Fredric Brown - Homicide Sanitarium by Collection

Author:Collection
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-09-16T13:18:16+00:00

* * * *

"You're crazy," Kit said.

"No, angel," I explained patiently. "That is the whole point. Much as I deplore two murders --three if you count the original Dr. Stanley--that is what makes this case utterly and screamingly a howl. I am not crazy.

"And neither was anybody else in that nut house, except the man who ran it! I should have known it when we investigated a few patients at random, and not one of them seemed to have had enough money to pay his way, but every one of them was the type of person who would be looking for a job and reading want ads. Want ads like the one I answered, but worded different-ly"

"You mean there wasn't a single nut in that place?"

"Not a one," I told her. "It seems likely Verne would have had at least one genuine application during the month or so he had been operating there, but if he did have, I have a hunch he'd have turned it down. One or two legitimate ones would have spoiled the record, see? Lord, what a kick he must have got out of running that place, knowing that eighteen or nineteen people there were spying on each other at his orders and each of 'em acting crazy to fool all the others! And the whole shebang run by--"

I couldn't go on with it.

Besides, we'd have to stop laughing long enough to figure out where we were going to spend--with the aid of twenty-five thou-sand dollars--the rest of our honeymoon.

THE MOON FOR A NICKEL

It was almost midnight. The lake front sweltered in the after-math of a blazing mid-summer day.

The little man with the straggly gray hair stood dejectedly beside his big black skyward-aimed telescope, upon which hung a hand-lettered sign, "The Moon for a Nickel."

It was too hot. Business was poor.

Over the rippling waters of Lake Michigan the moon hung like a golden ball--but no one seemed interested in it. On the other side, beyond the park, the tall buildings rose: black gaunt shapes against a black background. Here and there shone the white rectangle of a lighted window.

A hand touched his shoulder, and the little man jumped. He had not heard any one approach.

A man with a black slouch hat pulled down over his forehead stood beside him. The telescope man recognized him as a man he had noticed hanging around almost an hour the previous night, watching the telescope, the buildings, and the people.

He was holding out a dollar bill. "Take a walk around a tree, dad," he said. "I want to look at the Big Dipper."

The little man stuck the dollar into his pocket. A buck was a buck--particularly right now. He didn't see many of them. He meandered off and sat down on a bench, just near enough to see that the fellow didn't try to walk off with the 'scope.

Not that he could do much about it-- the guy looked smooth but tough.

Thinking about it, the little man became quite uneasy. It wasn't usual to be handed a dollar and told to take a walk.

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