The Blue Movie Murders Read Online Free PDF Page A

to talk to her. She’s been making a statement to one of my men.”
    â€œI would like that,” McCall said. “I must say I’m not used to this sort of co-operation, Lieutenant. Thank you.”
    Powell scowled at him. “I’m giving you everything you want, McCall. Everything to get you out of Rockview as soon as possible.”
    Suzanne Walsh was seated on a straight-backed wooden chair, red-eyed and obviously still distraught. She looked up at him when he entered the room, but did not recognize him.
    â€œI’m Micah McCall. I met you at Dora Pringle’s party yesterday.”
    She sniffed and focused her eyes on him. “Was that only yesterday?” She was younger than he’d estimated at their first meeting—possibly still in her early thirties—but her rounded face and slim formless body made her appear somehow ageless. She was not really an unattractive woman, but she gave the impression of one already resigned to spinsterhood.
    â€œGovernor Holland was most disturbed to learn of this terrible crime. He wanted me to convey his deepest regrets. Has Mr. Sloane’s family been notified?”
    She touched her nose with a balled-up handkerchief. “He had no family. There was a brother who died some years back, and that was all.”
    â€œHe never married?”
    â€œOnce, when he was very young. But as I understand it, the marriage was annulled after a few months.”
    â€œAny idea who killed him?”
    She fumbled in her purse for a cigarette. “Somebody who didn’t like the questions he was asking. Somebody who didn’t want him here.”
    â€œWhat questions was he asking? He wouldn’t have had time for many, since you just drove up here last night.”
    She nodded, dangling the cigarette from a corner of her mouth. “Last week he had me send out letters to a number of people here in Rockview. The letters announced that he would be arriving last night and staying at the Rockview Motel. They requested information about a man named Sol Dahlman, who was believed to have made a movie titled The Wild Nymph here some twenty years ago.”
    â€œDo you have a copy of the letter and a list of those to whom it was sent?”
    â€œI’ve already given it to Lieutenant Powell, but I remember the names on the list. They were Xavier Mann, president of a film processing company and other businesses here, and Frank Jordan, the city’s mayor, and some local police officials. Five letters in all.”
    â€œYou certainly don’t think one of them killed him?”
    â€œI don’t know what to think, Mr. McCall. I only know the man I worked for is dead, and somebody murdered him.”
    â€œDo you have a copy of that letter?” he asked again.
    Lieutenant Powell returned at that moment, and McCall realized he was not to be left alone with Suzanne Walsh for any extended period. “What is it you want, McCall?”
    â€œThe letter Sloane sent to Rockview officials before he came here. Miss Walsh said she gave you a copy.”
    The lieutenant grunted. “She didn’t have to give it to me. I already had a copy. The Chief of Police passed it along to me earlier in the week.”
    McCall accepted the letter Powell produced, and read through it quickly.
    Dear Sir:
    During my long years as a part of the motion picture industry I have always been interested in the talents and achievements of young unknown directors. Some years back my attention was attracted to the work of a virtually unknown man named Sol Dahlman. His one feature-length film, The Wild Nymph , was considered by many to be obscene at the time, and for the past twenty years it has enjoyed an underground reputation which limited its showing to stag smokers and back rooms. I believe now that its time has come. The changing sexual climate in America, together with relaxed obscenity laws, means that a film of true artistic merit like The Wild Nymph can