Death on Location (A Tom Kincaid Crime Mystery) by William R. Cox

Author:William R. Cox [Cox, William R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: corruption, crime action, hard-boiled thrillers, murder, violence
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2022-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

FOR MANY YEARS before settling in Vegas, I had lived as a professional gambler, outside the law. There had

been times when policemen were on my payroll, and there had been times when they closed their eyes to what was going on. Then there had been rousts and bickering and many other unpleasantnesses. There were friends, too, good men on the force, but always there was that bar sinister—I was on the other side.

Now it was different. Gambling is legal in Nevada. The law did not frown upon my business. The police became allies. Dick Boyle had saved my bacon in Vegas more than once. The cops and I were like Damon and Pythias.

Yet Sheriff Swanson was not happy, with me or with anyone connected with the company. His investigation produced no concrete results. The murder of Miriam remained a complete mystery.

And—we went right on shooting the picture.

This offended his sense of propriety. At the inquest he was fair, but he implied that someone on the company had committed the crime. When I again pointed out that a member of our troupe would have thought twice before hurling the knife in the darkness because of the fact that it might have been either Jean or Miriam, he said nothing, but he didn’t like it. He agreed that, in view of the morning attack upon Jean and me, a killer might be presumed to have Jean in his sights. But he would go no further; he was being attacked in the papers, and an election was coming up in a few months, and the whole thing was a mess so far as he was concerned.

All he could do was leave Booty nosing around the location and take what spare time he could to drop by and continue to ask questions. He was a persistent man, and I admired him. We all wanted to know who killed Miriam.

We all were working day and night shifts to protect Jean.

It was a terrible strain on her. The killer was loose, and she was the target. She had a difficult acting job on her hands, more than should be expected of a tyro. If it hadn’t been for Pop Hanley’s understanding and patience, all hell would have been to pay.

Oddly, Fred Starke settled down and worked like a real pro. Not once did he blow up. Miriam’s death seemed to have steadied him. He still looked and acted kooky, I thought, but at least he didn’t impinge his repulsiveness on others.

It became a habit to patrol the ranch buildings at night. We were reaching toward the finish of the outdoor scenes, within schedule. Miriam was becoming a memory, a faint figure of the past. I went along the crescent of bungalows and saw Booty in the faint light of a lambent moon. He was running.

I joined him and he said, “I thought I heard someone at the storage shed.”

We parted and circled, each taking one side of the wooden, square building. When we again met, neither of us had seen anyone.

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