Tangled Trails

by Raine, William MacLeod

  "Yes. I handed it to him the afternoon of the day he was killed. It was found unsigned among his papers after his death. The old will still stands."

  "Leaving the property to James and Jack?"

  "Yes."

  "And the new will?"

  "Except for some bequests and ten thousand for a fountain at the city park, the whole fortune was to go to Jack."

  "So that if he had lived twenty-four hours longer James would have been disinherited."

  Foster looked at him out of eyes that told nothing of what he was thinking. "That's the situation exactly."

  Kirby made no further comment, nor did the lawyer.

  Within two hours the man from Twin Buttes had talked with the messenger

  boy, refreshed his memory with a tip, and learned that the message

  Cunningham had sent from the City Club had been addressed to his nephew

  Jack.

  CHAPTER XXIX

  "COME CLEAN, JACK"

  Jack Cunningham, co-heir with James of his uncle's estate, was busy in the office he had inherited settling up one of the hundred details that had been left at loose ends by the promoter's sudden death. He looked up at the entrance of Lane.

  "What do you want?" he asked sharply.

  "Want a talk with you."

  "Well, I don't care to talk with you. What are you doing here anyhow.

  I told the boy to tell you I was too busy to see you."

  "That's what he said." Kirby opened his slow, whimsical smile on Jack.

  "But I'm right busy, too. So I brushed him aside an' walked in."

  In dealing with this forceful cousin of his, Jack had long since lost his indolent insolence of manner. "You can walk out again, then. I'll not talk," he snapped.

  Kirby drew up a chair and seated himself. "When Uncle James sent a messenger for you to come to his rooms at once on the evening of the twenty-first, what did he want to tell you?" The steady eyes of the cattleman bored straight into those of Cunningham.

  "Who said he sent a messenger for me?"

  "It doesn't matter who just now. There are two witnesses. What did he want?"

  "That's my business."

  "So you say. I'm beginnin' to wonder if it isn't the business of the

  State of Colorado, too."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean that Uncle sent for you because he had just found out your brother and Miss Harriman were married."

  Jack flashed a startled look at him. It seemed to him his cousin showed an uncanny knowledge at times. "You think so."

  "He wanted to tell you that he was goin' to cut your brother out of his will an' leave you sole heir. An' he wanted you to let James know it right away."

  Kirby was guessing, but he judged he had scored. Jack got up and began to pace the room. He was plainly agitated.

  "Look here. Why don't you go back to Wyoming and mind your own business? You're not in this. It's none of your affair. What are you staying here for hounding the life out of James and me?"

  "None of my business! That's good, Jack. An' me out on bond charged with the murder of Uncle James. I'd say it was quite some of my business. I'm gonna stick to the job. Make up your mind to that."

  "Then leave us alone," retorted Jack irritably. "You act as though you thought we were a pair of murderers."

  "If you have nothin' to conceal, why do you block anyway? Why aren't you frank an' open? Why did you steal that record at Golden? Why did James lose the Jap's confession—if it was a confession? Why did he get Miss McLean to disappear? Answer those questions to my satisfaction before you talk about me buttin' in with suspicions against you."

  Jack slammed a fist down on the corner of the desk. "I'm not going to answer any questions! I'll say you've got a nerve! You're the man charged with this crime—the man that's liable to be tried for it. You've got a rope round your neck right this minute—and you go around high and mighty trying to throw suspicion on men that there's no evidence against."

  "You said you had a quarrel with your uncle that night—no, I believe you called it a difference of opinion, at the inquest. What was that disagreement about?"

  "Find out! I'll never tell you."

  "Was it because you tried to defend James to him—tried to get him to forgive the treachery of his fiancée and his nephew?"

  Again Jack shot at him a look of perplexed and baffled wonder. That brown, indomitable face, back of which was so much strength of purpose and so much keenness of apprehension, began to fill him with alarm. This man let no obstacles stop him. He would go on till he had uncovered the whole tangle they were trying to keep hidden.

  "For God's sake, man, stop this snooping around! You'll get off.

  We'll back you. There's nowhere nearly enough evidence to convict you.

  Let it go at that," implored Jack.

  "I can't do that. I've got to clear my name. Do you think I'm willin' to go back to my friends with a Scotch verdict hangin' over me? 'He did it, but we haven't evidence enough to prove it.' Come clean, Jack! Are you and James in this thing? Is that why you want me to drop my investigations?"

  "No, of course we're not! But—damn it, do you think we want the name of my brother's wife dragged through the mud?"

  "Why should it be dragged through the mud—if you're all innocent?"

  "Because gossips cackle—and people never forget. If there was some evidence against her and against James—no matter how little—twenty years from now people would still whisper that they had killed his uncle for the fortune, though it couldn't be proved. You know that."

  "Just as they're goin' to whisper about Rose McLean if I don't clear things up. No, Jack. You've got the wrong idea. What we want to do is for us all to jump in an' find the man who did it. Then all gossip against us stops."

  "That's easy to say. How're you going to find the guilty man?" asked

  Jack sulkily.

  "If you'd tell what you know we'd find him fast enough. How can I get to the bottom of the thing when you an' James won't give me the facts?"

  Jack looked across at him doggedly. "I've told all I'm going to tell."

  The long, lithe body of the man from the Wyoming hills leaned forward ever so slightly. "Don't you think it! Don't you think it for a minute! You'll come clean whether you want to or not—or I'll put that rope you mentioned round your brother's throat."

  Jack looked at this man with the nerves of chilled steel and shivered. What could he do against a single-track mind with such driving force back of it? Had Kirby got anything of importance on James? Or was he bluffing?

  "Talk 's cheap," he sneered uneasily.

  "You'll find how cheap it is. James had been speculatin'. He was down an' out. Another week, an' he'd have been a bankrupt. Uncle discovers how he's been tricked by him an' Miss Harriman. He serves notice that he's cuttin' James out of his will an' he sends for a lawyer to draw up a new one. James an' his wife go to the old man's rooms to beg off. There's a quarrel, maybe. Anyhow, this point sticks up like a sore thumb: if uncle hadn't died that night your brother would 'a' been a beggar. Now he's a millionaire. And James was in his room the very hour in which he was killed."

  "You can't prove that!" Jack cried, his voice low and hoarse. "How do you know he was there? What evidence have you?"

  Kirby smiled, easily and confidently. "The evidence will be produced at the right time." He rose and turned to go.

  Jack also got up, white to the lips. "Hold on! Don't—don't do anything in a hurry! I'll—talk with you to-morrow—here—in the forenoon. Or say in a day or two. I'll let you know then."

  His cousin nodded grimly.

  The hard look passed from his eyes as he reached the corridor. "Had to throw a scare into him to make him come through," he murmured in apology to himself.

  CHAPTER XXX

  KIRBY MAKES A CALL

  Kirby had been bluffing when he said he had evidence to prove that James was in his uncle's rooms the very hour of the murder. But he was now convinced that
he had told the truth. James had been there, and his brother Jack knew it. The confession had been written in his shocked face when Kirby flung out the charge.

  But James might have been there and still be innocent, just as was the case with him and Rose. The cattleman wanted to find the murderer, but he wanted almost as much to find that James had nothing to do with the crime. He eliminated Jack, except perhaps as an accessory after the fact. Jack had a telltale face, but he might be cognizant of guilt without being deeply a party to it. He could be insolent, but faults of manner are not a crime. Besides, all Jack's interests lay in the other direction. If his uncle had lived a day longer, he would have been sole heir to the estate.

  As he wandered through the streets Kirby's mind was busy with the problem. Automatically his legs carried him to the Paradox Apartments. He found himself there before he even knew he had been heading in that direction. Mrs. Hull came out and passed him. She was without a hat, and probably was going to the corner grocery on Fifteenth.

  "I've been neglecting friend Hull," he murmured to himself. "I reckon

  I'll just drop in an' ask him how his health is."

  He was not sorry that Mrs. Hull was out. She was easily, he judged, the dominant member of the firm. If he could catch the fat man alone he might gather something of importance.

  Hull opened the door of the apartment to his knock. He stood glaring at the young man, his prominent eyes projecting, the red capillaries in his beefy face filling.

  "Whadjawant?" he demanded.

  "A few words with you, Mr. Hull." Kirby pushed past him into the room, much as an impudent agent does.

  "Well, I don't aim to have no truck with you at all," blustered the fat man. "You've just naturally wore out yore welcome with me before ever you set down. I'll ask you to go right now."

  "Here's your hat. What's your hurry?" murmured Kirby, by way of quotation. "Sure I'll go. But don't get on the prod, Hull. I came to make some remarks an' to ask a question. I'll not hurt you any. Haven't got smallpox or anything."

  "I don't want you here. If the police knew you was here, they'd be liable to think we was talkin' about—about what happened upstairs."

  "Then they would be right. That's exactly what we're gonna talk about."

  "No, sir! I ain't got a word to say—not a word!" The big man showed signs of panic.

  "Then I'll say it." The dancing light died out of Kirby's eyes. They became hard and steady as agates. "Who killed Cunningham, Hull?"

  The fishy eyes of the man dodged. A startled oath escaped him. "How do I know?"

  "Didn't you kill him?"

  "Goddlemighty, no!" Hull dragged out the red bandanna and gave his apoplectic face first aid. He mopped perspiration from the overlapping roll of fat above his collar. "I dunno a thing about it. Honest, I don't. You got no right to talk to me thataway."

  "You're a tub of iniquity, Hull. Also, you're a right poor liar. You know a lot about it. You were in my uncle's rooms just before I saw you on the night of his death. You were seen there."

  "W-w-who says so?" quavered the wretched man.

  "You'll know who at the proper time. I'll tell you one thing. It won't look good for you that you held out all you know till it was a showdown."

  "I ain't holdin' out, I tell you. What business you got to come here devilin' me, I'd like for to know?"

  "I'm not devilin' you. I'm tellin' you to come through with what you know, or you'll sure get in trouble. There's a witness against you. When he tells what he saw—"

  "Shibo?" The word burst from the man's lips in spite of him.

  Kirby did not bat a surprised eye. He went on quietly. "I'll not say who. Except this. Shibo is not the only one who can tell enough to put you on trial for your life. If you didn't kill my uncle you'd better take my tip, Hull. Tell what you know. It'll be better for you."

  Mrs. Hull stood in the doorway, thin and sinister. The eyes in her yellow face took in the cattleman and passed to her husband. "What's he doing here?" she asked, biting off her words sharply.

  "I was askin' Mr. Hull if he knew who killed my uncle," explained Kirby.

  Her eyes narrowed. "Maybe you know," she retorted.

  "Not yet. I'm tryin' to find out. Can you give me any help, Mrs.

  Hull?"

  Their eyes crossed and fought it out.

  "What do you want to know?" she demanded.

  "I'd like to know what happened in my uncle's rooms when Mr. Hull was up there—say about half-past nine, mebbe a little before or a little after."

  "He claims to have a witness," Hull managed to get out from a dry throat.

  "A witness of what?" snapped the woman.

  "That—that I—was in Cunningham's rooms."

  For an instant the woman quailed. A spasm of fear flashed over her face and was gone.

  "He'll claim anything to get outa the hole he's in," she said dryly. Then, swiftly, her anger pounced on the Wyoming man. "You get outa my house. We don't have to stand yore impudence—an' what's more, we won't. Do you hear? Get out, or I'll send for the police. I ain't scared any of you."

  The amateur detective got out. He had had the worst of the bout. But he had discovered one or two things. If he could get Olson to talk, and could separate the fat, flabby man from his flinty wife, it would not be hard to frighten a confession from Hull of all he knew. Moreover, in his fear Hull had let slip one admission. Shibo, the little janitor, had some evidence against him. Hull knew it. Why was Shibo holding it back? The fat man had practically said that Shibo had seen him come out of Cunningham's rooms, or at least that he was a witness he had been in the apartment. Yet he had withheld the fact when he had been questioned by the police. Had Hull bribed him to keep quiet?

  The cattleman found Shibo watering the lawn of the parking in front of the Paradox. According to his custom, he plunged abruptly into what he wanted to say. He had discovered that if a man is not given time to frame a defense, he is likely to give away something he had intended to conceal.

  "Shibo, why did you hide from the police that Mr. Hull was in my uncle's rooms the night he was killed?"

  The janitor shot one slant, startled glance at Kirby before the mask of impassivity wiped out expression from his eyes.

  "You know heap lot about everything. You busy busy all like honey-bee.

  Me, I just janitor—mind own business."

  "I wonder, now." Kirby's level gaze took the man in carefully. Was he as simple as he wanted to appear?

  "No talk when not have anything to tell." Shibo moved the sprinkler to another part of the lawn.

  Kirby followed him. He had a capacity for patience.

  "Did Mr. Hull ask you not to tell about him?"

  Shibo said nothing, but he said it with indignant eloquence.

  "Did he give you money not to tell? I don't want to go to the police with this if I can help it, Shibo. Better come through to me."

  "You go police an' say I know who make Mr. Cunningham dead?"

  "If I have to."

  The janitor had no more remarks to make. He lapsed into an angry, stubborn silence. For nearly half an hour Kirby stayed by his side. The cattleman asked questions. He suggested that, of course, the police would soon find out the facts after he went to them. He even went beyond his brief and implied that shortly Shibo would be occupying a barred cell.

  But the man from the Orient contributed no more to the talk.

  CHAPTER XXXI

  THE MASK OF THE RED BANDANNA

  It had come by special delivery, an ill-written little note scrawled on cheap ruled paper torn from a tablet.

  If you want to know who killed Cuningham i can tell you. Meet me at the Denmark Bilding, room 419, at eleven tonight. Come alone.

  One who knows.

  Kirby studied the invitation carefully. Was it genuine? Or was it a plant? He was no handwriting expert, but he had a feeling that it was a disguised script. There is an inimitable looseness of design in the chirography of an illiterate person. He did not find h
ere the awkwardness of the inexpert; rather the elaborate imitation of an amateur ignoramus. Yet he was not sure. He could give no definite reason for this fancy.

  And in the end he tossed it overboard. He would keep the appointment and see what came of it. Moreover, he would keep it alone—except for a friend hanging under the left arm at his side. Kirby had brought no revolver with him to Denver. Occasionally he carried one on the range to frighten coyotes and to kill rattlers. But he knew where he could borrow one, and he proceeded to do so.

  Not that there was any danger in meeting the unknown correspondent. Kirby did not admit that for a moment. There are people so constituted that they revel in the mysterious. They wrap their most common actions in hints of reserve and weighty silence. Perhaps this man was one of them. There was no danger whatever. Nobody had any reason to wish him serious ill. Yet Kirby took a .45 with him when he set out for the Denmark Building. He did it because that strange sixth sense of his had warned him to do so.

  During the day he had examined the setting for the night's adventure.

  He had been to the Denmark Building and scanned it inside and out. He

  had gone up to the fourth floor and looked at the exterior of Room 419.

  The office door had printed on it this design:

  THE GOLD HILL MILLING & MINING COMPANY

  But when Kirby tried the door he found it locked.

  The Denmark Building is a little out of the heart of the Denver business district. It was built far uptown at a time when real estate was booming. Adjoining it is the Rockford Building. The two dominate a neighborhood of squat two-story stores and rooming-houses. In dull seasons the offices in the two big landmarks are not always filled with tenants.

  The elevators in the Denmark had ceased running hours since. Kirby took the narrow stairs which wound round the elevator shaft. He trod the iron treads very slowly, very softly. He had no wish to advertise his presence. If there was to be any explosive surprise, he did not want to be at the receiving end of it.