come to me with your grievances and they will receive my fair and impartial attention as always. Those workers who do not heed this call are openly allying themselves with traitors to our country who are leading you to your own destruction. Roche Workers… Stand up and be counted! Do you condone coldblooded murder?
“‘If not: Return to work tomorrow.’”
Lucy drew in a deep breath and said, “Whew!” She looked at Shayne when they reached the end of Mr. Gerald’s impassioned plea.
Shayne’s bushy red brows were drawn low and his face was bleak. He nodded slowly and said, “This guy George Brand is drawn and quartered. I feel sorry as hell for him if he didn’t kill Roche.”
The waiter brought their bottle of brandy, glasses, ice and soda. Shayne poured a little brandy in his glass, tasted it straight and puckered his wide mouth. He added more brandy, then ice cubes and a generous dash of soda, and fixed a glass for Lucy.
“That letter you had from Mr. Roche, Michael,” she asked hesitantly, “does it… is there anything in it that gives you a clue?”
“It was pretty vague. The most important thing in it was his indication that he didn’t trust someone… or anyone close to him. Let’s see what they’ve actually got on Brand.”
He took a long sip from his glass, pulled the paper toward them, and they continued to read the story covering the entire front page of the Centerville Gazette:
“Chief Elwood refused any direct comment at the time when Seth Gerald flatly accused George Brand of the murder. He stated, ‘We are checking up on the fellow, and if enough evidence is produced against him, you may be sure he won’t escape justice. But I intend this to be handled in a legal manner.’
“The investigation was proceeding methodically and with a thoroughness that is characteristic of Chief Elwood. Brand had been awakened at seven o’clock and professed to be surprised at the news of Mr. Roche’s death. He emphatically denied having had an appointment with Roche, and denied having seen him for several days. He admitted, under questioning, that he was the owner of a Colt. 44, but when asked to produce it, claimed that it must have been stolen from the bureau drawer where it was usually kept. He stated that he had not seen the revolver for several days, and supposed that anyone might have walked in his unlocked house and stolen it during that period.
“Confronted with the death weapon, and under severe grilling by Chief Elwood, Brand reluctantly conceded that it might be his property, but insisted it was impossible to positively identify it.
“Brand’s story of his movements during the night is simple, and, if verified, provides him with a foolproof alibi for the time of the crime. His verbatim statement follows, as taken down by an official stenographer at his home this morning:
“‘I am deeply shocked by this news and make this statement of my own free will. I had met Mr. Charles Roche several times, and I feel that our cause has lost a friend. I considered him an honorable gentleman and had great hopes that when he assumed management of the Roche Mines in a few days we would be able to reach an agreement which would permit all the miners to go back to work at a living wage.
“‘Thus, anyone with the brains of a lizard can see that my union and I stood to lose more by his death than anyone else in Centerville, and I certainly would have been the last man on earth to harm him.
“‘We held a meeting of the Steering Committee at the Union Hall last night. This broke up about midnight, and I went down to Bert’s Place with some of the boys for a sandwich. Most of them drifted away about one o’clock, and Joseph Margule suggested that he and I go on to a friendly game at Jethro Home’s place.
“‘We took a dozen bottles of beer with us, and drove out in my car. Home lives about three miles east, just off the highway. When we arrived at one-thirty, we found Jim Place and Dave Burroughs and Home playing pennyante in the kitchen. Place left the game soon after we arrived, and the other four of us stayed and played poker until slightly after five o’clock. I dropped Burroughs and Margule off at their houses and drove on home myself, arriving at exactly five-twenty. I know the time because it was daylight, and Mrs. Cornell, my neighbor across the street, had just stepped out on her porch. She waved to me and said something about me being out mighty late, and I looked at my watch. I told her it was just five-twenty, and asked what she was doing up so early. She said something about having a headache and couldn’t sleep. Then I put my car in the garage and went to bed.’
“We understand that Chief Elwood is interrogating the men whom Brand claimed as witnesses to his alibi, and no charge has been placed against him at noon today as we go to press. It is, however, worthy of note that all these men are members of Brand’s so-called ‘Union’ and thus under the domination of his absolute dictatorship. Under these circumstances one might not blame Chief Elwood if he views Brand’s ‘alibis’ with the suspicion we feel they deserve. This paper is being held for the press until the very last moment to bring its readers the latest development in the Roche case.
“The deceased was born in Centerville, Kentucky, in 1918. He was an honor graduate of Centerville High School, and attended Duke University where he was president of the graduating class of 1940. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1941, and served in various theatres of the war, rising to the rank of Major before being demobilized in 1945.
“Married almost immediately thereafter to Miss Elsa Maywell of Boston, the young couple returned to Centerville after a honeymoon trip through the west, and settled in the gracious home on Mountaincrest Drive which was their wedding gift from the groom’s father and which has been a center of social life in Centerville since their occupancy.
“Immediately after his return, Charles Roche was appointed on the Board of Directors of the Roche Mining Properties, and plunged into the serious business of learning to manage the vast interests left to him in trust upon the death of his father, John Roche, in 1943. He was to have taken over the general managership when he reached the age of thirty, at which time the trusteeship would have ended.
“He leaves a widow, Mrs. Elsa Maywell Roche, and a brother, James L., of this city.”
There was a puzzled frown between Lucy Hamilton’s misty brown eyes. “What a shame, Michael. If we could have been just a day earlier getting here… maybe…”
“That jalopy of mine doesn’t fly,” he said sourly.
She looked around at his hard-set jaw and brooding eyes. “What… does the headline mean, Michael? Who has been arrested?”
Shayne said, “Scramble up ‘Pro-Communist Labor Agitator’. There may be a couple of letters missing, but it probably spells out George Brand. The actual arrest probably came just in time for them to jerk out the headline and substitute this one.” He emptied his glass of brandy and soda and mixed another.
“But what about Brand’s alibi? How can they get around the testimony of three witnesses? Four, actually, if they count the woman with the headache who saw him drive up at five-twenty.”
Shayne said, “If I’ve read the signs in this town right, those witnesses will be made of pretty tough stuff if they stick to their stories in the face of the grilling they’ll get from the police. And that noble speech of Seth Gerald’s will probably line the citizenry up on his side,” he ended disgustedly.
“But… what motive did Brand have? He was leading the strike, and he said right out loud he was hoping they would be able to reach a settlement as soon as Charles Roche took over the management.”
“What else would he say? Whether it’s true or not?”
“Well… you can see that Mr. Roche was trying to reach a settlement,” she pointed out. “Why else would he be going to see Brand?”
“Maybe to tell him he’d changed his mind about settling, and was prepared to fight it out to the end… by starving every miner. In that case, Brand might have lost his head and shot him. Look at it this way. Charles Roche was evidently schooled by Seth Gerald, after his father’s death, for his future management of the mines. Charles had been out of touch for several years when he was overseas. You read what Gerald thinks.”
Lucy nodded her brown head slowly, twirling her full glass around. “It looks as though public opinion will be solidly against them, and they’ll have to give up the strike to repudiate the leadership of a murderer,” she acknowledged.
“Yeh. That’s what’ll happen,” Shayne said, scowling. “Good God, you can’t stand up against that sort of propaganda. But killers sometimes fail to consider the possible consequences.”
