"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 226 - The Blur" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

"So they wiped out Tex and his lookout," conceded Cardona. Then, bluntly, he queried: "All right -
why?"

"It might be" - Cranston's tone was speculative - "that they were the only two men who could have given
us the names of all the customers who were present this evening."

The Shadow had struck the exact reason for the double murder. From that moment on, it was the theme
of the entire inquiry. Cardona began a quiz of all the patrons, as well as the attendants who worked for
Tex.

It became more and more apparent that only two persons could have supplied the needed information.
They were the only ones who kept tabs on the customers by name: Tex Winthorp and the trusted
lookout, both stone dead.

In Tex's office, the ransacked desk drawers were further proof that the Blur and his followers had
foreseen the need of concealing their identities to cover up the robbery. They'd needed more than
blinking lights and a double kill. They had taken along Tex's private list of customers who were in good
standing at the Century Casino.

ONE hour later, Commissioner Weston was still glowering as he paced back and forth in the fashion of a
permanent resident of the Bronx Zoo. But his cage was no longer the fancy gambling parlor of the
Century Casino.

The commissioner was back in the grill room of the Cobalt Club, where only two persons were on hand
to witness his unrestrained fumings. Those two were Joe Cardona and Lamont Cranston.

"Those fools that were at Tex's place!" stormed Weston. "Hardly any of them knew one another - and
some didn't even seem to know themselves! The Blur, as Cardona calls him, cleared out with more than
two hundred thousand dollars and we haven't a single link to his identity!

"We can't even guess the names of any of the men who helped him, nor what they looked like. There
must have been three or four, at least, and just one name - or one face - might lead us to the Blur. But
how are we going to get that lead?"

Cardona thrust a sheet of paper toward the pacing commissioner. Angrily, Weston brushed it aside.
"Names - names - names!" snorted Weston. "All of people whom we quizzed at the casino. But what
good are they? We know that none of them were involved in the crime. They've told us all they know:
nothing!"

Calm in his guise of Cranston, The Shadow was watching Cardona. An idea was coming - one that The
Shadow already had in mind, but was sure would strike Cardona, so preferred to let the inspector take
credit for it.

"These are part of Tex's list," argued Cardona. "We know the kind of people who went to his place.
People who used to spread themselves around Monte Carlo and all the high class gambling spots when
they were abroad. If we started with the list we've got and began to build up from it -"

Weston interrupted by snatching the list from Cardona's hand. Ardently, the commissioner exclaimed: