"deathhastwohands" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blackmon Robert C)

ities. I stole the securities to cover market losses, then framed Frank Trent. Knowing Wilma
Trent would do what she could today to save her brother from the chair tonight, I had the two
hired killers watch her apartment. I was with them. When the boy delivered Charlie Ricker's
letter to Miss Trent, the two killers and I made him tell where it came from. Leaving the two
killers to dispose of Wilma Trent, I went to Charlie Ricker's room in the Eagle Hotel and
murdered him to keep him from telling what he knew. Ricker had overheard the two killers and
me talking in a beer parlor about our plans tonight. Those plans were to prevent Wilma Trent
from doing anything to save Frank Trent from being executed at midnight for a crime he did not
commit.

"I arranged the lunch with the two customers on the day the robbery occurred as an alibi
for myself. One of the two killers I hired to help me in the plan impersonated me and tele-
phoned Frank Trent, saying I wanted him to meet me near the Central Railroad Terminal. I
appeared to assist Frank Trent during the trial, when, in reality, I was doing all I could to
see that he was executed for the crime I had committed.

"The stolen securities are hidden in--"

Moran stopped writing, heeled around to Rayburn. who was lying on the ground nearby.

"Where are they?" he asked harshly.

"In a safe-deposit box in the Gate City Bank," Rayburn whimpered. "But a doctor--an
ambulance! I can't die! I--"

Quickly, Moran wrote the location of the hidden securities.

"I had just returned from murdering Charlie Ricker when Detective Bill Moran and Wilma Trent
came from the alley behind the Fairview. The two killers had obtained a key to Miss Trent's
apartment and had tried to murder her. But both were shot by Detective Moran. I got Wilma Trent
and Moran in my car and took them to the Eagle Hotel, knowing they would find Ricker dead. I
then persuaded them to go with me toward the governor's residence, intending to murder them on
the highway and dispose of their bodies and Ricker's letter.

"I make this confession of my own free will, without coercion, realizing that I must suffer
the consequences of my actions."

Moran finished writing the confession and went over to Rayburn. In the reflected glow from
the ditched sedan's headlights, the securities dealer's eyes were fever-bright. He was shaking
with pain and terror.

"Sign this right here," Moran snapped, holding the paper and pencil where Rayburn could
reach them. "I'll sign it as a witness. After that, we'll see about getting a doctor and an
ambulance."

Plump hands jerking, Rayburn scrawled his signature at the bottom of the paper. Moran
signed and tucked the paper into his coat pocket.

A little, choked cry from Wilma Trent, who was standing nearby, pulled him around. He saw
two headlights some distance down the highway. As they came closer, he saw the red spotlight