"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 153 - Murder For Sale" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

facts concerning Rulland. Prepare report at nine o'clock tonight."
The bluish light vanished, along with the spot of glow upon the wall. A
laugh filled the sanctum, bringing strange shudders that faded into
nothingness. That mirth boded ill for men of evil.

SOON afterward, Harry Vincent received a long-distance call from Burbank.
Burbank was the contact man between The Shadow and his agent. Finishing his
conversation, Harry promptly left his suite at the Hotel Penn-Delphia and
began a tour, in accordance with Burbank's relayed orders.
Harry wasn't familiar with Philadelphia, but the checkerboard pattern of
the streets made it easy to reach the required destination. Moreover, he found
it quite a simple matter to talk to the persons whom he met.
Rulland's death was the talk of the city, particularly among the dead
man's friends. Rulland hadn't been entirely a playboy; he had actually managed
some of the business of his grandfather's mills.
Hence, Harry found several business men who had known Rulland quite well.
They accepted Harry's statement that he had known the dead man, and took time
out to voice their knowledge of Rulland's affairs.
By mid-afternoon, Harry was convinced of one important fact: Louis
Rulland had been the favored grandson among a dozen possible heirs to his
grandfather's wealth. With Rulland dead, the estate would be equally divided
among the rest. As nearly as Harry could calculate it, each recipient would
gain approximately a quarter of a million dollars.
Such a sum would be sufficient for a treacherous relative to have brought
about Rulland's death. But after that discovery, Harry struck an obstacle.
According to his various informants, Harry learned that all of Rulland's
cousins were either "fine people" or "no good", depending upon the personal
view of the men who described them. Furthermore, it developed that all of them
either lived away from Philadelphia, or were out of town. To find the actual
betrayer would be like picking a bad egg from a basket of newly laid ones.
Hoping for a more helpful opinion, Harry made his last call of the
afternoon. He entered an office building in South Penn Square, rode to the
tenth floor, and reached the office of George Thelden, an insurance broker.
Thelden was a long-faced, dark-haired man of deliberate tone and
expression, as somber as the old-fashioned private office that he occupied.
His business was one that had been started by his uncle, and Thelden had many
of the social contacts that counted heavily in Philadelphia.
Rulland had been one of Thelden's regular clients. The insurance man
stated that in a drawling tone, then came to a fact that interested Harry.
"I saw Lou only an hour before he died," declared Thelden. "He was just
leaving the Lotus Club, on Camac Street. He was going to a parking lot, to get
his car and drive out to Bala.
"I'm afraid"--Thelden shook his head--"that Lou had taken too many
drinks. He must have, or he wouldn't have gone east over the Girard Avenue
Bridge. He should have driven out through the park, toward Belmont Avenue."
Harry questioned Thelden casually regarding Rulland's relatives. Thelden
was apparently unacquainted with any of them. That ended the interview.
Thelden saw Harry to the door of the outer office, and shook hands.

THERE wasn't a change of expression on Thelden's drab face as he turned