Free Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts by Victor Appleton II

us nothing about her present location," said Tom grimly. "And it seems they’re considering killing the crew!"
    "We don’t have much time to find her," Ames agreed. "I hate to say this, Tom, but I know you’ve thought of it already. Once Li and his gang have stripped the ship of whatever they’re after, it’s very likely that they’ll sink her—along with everyone on board!"
     
CHAPTER 10
ROCKET MARAUDER
    ONE hour brought further surprises. After receiving a call from Captain Rock that the stake-out police had apprehended Antoine Fell, Tom and Harlan rushed to police headquarters in Shopton to see the suspected agent brought in and booked. But as the vociferously protesting man was led past Jack Hobell’s cell to gauge his reaction, the confessed murderer barely glanced up and showed no interest.
    "Not going to greet your crony, Hobell?" asked Rock sarcastically. "We brought Fell by just to see you!"
    "Aaa, what’re you trying to pull now?" grumbled Hobell. "That ain’t Fell."
    Rock chuckled derisively. "Still trying to con us? We’ve got the guy’s prints, driver’s license, even his signature. And the desk clerk confirmed who he is."
    "I’m telling you," cried Antoine Fell, "I’ve never seen this man in my life! I don’t know a thing about any murder contract!"
    "He’s right," said Hobell. "Ya caught a false fish, Rock."
    Tom drew Captain Rock aside. "Captain, what if he’s telling the truth—both of them?"
    "Tom, we know this man is Fell."
    "Yes. But how do we know Hobell’s contact, who called himself Antoine Fell, wasn’t just using his name?"
    "And his hotel room?"
    Tom acknowledged the difficulty. "But consider this possibility. The impersonator might have picked Fell as his identity because the real man had very regular hours—a job that always kept him away in the evenings, for example. He could have had a key made and used Fell’s room to meet Hobell in."
    "I suppose that could be, Tom," admitted the police officer. "The Trellis Arms isn’t exactly a modern hotel with electronic door cards. It’d be fairly easy to pull the gimmick."
    Having taken Fell to an interview room, Tom, Ames, and Rock asked Jack Hobell if he’d care to provide further information. He proved willing. "Why not? Hate to see an innocent man go to jail. Look, I met Fell, or whoever he was, about eight times since the first of the year. He always set it up, and it was always in the evening, seven-thirty or so. He’d get a report from me and tell me what I was s’posed to do, and I’d make some notes. He never gave me a thing—I even had to go buy my own revolver! It was done kind of casual-like, you know? Relaxed. We’d hang around for an hour drinkin’ beer and talking it all over, then he’d look at his watch and shoo me out."
    "Describe the man," urged Ames.
    "Oh, kinda short, dirty blond hair, pug nose. He’d never make it in commercial modelin’, I can tell you! Didn’t look a thing like that other guy."
    It was soon verified that Antoine Fell was a newly hired reporter for a newspaper published in nearby Waterfield. "I kept telling you, I work the night desk almost every night," the man exclaimed. "Call my editor! I don’t think I’ve missed a shift in months." He added that he had been living at the hotel pending the completion of a house he was having built in the countryside.
    Ultimately Captain Rock ordered the man released. "We don’t have anything on him," he stated in disgust. "I don’t want to think about the headline in the Waterfield Herald tomorrow morning."
    "Lousy luck," said Ames. "But there was good reason to think he was the man we wanted. I understand there were no other fingerprints in the hotel room, just his and Hobell’s."
    "Yeah, that’s right. The other guy must’ve been careful—and taken his empties out with him."
    His empties… Tom repeated in his mind. "Captain, if he spent his time drinking with Hobell… well, you can think of a spot where a man might leave overlooked