"Shadow - Back Pages - 370515 - The Kid Faces Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Roswell)

boy rushed to the telephone and picked it up. He kept his eye on Sims.
"Homicide headquartersЧat once I . . . I want to talk to Mike Ryan!"
Ten minutes later the two detectives were in the room. They released Shirly
Parker and put Doctor Stanley Sims, now returning to consciousness, in
handcuffs. The girl was explaining.
"When I saw what happened, I realized what the trick was," she said. "Paul
had spoken of the possibility of his murder because of the treatise he was writing
about the medical profession as he had seen it. You know, he served as an inteme
at the clinic and later as a surgeon.
"They said he had a brilliant future. But he found a corrupt system, that Sims
and other doctors and men of prominence accepted bribes to cut down on
patients' charity supplies. Paul Hudson was always an honest man who always
told the truth, no matter what the cost.
"Maybe these systems had been operating in certain types of hospitals for
years and years, he thought; still, it was no reason he should tolerate it. But when
he came forward with his stories he found that he had no actual proof. He was
laughed at, disbelieved, and authorities made it so hard for him after that that he
was forced to withdraw his name from the medical rolls.
"So he bought that little store near the hospital .and devoted his life to
gathering real evidence against certain members of the staff; mostly Doctor
Sims, the head of the clinic. He put down everything in the book he was writing:
'Treatise: of an American Medical Man.' He told Sims and others of the book in
an offhand way as an excuse for being around the hospital so much.
"I helped him all I could. But only Sims dreamed of what Paul Hudson was
writing. He knew that if the book were published it would ruin himЧput him
behind bars. Break the rotten system, expose the graftЧ"
"And so," Ryan cut in, "he killed Hudson and left the lipstick so it would look
like you had done it."
She nodded. "He thought he stole the manuscript, too. But Paul had had a
dummy manuscript for just such an emergency. He kept the real one hidden and
told only me where it was; that if. anything ever happened to him, I must see that
it was saved at all costs.
"When I saw the lipstick and that the dummy manuscript was missing, my
only thought was to take the real manuscript to safety, and then go to Doctor
Sims and try to get some evidence of murder on him. I thought if the police had
caught me I would be locked up, wouldn't have a chance. You seeЧ"
"That's all right," Ryan said. "We have the rat now. Thanks to the kid, here,
and yourself. How'd you know she hadn't done it, Danny?"
Danny Garrett shifted his shine kit. "I took some of the lipstick to a drug store
and asked them to look at it," he replied. "Sims must not have been very
particular what shade he got. The kind that he had left rubbed into the floor was
for platinum blondes!"
Ryan and Slug O'Donnel gazed thoughtfully. at Shirly Parker's black hair, then
grinned.
But Doctor Stanley Sims, his eyes smoldering, came to life now. "So I left
blond lipstick? What of it? Is that proof of anything? You can't hang a murder on
me just because Hudson was writing a treatise in which I was mentioned! You
talk like absurd fools!"
Danny Garrett was looking at Sims's shoes. He nodded to Slug, and the
bean-pole detective lifted one of the doctor's feet up. Danny nodded, and Ryan