."
"Why couldn't he have gone
through to the front and thrown
the pistol into the street?" de
manded Inspector Flaherty. "It
would have been harder to find
there."
"Because, Dan, as you probably
noticed, the front door and the
windows of the studio had not
been opened since the snow began
until we opened that door a min
ute ago. You recall how the
banked up snow on the doorsill
tumbled inward when you opened
the door?" replied Micha^lis.
"Did you go into the studio at
all, Archie " he asked, turning to
Doane.
"Not until after the men from
Headquarters arrived and let me
in there. I hardly moved from
the chair at the telephone table,
after I called up the Insptctor, un
til I rose to open the door for the
detectives."
The searchlights revealed an
enclosed courtyard at the rear of
the building as the party looked
over the coping and down into an
L-shaped well, bounded on all
sides by the walls of the buildings.
It was obvious that nobody could
have thrown anything over the
roof of any of the adjoining build
ings and there was not a mark or
blemish in the unbroken surface
of the snow below them, so far as
could be seen from where they
stood.
"Oo down and get the janitor,
Tony," Inspector Flaherty order
ed the detective. "Have him let
you out into that yard and see if
there is any spot we have over
looked.
"Wait a minute," he went on,
as they turned so that they were
again facing the penthouse.
"First run up that ladder and see
if anything has been thrown on
the upper roof."
"It might have been thrown
down the chimney, suggested Fra
zier, as Detective Martinelli hur
ried to obey orders.
"Hardly likely," said Michaelis,
throwing the searchlight he had
borrowed from the Bertillon man
on the chimney stack. "See. It
has a stone covering over the top
of the flue, with apertures at the
four sides to let the smoke out. It
would have taken a good marks
man to toss a pistol or anything
else from the doorway there with
sufficient accuracy to hit a hole
about eight by twelve inches, at
an angle, without disturbing the
snow on the edges of the bricks."
"That's right," Frazier agreed.
"I hadn't noticed the covering."
They reentered the apartment
and Dan Flaherty addressed
Doane.
"Did you ever play baseball,
Archie?" he asked, with apparent
casualness.
"Yes. I used to be a pretty good
pitcher. Why?"
"Oh, nothing. I just wondered."
replied the inspector.
Martinelli, scrambling down the
ladder, joined them as they took
off their overcoats again. "Noth
ing on the roof. Chief," he report
ed. "I'll go down and look over
the yard now."
Inspector Dan Flaherty stood in
the middle of the bedroom and
searched every plane and angle of
it with his deepset blue eyes, in
silence.
"We've cleaned up outside," he
said, at last. "I'm going to comb
this apartment again for the gup,
though Tony seldom overlooks
anything and if he can't find
what he's looking for it usually
means it isn't there. But there
are a lot of other questions in my
mind before I can give you a clean
bill, Archie.
"First, I want to look over Fitz
gerald's body with the doctor,
here. What's the matter, Archie?
Catch him, somebody!" he cried,
as Doane, white faced, reeled and
would have fallen but for Max
Michaelis. ,
The lawyer eased the actor in
to a chair. "It's that," he gasped
feebly, with a motion of his head
toward the sheet-covered form on
the floor. "I can't stand it; never
could. I'm sorry,"
"Drink this," said Frazier, who
had poured another generous li
bation from Henderson's bottle.
The medical examiner took
Doane's wrist in his hand and
felt the pulse,
"Better go into the other room
and He down," suggested the doc
tor. "IH lend you a hand."
"It's genuine enough," he re
ported, as he rejoined the others.
"Not uncommon for the sight or
even thought of blood to unnerve
a man who has that peculiar sen
sitiveness."
"Wouldn't do for a policeman,"
commented Dan Flaherty, grim
ly, as he turned back'the sheet
that had been thrown over the
huddled form of what had been
Stephen Fitzgerald. "Doc, does it
strike you that there's anything
queer about this body?"
"I don't follow you," replied the
medical examiner. "The position
is a trifle distorted, but that may
not signify anything."
"Ever see a man shot through
the heart? See the actual shoot
ing, I mean?" the Inspector de
manded.
"No, I can't say I have," replied
the medico.
"Well, I have," said Dan Fla
herty, "and I never saw one fall
backward yet. They fall forward,
every time. Sitting down or stand
ing up, it's always the same."
"Now, Fitz is lying on his back,
and that's been bothering me ever
since I came in. If he was lying
down when he was shot that
would account for it. I can't see
what he'd be lying there on the
floor for, but I want to find out.
Will you go over the body and
see if the bullet went through? If
it went' through and isn't under
him, somebody moved the body
after he was shot."
The medical examiner pro
ceeded with professional callous
ness to strip the clothing from
the upper part of the body, with
the aid of the two men who had
accompanied Detective Martinelli
from Center Street.
Max Michaelis and Martin
Frazier watched the proceeding
with intent and interested eyes.
Inspector Flaherty seemed to be
looking at every corner of the
room at once, as his keen blue
eyes darted from one object to
another.
Suddenly the Inspector stepped
forward, reached across the body
of Fitzgerald and poked his finger
into a tiny hole in the silken up-
holstery of the cushion of the
chaise longue on which Lydia
Lane had been lying.
"There's a bullet in there, some
where," he said, "or I'm mistak
en." He lifted the cushion from
the couch and felt of its downy
interior. "Here it is," he said. He
ripped the cushion open and dis
closed a bullet which had pene
trated it, edgewise to a distance
of a foot or more. ,
"This is the one that went
through the girl's arm, all right,"
he said. "It's a .32 caliber. What
do you find, Doc?"
"The bullet went through the
man," said the medical examin
er. "Missed all the Tibs and came
out in the middle of the back.
Through the clothes and all. But
it doesn't seem to be under him."
He poked about with a metal
probe in the pool of rapidly clot
ting blood which the turning over
of the body had disclosed, and
upon which the Inspector now
turned his searchlight.
"No bullet there," agreed Fla
herty. "Therefore, he was not shot
while lying here. The next thing
we've got to find is where the bul
let went then we may be able to
tell where he was when he was
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shot. If he was shot inside of this
apartment the bullet is still here,
for there isn't a crack in a pane
of glass .Now, to speed things up,
I wish you would all help."
Michaelis and Frazier agreed
willingly and the two Headquar
ters men took the request as an
order. To each of the four the In
spector assigned one of the walls
of the bedroom. "I'll take the
floor and the ceiling," he said.
"Go over every.square inch of
wall, woodwork, furniture, until
we find that bullet."
Russia is much less radical than
it was. A citizen must climb much
higher now in order to get shot.