to God I could locate Larry Kincaid. My gun places him at the scene of the crime at about the time it was committed. He and Marsha Marco must both know something. Either one of them might have killed Grange. And I can’t cover Larry any longer. The only way I can get clear is to square the whole thing up. Put the Jax police on his trail, Will. They might pick up something. I’ve wasted a day playing a goddamned fool when I should have been thinking of my own hide. Larry wired his wife from Jax yesterday morning. Wait a minute and I may be able to get the exact time the message was filed. It’ll be a slim lead, but-”
His long legs took him to the telephone and he called the Kincaid number. A brief talk with Helen brought him back to the table saying, “The time on the telegram is six-thirty-two yesterday morning. Make a note of that and pass it on to the Jax authorities. I’m afraid Larry has kept on going, but-”
He paused, an odd expression of uncertainty creeping over his angular face. He stood there looking past Will Gentry as though a veil had been suddenly lifted.
Gentry started to say something but didn’t, after one look at Shayne’s strained features. He sat silent until Shayne started talking in a queer monotone, as if to himself.
“My gun jammed after the first shot was fired. Where the hell did that bullet go? Larry didn’t know much about guns. If an automatic jammed on him, he’d probably think it was busted beyond repair.”
He paused, then burst out, “Goddamn it, Will, we’ve got to locate Marsha Marco. Give me all you’ve got on it.” He slumped into a chair and sat staring vacantly across the room.
“I will.”
Gentry got to his feet and put his hand on Shayne’s shoulder, then went out quietly, leaving him sitting there staring at the jumbled picture-puzzle of crime which gradually adjusted itself into a distinct pattern before his eyes.
Chapter Seventeen: HEADLINES IN ADVANCE
A full hour later, Shayne stood up to stretch himself wearily. That was the way it had to be. Proving it was something else. His plan was dangerous only if it misfired. And there were a few things he could check first. He got his hat and went downstairs.
The hotel clerks had switched shifts the previous day, and the clerk now on duty had been night man the night Grange was killed.
The clerk glanced in Shayne’s mailbox as the detective approached the desk, turned with a negative movement of his head.
“Nothing this morning, Mr. Shayne. Your business seems to be rather slow.” He smiled pleasantly.
“On the contrary,” Shayne told him, “I’m getting pushed around by the rush of events.” He leaned on the counter, pushed his Panama back on his head. “You were on duty night before last, weren’t you?”
“Yes, sir.” The clerk was a bright young man with an inordinate admiration for the lanky detective which almost amounted to hero-worship.
“I had a caller while I was out.”
“Yes, sir. Your sister?” The young man spoke in a confidential, man-to-man tone.
“No.” Shayne grinned. “I mean the man who was here earlier in the evening.”
“Oh! Mr. Kincaid.”
“Yes. Can you tell me exactly when he was here?”
“It was around nine-thirty. I remember he stopped at the desk to ask if you were in-and said he’d wait for you in your apartment. I sent a boy up to unlock the door, knowing he was a friend of yours. You see, I never know when a visitor to your apartment is going to turn out to be something important-in your business, you know-and I always make a mental note of their coming and going. I hope I didn’t do wrong to let Mr. Kincaid in.”
“Oh, no. That was the natural thing to do. Did you see him leave?”
“Yes. He only stayed ten or fifteen minutes. He stopped on his way out and asked me to tell you he couldn’t wait any longer.”
The clerk paused, then added with sudden animation, “He made a call from your room. I remember that the girl at the switchboard called over to me to ask if she should put it through-knowing it wasn’t your voice.”
“You keep a record of outgoing calls, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll look it up.”
Shayne lit a cigarette while the clerk went back into the office, returning presently with a written notation.
“The call went through at nine-thirty-eight exactly. It was a Miami Beach call.”
“You don’t keep a record of the number?”
“No. Just the destination for toll charges. But I remember that he came down right after putting the call through.”
Shayne puffed on a cigarette, squinting out through the entrance doorway.
“Nine-thirty-eight. Then he left at approximately nine-forty.”
“Very close to that,” the clerk agreed.
“Do you have a railroad schedule?”
“Right here.”
“See what night trains the F. E. C. runs north.”
“I can tell you that. There’s only one. At eleven o’clock.”
“And it arrives in Jacksonville…?”
“At six-thirty the next morning.”
“And two minutes is just about enough time to file a telegram,” Shayne muttered. “Thanks.”
He strode out the front door and across to a row of garages maintained for the use of regular tenants. Unlocking the padlock on a door, he got into his roadster and backed it out, swung around to S. E. Second Street and made his way down Biscayne Boulevard to the Miami Daily News building where he parked and went up to the city room.
He collided with Timothy Rourke on his way out on an assignment. Shayne grabbed the reporter’s arm and Rourke said, “What is it, Mike? I was just on my way out.”
“Forget it.” Shayne dragged him back into the room. “Turn your assignment over to one of the other punks. You’re about to be let in on a story so goddamned new it hasn’t even happened yet.”
Rourke studied Shayne’s face quizzically and a little doubtfully. Then he yelled to a tow-headed youth to take over his assignment.
“It’d better be good,” he warned as he led Shayne to his littered desk in the corner.
“Good?” Shayne exulted. “It’s colossal, Tim. When’s the deadline for your first edition?”
“One o’clock. We hit the street at two-thirty.”
“And it’s just eleven now. And I’m going to give you a headline that’ll knock this town cold. But you’ve got to do some checking for me first, Tim.”
“Shoot.”
“What dope have you got from the racing commission on their investigation of the Masiot stables?”
“Nothing new, officially. They’re still investigating.”
“Do you know any of the members of the commission?”
“Yeh. Leroy Johnson. He’s-”
“Call him.” Shayne gripped Timothy Rourke’s arm. “Make it personal. It’s not to be printed. Find out which way the investigation is going. What they’re digging up-unofficially.”
Rourke shook his head, tight-lipped.
“What are you up to, Mike? It’s that Grange killing, isn’t it?”
“It is. And we haven’t any time to waste if we’re going to manufacture those headlines. Get on the phone.” Rourke lifted the receiver on his desk while Shayne sat back and lit a cigarette. Hunching the instrument to his ear, the reporter carried on a lengthy conversation without seeming to notice the haywire din going on about him.
Presently he hung up and said, “This is strictly confidential, Mike. If it leaks out, a beautiful friendship will be spoiled.”
