A FRIEND IN NEED
The rest of the coroner's inquest was anticlimax. Those who had come
to tickle their palates with excitement tasted only one other moment of
it.
"According to your own story you must have been in your uncle's
apartment at least a quarter of an hour, Mr. Lane," said the
prosecuting attorney. "What were you doing there all that time?"
"Most of the time I was waitin' for him to return."
"Why did you not call up the police at once, as soon as you found the
crime had been committed?"
"I suppose I lost my head an' went panicky. I heard some one at the
door, an' I did not want to be found there. So I ran into the bedroom,
put out the light, an' left by the fire escape."
"Was that the conduct one would expect of an innocent man?"
"It was the action of an innocent man."
"You don't look like a man that would lose his head, Mr. Lane."
A smile lit the brown face of the witness. "Perhaps I wouldn't where I
come from, but I'm not used to city ways. I didn't know what to do.
So I followed my instinct an' bolted. I was unlucky enough to be seen."
"Carry a gun, Mr. Lane?"
"No." He corrected himself. "Sometimes I do on the range."
"Own one, I suppose?"
"Two. A .45 and a .38."
"Bring either of them to Denver?"
"No, sir."
"Did you see any gun of any kind in your uncle's rooms--either a
revolver or an automatic?"
"I did not."
"That's all, sir."
The jury was out something more than an hour. The news of the verdict
was brought to Kirby at the city jail by his cousin James.
"Jury finds that Uncle James came to his death from the effect of
either a blow on the head by some heavy instrument, or a bullet fired
at close quarters by some unknown person," James said.
"Good enough. Might have been worse for me," replied Kirby.
"Yes. I've talked with the district attorney and think I can arrange
for bond. We're going to take it up with the court to-morrow. My
opinion is that the Hulls did this. All through his testimony the
fellow sweated fear. I've put it in the hands of a private detective
agency to keep tabs on him."
The cattleman smiled ruefully. "Trouble is I'm the only witness to
their panic right after the murder. Wish it had been some one else.
I'm a prejudiced party whose evidence won't count for much. You're
right. They've somethin' to do with it. In their evidence they
shifted the time back thirty-five minutes so as to get me into
Apartment 12 that much earlier. Why? If I could answer that question,
I could go a long way toward solvin' the mystery of who killed Uncle
James an' why he did it."
"Probably. As I see it, we have three leads to go on. One is that the
guilty man is Hull. A second possibility is the unknown man from Dry
Valley. A third is Horikawa."
"How about Horikawa? Did you know him well?"
"One never knows an Oriental. Perhaps I'm prejudiced because I used to
live in California, but I never trust a Japanese fully. His sense of
right and wrong is so different from mine. Horikawa is a quiet little
fellow whose thought processes I don't pretend to understand."
"Why did he run away if he had nothin' to conceal?"
"Looks bad. By the way, a Japanese house-cleaner was convicted
recently of killing a woman for whom he was working. He ran away, too,
and was brought back later."
"Well, I don't know a thing about Japs except that they're good
workers. But there's one thing about this business that puzzles me.
This murder doesn't look to me like a white man's job. An American bad
man kills an' is done with it. But whoever did this aimed to torture
an' then kill, looks like. If not, why did they tie him up first?"
James nodded, reflectively. "Maybe something in what you say.
Orientals strike me as being kind of unhuman, if you know what I mean.
Maybe they have the red Indian habit of torture in Japan."
"Never heard of it if they have, but I've got a kinda notion--picked it
up in my readin'--that Asiatics will go a long way to square a grudge.
If this Horikawa had anything against Uncle James he might have planned
this revenge an' taken the two thousand dollars to help his getaway."
"Yes, he might."
"Anyhow, I've made up my mind to one thing. You can 'most always get
the truth when you go after it good an' hard. I'm goin' to find out
who did this thing an' why."
James Cunningham looked into his cousin's face. A strong man himself,
he recognized strength in another. Into the blue-gray eyes of the man
from Twin Buttes had come a cold steely temper that transformed the
gay, boyish face. The oil broker knew Lane had no love for his uncle.
His resolution was probably based on a desire to clear his own name.
"I'm with you in that," he said quietly, and his own dark eyes were
hard as jade. "We'll work this out together if you say so, Kirby."
The younger man nodded. "Suits me fine." His face softened. "You
mentioned three leads. Most men would have said four. On the face of
it, of the evidence at hand, the guilty man is sittin' right here
talkin' with you. You know that the dead man an' I had a bitter
feelin' against each other. You know there was a new cause of trouble
between us, an' that I told you I was goin' to get justice out of him
one way or another. I'm the only man known to have been in his rooms
last night. Accordin' to the Hulls I must 'a' been there when he was
killed. Then, as a final proof of my guilt, I slide out by the fire
escape to get away without bein' seen. I'll say the one big lead
points straight to Kirby Lane."
"Yes, but there's such a thing as character," James answered. "It's
written in your face that you couldn't have done it. That's why the
jury said a person unknown."
"Yes, but the jury didn't know what you knew, that I had a fresh cause
of quarrel with Uncle James. Do you believe me absolutely? Don't you
waver at all?"
"I don't think you had any more to do with it than I had myself,"
answered the older cousin instantly, with conviction.
Kirby gave him his hand impulsively. "You'll sure do to ride the river
with, James."