THE ALMOST PERFECT MURDER
Mme. Storey is perhaps the most celebrated woman detective in fiction. Her detective ability is aided to some extent by feminine intuition, but she achieves results, amazingly successful results, for the problems here elucidated certainly proved baffling enough to the police.
This volume provides thrilling fare for all readers of detective stories, and Mr. Hulbert Footner writes with his customary verve and ingenuity, letting Mme. Storey’s secretary speaks about the events.
Five different stories that you will like.
Suspicion
The silence in the room was broken by Zuleika, who said with a sneer:
"Easy enough to find something when you know where you put it."
The effect of this remark was only to focus suspicion on Zuleika herself.
Abdullah muttered in a dazed way:
"Two guns? Two guns? That lets me out, don't it?"
"Why should it?" demanded Zuleika. "You could hide a gross of guns in that costume. I knocked against one of them when I sat down at the table!"
Zuleika, it appeared, was ready to charge anybody with the murder.
"It's a lie!" whined Abdullah.
Mme. Storey meanwhile was comparing her gun with the one Mephisto held.
"Same style and make," she remarked. "No doubt they were carried by the same person."
We now heard a sound that threw everybody except Anne Boleyn into another wild panic. It was the distant clanging of a gong in the street. Instantly it was clear to us all that the people outside had sent for the police.
With a moan of terror, Jackie ran to the window and threw it up. Mr. Punch made no move to stop her now. Out she went, followed by Zuleika and Abdullah. When it came to the point, Abdullah was not so anxious to face the police after all.
Myself, I was wild to follow. The dead man on the floor, the clanging of that horrible gong, the thought of a fight with the police — it was too much. My nerve failed me completely; but I waited for some sign from my employer. Mr. Punch seemed to have lost his head, too. He stood there biting his fingers in a horrible state of indecision. Mephisto at the window shouted to him:
"Come on! Come on! You can't face this out alone, you fool!"
Mr. Punch flung up his arms.
"All right," he cried. "You are all witness that I didn't want to go. If you must go, I've got a car in the street. I'll get you away." He turned to us and shouted: "Come on! They're already in the building."
Mme. Storey gave me a sign, and I hustled after Mephisto. I left her and Mr. Punch contending which should go last. She got her way.
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Mots clés : Sinfully Rich, Hulbert Footner, Park Avenue, Yellow Cab, New York, thief, crime organization, women’s prison, captivated book, Under Dogs, with Mme. Storey, The Doctor who held hands, The Almost Perfect Murder, Book Case,
