Dead or Alive Read Online Free PDF

writing-paper to make the word “Alive.”
    Garratt said nothing. He jingled the contents of his pocket and lifted his eyebrows, but he said nothing.
    Bill told him about the blank envelope which had contained a maple leaf with the word “Alive” pricked out on it.
    Garratt’s eyebrows came down and he stopped jingling. He said,
    â€œThe girl’s batty!”
    Bill wasn’t angry. It wasn’t any good being angry with Garratt. He said,
    â€œNo, she isn’t,’” and left it at that.
    â€œAll right,” said Garratt, “trot out the exhibits— Daily Sketch , bits of notepaper, blank envelope, dead leaf. I suppose the leaf’s dead if O’Hara isn’t.”
    Bill smiled quite cheerfully. There had been a certain amount of thin ice about. Now that Garratt had smashed it, things felt more comfortable.
    â€œThere aren’t any exhibits. Meg put the Daily Sketch in a drawer—her writing-table drawer—but it went missing the day she found the letters on the hearth-rug. The paper that had been used for them was in the same drawer.”
    â€œAnd someone broke in and burgled the leaf, I suppose!” Garratt made a face. “This what you call evidence? It’s sheer lunacy!”
    â€œO’Hara was an odd chap,” said Bill slowly.
    Garratt got there in a flash.
    â€œYou mean he might be playing cat-and-mouse with her. What terms were they on?”
    Bill didn’t answer that at once. Then he said,
    â€œYou’d better know just where we are. I’ve cared for Meg for ten years. She’s never cared for me. She married O’Hara. He made her damned unhappy. Now she doesn’t know whether she’s free or not. He was a cruel devil—it would be like him to keep her like that, not knowing.”
    Garratt jingled his keys. “It might be.… O’Hara was like that.”
    Bill went on speaking.
    â€œIt’s an abominable position. She can’t even get probate.”
    There was something sticking in his mind about those papers in the bank. No, it was a packet of some sort. Meg didn’t know if there were papers in it, she only thought there might be. He didn’t know why they stuck in his mind, but they did.
    Garratt grinned.
    â€œDo you expect me to believe that O’Hara had anything to leave? I suppose she wants to be sure she’s a widow. She was a fool to marry him—but women are fools, especially girls. Now look here, Bill—O’Hara’s dead. I told her so when she came to see me. He’s dead, and he’ll stay dead. The body they got out of the river in December was his all right. Stripped—and ordinary identification impossible, but there had been an old break of the right leg. I happen to know O’Hara broke that leg about five years ago. We didn’t identify him at the inquest because it didn’t suit our book. We were still hoping to pick up the trail he was on. We most particularly didn’t want any headlines in the papers. What Mrs O’Hara wants to do is to go and see her lawyer and get leave to presume death. We’ll back her up—now. There needn’t be any publicity. Tell her to see her lawyer at once. All this about letters, and leaves, and snips of paper is either a hoax, or it’s hysterics. O’Hara’s as dead as Julius Caesar—she needn’t worry.”
    He got up, went over to the other side of the room, clattered at a drawer, and came back with an untidy notebook in his hand. He sat down again on the arm of the chair and flicked at the crumpled pages.
    â€œHere you are—October ’33. First entry about O’Hara on the 3rd. He was due to report, and he didn’t report.… October 4th—rang up Mrs O’Hara. O’Hara missing. She wanted to know where he was. So did we. We gave it another forty-eight hours, and then we began to make enquiries. Nobody had seen O’Hara since eight