Detective Read Online Free PDF Page A

that car you
and Kermit were in, Maggie. You told
the trooper you'd found it just a
few minutes earlier, with the keys
in it, and took it for a ride . . .
Well, what if I tell you we have a
witness who saw both of you in that
car last night, saw the whole thing
happen ? Also, there were a dozen or
more empty drink cans in the car,
food wrappers, too. It's all been
sent for fingerprinting. What if
your prints, and Kermit's, are on
that stuff ? . . . Actually, it will
prove something, Maggie, because it
will show you were both in that car
a whole lot longer than just the '
few minutes" you say.
    Jorge sipped coffee and waited.
Thorne drank some of hers.
    Something else, Maggie. When you
were picked up and searched, you had
a lot of money on you more than
seven hundred dollars. Mind telling
me where you got that?. . . Working
for whom and doing what? . . .
Really! Must have been a lot of odd
jobs for all that cash. What were
the names of the people who employed
you?... Well, then, give me the
names of one or two and we'll check
with them... You can't name anyone?
Maggie, you're not helping yourself
here.
    All right, let's move on. Now,
mixed in with those dollars found on
you were some deutschemarks. Where
did you get those?. . .
Deutschemarks, Maggie German money.
You been to Germany lately?. .. Oh,
come on, Maggie! How could you
forget something like that? Did you
get it from Mr. Niehaus? . . . He's
the gentleman who was killed. Did
you shoot him with that pistol of
yours,
    DETECTIVE 29
    Maggie? Tests are being done on the
gun. They'll tell us if you did.
    Maggie, I'm talking to you as a
friend. You're in trouble, big
trouble, and I think you know it. I'd
like to help you, but before I can,
you'll have to start telling the
truth. . . Here, have more coffee. .
. Think about it, Maggie. The truth
will make everything easy especially
for you. Because when I know the
truth I can start advising you about
what to do. . .
    And later, with the other, younger
suspect, Kaprum whose eyes did bulge
like a frog's, Ainslie realized the
questioning was tougher: Okay,
Kermit, for the past half hour I've
listened to you answer all my
questions and we both know that
everything you've told me is total
bullshit. Now let's pack it in and
have some facts. You and your
girlfriend Maggie hijacked that car,
robbed that old man, then killed him.
Now, I may as well tell you that
Maggie Thorne has confessed. I have
her written confession in which she
says the whole idea was yours, and
that you fired the shot that killed
Mr. Niehaus. . .
    The nineteen-year-old Kaprum leapt
to his feet and shouted wildly, "That
lying bitch! It was her who done it,
her idea, not mine! I just went for "
    Hey, hold it! Stop right there,
Kaprum! You hear me! Settle down!
    It was like winning the lottery,
Jorge thought. Kaprum, reacting to
what he saw as Maggie Thorne's
betrayal, was now eager to relate his
own version of events. Ainslie might
have smiled, but he remembered the
poor dead German.
    A Miranda warning had been given
Kaprum earlier. No need to repeat it.
    So are you ready to tell me,
Kermit, what really happened and this
time the truth? If you are, you'll be
help
    30 Arthur Halley
    ing yourself. . . Okay, let's begin
when you and Thorne held up that car
and took it over. . . All right,
we'll put Thor'?e's name first if
that's the way you want it. . . So
where were you both when . . .
    Jorge was scribbling on a pad as
Kaprum spoke quickly, blurting out
facts, heedless of consequences,
failing to realize it made little
difference, if any, who had done
what, and what counted most was that
the pair of them had killed in
collusion. When asked by Jorge why
any shot was fired at all, Kaprum
answered, "The old bastard
badmouthed us. Shouted a lot of crap
we didn't understand. He wouldn't
shut his goddam mouth, man."
    When it was done, using a ballpoint
pen that Jorge handed him, Kaprum
initialed each page as having read
it, then signed what had become a
full confession.
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