The Shadow - 327 - The Shadow Strikes by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 1964-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

46

“I fear the commissioner cannot help you here, Mr. Cranston,” the voice said. “I rather doubt that much can help you here but absolute honesty and a willingness to be helpful to me, yes?”

Cranston again smiled inside. It was amazing how hard it was for a human being to disguise himself from a trained observer. Here was the man hidden totally behind a glaring light so that even his height and general size could not be seen. His voice disguised with some elaborate electronic instrument. Speaking in only English and German, neither of which were his native tongue. But to Cranston’s trained ear the man could not hide his Eastern European origin even behind almost perfect English and better German. And the man could not disguise the pattern of his speech behind the most devious of subterfuges. The hidden voice knew Cranston, knew Weston, and contained an unmistakable speech pattern that belonged to only one person Cranston knew to be involved in the case-Count Istvan Papescu!

“So,” the metallic voice said, “shall we then get to business, yes?”

Cranston said nothing this time. He had no intention of revealing that he knew the identity of his captor. The voice, Count Papescu, took Cranston’s silence for assent.

“Good, then perhaps you will tell us why you are so concerned with Anton Pavlic, Mr.

Cranston?”

“Commissioner Weston asked me to represent him down here,” Cranston said.

“Merely as a friend?” the voice of Papescu mocked.

“I often do, you know,” Cranston said, aware that Papescu would have investigated that much and found that Cranston did indeed often represent Weston just as a friend. And he then added, truthfully since Papescu would know this too, “But in this case I happened to know one of the men who committed suicide in New York, and who knew Pavlic.”

“Ah yes,” Papescu said through his microphone, “poor old Kodaly, eh? You knew him in Europe it seems?”

“I did, many years ago,” Cranston said, and realized his error before Papescu even spoke again.

“No, Mr. Cranston, you did not know Kodaly in Europe,” the soft, metallic yoice hissed. “You

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