City for Ransom Read Online Free PDF

the deeper the cut.”
    Ransom now knew for certain that Dr. Tewes had something on Kohler; only blackmail could’ve gotten the scoundrel this far. “I want the two-wire diamond aspect of this murder weapon kept under wraps, Tewes. Do you understand? We must not let the newshounds have it. We must hold some information in abeyance toward the day we pinch this maniac—to identify the killer with absolute—”
    â€œI can be cooperative, Inspector.”
    â€œDon’t think that you can blackmail me, Doctor.”
    â€œWhy, Inspector, you give me far too much credit for guile!”
    â€œIf you mean skill in cunning and deceit and a cleverness in trickery, yes, perhaps I do.”
    â€œLook, I’ve seen the coroner’s notes, true. But I first saw all this happening while laying on of hands to the cranium of a dying woman—”
    â€œA dead woman now. Whooo…dying woman…how very mysterious,” countered Ransom.
    â€œA pauper buried in your Potter’s Field a few months ago.”
    â€œIt remains an incredible assertion.”
    â€œI read heads. It’s what a phrenologist does.”
    â€œAnd you receive visions in the process.”
    â€œPerceptions…not visions, sir, and only sometimes, yes.”
    Griffin now stared at Tewes as if he were a magician. Ransom saw this and grew angry at his partner’s wide-eyed response. “Nothing you’ve told us is new, Dr. Tewes. You may just as well have gotten your information from Kohler or some easily fooled police clerk.”
    â€œYes, I suppose I might’ve. I certainly understand your skepticism. After all, you’re paid to be cynical! But look here, I’m telling the truth about New York. And there’s something else.”
    â€œWhat?” asked Griffin, eager to hear more.
    â€œThe instrument of death he wields.”
    â€œYes?” asked Griff.
    â€œThe killer fashioned it himself. Made it with his own hands.”
    â€œHowever can you possibly know that?” asked Griffin, playing into Tewes’s hand.
    â€œThe unique nature of the instrument. I’ve studied garroting devices. None that I have seen utilize two strands crossed into a diamond shape of this nature. X’s yes—but using two strands, this is unique to our killer.”
    â€œAnd why the fire?” asked Griffin. “I mean if the victims are already dead…why then set the bodies aflame?”
    â€œUsual purpose to set a dead man aflame is to obscure any chance at easy identification. Identification often leads to a killer, but this…” began Tewes.
    Ransom cut Tewes short, saying, “Seems the fire was clumsily set, mainly to the torso. Features can still be made out, so whoever did this was not interested in throwing us off identification.”
    Tewes nodded. “I am surprised. He is brazen, this killer. As he was in New York.”
    â€œHow can you be sure it’s the same man?” asked Griffin, bursting to hear more.
    â€œHe follows the same patterns. In his patterns, his ritual, he leaves a distinctive mark of himself.”
    â€œDr. Tewes has read some police manuals, I warrant,” said Ransom.
    â€œOn that we can surely agree, Inspector Ransom.”
    â€œPerhaps we ought to be looking at anyone recently emigrated from New York to here, Alastair?” Griffin looked to Ransom, but Alastair held Tewes in his steely gray gaze.
    â€œOnly if you buy into this snake-oil salesman’s ideas, Griff. Isn’t that right, Dr. Tewes?”
    Tewes frowned and said, “Please, just allow me a moment with the body, before it is too late.”
    Ransom did not like it when a man failed to answer a direct question. Something a man could not get away with in the U.S. Navy or aboard a whaler—two occupations Alastair had tried on as a young man.
    â€œYou may’s well give in to me, Inspector,” Tewes said, getting close enough to breathe