Exploit of Death - Dell Shannon Read Online Free PDF Page B

The girl a perfectly respectable girl, what used to be
called a lady, and they don't print all the citizens any more than we
do."
    "But eventually somebody will miss her,"
said Hackett reasonably, "and start asking questions. There was
the fiancé, she must've had friends who knew where she was going
here."
    " De veras .
Eventually. By God, I'd like to know what the hell is behind it,
Art."
    "These Daggetts. Do you think they were paid to
tell the tale?"
    "I'm damned sure of it, and they're probably
regretting it now, but they're stuck with the story, and, condenación , I
should've let them think we'd swallowed it until there's something
concrete to throw at them."
    "If there ever is," said Hackett.
    Nothing had come in from Chicago. It was too early to
expect it. The lab sent up the photos Mendoza had requested, full
face and profile, close-ups of the lovely dead face, queerly more
dignified in death.
    Hackett looked at them and admitted it wasn't a face
you'd forget. "But these Daggetts—what possible connection
with a French girl?"
    "How should I know? I don't think there is any.
I think the Daggetts and the talkative widow are—mmh—just
background. Put in for verisimilitude as it were."
    "How?" asked Hackett.
    "For the nice money. The setup cost a little
something, if not much. The clothes, the stock of food, the cash on
hand, enough to bury the poor silly suicide, so maybe we wouldn't try
so hard to trace her back. And in a city the size of Chicago, how
many Ruth Hoffmans? How many living in the bosom of families not
listed anywhere? Those two letters, even minus the envelopes, a
plausible substitute for a suicide note."
    "Very neat," agreed Hackett. "If you
hadn't just happened to have seen her before, it would've gone into a
routine report and got filed away. Well, wait and see what may turn
up."
    "I want to ask some
questions about that library card," said Mendoza.
    * * *
    JUST BEFORE NOON Landers came in with one of the two
pharmacists on that Bryan killing. He had unexpectedly picked out a
photograph down in Records, identified it positively as one of the
heisters. The pedigree on file backed him up.
    Joseph Bauman, Caucasian, six one, black and brown,
one-seventy, twenty-four two years ago. He'd been charged with one
count of armed robbery and prior to that with assault and possession
of controlled drugs. He'd got a one-to-three on the robbery count.
Landers got a statement from the witness and called the Welfare and
Rehab office to find out what they knew about Bauman. The address in
Records was two years old. A sergeant at that office looked up their
records and said Bauman was on parole since three months ago. He was
living at an address on Madera Avenue in Atwater and he had a job at
a chain fast-food place on Sixth Street.
    Hackett went out with Landers to find him.
    The manager at the fast-food store told him he hadn't
laid eyes on Bauman in a week. "And good riddance. That
probation officer talked me into hiring him. I didn't like the idea
so good, and that Bauman, he just doesn't want to work so hard—all
the time goofing off."
    So they tried the place on Madera in Atwater, which
was I a modest frame house, neatly maintained, on the narrow side
street, and showed the badges to the fat, nondescript middle-aged
woman who answered the doorbell. She looked at them, and first she
looked alarmed and then resigned.
    "He's in trouble again, is he? I just don't know
why. I tried to bring him up right. It was hard without my husband.
Joe's father got killed in an accident when Joe was only four, but I
tried. Lord knows I didn't spoil him. Tried to teach him right from
wrong."
    "Is he here?" asked Hackett.
    "Yes, he's not up yet. He got in pretty late
last night. He said he was out playing pool with some pals." She
stepped back, tacitly inviting them in.
    Bauman was still in bed in the back bedroom, looking
as if he had a hangover. He was dirty and unshaven. He snarled when
he saw the badges, and he said exactly