Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1929)

Mystery By The EDINGTONS "Veil, and because she writes a silly letter, you make of her a murderess! That man Clancy is a dumb bell ... a fool! exclaimed Rosenthal angrily. "Ah . . . but . . . there were finger prmts on the set . . . a woman's fingers marked in blood on the canvas door . . . plenty of other finger marks ... and when these are matched up with the ones on the letter, I am afraid . . . but, we will go to the third party, a man who wore rubber soled shoes, bull-dog grip. Does your night watchman wear such shoes.-"' ROSENTHAL held out his fat hands protestingly. "Mr Smith, how should I know vat my night vatchman vears? I do not look at the feet of my people. It is their faces I should look at!" ,. ,. r -j .t ■„„ "Forget the question. I was only thinking of identifying the man . . ." Smith looked up and smiled. "But, such shoes were certainly on that set!" He described the trai left by them, adding. "If the wearer of those shoes is the murderer we know that he was on the set for several minutes after he killert Itluitriiled by C. A. BRYSON "Billee! Why have you the handcuffs on?" Yvonne burst into the room, her grey, dusky-lashed eyes wide with terror, her sweet red mouth quivering. "Billee! Talk to me! 1 have heard when I come on the lot that Dwight is murdered! Tell me! You . . . didn't." She stopped and her great eyes, now tear filled, questioned him. "He said he did, Miss Beaumont," said Chief of Detectives Smith, quietly Hardell, or, he left, and returned a few minutes later. If this is the man I think, and if the evidence of the gateman shows him to have been here in the studio at that time, he will have to have a darn good alibi. . . . Now, as to the fourth person. We will call her the 'unknown woman.' I say fourth, but this person may turn out to be the same as the writer of the note . . . Miss Beaumont. OUR unknown woman was also on the set at the time of the murder. She either committed it, or witnessed it. How do I know? I shall have to keep some of these tale-telling clues to myself, but you shall know them all in time. She was frightened . . . forced to hide, at one time. Later she must have gone to the body of Hardell, and, in an attempt to find if he were dead or not, leaned down and touched him. She got blood on her hand, which evidently terrified her, for she fled the set. I know that she was terrified, and that she fled, because she left her finger marks, in blood, on the canvas door. A person in a normal state of mind would not have done that. If the finger prints on the door, and the ones on the letter paper are identical . . . you see what we have? Beaumont. Also, other things carry out the theory. She was angry at him. Perhaps afraid of him. .\nyway, 'furious because he persisted in his attentions. \ furious woman sometimes acts . . . and thinks afterwards. That the murder was unpremeditated, if committed by this woman, is probable . . . most likelv. She killed him. and then, became horrified, and hvsterical ... in short, rushed away. "Now, as I said, we have four suspects: Seibert, who was undoubtedly the last man to be with Hardell the night he was murdcreci; the wearer of the rubber-soled shoes, who has left his bloodstained evidence for all to see; Miss Beaumont, who wrote Hardell that 'tonight she would end all between them." (Rather a significant remark, don't you agree?) And then, this third party ... a woman, from the small finger prints, who . . . dipped her hand in Hardell's life blood!" Abraham Rosenthal sat in stunned silence. Accustomed to visualizing a scene presented to him . . . trained by his profession to put life and movement into mere names of persons . . . he was now looking at this dim set, through which dark and 37