Death Turrets by Maxwell Grant & Walter Gibson

Author:Maxwell Grant & Walter Gibson [Grant, Maxwell & Gibson, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Espionage, Fiction, Thrillers
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1937-11-18T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII. THE THRUST FORESEEN.

"WHATEVER you've learned, or whatever you've guessed, keep it to yourself. Remember, you'll be talking with a murderer."

Sheriff Cravlen spoke those words to Clyde Burke as their car halted outside the front door of Five Towers. There was a grimness in the sheriff's tone that tuned with the ominous bulk of those gray, turret-topped walls.

The automobile and its passengers seemed dwarfed within the hush that fronted the great mansion. Their arrival was tinged with the same gloom that had marked Roderick Talroy's one visit to Five Towers.

Clyde understood. With darkness, last night's menace had returned. The sheriff knew it, and deemed the warning necessary. The facts that Clyde had learned to-day, sparse though they were, might be enough to put him under threat.

"I'll introduce you as a reporter," said the sheriff, as they rang the doorbell. "That's all they need to know. You'll get a look at both George Brendaw and Robert Lenley. Act like you didn't suspect either of them."

Some one was opening the big door. The sheriff had just time to add:

"I'll want your opinion afterward, Burke."

It was Titus who admitted them. They went into the living room and there met George Brendaw and Lenley, along with Lucille and her aunt.

The sheriff had hardly finished with his introduction of Clyde, when Kent Allard appeared from the stairway. The tall guest was just in time to hear George snap angrily to the sheriff:

"You say that Mr. Burke is a reporter? Why didn't you notify me before you brought him here?"

"I didn't consider it necessary," returned Cravlen. "Let me remind you again, Brendaw, that I am in full charge of this investigation!"

"Sure you are," agreed George. "That's why you're trying to bag all the cheap publicity you can get! I had an idea that you'd have the reporters flocking here as soon as you could manage it!"

Cravlen showed no anger. Coolly, he explained that Clyde had come there on his own; that there would be no others. The sheriff declared that he, himself, was anxious to avoid an influx of reporters and cameramen. He called upon Clyde to support the statement.

Clyde did. He recounted his own meeting with the sheriff and the annoyance which Cravlen had first shown. That mollified George. His face looked sulky, but he mumbled that he guessed it was all right for Burke to be here.

All the while, Lenley had listened to the argument with a smug air. The inventor seemed to relish the fact that George was under fire. Clyde noted Lenley and observed the contrast between him and George. The two, despite their friendship, were distinctly opposites in type.

George was blunt; Lenley, crafty. Clyde doubted that the bearded inventor would ever be foolish enough to lose his temper the way that George had. In that guess, Clyde was wrong. Lenley's turn was almost due.

It was Sheriff Cravlen who started the fireworks.

"I'M laying the cards on the table," announced Cravlen, to George and Lenley. "One of you fellows has a lot to answer for.

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