"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 252 - Judge Lawless" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

got away with ten thousand of it."
Judge Lawless raised a hand to his chin. Dave noted gnarled, bunchy
fingers as they pressed the heavy jaw.
Judge Lawless wanted to hear more details. Dave didn't tell him the real
facts. They were too simple. Moyland had given Dave fifty thousand dollars to
put in the office safe. Deciding that ten thousand would be sufficient to keep
in the office, Dave had banked the rest to Moyland's account. Delker had
robbed
the safe, expecting to find fifty thousand, but had only gotten ten thousand.
Actually, Dave's foresight had saved forty thousand dollars for Homer
Moyland. But old Moyland, far from being grateful, accused Dave of stealing
the
ten thousand! Dave's banking of a much larger sum was mere subterfuge,
according
to Moyland - an effort on Dave's part to cover up a theft!
Now Lawless and his crowd didn't know that Dave had banked the bulk of
the
money. They only knew that their man, Delker, had made a haul that was forty
thousand short. Dave was bluffing that he had stolen the forty thousand,
because he wanted to join the crooked crowd and get an inside trail to Delker.
So Dave proceeded thus:


"I STOLE forty thousand," Dave lied coolly. "I left the ten grand in the
safe just to keep Moyland guessing. When Delker robbed the safe, he ruined my
alibi. Naturally, old Moyland is on my neck."
How heavily?" queried Lawless.
"Well, he fired me, for a beginning," replied Dave. "But he hasn't much
evidence against me yet, except the circumstantial facts. I thought if I tied
up with a right crowd like yours, I'd be where I belong. I'm certainly smarter
than Delker. Menz thinks so."
"What about the money you took?" demanded Lawless suddenly.
"I intend to keep it," returned Dave bluntly. "That job is my
recommendation. I'm ready to work for you on a future basis, not a past one."
All during his harangue Dave had warped the truth far out of shape,
though
keeping within the bounds of plausibility. His spirit evidently pleased Judge
Lawless, for the crime specialist leaned back with a harsh, though not
unpleasant, chuckle. Bluntly, Lawless queried:
"You expect trouble from Homer Moyland?"
"I'd like to learn if he intends to make any," returned Dave. "That's why
I'd like to drop out of sight for a while, under proper auspices, the sort
that
you can probably provide. We can wait to learn what Moyland does, and act
accordingly."
Of course, Dave didn't really need a hide-out, but he felt he'd better
ask
for one. Otherwise, Judge Lawless might begin to wonder how Dave was keeping
clear of Moyland, after robbing the latter with no alibi. In brief, the first
part of Dave's bluff - his talk of robbery - made it necessary for him to