"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 243 - Room of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

the pictures. They stayed right with him, from then on."
Knowing the ways of journalists, particularly those who snooped into high
society, The Shadow was quite convinced that Cardona would receive copies of
the
actual photos, free from any fakery. Gazing absently about the room, The
Shadow
used his calm Cranston tone when he inquired:
 "Where are your exhibits, inspector?"
"Exhibits?" echoed Cardona. Then, with a laugh: "We don't need any in
this
ease. Aldriff committed suicide because he was in too deep in that Pharco
deal.
He sold a million dollars' worth of stock, through Kelburn, and probably
pocketed the coin."
"Are you quite sure of that, inspector?" Cranston inquired. "Can you
prove
that Kelburn turned over the funds to Aldriff?"
"Why, no," Cardona conceded. "There was nothing in the box to show it.
Say,
this Kelburn is a fox!"
"He might even claim that Aldriff's death was murder, inspector."
"Hardly, Mr. Cranston. He'd make himself the goat."
Cranston did not agree. He suggested, artfully, that if the police proved
Kelburn to be the masked man, they would be laying themselves wide open for
Kelburn to insist that Aldriff had been murdered. For the masked man was one
person who could not have been in the room of doom when Aldriff died.


IMPRESSED by such logic, Cardona began to gather exhibits. He already had
the suicide gun as Exhibit A, while its permit, found in the leather folder,
was
labeled B. Cardona marked the revolver rack C.
In investigating murder cases, Joe always gathered odd parcels of
evidence;
this time, he was working in reverse, to conclusively establish death as
suicide.
Cardona knew the sharp ways of lawyers and the simple minds of juries. In
a
courtroom, Joe would have to describe the whole case in detail from the
photographs, and he wanted something to show for each step. He picked up two
chessmen from the floor to serve as Exhibit D. They would figure in describing
the finding of Aldriff's body.
There was nothing to represent properly the search of the room, but the
masked man's entry and the confusion that it caused afforded exhibits in
plenty.
Cardona took the broken bulb from the desk lamp. He added the smashed
ship
model from the mantel. He looked longingly at the moose head, passed it up as
too bulky, and began to fish among the books on the floor, looking for those
that were most damaged.