The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (222 page)

“Which may be too late.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the
Mirror
editor blustered. “Furthermore, I’m not interested. Get out of my way.”

Instead, Mr. Parker grasped him firmly by the arm. Cordell tried to jerk free, and in so doing, dropped his brief case, which Penny promptly seized.

“Give that to me!” the man shouted furiously.

Penny smiled, for through the plate glass window she had observed the approach of a police car. Another moment and uniformed men were swarming about Mr. Cordell.

“What is the meaning of this?” the man demanded angrily. “I’ll report you all to the Safety Director who is my friend!”

“You’ll report to him all right,” agreed Captain Bricker. “Now come along quietly. If you can answer a few questions satisfactorily, you’ll be allowed to return home.”

“What do you want to know?” Cordell asked sullenly.

“Where were you on the night of the 16th?”

“Now how should I know?” the man retorted sarcastically. “I can’t remember that far back. But probably I was home in bed.”

“You’re wanted in connection with the Conway dynamiting,” the officer informed him.

Mr. Cordell snorted with anger. “Of all the ridiculous charges! I know nothing about the affair.”

Out of the door burst Salt Sommers. He was without a hat, but he carried a picture, still wet, in the palm of his hand.

“So you know nothing about the dynamiting,” he mimicked. “Well, gentlemen, take a look at this!”

Mr. Cordell and the policemen gathered about him, studying the photograph. Plainly it showed Webb Nelson fleeing toward a car driven by the
Mirror
editor.

“What does this prove?” the man blustered. “I admit the car is mine. I was driving past the plant at the time of the explosion. This fellow, Nelson, leaped into my auto and ordered me to drive on.”

“A moment ago you claimed you weren’t even near the Conway Plant,” Penny tripped him. “You knew Webb Nelson very well. Furthermore, you entered the
Star
offices several times trying to get your hands on this picture!”

“Ridiculous!”

“At least once when you found the stairway door locked, you went in through the skylight,” Penny accused.

“Of all the crazy ideas!” The editor laughed jeeringly. “Imagine me crawling through a skylight!”

“I notice your coat has a torn place,” Penny said, taking a scrap of blue wool from her purse. “This, I believe, is a perfect match.”

Mr. Cordell gazed at the wool and shrugged. “All right,” he admitted coolly. “I did crawl through the skylight twice to see if I could find the picture. I knew this fool photographer had snapped a picture of me, and I feared I might be falsely accused.”

“Then you knew Nelson was mixed up in the dynamiting?”Captain Bricker questioned.

“I wasn’t certain,” Mr. Cordell said in confusion. “The reason I didn’t report to the police was that I was afraid of being involved. After that night, Webb Nelson tried to blackmail me. Because of my position, I dared have no publicity.”

The
Mirror
editor’s explanation carried a certain amount of conviction, and Penny was dismayed to hear Captain Bricker assure him that if a mistake had been made he would be granted freedom immediately after he had talked to the police chief.

“I shall accompany you without protest,” the
Mirror
editor returned stiffly. “Later I shall file charges against those who have tried to damage my character.”

Captain Bricker asked Salt for the picture which he intended to take to police headquarters.

“May I see it a moment?” Penny requested.

He gave the picture to her. She studied it and her face brightened. “Captain Bricker, look at this!” she exclaimed, pointing to an object in the car which barely was noticeable.

Everyone gathered about Penny, peering at the photograph. On the rear seat of the car driven by Mr. Cordell was a box which plainly bore the printing:“Salvage Company—Explosives.”

“Ed McClusky who works for the Salvage Company, told me that dynamite had been stolen from his firm,” Penny declared. “And here it is in Mr. Cordell’s automobile! Apparently, he wasn’t just driving by the plant at the time of the explosion! This picture proves why he was there!”

“Right you are, young lady,” chuckled Captain Bricker. “You’ve pinned the goods on him for fair.”Prodding the
Mirror
editor with his stick, he ordered curtly: “Get along, you! This puts a different face on it. You’ll be spending the rest of the night in the Safety building.”

After Mr. Cordell, still protesting his innocence, had been taken away, Penny, her father, and Salt returned to the deserted newspaper building.

“Will Cordell manage to get free?” she asked anxiously.

“Not a chance of it,” Mr. Parker answered. “That picture tags him right. With Ed McClusky and Ben to testify against him, he’s the same as convicted now.”

“Speaking of Ben, what’s to be done about him, Dad?”

“We’ll give him a job here. He’s had unfair treatment, but we’ll make it up to him. However, we’ll have to let one employee go.”

“Not me?” Penny asked anxiously.

“No,” her father laughed. “It’s your friend, Elda Hunt. Her attitude isn’t right. We’ve tried to give her a chance, but over and over she has demonstrated that she isn’t cut out to be a newspaper woman.”

“She’ll probably blame me for her discharge,”Penny sighed. “Not that it matters. I ceased worrying about Elda a long while ago.”

“She’ll have no difficulty getting work elsewhere, and I hope she’ll be better adjusted.”

“How about the story of Mr. Cordell’s arrest? And the picture?” Penny inquired. “Will the
Star
print them tomorrow?”

“On the front page of our first edition,” Mr. Parker chuckled. “Salt didn’t turn over the plate to the police, so we’re all set. By morning, the story should be bigger and better than ever. By then, the guilt will be well pinned on Cordell, and some of the
Snark
gang may have been rounded up.”

Curious to learn the very latest details, Salt called the police station. He was told that Ben Bartell had identified several of the
Snark
’s crew from police pictures, and it was expected all would be arrested within twenty-four hours.

“Not a bad night’s work,” Mr. Parker chuckled, as he snapped off the photography room lights. “Everything locked?”

“How about the skylight?” asked Penny.

“Open again,” reported Salt as he checked it. “It’s just no use trying to get folks to cooperate around here. Too many fresh air fiends.”

“Let it stay unlocked,” Mr. Parker directed carelessly. “With our prowler safely behind bars, we’ve no further cause for worry.” He looked at his watch. “Now, even though it is late, suppose we go and celebrate?”

“Oh, fine!” cried Penny. “And why not stop at the Safety building and ask Ben Bartell to go with us? I want to tell him about his new job.”

“So do I,” agreed her father heartily. “Where shall we go?”

Penny linked arms with Salt and her father, skipping as she piloted them down the dark hall.

“Just a quiet place where they serve big juicy steaks,” she decided. “If I know Ben, that’s what he would like best of all.”

WHISPERING WALLS

CHAPTER 1

THE PLUMED SERPENT

Smoothly and with accurate aim, the slim girl in blue sweater and swinging skirt sent the heavy ball crashing down the polished floor of the bowling alley.

“Another strike, Penny!” cried her school companion, Louise Sidell, watching the tenpins topple helter skelter and vanish out of sight. “You’re certainly going like a house afire today!”

“Lucky, that’s all.” Penny Parker’s friendly grin widened as she chalked up the score. Brushing aside a sandy-gold lock of hair which had dropped over one eye, she suddenly squinted at the wall clock. “Ten minutes until four o’clock!” she exclaimed. “Lou, unless we call it a day, I’ll be late for work!”

“You and your work!” scoffed Louise, but she quickly sat down to remove her bowling shoes. “Why spend all your spare time at that old newspaper?”

“The
Riverview Star
is the best daily in the city!”Penny shot back proudly. “Anyway, I like being a reporter.”

“I’ll give you no argument on that point, my pet. You love it! Especially poking that freckled little nose of yours into every big story or mystery that comes along! Confess now, isn’t it the excitement you like, rather than the work?”

A twitch of Penny’s lips acknowledged the truth of her chum’s observation. Off and on for several years she had served in many capacities on the
Star
, a daily Riverview newspaper owned by her father, Anthony Parker.

Many of the publication’s best stories had carried her name. Now that school had started again, she was unable to work full time, but on this particular Saturday afternoon she had promised Editor DeWitt she would report at two o’clock. She had no intention of being late.

“Let’s go,” she urged, picking up her coat.

Louise trailed Penny to a desk where the cashier was absently listening to a short wave radio. As they paid their bill, the instrument suddenly blared a police order:

“Patrol 34—First National Bank, Main and Front Streets. Repeating, First National Bank, Main and Front Streets. See complainant. Patrol 34 in service.”

To Louise it was only a meaningless jumble of words but Penny instantly pricked up her ears.

“Front and Main is just around the corner! Maybe there’s been a robbery, Lou!”

“I hope not,” laughed Louise. “The First National’s where I keep my money. All $28.50 of it!”

Sweeping her change from the counter, Penny glanced again at the clock and came to a quick decision. Doubtless, the
Star
office would send a reporter to check the police call, but considerable time might elapse before anyone reached the bank.

“Let’s jog over there and see what’s doing,” she proposed.

Louise nodded, hastily pulling a tight-fitting hat over her dark curls. Penny was already out of the door, walking so fast that her chum was hard pressed to overtake her.

Rounding the corner at Main and Front Streets, the girls were just in time to see a patrol car park at the curb in front of the bank. A police sergeant was at the wheel, but before Penny could hail him, he and a companion vanished into the building. A third man posted himself at the door of the bank.

Penny walked over to him. “Anything doing?” she inquired in a friendly, off-hand way. “A robbery?”

“I wouldn’t know,” he replied curtly.

Fishing in a cluttered purse, Penny came up with a press card. “I’m from the
Star
,” she added, waving her credentials before him.

“You’ll have to talk to the sergeant if you want to get any information,” he said, relaxing slightly. “Go on in, if you want to.”

Louise kept close to Penny’s side as they started into the bank. But the policeman brought her up short by saying: “Just a minute, sister. Where’s your card?”

“She’s with me,” said Penny with careless assurance.

“So I see,” observed the patrolman dryly. “She can’t go in without a card.”

Argument was useless. Decidedly crestfallen, Louise retreated to wait, while Penny went on into the darkened building. Curtains had been drawn in the big marble-floored bank, and the place appeared deserted. Teller cages were locked and empty, for the bank had closed to the public at noon.

Pausing, Penny heard the faint and distant hum of voices. She glanced upward to a second story gallery devoted to offices, and saw two policemen talking to a third man who leaned against the iron railing.

“Apparently this is no robbery,” Penny thought, taking the marble steps two at a time. “Wonder what has happened?”

Breathlessly, she reached the top of the stairs. A short, thin man with glasses and a noticeably nervous manner stood talking to the two policemen. The sergeant, his back to Penny, started taking down notes.

“I’m Sergeant Gray,” the policeman said. “What’s your name?”

“Albert Potts,” the man replied.

“A clerk here?”

“Secretary to Mr. Hamilton Rhett, the bank president. I called the police because a situation has developed which worries me. This afternoon I talked to Mrs. Rhett who gave me no satisfaction whatsoever. I said to myself, ‘Albert Potts, this is a case for the police.’ But there must be no publicity.”

“What’s wrong?” Sergeant Gray asked impatiently.

“Mr. Rhett has disappeared. Exactly nine days ago at three o’clock he put on his hat, walked out of the bank and hasn’t been seen since.”

Here indeed was news! Mr. Rhett was socially prominent and a very wealthy banker. His disappearance would be certain to create a sensation in Riverview.