The Shadow 300 by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII

GREGG ZERBER, dead, slain by an imaginary gun with a bullet that didn’t exist!

Such was the impossible trail of thought that ran through Harry Vincent’s mind as he stared at the slumped figure on the floor.

If ever there could be murder by magic, this seemed it.

Of course Harry’s eyes still saw big floating blocks of black as a reflex from the sudden, blinding flash that somebody had tossed his way. He remembered having seen a few such flashes around the Chateau Parkview and he identified them with Val Varno. However, that wasn’t the main issue of the moment.

Harry looked toward the wall where Bonnie stood. The girl’s fist was still clenched, but lowered, while from her other wrist dangled the blue bag. It had come open, that bag, and in it Harry almost expected to see a gun. But when he steadied his eyes, he noted that the bag was empty, except for a change purse, a compact, and a few minor items.

Bonnie’s eyes still held the vacant stare which her own intensity, plus the glitter of Planchini’s brilliant-studded eyelids, had hypnotically induced. This convinced Harry that Bonnie couldn’t have fired the shot that killed Zerber.

Which produced the possibility that Zerber might have been slain by something other than a gunshot!

On that assumption, Harry turned to survey the body closely. Hardly had he stooped above Zerber’s form, before the door clattered and Harry had just time to swing himself above the desk, gun in hand, when he saw a pair of men enter. Spotting Harry, they immediately deployed, producing revolvers of their own.

It was stupid to be taken so off-guard, but Harry wasn’t in a condition to avoid it. His vision was still blurred, to the degree where these invaders looked like floating figures, chopped by blackness. He’d seen both men, Harry had, around the Chateau Parkview, for the pair consisted of Keene Marker and Smiley Grimm. But Harry couldn’t begin to recognize them under present circumstances.

Whether Keene or Smiley recognized Harry was another question; it might be that they thought he was Zerber, whose body was now out of sight behind the desk. Whether the slick crooks knew why they’d been sent here did not matter, for they had a general idea, now that they were on the actual premises.

That idea involved the checks that were strewn on Zerber’s desk. Maybe they looked like canceled checks but there might be some negotiable items among them. Keene and Smiley could see well enough, because the lamp’s glare was on the desk proper; besides, a stray breeze, wafting through an open window behind the desk, was stirring the messed papers, giving them a conspicuous flutter.

Around behind the desk and crouching low, Harry felt the wind against his neck and bristled. Perhaps that was the nearest Harry could come to giving a shiver, after years in The Shadow’s service. Being in a spot like this wasn’t a new experience to Harry Vincent, but those persistent blurs of black before his eyes were disconcerting, at the least.

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