The Shadow 282 Death in the Crystal by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1944-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

“It’s easy, Fitz,” assured Cadbury. “Let me show you how he fits. That’s a good one: Fitz and fits.”

“I’ll be having them,” snapped Fitz. “Fits, I mean, unless you boil down this Xanadu business.”

“Very well,” declared Cadbury, dropping his broad smile. “We picked Xanadu for the fall-guy, because he’s a fake and crook combined. That made him a natural. All we had to do was throw a scare into him and he had to disappear. That gave us a good start.”

Fitz nodded for Cadbury to continue.

“We knew two things,” continued Cadbury. “First, where Xanadu would go, because Teach Morgan helped us to arrange it, by tipping off Xanadu that the heat was on. Again, we knew that Xanadu would continue to operate with special customers in order to make money and Teach helped that angle too.”

Again, Fitz nodded.

“Teach did a swell job,” complimented Fitz. “He dug up Dingo Bandorf, the guy with the old limousine and sold Xanadu the idea of using him -“

“I know all that,” interrupted Cadbury. “Now let’s consider what happened last night. Xanadu did exactly what we hoped he would. He sent for Sheila Waltham.”

“Of course,” nodded Fitz. “He wanted to convince her that he didn’t steal her jewels. It was a bad coincidence, for Xanadu, that robbery happening right after he lammed.”

“It’s only the first coincidence,” reminded Cadbury. “There will be several, because we intend to rob other people who are on Xanadu’s sucker list. By then the police will see the connection and blame Mahatma Xanadu.”

“Not if he keeps cracking crimes for them.”

“You think not?”

There was something in the lift of Cadbury’s eyebrows, the suave note of his deep voice that made Fitz stop and ponder. Along with Fitz’s gradual enlightenment, Cadbury boomed a chuckle.

“I get it!” exclaimed Fitz. “They’ll think that Xanadu is getting rid of people who know too much. That is, they’ll think it after they link Xanadu with the robberies.”

“Exactly so,” agreed Cadbury. “A faker of Xanadu’s caliber would be just smart enough to cover up a robbery by exposing it afterward and collecting a reward for that service. What did Francine know?

Nothing, except that someone phoned her saying it would be profitable if she learned the combination of that wall safe.

“Griff was the type of man who wouldn’t talk, even if Teach hadn’t accidentally shot him instead of The Shadow. It would be wise to replace Griff with another worker of equal merit, Fitz. You know the type: strong, silent - and dumb.”

Fitz grinned at that one, for he was becoming much relieved. Then, reverting to his troubled mood, he questioned:

“But we still don’t know how Xanadu learned all he did about the robbery.”

“Don’t we?” queried Cadbury. “What is Xanadu’s business, Fitz?”

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