The Congressman’s F a mily
By EDWARD LAWSON
WHAT HAS HAPPENED: Sent out to
Interview Representative Paul Lucas. Con
gressman from Mississippi, I discover
two persorgj working frantically over his
dead body, removing It from an easy
ehatr and placing it on a bed. One Is
a man named Hutchinson, the dead man's
butler, and the other a middle-aged,
white-haired, fairly beautiful woman who
described herself as the housekeeper. I
call the police to handle the case and
give the amazing story to my paper.
Hutchinson tries to escape by leaping
through the window while the police are
on the way, but I hold him until they
arrive.
The two servants ascribe the Congress
man's death to gn attack of heart disease,
but the poliee doctor, after examination,
declares that Lueas has been murdered
by poisoning.
NOW OO ON WITH THE STORY:
CHAPTER II
The doctor’s amazing declaration
astounded u» all. Was i' true that
Representati. e Paul Lucas, the tall,
gaunt and handsome old Southern
er, had not died from a heart at
tack at all, but had been murdered
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in cold blood? We could hardly
bring ourselves to be’ -'V.- it Who
would have the slightest reason for
harming this genial oW fellow who
now rested peacefully upon his
death bed? What motive could
lay behind the dastardly perform
ar ce?
For several seconds no one moved
and not a word was spokeh. We
all stood there transfixed, watching
the doctor as he concluded his brief
examination. Finally ho looked
up.
“I am positive now,” he said,
"that it was poison which caused
the death «? this .in. However,
I’d like to make other tests before
signing the certifiaate of death. The
congressman's stomach will have to
be pumped and the contents tested
If my diagnosis of poisoning is cor
rect, we will find unmistakable cor
roboration there.”
I suddenly thought or my paper
and the sensation that this story
would cause. A congressman, a
man who had risen to such promi
n nee in the affairs of this country
in so shor* a time, a man so hon
ored and respected as Paul Lucas,
murdered!
I turned and rushed from the
room into the hall. As fast as the
r -write me u could take it, I poured
out the ston- of Paul Lucas's death.
This story, certainly, would make
front pages all over the country!
"I’m sending two men and a sob
sist?r over to help you out,” Jimmie
Stewart, my city editor, told me.
“One’s bringing a camera and the
other’s an expert on homicide cases.
The woman is to get an inside
story from this so-called housekeep
er you’ve been yapping about. You
stick with the dicks and call Li
every fifteen minutes with the latest
developments.”
“O.K.,” I said, and hung up.
I hurried back to the room in
which the d • tectives had cor .re
gated. There were half a dozen
other reporters cluttering up the
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I discovered he was having a love
affair with another woman, a widow
scene now, but not one oT them
had as much straight dope on the
story as I >hd, I knew. ; ome only
had a moment to take in the scene
at a glance before hr trying out to
telephone their papers. Others
were bothering Inspector Paine for
some comment on the sensational!
case.
I left the inspector : ion. and fol
lowed another plainclothes man
who was engaged in making a sys
tematic search of the apartment
for fingerprints or other tangible
clues. The apartment was a large
one, I discovered, taking up half of
the tenth floor of the hotel.
Toward the front were the Repre
sentative's reception rooms, all nice
ly tapestried and decorated with
taste. In the rear were the servants’
quarters, Hutchinson occupying one
room and the housekeeper another.
Just ahead of these rooms was the
congressman’s bedroom in which he
now lay dead.
A door led off from the bedroom
into a tiny kitchenette, in which
the housekeeper prepared the morn
ing meal before serving it in the
bedroom. Between the bedroom and
the front reception rooms was the
congressman's private office. It was
here that the plainclothes man
made his most intensive search.
And his efforts did not go with
out reward. For among the numer
ous bills and memoranda on Paul
Lucas’s desk he discovered a cryptic
note, buried deep in a motley pile
of miscellaneous papers. The note
was undated and unsigned; it was
typewritten very poorly, as though
by someone unfamiliar with the
machine. Handling the scrap of
paper carefully, we read the note
and puzzled over its meaning. It
said:
“Better stick to your high
society ladies or you'll regret
it.”
“It looks like a threat of some
kind,” I offered.
“It might be,” the detective
agreed. “This little note might
prove of utmost significance in this
case. And then again it may mean
nothing at all.”
“Are there an more like it?”
"I haven’t found any. We'll look
through these papers cm the desk,
though.”
I assisted him in wading through
the stacked-up mess of paper on
the congressman’s desk. “Isn’t it
queer,” I observed, “how a man can
be so neat and so clean person
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ally, and yet keep such a junky
looking desk.”
"It’s just a habit,” the detective
said. “Everybody gets into bad
habits of some sort, This seems!
to be about the worst that Lucas
had. He was a pretty decent sort
of fellow.”
All our searching failed to reveal
another note of the type wi were
searching for. We did not even
know whether the one we had found
was of any significance or not. We
showed it to Inspector Paine, how
ever, and he examined it care
fully.
“There's something behind that
note,” he said thoughtfully. “Some
body thought Representative Lucas
was cheating on them. Either a
man or a woman could have written
that note, but whoever it was was
pretty jealous of old Lucas. Find
m: the person who wrote that and
I’ll show you the person respons
ible for the poisoning.”
“Couldn’t the typewriter be
traced?” I suggested.
“We could try,” the inspector
agreed. “But there’re about a mil
lion typewriters in this city; it
might be a tough job finding the
one this was written on. And even
i* we succeeded, what would that
prove?”
The plainclothes man suddenly
snapped his fingers. “Wait n min
ute,” he said He went into the
congresman’s private office again.
Two minutes later he emerged tri
umphantly carrying another slip
of paper. "Look!” he said. "The
type’s the same. Whoever wrote
that note to Lucas, wrote it on his
own typewriter. And he must have
been here, in this apartment, to
have done it.”
“That makes things a little
easier,” the inspector sighed. “With
that clue you’ve got there, we can
go on with the investigation.” He
turned to a police sergeant who had
been in his attendance since he
had entered the building. “Smith,”
he said, “g' that woman—the
housekeeper, and send her in here
to me. She’s back '.i her own
room, resting. There’re two privates
guarding the door; tell ’em I sent
you tot her.”
“Yes, sir.” Sergeant Smith s heels
clicked together and his hand
touched the brim of his cap in
salute.
A moment later he returned with
the middle-agjd,-white-haired lady
in black on his arm. He helped her
into a chair and stood L^hind her
while the inspector paced the floor
in deep thought.
Finally he stopped r d faced the
woman. “I want you to tell us just
exactly what you know about this
man’s death,” he said. “I want you
to begin at the beginning—the time
when you first met him—and come
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