Dan and the Death-Cell Bluff

“With Big Jim’s usual efficiency,” Adele said in a weary voice. “At the trial a half dozen witnesses testified George Saunders made a practice of teasing Gene about being a hairdresser. That wasn’t true, incidently. The same witnesses testified the two had come to blows over it the day before the murder, and Gene threatened to kill George. A pawnbroker testified Gene bought the gun identified as the murder weapon. Five witnesses testified they were customers in Saunders’ saloon when Gene entered and fired five shots into Saunders’ body. The arresting officers, who happened to be the same two you met at the station, said they heard the shots, rushed into the tavern while Gene was still firing, and overpowered him. What could the jury do? They convicted him.”

“The kid have any defense?”

“None anyone would believe. I was off that day and Gene was responsible for closing the shop. He said he had just locked the front door when two masked men entered the back way, covered him with pistols and kept him there for three hours. About eight P.M., just as it began to get dark, they forced him out the back door and down the alley to the rear of Saunders’ tavern, where they all entered through the kitchen. The two masked men told him to walk straight ahead into the barroom, but they themselves stayed back in the kitchen out of sight, and presumably left again by the back door as soon as Gene obeyed them.

“Gene said several men were in the tavern, apparently awaiting him, and two of them were Lieutenant Morgan Hart and Sergeant Larry Bull. At the time George Saunders was lying dead behind the bar, but Gene didn’t know this. Lieutenant Hart thrust a gun at Gene by the barrel and said, ‘Here. Take this.’ When Gene refused, the lieutenant slapped him twice, so Gene took the gun. Then he was arrested for murder.”

Dan grinned. “Bet the prosecution had a circus with that.”

“It was terrible. Even the judge obviously thought it was a lie. When he summed up, he told the jury it was up to them to weigh the statements of eleven reputable citizens and two officers of the law against the unsupported testimony of the defendant.”

“Was the judge in on the frame?”

The girl shook her head. “I don’t think so. It was Judge Anderson of the circuit court. I think he comes out of Mayville. Big Jim’s power doesn’t reach up into the state courts.”

Dan rose and stretched. “Let’s go down and have lunch. Afterward you can go back to your shop, if you like, while I sit in my room and wait for Big Jim to make a move.”

Adele said hesitantly, “I’d like to stay with you, if I may.”

The big man shrugged indifferently. “All right, if you wish.”

Chapter Two Death Row Stooge

As the elevator swallowed Dan and Adele, the door to suite 510 opened cautiously. The little man, wearing a fresh seersucker suit as worn as the first, stepped out in the hall with his suitcase in his hand. Quickly he approached room 512, for a moment fiddled at the lock with a piece of wire, pushed open the door and shut it behind himself again.

Rolling the bed away from the wall, he spread his handkerchief on the floor, removed a small brace and bit from his bag, and drilled a hole through the baseboard, allowing the sawdust to fall on his handkerchief. When he felt the bit break through on the other side, he carefully folded the handkerchief and put it in his pocket.

Then he pushed two wires attached to a small microphone through the hole, screwed the mike to the baseboard, rolled the bed back in place and repacked his bag. The whole operation took no more than fifteen minutes.

Dan and Adele had been back from lunch barely a half hour, and were desultorily smoking cigarettes when a knock came at the door. Adele, in her chair by the window, stopped her cigarette halfway to her lips and gave Dan a frightened look. Dan, flat on his back on the bed, came erect lazily and swung his feet over the side.

“Come in!” he called.

The man who opened the door was a giant, towering above Dan Fancy a good three inches and outweighing him thirty pounds. He was blond and chubby-faced and had the slightest suggestion of a paunch, but most of his weight consisted of muscle as solid as Dan’s. His pink face, with its upturned nose, was that of a cherub, but his small bright eyes spoiled the effect. They were the eyes of a hawk, and they glittered coldly when his lips smiled.

Dan gave him a lopsided grin. “Never stopped growing, did you, Jim? Thought I’d have passed you by now.”

“You’re a long way from Pittsburgh, Dan,” Big Jim Calhoun said quietly. He glanced at Adele, jerked his head toward the open door and said, “Outside, honey.”

The girl made no move.

“Better do like the man says, Adele,” Dan told her huskily.

Her face pale, Adele rose and walked to the door. There she paused and gave Dan an appealing look.

Fancy chuckled amusedly. “He won’t eat me, Adele. Wait in the hall.”

When the door had closed behind her, Big Jim Calhoun walked over to the bed and smiled without humor at the seated man.