The Lustful Ape by Bruno Fischer

Author:Bruno Fischer [Fischer, Bruno]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440544248
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 1950-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

CAPTAIN JIM BATH said morosely: “This is the age of science. It beats me how old-time coppers ever solved anything without spectrographs and other gadgets. Time was when you wanted to destroy paper that had something written or printed on it you burned it. But not these days.”

“The photo?” Dirk asked.

“A reconstruction job to be proud of.” Bath pushed a rectangle of mounted cardboard across his desk. “Not that we’d want to show it around.”

As a photo it was blurred and smudged and had patches of emptiness, but when you considered that a few hours ago it had been ashes it was a testimony to science. Edith Hadley’s face was clearly recognizable, and much of her plump body could be seen.

She wasn’t wearing any more than Helen Shaw had worn in those other photos, and neither was she alone.

Dirk straightened. Setting fire to a cigarette, he had to make an effort to keep his hands from shaking.

“You can’t make out anything about the boy,” Bath said, “but it’s plain he’s not Warren Hadley. Seems bigger every which way. Anyway, if this picture means what I think it means, it wouldn’t be her husband with her, which is the whole point.”

Dirk looked more closely. Most of the smudges and darkly discolored areas were in the part of the photo occupied by the man. The face and shoulders were completely obliterated, and so were the legs, but only one man could have a torso so thick and deep and solid.

Ape Jones and his women, Dirk thought, and there was a nasty taste in his mouth.

There was almost no difference between this photo and the six hidden in the secret compartment of his desk. The background was identical — the limned oak furniture, the double casement windows, the radio cabinet. And Ape Jones was smiled at as warmly by a naked woman, except that this one was a great deal older and less beautiful.

“A respectable woman of fifty or thereabouts,” Bath said. “Imagine that! I guess they’re never too old. But Mrs. Hadley was rich, which made her blackmail bait. Maybe after a while she ran out of dough and couldn’t ask her husband, or maybe as soon as she saw this she felt so dirty that she couldn’t stand even herself. Anyway, Dirk, you’ve earned your retainer. Here’s the reason she jumped from the window.”

Dirk didn’t say anything.

“Last night I told you a suicide is a suicide.” Bath sighed with deepening melancholy. “This morning I know better. You can state it like a riddle. When is the motive for suicide police business? When a woman is driven to it by blackmail.”

“Did you learn how and when Hadley got his hands on the photo?”

“That one was easy. Late yesterday afternoon he was in his office when a special delivery letter came for him. His secretary told me about it a short while ago. It was a manila envelope, big enough to hold a photo this size, and it was marked strictly personal. No return address; anyway, we can’t locate the envelope.

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