Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 170, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1920 — The House of Whispers [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The House of Whispers

By William Johnston

IDtw4ra.4<oAa Irwin Myerr

CHAPTER Vll—Continued.

I sprang after her, but she moved so quickly that she was out of the window and safely home before I could stop her. Only waiting to see her off the ledge I turned back and hastily pulling the panel Into place I dashed for the front of the house. The streams and the shots I was sure had come from the apartment directly below mine. I was certain that there had been murder done there, and my mind was made up to investigate it at once. If I moved quickly there might be an opportunity to catch the murderer red-handed. I let myself out and dashed down the one flight of stairs. As I arrived there, the ascending elevator stopped, and Mr. Wick burst out, followed by an excited elevator runner. Wick was carrying a revolver In his hand. “Did you hear anything?” he asked excitedly. “I heard a woman screaming in this apartment and then a shot." “I beard It, too. In which apartment was itr “Right here,” I said, pointing to the door. “Miss Lutan’s," he said. “Let's go in. Here’s my pass-key. You open the door. I’ll be right behind you with any revolver."

CHAPTER VIII. Inserting the key Mr. Wick handed ■e, I turned It sharply and flung the door wide. It revealed a luxuriously furnished apartment, the front rooms of which were extravagantly ablaze ■with light. For a moment the three of us, Mr. Wick, the elevator boy and myself, stood there with our ears alert for aay sound from the apartment While I do not admit to being a coward, the unknown has its terrors for all of us, and I must confess, that the knowledge that Mr. Wick had his revolver drawn was Indeed comforting. All was ■lienee In the place. “John,” said Wick to the elevator boy, "yon stand here right by the door

and keep your 4ye on the elevator. If anybody trie* to sneak past you, yon hotjer for us." “’Deed I will, Mr. Wick," said the bey, with nattering teeth. “Til holler, ah right.” ahead, Mr. Nelson," said the superlntendent, *Tm right behind you with the revolver.” Without waiting to explore the front mans, I tuned at once and ran down the long hall to the sitting room. If.

as I suspected, murder had been done here, I was confident that the scene of the tragedy would he the room directly under mine. The screams I had heard —and the shot —had seemed to come from under my very feet Although the lights in the front of the hall were burning, the sitting room was in darkness. As I reached the door, my fingers sought the button, and as the flare of light Illuminated the room I looked hastily about me. There was no one there, but my one quick glance showed me that the door of the wall safe, located similarly to the one in the apartment above, was standing wide open, Quirkly I sprang to Inspect the room corresponding to mine, a room. It will be recalled, opening off the sitting room. Here, too, was darkness, and as I turned on the lights, I stood aghast with horror. On the floor, close up to the inner wall, lay the contorted body of a beautiful young woman. Her eyes were wide open and staring. One arm was twisted under her, and the other hand was clutching at the front of her bodice, where a blotch of ghastly red Indicated the path of the shot that I had heard. “Its Miss Lutan,” said Mr. Wick’s voice behind me. “She’s been murdered,” I cried; “get the police at once.” As I bent over her to see if there was any evidence of life, I saw imprinted in her tender white throat the marks of her assailant’s brutal fingers. “Come,” I said, “help me lift her on to this couch, and then telephone at once for a doctor.” Mr, Wick had been all the while standing there, staring at the body as if stupefied by the tragedy, but he obeyed my directions, and with him at her feet and I at her head we laid her down on the couch, where I proceeded to loosen her gown and to try by artificial respiration to restore her blood to circulation. “Get the doctor at once,” I commanded again, “and ’phone for the police." “John,” called out Mr. Wick, “go to the ’phone and tell Miss Kelly to send for Doctor Hunt to come at once." “Tell her to get the police, too,” I insisted. “And let the burglar escape while we’redolnglt,"objectedMr.Wlck. “Come on, let’s look through the apartment. He may be hiding somewhere still.” Together, while the boy was ’phoning, we went from room to room, peering into closets and under beds. There was no one there and no traces of the murderer’s presence. Even the servants' quarters were untenanted. Only one thing happened that struck me as peculiar. As I started up the hall to search the bedrooms, I looked back and caught Mr. Wick furtively closing the wall safe. His action In surreptitiously closing this without saying anything to me made me suddenly suspicious of him. I recalled that Detective Gorman had put Mr. Wick into his circle of suspects along with the burglar’s wife. Could it be possible that the superintendent of the building himself was in connivance with the band of criminals who had been harassing the Bradfords and me? I determined to watch his every move. “There’s no one here,” I said, as we completed our round of the' various rooms. “The murderer has made his escape. Hasn’t that boy ’phoned for the police yet?” >. Mr. Wick seemed so averse to carrying out my suggestion about the police that I think he must have sensed the suspicion in my voice. “I think I had better ask Mr. Kent about it first.” he said nervously. “Who’s Mr. Kent?” I demanded. My thoughts were so taken up with the unexpected tragedy that the name at first meant nothing to me. Suddenly I remembered. It was to the apartment of Mr. Henry Kent that Miss Kelly had ’phoned last night when she was dining with me. I recalled. too, that Gorman had charged me to find out all I could about him. “Who’s Mr. Kent?” I repeated sharply. “What’s he got to do with it?" “He’s the owner of the building." explained Mr. Wick. “He doesn’t like the Granddeck to be mentioned in the papers. He says any notoriety is bad for its exclusiveness. I don’t believe he’d the police called in. In fact, sir. I’m sure he wouldn’t.” “Whether he wants it or not,” I said firmly, “it’s got to be done. You can’t keep murders odl.of the paper. Either you call the police right away or else I wilt” My threat forced him to telephone against his will. I could quite understand his employer's aversion to having a crime in the Granddeck made public. But there was no help for it. There had been a dastardly crime committed, and the police must be Informed. Yet it was not to the police rMt Mr. Wick was telephoning. It evidently was to Mr. Kent’s apartment in the building. “Miss Lutan’s been shot by a burglar in her apartment," I heard him ear.

“Mr. Nelson and me just discovered her body. What’s that, sir?" Just what Mr. Kent’s reply on hearing the shocking news had been I had, of course, no means of knowing, but whatever it was, pver the superintend-, ent's face came an expression-of incredulity and amazement. “What do you think,” said Mr. Wick, turning to me; “he says for me to call up Headquarters at once.” “Of course,” I said, “it is the only thing to do.” Nevertheless, as Mr. Wick waited for the number, he kept shaking his head and muttering under his breath something that sounded like: “To think of his telling me to call Inthe police!” With the doctor summoned and the police sent for, there seemed to be little else for us to do but wait, so Wick and I sat down together in the rea fsTfllngTroom with the elevator boy still on guard at the door. “Who was Miss Lutan?” I asked. “Why, Daisy Lutan, the actress," Mid Mn™ W surprise. 1 posed every one knew her.” “I’ve heard about her," I hastened to say, “but I had no idea that she lived in the Granddeck. Did she live here alone?” “She keeps a maid, an old woman that has been with her for years," “Where’s the maid tonight?” “Out to the movies, I s’pose. That’s where she goes every night when Miss Lutan isn’t playing. When she is, she goes to the theater with her." "Then Miss Lutan is not playing now?” “Not for the last month.” “Had there been any one here with her tonight?' “I’ll ask the elevator boy.” “John says she came in alone about fifteen minutes ago,” said Mr. Wick when he came back? “She went out

about seven. Her own Chauffeur was driving her then, but when she came back she was in a hired’taxi. That’s something I can’t understand.” “How do you suppose the murderer escaped?” I was trying every avenue of questioning to see if I could not surprise Wick into some damaging admission. I was beginning to suspect that he knew far more about Miss Lutan’s murderer than he was telling. I felt somehow that his whole search for the man who had killed Miss Lutan had been entirely perfunctory, a bluff to deceive me. In my growing dislike for the man. I felt that It would not be beyond the range of probability for Wick to have been standing guard at the door while a confederate rifled the apartment. “I’m no detective," he answered noncommittally. "All I know is that he has gone. He certainly ain’t here in the apartment." It was on the tip of my tongue to suggest that we look in the secret passageway. I felt that the shock it would be to Wick to learn that I knew about this might lead him to open his lips. I felt certain that it was by way of a similar passageway to the one I had discovered in my room that the murderer had escaped. But before I could make up my mind to speak the doctor arrived. He made a hasty Inspection and then said tersely: “There’s nothing here for me to do. This woman has been dead for some time.” “How long?" I asked. “It Is impossible for me to judge—maybe twenty minutes, perhaps an hour. I should say that death was practically Instantaneous. She was killed by a bullet penetrating the heart. Who shbt her?” He looked sharply from me to Mr. Wick, as If suspecting that it might have been one of us. “A burglar got her just a few minutes ago." Mr. Wick explained, “Mr. Nelson and me heard a scream and a shot. We let ourselves in here with my pass key and found her here. It must have been a burglar that she surprised when she entered the apartment.” “It looks like it,” assented the physician. are marks on her throat where he tried to strangle her screams. Have you notified the police?" “Yes,” said Mr. Wick. “ ~ “There’s nothing more that I can do, then,” said the doctor, making his preparations to depart. “Would you not wait until the police comer’ suggested the superintendent “They’ll be here any minute and probably they'll want a statement from yon.” • > “Very well,” said ths doctor, *TU wait" — - -

As we waited the three of us chatted about the crime and about the dead actress. From the conversation I learned that at the height of her meteoric career on Broadway Daisy Lutan had become the wife of the young son of a very rich family. His parents insisted that she had trapped him into matrimony and after long legal wrangling she had been divorced about a year ago. She had received a large sum In settlement and this with her earnings as an actress enabled her to live In luxury. “Hadn’t she a sweetheart now?" I asked. “Better make It plural,” sneered the doctor. ' “Women of her type always have a lot of men friends.” “No men ever came to see her here. Tm positive of that” said Mr. Wick. “Of course not” said the roctor sarcastically. “The reputation of the Granddeck apartments must be protected at alljcosts.” As we talked two detectives In plain clothes arrived. They viewed the body and proceeded to question the doctor. "How was this woman killed?” “By a revolver shot right through the heart.” “Who is she?” “Daisy Lutaji. the actress.” - “Who did it?”

“It must have been a burglar," Interjected Mr. Wick. “My theory is that she came in unexpectedly and found him at work.” “Who found her?” — “These gentlemen,” said the doctor, Including both Mr. Wick and me with a wave of his hand. The detectives turned to Mr. Wick first. “Tell us about it,” one of them directed. “My name is James Wick,” he began as If he was reciting a familiar lesson. “I am the superintendent of ths Granddeck apartments. I was In the elevator about half an hour ago when I heard a woman screaming and then the sound of the shot Ptook out my revolver and got off at this floor to investigate. At the door I found Mr. Nelson. He, too, had heard the screams and the shot and thought they came from this apartment. I took out my pass key and we went in.” “Were there any signs of the burglar?” asked the other man. “No, we looked all through the apartment and found no one.” “Was anything missing?” I waited with bated breath to hear if Wick would tell of having found the wall safe open. If he did not I felt it would be conclusive evidence that there was something he was trying to conceal. “I didn’t notice anything missing," he said glibly. “I wouldn’t know, anyhow. I don’t know what stuff she bld here." "Who would know?” “Her maid might. She’s out now. Generally she’s home by eleven o’clock.” “Did she keep only the one servant?” “Only the maid and a chauffeur.” "Then she was all alone In the apartment?” “Yes. She’d gone out all dressed np about seven in her own car. She came home unexpectedly in a hired taxi not more than half an hour ago.” “Did she come home alone?” “Sure she was alone. At least the hall boys told me so. I did not see her come in, myself.” More and more I was convinced that Wick was lying. I was sure he knew far more about affairs than he was admitting. Why did he keep harping on the fact that Miss Lutan had come in “unexpectedly?” What means had he of knowing what time she was expecwed home? Furthermore he said he was in the elevator when he heard the screams and the shot. I did not believe it would have been possible for the sounds to have carried that far. The walls were all deadened, and the room where the tragedy had taken place was at the back of the house many feet distant from the elevators. I wondered If the burglar had not been in the place with Mr. Wick’s connivance, while he stood guard outside. As he heard me coming he might have taken refuge in the elevator. And why did he have his revolver so conveniently ready? The detective who had been questioning Wick turned to me. “Who are you?” “Spalding Nelson.” “What do you do? Where do you work?” ‘Tm a clerk.” “A clerk living at the Granddeck apartments,” he sneered. “You must have a good job.” “I haven’t any at present.” I replied. “I’m living here in Mr. Gaston’s apartment, taking care of It while he and his wife are away." I could see that my statement that I was only a clerk and was not at present employed had not made a favorable impression on the detective. “Will you explain what you were doing at the door of this apartment when the superintendent arrived?” he demanded with a growing suspicion in his tones. “That’s easy to explain." I retorted. “I was in my apartment directly over this one. I heard her scream and then the shot. It seemed to come from the floor right below me, so I ran down to investigate.” “Is that right?" he asked, turning to Mr. Wick.

TOnet about Nelson is drawn closer.

(TO BB CONTINUED.)

"She Has Been Murdered," I Cried “Get the Police at Once.”

“Women of Her Type Always Have a Lot of Men Friends.”