"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 250 - Death About Town" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

The janitor remarked that he would be leaving in another hour and that the building would be closed, with
a night watchman on duty. Cardona decided that would make it all the better. He said he'd stay around
and talk to the watchman when he arrived.

Cardona came to that decision while riding down in the elevator. Outside the building, he stood by while
Weston and Delmot discussed their next step.

They decided to go to the Avenue Club and investigate the phone call that had brought Orvill to the side
door of the Hotel Bayberry. In light of what had happened, Laverock could very easily have faked that
call. The test would be to check on all of Orvill's acquaintances, and find out if any one was responsible,
thus reaching Laverock by a course of elimination.

Cranston was smiling during the discussion. Not only were Weston and Delmot taking on a wearisome
task; they were seeking negative evidence, only. If someone had merely played a practical joke, hoaxing
Orvill to the Hotel Bayberry on an imaginary date, the person in question probably would not admit it.
No one would care to be classed as an accomplice in murder, whether rightly or wrongly.

So Cranston merely shook his head when Weston inquired if he intended to go along to the Avenue
Club. At that moment, Delmot was steering Weston up the street toward a taxicab, and the
commissioner, looking back at Cranston, stumbled across a grating close to the wall of the Galba
Building.

Even as Weston stumbled, Cranston's keen eyes caught a glimmer from below the grating. But, seeing
Cardona spring forward to save the commissioner from a spill, Cranston let the inspector do the rest.
Cardona saw the gleam, too, for he was looking straight down at it when he grabbed Weston's arm.

"Look, commissioner!"

Cardona jabbed a finger downward. Five feet below the grating lay the glittering object, a revolver!

BY the time Weston was through looking, Cardona was tugging at the grating. It was set too tightly in the
cement to be hauled loose by such tactics. Cardona called the janitor, who produced a length of thin iron
pipe, which just managed to fit between two bars of the grating.

With some bricks serving as a fulcrum, Cardona and the janitor managed to pry the grating loose.

Dropping down into the pit, Cardona came up with the gun on the end of a pencil inserted in its muzzle.
Joe was using the right technique to avoid smudging any fingerprints. He held his prize into the light, noted
its make, and read the serial number stamped on the gun.

There wasn't any mistake about it. The weapon was Laverock's revolver, and two of its chambers
contained empty cartridges.

"So he took two shots at Orvill," announced Cardona, "and then chucked the gun right out the other
window, down the grating, so we wouldn't find it on him if we caught him. Laverock brought Orvill here,
all right, with that fake phone message, and thinking about the grating was more than just quick
headwork. Laverock had it all doped out beforehand!"

Cardona's summary impressed Weston and Delmot, but it made their trip to the Avenue Club all the