Free Random Killer by Hugh Pentecost Page A

of attack. They wouldn’t have suspected a waiter, or a maid, or a maintenance man who managed to get behind them, ostensibly doing some routine job.”
    He went on with his calling until Hardy walked in.
    The detective listened to Nora’s story, frowning. “It provides some sort of remote motive,” he said when she’d finished. “But what, if any, is the connection with Hammond?”
    “Let’s see,” Chambrun said. The light was blinking on his phone and he picked it up. “Send him in,” he said to Ruysdale.
    Bobby Bryan, Hammond’s secretary, joined us. Chambrun introduced him to Nora.
    “We both seem to be out of a job, Miss Coyle,” Bobby said. Then, to Chambrun, “What’s up?”
    “You ever hear of the Sharon Dain case?” Chambrun asked.
    “Sure,” Bobby said promptly. “Gal who strangled her boyfriend at some ski resort in Colorado.” He stopped, his eye widening. “With picture wire!”
    “Interesting, no?” Chambrun said. “Tell me, Bryan, were you and Hammond out in High Crest, Colorado, when that happened?”
    “Good God, no,” Bobby said. “I’ve never been to Colorado. Neither had Hammond in the ten years I was with him.”
    “And Hammond had no connection with the Dain case?”
    “No. That is, he refused to have a connection.”
    “How do you mean?”
    Bobby shrugged. “The Dain girl had stirred up a lot of support for herself among the guests out there. They got Max Steiner, one of the most famous and expensive defense lawyers in the country, to handle the Dain girl’s case. He called Hammond, long distance to New York, with a crazy proposal. He wanted Hammond to interview Sharon Dain on TV. His case was to be self-defense while the girl was driven to legal insanity by her boyfriend’s sadistic treatment. Max Steiner wanted to make his case to the whole world and not just to a jury.”
    Chambrun was almost smiling. “And Hammond refused?”
    “Sure. In spite of a whopping fee Steiner offered. Hammond felt he was being used, and nobody ever used Geoffrey Hammond.”
    Chambrun leaned back in his chair, and his smile had reached Cheshire-cat proportions. “So there’s the base they both touched without either of them knowing it,” he said. “They both refused to help Sharon Dain.” The smile evaporated. “The next question is, who else refused? Someone who may be staying here in the Beaumont?”

Part Two

CHAPTER ONE
    L IEUTENANT HARDY WAS ON the phone to High Crest, Colorado, almost before Chambrun had finished speaking. Nothing so obvious as an escaped Sharon Dain, out to massacre all the people who refused to help her in her time of trouble, developed. Colorado police assured Hardy that Sharon Dain was safely tucked away in a state prison for women. She hadn’t escaped. She wasn’t even due for a parole hearing for another ten years. She had, it seemed, through her lawyer, Max Steiner, moved to appeal her conviction on technical grounds involving her trial, and had been turned down by the state’s highest court. That final decision had been handed down just about a month ago.
    “You might think the woman’s lover was out on some kind of revenge kick,” Hardy said, “except that she killed her lover—with picture wire!”
    “She killed that lover with picture wire,” Chambrun said. He looked around at the rest of us. “Who knows anything about this Dain girl except for the murder case?”
    No one spoke.
    “You, Miss Coyle,” Chambrun said, “were approached by an actor named Lance Wilson to get help from Joanna Fraser.”
    Nora nodded. I could see she was trying to put together memories of something almost forgotten.
    “He had just had a big success playing a supporting role to a major star,” she said. “I can’t remember—Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, somebody like that. He is young, in his early twenties, I’d guess. The Dain girl must be ten years older.”
    “Maybe he liked older women,” Chambrun said. “I did at that age. What’s become of