Free ALM06 Who Killed the Husband? by Hulbert Footner Page A

stairs!"
    "Who?" they shouted.
    "Alastair Yohe!"
    "My God!"
    "Ring for the elevator and cut him off at the bottom! Some of you run down the stairs in case the elevator is slow in coming."
    "Use the house phone!" a voice shouted.
    "I can't! The wires are cut."
    He heard the door to the stair well being pulled open and running feet on the steps. He doubted, however, if any of Tod Larkey's guests were nimble enough to beat Al Yohe to the bottom. All would depend on how quickly the elevator came up. Lee returned to his living room and mixed himself a stiff drink.
    In ten minutes or so they were back at Lee's door. They had the superintendent of the building with them, who brought a duplicate key. Half a dozen men pushed in through the door. Tod Larkey's party, it appeared, was a stag affair. His guests were flushed and a little unsteady on their pins.
    "He got away!" they all cried at once.
    In spite of the self-discipline he had exerted, Lee's first feeling was one of gladness. He took care to hide it. One man cried:
    "I saw him! I ran around the corner to the service entrance and he was getting in a car. The engine was running. The rear light was out and I couldn't read the license number."
    All together they demanded to know what had happened.
    Lee was in no humor to take this noisy bunch into his confidence. "I'm sorry," he said, "I can't tell you the story until I have reported it to the police. You'll learn it soon enough. Mr. Larkey, if you'll allow me, I'd like to call up Inspector Loasby on your phone. My wire is out."
    They trooped down the single flight of stairs to the Larkey apartment. Larkey and his guests had their ears pricked to hear Lee's report over the phone, but upon getting Loasby at his home, Lee merely said:
    "Inspector, can you come down to my place right away? It's important."
    "Well," said Loasby reluctantly, "I have guests. Can't you tell me what it is over the phone?"
    "No," said Lee.
    Loasby knew, of course, that Lee was neither a trifler nor a scaremonger, and he wasted no more words. "Okay," he said, "I'll be there in ten minutes."
    Declining all offers of a drink, Lee, after thanking his "rescuers," went back upstairs.

Chapter 7
    Jermyn got home before Inspector Loasby arrived. The good fellow was flabbergasted when he learned what had happened. "I'll never leave you alone in the apartment again!" he vowed.
    "Nonsense!" said Lee, "This sort of thing isn't going to happen twice!"
    "My friend wasn't sick at all. It was a fake call, Mr. Mappin."
    "So Al told me," said Lee dryly. Lee could not help but believe Jermyn; his honesty was transparent. It was clear, however, that somebody else had furnished Mr. Al with advance information.
    Loasby was astonished and outraged when he heard the story. "The fellow is a devil! a devil!" he cried.
    "Well, after all he didn't do me any harm," said Lee; "though I confess it is rather humiliating to be kept a prisoner in your own house...Anyhow, I'm in this case up to my neck now, but I'm working with you, Inspector, not with Al Yohe."
    "Good!" cried Loasby. "We'll soon collar him...What do you suggest, Mr. Mappin?"
    "You must comb the town. We know the nature of his disguise now, and he's hardly likely to get up another as good. Every young man with a beard of any color should be detained for questioning."
    "Sure. Somebody is keeping him under cover. Some woman."
    "Undoubtedly." Though he knew he was doing wrong and suspected that it might very well get him into trouble with the police later, Lee simply could not bring himself to tell Loasby about the little wife and her baby.
    After the excitement in the apartment house, Loasby insisted that they must give the story of Al Yohe's visit to the press. "They'll get a garbled version of it anyhow from those guys downstairs, and if the newspaper boys get the idea that we're holding out on them, they'll sour on us."
    "I wouldn't care if they did," said Lee, "but I suppose it's important to you."
    "Sure! Sure!" said