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

window. The light showed the tumbled covers of a chipped white iron bed in the far corner of
the room. A man. fully clothed. was lying on the bed's rumpled covers. He lay on his back, his
mouth wide open. The side of his face toward Moran was streaked with dark streamers of blood.
There was no movement at all about the man.

Stiffly, Moran crossed the room and stood beside the bed. In the dim light coming in through
the window, he could see that the side of the prone man's head had been crushed in. The man was
dead. Moran knew that without an examination.

The words Wilma Trent had spoken in her apartment flashed through his mind: "Death has two
hands!" The saying, he thought fleetingly, was wrong. Death has many hands. Those hands had
already touched three men tonight. They might touch others before the night was gone.

Behind him, Wilma Trent made a gagging sound. Moran turned.

"Good heavens, officer!" Rayburn had stopped in the doorway, between Wilma Trent and the
room. "He...he's dead!'

Wilma Trent screamed once, chokingly, Then she started calling her brother's name over and
over. There was hysteria in her voice.

Moran left the bed and went across the room toward Rayburn, in the doorway. White lines
were pulled tautly about the detective's mouth.

"It's a cinch now," he said grimly, "that Frank Trent is innocent!"

"Look." Rayburn made a gesture with both plump hands as Moran reached him. "I've known all
along that Frank Trent didn't do it. The governor is at his country place. It's only forty miles
from here. My car's right outside. We could take Miss Trent there and show him the letter Ricker
wrote. He couldn't help but issue a stay of execution after this." Rayburn's round head ducked
toward the bed in the room beyond. "It would give us enough time for a thorough investigation.
It's almost ten o'clock, now so if anything's going to be done before Frank Trent goes to--
It happens at midnight, you know."

"All right. We'll try it. I've got a lot of explaining to do already, but it's worth it."

Moran pushed past Rayburn into the hall, caught Wilma Trent's arm and led her toward the
stairway. The girl walked blindly. She was whispering her brother's name over and over as
Moran helped her down the stairway and across the sidewalk to Rayburn's car at the curb.

"You drive, officer." Rayburn opened the right front door, motioned with a plump hand.
"The governor's place is out on Highway 76, You probably know where it is. I'd feel a lot better
if you'd--"

"Right." Moran slid across the front seat and under the wheel. He was frowning.

Rayburn helped Wilma Trent onto the front seat beside the detective and closed the door. The
securities dealer got into the back of the sedan.

Moran pulled the sedan out from the curb, driving fast. Wilma Trent huddled on the front