The Second Act Is Murder by W Read online

  “Told you, didn’t I?” he cackled. Albright’s body with them and leaving the

  “Warned you things was going to happen.”

  deputy on guard.

  “What are you talking about? How did

  I found that I couldn’t sleep. I lay there

  you know about Albright’s death?”

  trying, listening to the rain. The sound of the

  “I heard he’s dead,” said the man with

  water formed itself into patterns so that I kept obvious satisfaction. “I heard he got shot. I

  hearing things, strange and weird noises that

  told you all play actors who came here would

  made no sense.

  The Second Act Is Murder

  11

  Just as I was dozing off, the creak of a

  picture that the old watchman had made,

  hinge jerked me out of my semi-conscious

  coming down those stairs. If he were up there.

  state with every sense alert. For it had been

  If he, with some diabolical scheme, was

  my own door which had uttered the protesting

  cutting through the ceiling of the girl’s room, sound.

  it would certainly be a good time to catch him.

  I lay perfectly stiff, not a muscle

  I never thought of the deputy who the

  moving, trying to hold my breath so that I

  sheriff had left as a guard. Strictly speaking, could hear better. I’ve been afraid many times.

  this was more his business than it was mine.

  The man without fear lacks imagination.

  “You wait here,” I told the girl, “I’ll

  Then the sound came again. I strained

  have a look.”

  my eyes trying to pierce the gloom, wondering

  “I’m coming with you.” Susan Foster’s

  if this was the murderer. If he, or she had

  voice was determined. It told me that

  mistaken my room for Albright’s and had

  argument would be of little use.

  come to search for something.

  I was tempted to say that she would be

  A whole flood of suppositions swept

  more hindrance than help, that it would be

  over me. Soon I could stand the tension no

  much better and safer if I went alone. Then I

  longer. Reaching out, I clicked on the bed

  changed my mind and nodded briefly, moving

  lamp.

  to the door and opening it a little so that I

  Susan Foster stood in the doorway, her

  could peer into the hall.

  pajamas covered by a robe of burnt orange

  Have you ever had the feeling that you

  corduroy. Despite my fear, my first thought

  were safe where you were but that if you

  was of her beauty. My second was to wonder

  moved a foot away from your position you’d

  what she was doing there. Then I saw she had

  be in grave danger? That’s the way I felt about one small finger pressed against her lips to

  the corridor. It was empty, brightly-lighted,

  indicate silence.

  yet I had to force myself to step out into it.

  She came in without sound and eased

  the door closed, seeming to glide, rather than I SENSED rather than heard the girl follow

  walk toward my bed. Not until she was close

  me. She moved with the silence of a ghost.

  enough to touch me did she halt.

  My own breathing seemed to fill the place

  “Have you got a gun?” she whispered.

  with a raucous sound as I reached the bottom

  The query did not surprise me. With

  of the stairs and started upward toward the

  my nerves on edge, it seemed the most natural

  third floor.

  thing in the world. I nodded as I eased out of I wished desperately that I had a

  bed and crossed to my suitcase.

  flashlight. The best substitute I could think of The gun was a thirty-eight special, was the cigar lighter which I’d dropped into built on a forty-five frame.

  my pocket as I passed the bureau.

  “What’s the matter?” I was already

  The stairs were carpeted which killed

  slipping a robe over my pajamas, finding my

  any noise that my slippered feet might have

  slippers.

  made. The air had a close, dusty smell as we

  “There’s someone up on the third climbed and I guessed that the upper stories of floor, cutting a hole through the ceiling into the building had not been aired out in a long

  my room,” she whispered. “I couldn’t sleep. I

  time.

  kept hearing this noise. At first I thought it I paused as I reached the third floor

  was a rat gnawing and then I heard footsteps.”

  and stood there while the girl came up to my

  I stared at her, remembering the side. I was listening, trying to hear something

  Thrilling Detective

  12

  above the labored sound of my own breathing.

  movement. My forehead was damp and the

  I heard nothing. When I put my lips close to

  pajama collar around my neck had a moist

  her ear, they brushed her hair in the darkness.

  feel.

  “Which way is your room?” I

  How he knew where I was, I’ll never

  whispered.

  be able to guess. Maybe he just took a chance

  She reached out and took my free and drove the knife at the spot that he himself hand. Her fingers were cold and they clamped

  would have chosen had he stepped into the

  tightly around mine as if she derived comfort

  room. At any rate the keen blade came

  from the contact. She led me to the right,

  dangerously close, passing between my right

  toward the rear of the long building and we

  arm and body, pinning my arm to the wall for

  moved along the hall in silence until she an instant. I tried to wrench free and he hit me stopped so suddenly that I ran into her.

  at the same moment aiming for my chin and

  “Hear that?” Her gentle words hardly

  striking too low. His fist struck against my

  reached me.

  neck, almost smashing my Adam’s Apple.

  I listened, holding my breath.

  Nothing that has happened to me has

  A noise came faintly through a closed

  ever hurt quite like that blow. I wasn’t

  door, a chewing sound, like the gnawing of an

  paralyzed, but I was speechless. I couldn’t

  enormous rat.

  have cried out had I wanted to. It flashed

  “You can hear it now?” Her lips were

  through my mind that I might never speak

  close. I could feel her warm breath upon my

  again, but that seemed unimportant for hands

  cheek. Squeezing her hand by way of answer,

  were coming from the darkness, grasping my

  I pushed her gently but firmly behind me.

  throat.

  “Stay here, against the wall,” I

  I jerked free of the knife, heard the silk

  whispered. “I want to be free to shoot of the robe tear. In freeing myself, I dropped anything that moves in the darkness.”

  my gun. I felt it strike my foot but there was I got no answer. Taking her silence for

  no chance to stoop for it now. Those hands

  assent, I started forward. My slippers were

  were at my throat, trying to choke off what air loose. I stepped out of them, my bare feet

  was filtering
through.

  were noiseless on the old hall runner. I moved I struck out with both hands, burying

  along the wall, my right hand holding the gun

  first one fist and then the other in his

  low, my left touching the plaster until my

  midsection. The air came out of him. I felt the finger came into contact with a door jamb.

  hot breath on my face and heard the wooshing

  I felt around it, across the panel until I

  sound that it made between his straining lips.

  found the knob. This I palmed, taking hold of

  Then I brought my knee up hard into

  it firmly before I began to turn and pulling it his body.

  toward me so that if there was any play in the latch, it wouldn’t click as I turned it.

  HE GASPED in pain and I felt the pressure on

  But there was a click, a fairly loud one.

  my throat relax. I tried to seize his wrists, to I pushed the door wide and stepped through

  twist and toss him to the floor, but he

  quickly, so that if the man in the darkness

  wrenched free. Turning, he ran, his feet

  shot, I wouldn’t be where the door had been.

  making dull thuds on the carpet of the room

  The gnawing sound had ceased. All

  floor.

  sound had ceased. The darkness was intense,

  He must have known his way in the

  heavy and it was hot and close in that room. I darkness, for he gained the connecting door

  tried not to breathe, listening intently for some which led into the bath and slammed it in time

  The Second Act Is Murder

  13

  for me to run into it, head on.

  The force with which I hit the door

  SHE looked at me, startled. “Why, yes. Kind

  stunned me and I staggered back, trying of hoarse.”

  frantically to get my balance, to keep from

  “It’s no fault of our friend’s that I can

  falling.

  speak at all,” I told her grimly. “Mr. Murderer, I didn’t fall, but I lost time enough for

  whoever he is, did his best to wreck my

  him to shoot the bolt on the other side. I heard speaking apparatus.”

  it go over and knew that I was licked for the

  She didn’t understand, but I waved her

  moment.

  away and she ran down the hall toward the

  I shook my head, trying to clear it.

  stairs. How long she was gone, I can’t say. It Then I fumbled in my robe pocket, found the

  seemed forever. Probably it was only a few

  lighter and yanked the wheel with my thumb

  minutes. I stood there, the little lighter held up 90 that the little flame leaped into life.

  high above my head, hoping that the fuel

  As I turned to hunt for my gun, Susan

  which kept it going, would not burn out.

  rushed in through the hall door.

  In the flickering light I watched both

  “Mark! Mark, are you all right?”

  doors, but the light was so tiny that it cast

  “I’m all right,” I said in an undertone,

  strange shadows and my nerves were on edge.

  stooping over for the gun. “He got away. I had Time and again I was certain that I saw one or my hands on him and I let him get away. He’s

  the other of the doors move and raised my

  in the bathroom. He’s cornered unless that

  gun, only to realize that I’d been mistaken.

  bath opens into a second room.”

  I heard the men Susan had summoned

  “All of them do, on our floor.”

  coming long before I saw them. Heavy feet

  “Then it’s probably the same pounded up the stairs.

  arrangement up here.” I moved quickly to the

  Upon catching sight of me, the deputy

  hall. “Stand in the doorway,” I said. “Keep the began shouting in my ear.

  lighter and hold it high. If that bathroom door

  “What’s the matter? What’s happened?

  starts to move, yell and get into the hall fast.”

  That dame sounded crazy. She said something

  “What are you going, to do?”

  about a sound like a rat gnawing. . .”

  “Try the next door down the hall.” I

  “Never mind that,” I cut him short.

  tried it, and found it locked.

  “I’ve got a man trapped in this room. There’re I needed help. My man was inside, but

  two doors, one from this hall, one from the

  I couldn’t cover both doors and break one

  bath, both locked.”

  down at the same time.

  “What’s

  he

  done?”

  “Get Howe,” I told her. “No—get the

  “He tried to kill me in the darkness.” I

  deputy.” I had suddenly remembered that we

  snapped. “Before that he was cutting a hole

  had a representative of the law under this roof.

  from this floor through the ceiling of Miss

  “He’s probably in the lobby or, more likely, in Poster’s room.”

  the kitchen if I know anything about cops.”

  The deputy shook his head as if he

  “You be careful,” she warned.

  didn’t believe me.

  “I’m not going to do anything,” I told

  “Sounds

  crazy.”

  her, taking her place in the doorway where I

  I was inclined to agree with him. I’d

  could watch both possible exits for the killer.

  have given odds that we were dealing with a

  “I’ll just stand here until I get help. I don’t crazy man, and there were two of them in that

  want Mr. Murderer to get away. I owe him

  hotel that I knew of, the old watchman and the something. Does my voice sound funny?”

  old actor, Stephen Anthony.

  Thrilling Detective

  14

  “Never mind that now,” I told him.

  Wordlessly he passed me the light.

  “You watch the bathroom door, I’m going to

  I was cautious about entering that

  crash in from the hall.”

  room. I poked the torch around the jamb first,

  “What goes on?” It was Bertrand expecting to draw a shot Nothing happened.

  Howe.

  Then I pushed the door wide and clicked off

  After summoning the deputy, the girl

  the ray the instant that I crossed the threshold.

  had called him, and he had come at a dead

  I moved right, silently along the wall,

  run. He was still pulling on his robe.

  my shoulders touching the plaster. The place

  I told him in a dozen words.

  was in heavy darkness, but fresh damp air was

  “The deputy can watch the bath. Come

  coming from somewhere, blowing directly

  on. You help me.”

  into my face.

  I had no clear idea of how he could

  When I was far enough to the right of

  help, no real idea of exactly what I intended to the door so that anyone there wouldn’t be

  do. I approached the door from an angle, facing me, I pressed the button of the realizing that the man inside could easily flashlight, shooting the beam across the room.

  shoot through the panel. That was, if he had a For an instant I thought I was opposing

  gun. I’d found no indication he was armed, in

  a man at least seven feet tall. I almost shot. He the darkness.

  swayed and I thought that he was leaping

  “Come out,
” I yelled. “We’ve got you

  toward me. Then sudden realization flowed

  blocked, both ways.”

  over me and I knew what it was and had a sick

  There was no answer, and no sound

  feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  except the heavy breathing that was coming

  Nevertheless, I cut the light around

  from Howe. He seemed to be winded as if the

  the« room to be certain that there was no one

  run up the stairs had done him no good.

  else there, and moved forward slowly. His

  “Okay,” I called in a minute. “If that’s

  skinny body continued to sway gently in the

  the way you want it, chum, we’ll come and get

  brisk breeze from the open window.

  you.”

  It was Stephen Anthony, the old actor.

  I raised my gun and proceeded to put a

  He was hanging by a rope from an exposed

  couple of shots into the lock, tearing it free beam in the broken ceiling.

  from the light wood.

  “Howe! Sheriff! Come quick.*

  Then I moved in, holding my gun

  They came. Howe was the first

  ready.

  through the door. He gasped and uttered a cry.

  Behind me I heard Susan Foster’s “Anthony.”

  sharp call.

  I nodded. There was a straight chair to

  “Careful!”

  the right, a little way from the swaying feet, lying on its side. I righted that chair. I hated to touch the body but it had to be done.

  CHAPTER IV

  Fortunately the deputy was ready to help. I