The Avenger 34 - The Glass Man (12 page)

Moments later he was driving into Nolansville in a dented model-T.

It took Dr. Pearl Coopersmith a long time to get to the door of her room from the hospital bed. She was much weaker than she’d thought.

“But strong enough to do what has to be done.”

Very slowly and carefully she opened the door. This part of the hospital corridor was empty at the moment. Now was the time to make her move.

With the empty hypodermic clutched in the pocket of her robe, she went down the hall toward Dr. Dean’s room. She had to stop once and press her fingertips to her forehead. She hadn’t expected to feel this tired after walking only a few dozen feet.

“You can do this, don’t weaken.”

Yes, she was able to walk on. She took hold of the knob of Dr. Dean’s door, quietly turned it, and pushed.

He was alone in the room, propped up in the white bed and reading a copy of
Astounding Stories.

“I’m happy to see you are feeling well, Gardner,” said the doctor.

Dean put aside the magazine. “Pearl, you shouldn’t be up,” he said. “From what they tell me, you had a narrow escape.”

“Oh, it’s not as serious as all that, Gardner. Besides, I couldn’t be over there in my room, so close to you, and not come over and see you.” It was very difficult and painful for her to cross his room. She never let any of that show on her face. “For a time I was certain you’d never be back.”

“Must say I shared your feelings,” said Dean. “It’s been a very strange experience. And I really can’t believe that young Lamont was behind it . . . But then I guess he tried to kill you, didn’t he?”

“I was very foolish,” said Dr. Coopersmith, nearing the bed. “I should have contacted Mr. Pike when I suspected Alan Lamont. Instead I tried to confront him myself, like some foolish young heroine out of a women’s magazine.”

“It was very brave, Pearl.”

“You’re very close to the answer, aren’t you, Gardner?”

He nodded his head. “Yes, very close.”

“I don’t know if you’ll understand why I . . .” She drew the needle from her pocket and lunged at him with it.

Strong hands caught Dr. Coopersmith’s arms before she touched Dean.

“That’s enough, Doc,” said Pike, who’d stepped out of the room’s bathroom. “End of the line.”

“So . . . so you suspected me already?”

“Yeah,” said Pike. “On top of which the Avenger got a couple of your buddies to talk. They mentioned you and the Avenger let us know. We been waiting for you to try something.”

“The Avenger,” said Dr. Coopersmith. “If it hadn’t been for him . . .”

The rabbit carcass seemed to be floating in the moonlight, over the back wall of the Edwin Montez estate and onto the thick lawn on the other side.

Montez was in the house tonight. Lamont had seen him pacing in his study.

But the dog was nowhere in sight. And it wasn’t barking at all.

The freshly killed and cleaned rabbit was stuffed with enough poison to kill a dozen German shepherds. The poison Lamont had taken from an all-night drugstore.

Once that damn animal ate this, he’d be no more trouble for anyone.

“But where the hell is he?”

Lamont could still feel the teeth of the guard dog tearing into his skin last night.

Coming back here again meant running the risk of another attack.

“Can’t be helped,” he said to himself. “Montez has to be the next to die, that’s just the way it is.”

He walked a few steps ahead, watchful.

Montez couldn’t have gotten rid of the dog.

The pool lights were off tonight, the water a black rectangle reflecting the stars.

Lamont, after looking all around, placed the rabbit carcass on the tiles at the edge of the dark pool.

“Dog can’t miss it there, won’t be able to resist gobbling it up.”

He went slowly up the brick steps to the sliding glass doors of the living room. Montez, wearing some kind of expensive smoking jacket, was still in the large, book-lined study just off the living room.

“Lives very well, very comfortably.”

Lamont reached out an invisible hand to take hold of the door handle. He slid the door open a foot, squeezed through the opening, and silently shut the door.

Quiet in the huge, empty living room.

The thick rugs killed any sound of Lamont’s footsteps as he approached the open den.

There was Montez, sitting at his rosewood desk, framed in light.

Lamont drifted to the open doorway.

All those books, and I bet he’s never read a one of them, thought Lamont.

Montez was looking very bad. Much older than he had last night. The shock of the attempted attack must have hit him hard.

Lamont, taking in a deep breath and holding it, crossed into the room.

A bell started ringing, a harsh alarm-clock sound which went on and on.

Montez pushed a button at the side of the desk and the ringing ceased. “Good evening, Dr. Lamont, I’ve been expecting you.”

Wait a minute! This wasn’t Montez at all. It was a much older man made up to resemble Montez. Lamont had to get out of the room.

Exhaling, he took a step backward. The den door slammed shut before he could reach it.

“I’ve been here for some time,” said Werner Konrad. “After I put Mr. Montez and his zealous hound out of the way for a while, I had ample time to rig an electric eye in the doorway. Also a mechanism for shutting the door and locking it. You may as well sit down and chat with me.”

The door really was locked. And to get at the only window you had to go around behind the desk.

A pistol sat on the desk, near to Konrad’s right hand.

“Permit me to introduce myself,” said the actor, smiling toward the place where he imagined Lamont to be. “I am Werner Konrad, an agent for the German republic.”

Lamont made no sound.

“And you,” continued the German, “are Dr. Alan Lamont. You have something we want and I am prepared to negotiate with you to obtain it. I am very much afraid that Nolansville is not a place where any of us should linger much longer.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Ah, a most impressive illusion. Your voice seems to come from out of thin air,” said Konrad. “As I told you, my country wants the Dean formula. I’m willing to negotiate with you, but you must act very quickly.”

“Why should I deal with you at all?” If he could get closer to the desk without Konrad realizing it, close enough to take up the gun and use it . . .

“It seems very unlikely that you’ll be able to go on with your original plan for revenge now,” said Konrad. “Your attack on Dr. Coopersmith has made you a fugitive. An invisible fugitive, I admit, but a hunted man nonetheless.” He placed his hand over the gun. “I can help you get clear of this area.”

“How are you even going to get yourself away? Dr. Coopersmith has probably told them all about you already.”

“No, she is not the kind to betray an associate, no matter what pressures are brought to bear,” said Konrad. “If you were to write out the formula and provide me with a sample of the fluid I could guarantee you a safe passage out of the country, into Mexico, or South America. I have many contacts south of the border. I am also prepared to pay you . . . let us say ten thousand dollars.”

Lamont laughed. “Very generous . . . for a formula worth millions.”

“It’s not worth anything to you if you don’t live beyond tonight, my friend.”

Dropping silently to his hands and knees, Lamont crawled toward the desk. He reached out and grabbed Konrad’s ankles, yanking the surprised agent completely out of his swivel chair.

Konrad’s head knocked hard on the chair seat as he came clattering down to the floor. The gun fell from his hand.

The weapon was swept far across the room by Lamont. “I won’t even need that for you,” he said. “I’m going to use my hands, the way I always do.” He got his strong fingers around the fallen man’s throat.

“Lamont, you won’t be able to—”

The words were choked off by the increasing pressure from the unseen fingers.

“Stop right there.”

The locked door had opened. The Avenger was in the room, a cylindrical apparatus in his right hand.

Lamont let go of the feebly struggling Konrad. He didn’t know the man in the doorway. But he could tell at once that he was dangerous.

He had to get away.

The object in the Avenger’s hand was a paint sprayer. He raised it, depressed the trigger, and a misty stream of bright orange paint came hissing out at Lamont.

It caught him in the chest and made a bright stripe across his ribs.

“I’ll be able to keep track of you now,” said the Avenger. “I advise you to—”

Lamont made a dive at the door. He threw a shoulder into Benson as he rammed his way out into the living room.

“Come back,” said the Avenger.

The paint spray was gone from his hand, replaced by the unique blue-steel tube pistol he called Mike. He aimed and fired.

The .22 slug cut a groove across the running man’s side. He howled and fell to the rug.

“Damn you,” he said. “Now you’ve spoiled everything.”

His blood became visible as it ran down his side.

“I can’t stop now,” insisted Lamont. “I’m not finished.”

“You’re finished,” the Avenger told him.

Nellie made another seemingly casual trip to the window of the hotel room. The streets of Nolansville were hot and yellow in the midday sun. “I see the sheriff is up and around,” she remarked.

“Was he down and out?” asked Josh.

“Got hit on the head a couple of days ago,” the little blonde replied, “when he was chasing Dr. Lamont and a stolen car.”

“That’d give you a funny feeling,” said Smitty. “Chasing a jalopy that didn’t seem to have nobody driving it. Spooky.”

Nellie remained at the window. “Still no sign of Cole.”

“Geez, Nellie,” said the giant, flushing slightly, “don’t worry so much about the guy.”

“That must be some breakfast,” the girl said. “It’s past noon.”

“You know how Cole is—he likes to gab more than he likes to eat. He’s probably spinning out some cock-and-bull story to Jenny Keaton.”

“She’s rather hardboiled-looking, don’t you think?” said Nellie. “I suppose you have to be, though, in her line of work.”

“I think Jenny Keaton’s sort of cute,” said Smitty. “She can’t hold a candle to you, of course, but still—”

The door of the suite opened and the Avenger entered. “We’ll be leaving in roughly three hours,” he announced.

“If Cole’s finished breakfast by then,” said Nellie in a very small voice.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing, chief.”

“Everything seems tied up.” Benson sat in a straight-back chair. “There is one slight hitch though.”

Josh asked, “Such as what?”

“Werner Konrad has escaped.”

“Don’t tell me,” said Smitty, “he learned how to turn himself invisible too?”

“No. What he did,” explained Benson, “is somehow manage to get out of his jailhouse cell during the night and into the drunk tank. Got turned loose early this morning, looking like a panhandler with a hangover, along with the rest of the sobered-up prisoners.”

“He’s still a great actor,” Josh said, with a touch of admiration. “And he sure jived us pretty out on the desert with that old-coot act of his.”

“They got no idea where Konrad took off for?” Smitty inquired.

“Probably hopped a freight,” answered the Avenger. “I think we may encounter Mr. Konrad again.”

Nellie asked, “What’s the latest word on Dr. Lamont?”

“He’s visible,” said Benson. “Apparently the formula wears off after a certain number of hours. Lamont is still refusing to tell where he hid his notes and the vials of fluid, but he’s hinting he may talk if a deal can be worked out.”

“What he did comes under the heading of treason, don’t it?”

“Right, Smitty.”

“He could never stand trial for treason,” said Nellie. “Once he started telling that story about taking revenge for his brother’s murder, they’d realize he was mentally ill.”

“Of course he’s insane,” agreed the Avenger, “but in wartime he can’t count on that as a defense.”

“It’s sad really,” said the girl. “He was so fond of his brother . . . but it only fouled up his whole life, his affection for him.”

“I been thinking about our watching them potential victims the other night,” said Smitty. “You must have had a pretty good hunch he’d go after that Montez guy again, didn’t you, Dick?”

“When I heard that Lamont had seemingly made an attempt to kill Montez and been scared off, I did think he might make another try,” answered the Avenger. “Before he went after any of the others. If he had a list, a sequence of killings, in his mind it would be vitally important to him to stick to it. No matter what happened, he had to follow the order he’d mapped out. A compulsion.”

“So you catch not only Lamont but that actor Nazi.” Smitty shook his head. “While me and Josh sit around outside a little bungalow where the guy and his wife are playing bridge with the neighbors. Some excitement.”

“I wasn’t expecting Konrad, but when I got there I fairly soon realized that the man walking around pretending to be Montez was an imposter. The toughest part was getting into the house without setting off the various warning systems he’d set up.”