The Avenger 24 - Midnight Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

you see, we left nothing to chance; not even the integrity of that pilot. We investigated Wayne Carroll and found that he was supposed to be above suspicion. But I suppose every man has his price.”
    “Name and address of that mechanic, please,” said The Avenger.
    Spade gave it.
    “I understand there were four laboratory heads here,” The Avenger went on evenly. “Boone, Grace, Wight and Towne. Now, with Towne gone, there are three. But a moment ago, I met only Boone and Grace. Who is the man Ryan?”
    “He is one of Towne’s assistants who has turned out so brilliantly that we are about to let him in on the General Laboratories profit-sharing plan.”
    “Profit-sharing plan?” repeated Benson.
    “The four men you mentioned were, and are, more than employees,” said Spade. “A full fifty percent of the net profits of any of their inventions is pro-rated among them. I get the remaining fifty percent.”
    “You, a scientist, are a laboratory worker, too?”
    Spade smiled.
    “I wouldn’t know a Bunsen burner from a cathode. I am the business end of General Laboratories. I put up most of the money to found it. I market the inventions and, in general, see that the monetary end goes well. If I do say so myself, it’s lucky for them that they have a business office here with a businessman in it.”
    He put his forefinger next to his head and made circles with it.
    “All crazy, these inventors. All crackpots. A bunch of prima donnas. But I know how to handle them. Believe me, I earn my share around here.”
    “How is it that everyone is here at this time of night?” asked Benson. “It’s after eleven o’clock.”
    “When we are working on something and are nearly done, it’s our custom to stay right at the plant. There are rooms at the side for living purposes. We’re working on that . . . thing . . . now, to see if, by some chance, it was responsible for the plane crash. However, I don’t see how it could have been.”
    “Where is Rew Wight? He is the one person not here.”
    “Wight’s in town,” said Spade. “He went to New York early this morning and didn’t come back when news of the crash came out. I don’t know where he is, so I haven’t been able to contact him.”
    Benson took his dime-sized radio transmitter from his vest pocket.
    “Mac,” he said.
    The response came in a moment.
    “Have you found that girl?” asked The Avenger.
    “No, sirrr,” said Mac. “I’m still huntin’. The guarrrds out here have found most of their friends who were slugged and robbed of their uniforms. Still two missin’. Shall I keep on lookin’?”
    “Yes,” said Dick. He put the mike back.
    Spade’s eyes were round. It must have looked like black magic to him, for there was no evidence whatever of there being a radio anywhere about Benson’s person.
    “I’d like to talk to your scientific staff,” The Avenger said.
    “Sure,” said Spade.
    He went to the hall and down to the door that had banged closed behind the three lab workers a moment ago. He opened it.
    There was a huge laboratory room, one of several. In it, were Grace and Ryan and Boone. They were not working at anything. They were sitting near a big bench, talking rapidly to each other. But there was wordlessness as they glared at the doorway.
    “This is Mr. Benson,” said Spade, in a tone of reproof to them, as if they’d been children. “He’s trying to help us. In fact, he already has. You saw those men he rounded up before they could do us any damage. Try to co-operate with him in any way he desires.”
    He ducked out, and closed the door. The Avenger went to the three. He looked at the apparatus on the way and approved. It wasn’t anything like his own laboratory, which was probably the best in the world on a small scale; but it was a good, competent workshop, obviously planned by people who knew their business.
    The three were still glaring at him.
    “It seems you were about to be invaded by a small army, awhile ago,”