Black Mask September 1945 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Pulp
Publisher: Black Mask
Published: 1945-09-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2 - Holograph Hunter

ENDICOTT took it tough. He’d had it all wrapped up as accidental homicide, and now the thing was turning into a cold-blooded kill. He contradicted: “Half an hour is impossible! It’s hardly been that long since Eva Taine saw this guy playing ghost. It’s not more than ten or twelve minutes since Kuhn fired the fatal shot. So how can you stand there and say he was dead before any of those things happened?”

The medico protested: “I don’t say it. The blood on the beard says it.”

Endicott scowled. “Another thing. It’s not more than five minutes since Professor Janathan found this man out in the corridor. Good heavens, why would he lie about a thing like this?”

O’Hanna nodded. “Why would he? You’re taking the words right out of my mouth.”

The house dick swiveled to the staring Kuhn. “Who the hell is this guy Janathan, anyway?”

“Search me. I never heard of him before.” Lucas Kuhn stretched a fleshy hand. “I guess it’s O.K. if I take my gun back now.”

O’Hanna said: “That’s your guess. Mine’s different.”

The pink-faced man didn’t like it. He put up an argument. He said: “Look, if Oscar Mullet has been dead half an hour, that shot of mine didn’t kill him, and my gun can’t possibly be legal evidence.”

O’Hanna said: “That’s one way of looking at it. Another way is, if you didn’t shoot him—how do we know you didn’t shoot somebody else. There’s a chance of another corpse turning up with a slug in it, and I’m keeping the gun.”

Keeping the weapon in his pocket, the house dick headed down the corridor to 218. Professor Alexander Janathan had switched from tux and cummerbund to a corduroy, velvet-collared smoking jacket. Affably, he waved a corncob pipe as he greeted O’Hanna. “Excuse the Missouri meerschaum, but frankly I’m just a farm boy at heart! You can have your coffin-nails and Corona Coronas, for my part Ill take my nicotine barnyard style. I find it’s cooler on the tongue that way—”

O’Hanna interrupted. “Were you really born on a farm, Prof?”

“As a matter of fact—no. I’m actually a scion of Chicago. I was raised in the shadow of the old Historical Museum on North Dearborn. I suppose that’s how I got interested in my specialty. From the time I was knee-high to a glass showcase, I used to hang around the exhibits in there. I practically cut my teeth on the old-fashioned dragoon pistols, the whaling harpoons, the ship’s models and so on.”

O’Hanna queried: “Your specialty? What’s that?”

“I’m a dealer in holographs.”

“Holy-whats?”

Alexander Janathan chuckled. “It means handwritten documents, especially those from the pens of important historical and literary personages. For instance, if you had a letter written by Mark Twain in your pocket, I’d cheerfully pay you a hundred dollars for it—and no questions asked. From there the rates go on up, and you could practically write your own ticket for the original copy of the Gettysburg Address as inscribed by Abraham Lincoln. I don’t mean

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.