"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 117 - Vengeance Is Mine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

The Shadow made no comment. He saw how the commissioner had deceived
himself. Any man of average height would have to stoop to get into the coupe
The man that the janitor had spotted was probably the middleweight. He had
duplicated the master keys and had planted the bomb in Zanwood's humidor.


SINCE The Shadow made no comment, Weston proceeded with his details. The
janitor figured in the story. He had seen the same coupe cruise past the
apartment house, a short while later. Then came the testimony of a patrolman
who had seen the same car parked a few blocks away. The coupe had been empty
at
the time; the patrolman remembered it because it was just barely the required
distance from a fire plug. The officer had thought it necessary to measure the
car's position.
That incident, according to Weston, proved that the occupant of the coupe
had started for the Cobalt Club, choosing to take a taxicab for the finish of
the journey, rather than risk the trip in his own car. After handing the bomb
to Zanwood, he had come back to his coupe. Since everything was quiet near the
Everglades Apartments, he had for some reason decided to enter Zanwood's
apartment.
There, the crook had opened gunfire. He had made a hurried flight, riding
away in his coupe. A chance taxicab had pursued him, spurred to the chase by
the sound of police car sirens. The crook had driven his coupe into a blind
alley near a big bridge; there, he had blown up his car and escaped.
The driver of the pursuing cab had missed the turn, probably through bad
handling of the wheel. That had been fortunate, though, for the cab had
blocked
an incoming police car. Neither machine had driven into the blind street;
hence
both were safe when the blast came.
The Shadow repressed a smile when Weston referred to the bad management
of
the taxicab. He realized that his departure had made the men from the patrol
car
fail to appreciate their rescue.
"So you see, Cranston," summed Weston, "we have traced the movements of
the man whom we seek. We are after a lone hand; a terrorist who carried a
second bomb to blow up some other hapless person like Zanwood."
"You spoke of gunfire at the apartment," reminded The Shadow. "I read
about it in the newspapers. That would indicate more than one person,
commissioner."
"Not more than one criminal," returned Weston. "Such men would not have
been firing at themselves. There was only one man, Cranston; that much is
obvious. The gunfire proves simply that the criminal became excited. He must
have thought that he heard someone outside of Zanwood's apartment. So he
opened
fire and ran away."
The Shadow did not appear fully convinced. Weston chuckled, as he added
further details.
"The patrolman who saw the parked coupe took its license number,"