customers could have done it. “I won’t say one of them didn’t do it, Eddie my
boy-anybody could have done it who knew the exact second to slip upstairs, grab the
knife, and slide it into her ribs. But the chances are against any of them knowing
just when and how to do it.”
“Anybody inside or outside,” I corrected.
“So?”
“There’s a fire exit at the foot of the stairs.”
“You think I haven’t noticed that?” He turned away and gave Hannegan
instructions to let anybody go who could give satisfactory identification with a
local address. The others would have to go downtown to
have closer ties as material witnesses put on them 1 the night court. Perhaps some
would land in the ta] for further investigation, but in any case-clear ‘e out!
The photographers were busy upstairs and so we the fingerprint boys. The
Assistant Medical Examin showed up, followed by reporters. A few minutes lat after
the house was cleared, Hazel came downstai and joined me. Neither of us said
anything, but I p~ ted her on the back. When they carried down the b2 ket stretcher
a little later, with a blanket-wrapp shape in it, I put my arm around her while she
bun her eyes in my shoulders.
Spade talked to us one at a time. Jack was not ta] ing. “It ain’t smart to
talk without a lawyer,” was Spade could get out of him. I thought to myself that
would be better to talk to Spade now than to sweated and maybe massaged a little
under the ugh My testimony would clear him even though it wou show that there was a
spat between him and Estel Spade would not frame a man. He was an honest cc as cops
go. I’ve known honest cops. Two, I think.
Spade took my story, then he took Hazel’s, a] called me back. “Eddie my
boy,” he said, “help me d into this thing. As I understand it, this girl Ha; should
have had the twelve o’clock show.”
“That’s right.”
He studied one of the Joy Club’s programs. “Ha; says she went upstairs to
undress for the show abc eleven-fifty-five.”
“Exactly that time.”
“Yeah. She was with you, wasn’t she? She says s went up and that Estelle
followed her in with a sor and-dance that the boss said to swap the two shoi around.
“I wouldn’t know about that.”
“Naturally not. She says she beefed a little but ga in and came on
downstairs, where she joined you. C( rect?”
“Correct.”
“Mmmm .. . By the way, your remark about the fire door might lead to
something. Hazel put me onto a boy friend for Estelle. Trumpeter in that rat race
across the street. He could have ducked across and stabbed her. Wouldn’t take long.
Trumpet players can’t be pushing wind all the time; they’d lose their lip.”
“How would he know when to do it? It was supposed to be Hazel’s show.”
“Mmmm.. . Well, maybe he did know. Swapping shows sounds like Estelle had
made a date, and that sounds like a man. In which case he’d know about it. One of
the boys is looking into it. Now about the way these shows worked-do you suppose you
could show me how they were staged? Hannegan tried it but all he got was a shock.”
“I’ll try it,” I said, getting up. “It’s nothing very fancy. Did you ask
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Jack about Hazel’s statement that Estelle had permission from him to swap the
shows?”
“That’s the one thing he cracked on. He states flatly that he didn’t know
that the shows were swapped. He says he expected to see Hazel in the Mirror.”
The controls looked complicated but weren’t. I showed Jones the rheostat and
told him it enabled Jack to turn either set of lights down slowly while the other
set went up. I found a bypass switch back of the rheostat which accounted for the
present condition- all lights burning brightly, house and stage. There was a
blackout switch and there was a switch that cut the hand microphone and the
turntable in through the juke box. Near the latter was the buzzer-a small black case