"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 318 - The Television Murders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

seconds go by. The door, which is on a direct line with Mannix, opens a
trifle.
A hand with a gun in it comes into view. The hand holding the gun has a black
glove on it. A man's sleeve shows. Besides the glove there is a handkerchief
wrapped around the gun butt. The door is six feet from Mannix. Mannix stirs
and
looks into the fire. The gun comes up slowly and points at his head. The gun
fires. Mannix jerks erect and then falls slowly into the fireplace. Fade out
to
Bob Dorry's face.
Bob: "That was the situation we walked into when we came back from our
'airing.' Mannix was dead, face forward in the fireplace. Near him was the gun
with a handkerchief which had a lipstick smudge on it. I had gathered, as you
have, that Mannix was sore at his wife playing around with Vic Todd who was on
the make for Letty. Letty's boy friend, Homer Elwood, was in a stew about the
deal. Homer knew that Mannix had enough money to set Letty up in the style to
which she wanted to become accustomed. Mrs. Mannix and Vic Todd... well, it
was
her lipstick I had spotted on Vic's handkerchief.
You know all the facts! Who killed Mr. Eliot Mannix?"
(Organ sting. Segue up. Fade out from Bob's face to the group of
suspects,
show their faces in a line. Mrs. Mannix, Vic Todd, Homer Elwood, Letty
Branner.
Hold organ under.)
Bob: "Mrs. Mannix? Vic Todd? Homer Elwood? Letty Branner? Who did you
decide was the killer? I don't know how you went about it, but the way I
figured was this: The handkerchief with Mrs. Mannix lipstick on it let Vic
Todd
out. He knew I had spotted the lip smudge. He would hardly have left a clue
like
that to himself.
Mrs. Mannix? She wanted to get rid of her husband, all right, but she
also
wanted Vic Todd. She would not have put his neck in jeopardy. That left only
Letty and Homer. Letty wanted Mannix alive... not dead! That meant that Homer,
while we were getting into our overcoats, swiped Vic's handkerchief. The gun
he
had in his pocket already. He waited until we were all out on the terrace
moving
around so that his absence for a second would not be noticed. He wrapped the
gun
in the handkerchief and shot Mr. Mannix. I found out after I had accused him
that he had worked himself up into a deadly rage getting drunk. The lipstick
of
course, he didn't even know about. He swiped the handkerchief to throw
suspicion
on Todd. He couldn't know that the handkerchief would be the thing to absolve
Todd and Mrs. Mannix.
Anncr: Well, how did you make out, folks? Did you beat Bob Dorry to the