"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 304 - Alibi Trail" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

ALIBI TRAIL
by Maxwell Grant

As originally published in "The Shadow Magazine," June 1946.

A strange Spanish playing card, a baggage check and a bank check are the
only clue guiding The Shadow along a trail of crime and death. Can the Master
of Darkness throw light on the forces of evil and bring them to justice?


CHAPTER I

The big private transport tricycled itself into a landing that was rather
miraculous considering the thickening fog that was turning the ground flares
into smudge pots. What made it all the tougher was the limited size of this
little-used flying field on Long Island.
It looked like an emergency landing, but it wasn't. The whole thing was
planned and Jerry Reeth knew it. That was why he was here, waiting by the
hangar, and trying to look inconspicuous.
The plane had a good pilot, otherwise he wouldn't have made it, so on the
pilot's account, Jerry was pleased at the nice landing. That was quite a
concession on Jerry's part, considering that Brenda Van Dolphe was on the
plane. She was one person toward whom Jerry Reeth extended anything but wishes
for a happy landing, despite the fact he'd never met the girl.
Right now, however, Jerry Reeth intended to meet Brenda Van Dolphe.
Little clusters of men were starting toward the plane, barely visible in
the swirl of the night fog. Jerry hurried in the same direction, hoping he
wouldn't be noticed. Lights indicated the transport's door, and a few people
were stepping out, a muffled girl among them. Unquestionably she was Brenda
Van
Dolphe, the girl whose face was as great a mystery as the sources of her
father's fortune.
Jerry was a dozen yards short of the plane when the flanking men closed
in
on him. Then, for the first time, he realized that they weren't just curious
to
see the mysterious Miss Van Dolphe. They were wearing uniforms, representing
either state police or some local constabulary, and they were here to form a
cordon to crowd out people like Jerry. A pair of them picked Jerry for a
starter and pounced on him.
Instead of waiting for that pair to announce their authority, Jerry
asserted his own. He did it with his fists, placing his punches well. The
darkness swallowed the faces and the fog muffled their oaths, but a moment
later another pair of officers was lurching after Jerry. As they grabbed him,
he twisted almost free and nearly within reach of the girl from the plane.
The Van Dolphe girl had stopped stock-still. Beside her, Jerry saw a
sharp-faced man, probably Cedric Treat, the secretary who answered all her
letters. In the background, a tall imposing man was helping a tubby lady from
the plane and both had turned at the excitement. That didn't interest Jerry;
he