The Best of Argosy #8 - Minions of the Shadow Read online

  “He’s fainted!” cried Millicent.

  “He went to sleep,” corrected Harvey, gathering up the debris. “Or whatever it is he does in place of sleep. There’s nothing to do but wait for that driver.”

  “What happened to your friend?” asked the doorman, looking a bit startled.

  “Huh... Oh, him?” Harvey hesitated. “He was in a hurry. Didn’t realize how fast he is, I guess.”

  FAIRVIEW ARMS was quite a hotel. More stories high than Harvey cared to crane his neck to see, it was pretentious and obviously expensive. Dolly, it appeared, did well for herself.

  The desk clerk supplied the number of her suite. Also the information that she had come in about an hour ago and had been escorted to the elevator by a prosperous-looking, middle-aged man who had then left the place by the front entrance.

  “That’s a break,” said Harvey, in the elevator. “I was wondering how I’d get rid of Danvers.”

  “What are you going to do?” Millicent asked. “Buy those lists?”

  “Nothing else to do. Omega is asleep or something. I’ve tried calling his name, mentally, but he doesn’t answer.”

  Dolly’s suite was at the end of the corridor on the twelfth floor. Harvey knocked at the door. There wasn’t any answer, and he knocked again, this time a little harder. The ornamental brass knocker banged loudly enough to wake the lady within, if she had gone to bed already. But she didn’t answer, nevertheless.

  “Maybe she went out again,” Harvey said. “The room clerk might have missed her.”

  Millicent nodded, and absently tried the knob. Surprisingly the door opened. She peered inside as Harvey looked over her shoulder. Then she stepped back with a gasp. At the same instant Harvey cursed softly and pushed her inside, closing the door quietly behind him.

  Millicent’s hand was over her mouth to stifle a scream and her eyes were wide with horror as she took in the scene before her.

  MARK saw Omega — clothes, dummy, shoes and all — collapse in a heap. Then for a brief instant there was a rapidly changing series of scenes and thousands of years sped haltingly past. He sensed the struggle Omega was putting up to stay in one place, and realized that he was losing miserably. Finally both of them stopped at the edge of the artificial creek-bed.

  Omega let out a hollow groan. Mark instantly saw the reason. For the ravine was completely dry, and the portion above the fallen tree had filled up with silt, as Mark had predicted.

  Omega turned loose a string of profanity culled from a thousand languages, both terrestrial and otherwise. “I keep getting weaker every minute I stay in the past,” he complained. “Why I was even beginning to merge with Harvey!”

  “Nonsense!” Mark derided. “You, who can move mountains...”

  “I tell you I was,” Omega insisted. “I wasn’t fooling when I told Harvey to stand at the bar so that his shadow would be cast in the right direction. It was so! I can’t move without him, back there.

  “Mark, you have no idea of the power of thought. Harvey implicitly believes I’m his shadow — which tends to make it true. He believes it, and I am continually fostering the belief. It gets strong. Fowler and Milly, both believing the same yarn, strengthen it even more. Milly especially has been giving me a lot of thought.”

  “But you have to go back,” Mark said, beginning to grow alarmed. “It begins to look as if you haven’t changed history very much, judging by that creek. But you can influence people’s minds. You’ve got to go back! And when that murder happens, you’ve got to take the suspicion out of that cop’s mind.”

  Omega didn’t answer immediately. Mark was beginning to think he didn’t intend to, when he abruptly felt faint and things went black. It lightened almost immediately, and he found himself looking at the very same scene he had encountered on his first journey back to the twentieth century. There, beneath him, was the curvaceous blonde, with her throat thoroughly cut.

  “This is where we came in,” he remarked.

  “No, it isn’t,” Omega denied. “Look around.”

  Mark did. He saw Harvey Nelson quietly closing the door. Milly was staring, horrified, at the corpse. But there wasn’t a sign of a cop or a medical examiner.

  “We’ll stay,” Omega said. “We haven’t missed much. I’m afraid to try again, anyhow. Too weak... Mark! I’m merging again!”

  Chapter 15: How Do You Kill a Shadow?

  “CALL the room clerk,” Harvey said. “Tell him to phone the police immediately. I’m going to take a quick look around. Those lists may be in this room!”

  Millicent got control of herself sufficiently to obey, then turned from the phone to help him. But Harvey didn’t need any help; he was standing in the middle of the room looking helplessly around him. And then Millicent saw what, in the shock of finding the body, just hadn’t registered before — the room had already been ransacked!

  It was obvious that the desk, the most likely place to look, had been searched first. Its contents hadn’t been scattered so much; obviously the searcher had not been in a great hurry when he searched it.

  The bedroom, however, revealed that the searcher had been getting panicky. He had emptied the bureau drawers on the bed, then had pulled the mattress on the floor and searched it, letting the stuff fall where it might. And the bathroom — with contents of the medicine case scattered everywhere — showed that the searcher had become positively frantic toward the end.

  And it all added up to one thing: whoever had made that search hadn’t found what he was looking for — in other words, the lists that Danvers had lost and wanted back. Harvey was willing to bet on that; for it was the desk that had been searched first. His eyes strayed to the inert form of Dolly Patterson. There was the answer! The one place the murderer hadn’t looked.

  Millicent gasped as she saw Harvey carefully step to the side of the body, avoiding the crimson stains, and bend over it. He appeared to ponder for a brief instant; then he began to explore the tops of the stockings. At length he stood up again; Millicent watched him with narrowed eyes as he examined the three tightly-folded papers he now held.

  “Knew right where to go!” she observed rather tartly.

  Harvey had no chance to answer, for at that moment a step sounded outside the door. It opened and three men came in, the foremost being a large, ruddy-faced individual who looked very much like a policeman, but happened to be the medical examiner. He immediately proved it by examining the body.

  The second — small, dapper and sporting a close-clipped mustache across his upper lip — looked very much like a professional man, but was actually a lieutenant in the homicide squad. The third was O’Reilly, of the state police, in civilian clothes.

  “Hiya, Mr. Nelson,” said O’Reilly. “Fancy meeting —”

  “Shut up!” said the dapper man. “I told you to keep quiet if you want to come along. You know these people?”

  “How can I answer and shut up, too?” demanded O’Reilly.

  “Answer first, shut up afterward,” said the smaller man. “Who are they?”

  O’Reilly introduced Nelson, sulkily. The lieutenant, he said, was named Schwartz.

  “Now shut up,” advised Lieutenant Schwartz. He changed his scowl to a grin, aimed at Harvey. “These state coppers are always butting in, Mr. Nelson. Got to put them in their place. That your wife?”

  “Not yet,” said Harvey, and introduce Millicent.

  “How’d it happen?” asked Schwartz next.

  “Can’t say,” answered Harvey. “I think the room clerk will tell you we called him as soon as we got up here.”

  “He already did,” said Schwartz. “Just thought I’d ask. What d’ya say, doc?”

  THE beefy medical man groaned slightly as he rose to his feet. “Struck over the head and knocked unconscious,” he said musingly. “Died a few minutes later.”

  Schwartz looked astounded. “Doc,” he pleaded. “Didn’t you notice she had her throat cut? Or did she bite herself as she fell?”

  “Fractured
skull,” said the medical man, slowly. “That’s what she died of. Struck from behind. Landed on her face, judging from that bruise on her cheek. Later she was turned over and her throat cut. That blood seeped out; it wasn’t pumped out by a heart which was still beating. The quantity, as well as the distribution, proves that. If she’d been alive when the throat was cut, the blood would be all over the place, instead of just around her neck. Be more of it too.”

  Schwartz shook his bead sadly. “Had to be sure, I guess. However... How long’s she been dead?”

  “About an hour, roughly.”

  “All right. Now, Nelson, how’d you happen to come here and find her?”

  “Miss Patterson was in the company of a man I wanted to talk to,” Harvey explained. “Having been told that he might be here, I asked the room clerk downstairs. He told me that Miss Patterson had left him at the elevator in the lobby and that he had then left the place. I thought she might know where he had gone, so I came up to ask her.”

  “He left the place, eh? Who was he?”

  “Daniel Danvers,” said Harvey.

  “The politician, eh? Now what else do you know about this Dolly Patterson? Her friends and otherwise.”

  “Can’t help you,” said Harvey. “An hour ago I didn’t even know her name. I only learned it when I inquired where Danvers might be. Is there anything else? Miss Forbes is suffering from shock. I’d like to take her home.”

  Schwartz scratched his chin and pondered for a minute. “No,” he finally said. “Thanks a lot for your help. But keep yourself available in case I need you.”

  “OMEGA! Stay here and work on this man Schwartz! Don’t go!”

  “Gotta go. I can’t leave Harvey till I get more strength. It took all I had to get back. Stay with me, or you’ll find yourself back at the creek!”

  MILLICENT was silent all the way down the elevator and through the lobby. She didn’t open her mouth until the door of a cab slammed shut on them, and he absently took the coveted lists from his pocket. Neither of them noticed that a second cab pulled away from the curb directly behind theirs.

  “Harvey Nelson!” she said. “I don’t know what to make of you.”

  Harvey looked up from his perusal of the papers. “What’s the matter?” he asked, slightly confused. “She didn’t mind.”

  Millicent sighed in exasperation. “I don’t mean her. She wouldn’t have minded anyway, I was referring to your underhand trick back in that room. Oh, don’t look so innocent. You know you mentioned Danvers’ name on purpose. Was that fair?”

  Harvey chuckled. “Can’t withhold information from the police,” he told her. “How do I know but what he might provide the lead which will catch the murderer? Besides, I had to explain why we were there. I couldn’t mention these lists.”

  Millicent slumped back in her seat. “I still don’t know what to make of you,” she said, wearily. “For the past two days you’ve been a different man entirely.”

  “Listen, sweetheart,” Harvey pleaded. “Things are happening fast, and I’ve been inattentive because my mind is in a whirl. When we get everything straightened out I’ll make it up to you. Right now all I can think of is to get Fowler elected and clean house in this town.”

  “Sort of a military objective, eh? You’re so single-minded about it that you’ll even withhold information which might bring a murderer to justice.” Sniff!

  “Milly!” he said, reproachfully. “I couldn’t tell Schwartz about these papers. All I know myself is what Omega told me. And he learned it by reading Danvers’ and Dolly’s minds. If I told him what I know, he wouldn’t believe me. And unless he knew the whole story those lists would just cause a lot of trouble without doing any good. But I can put them to excellent purpose.”

  Millicent didn’t seem to be listening. She hunched over in her seat and smiled up at him coyly.

  “I love you just the same,” she confided. Then she hesitated before she whispered: “Is Omega still asleep?”

  Harvey gathered her in his arms and kissed her tenderly. “I almost forgot him,” he said. “Do you know this is the first time we’ve been really alone since he arrived? We ought to do something about it...”

  Millicent snuggled closer, but said nothing.

  “Yes,” repeated Harvey. “We should do something about it. We can’t have him plaguing us all our lives. Didn’t you say you had an idea on the subject?”

  Millicent stared directly in front for a long minute. Then: “He’s a shadow,” said Millicent. “And no matter how dark it is there’s always enough light for him. But suppose there were light, blinding light, on all sides of you? Where would he be then?”

  Harvey pondered. “Gone, I guess,” he answered. “But he’s been gone several times. And he always comes back.”

  “So you told me. But on those times he’s only been asleep. My idea is that if he were suddenly subjected to intense light from all directions, while he’s in full possession of his faculties, maybe he would be shocked back to normal. He might become a decent respectable shadow, the way he was before he came to life.”

  Harvey didn’t answer for a while. When he did his voice was very sober.

  “I don’t think I could bring myself to do it,” he said. “If he didn’t show up again I’d always think of myself as a murderer. He is alive, you know.”

  Chapter 16: Come Now, Mr. Bonzetti!

  THE cab pulled up in front of Millicent’s apartment house, and Harvey was silent as they rode up in the elevator. Millicent, apparently sad about the turn of affairs, was lost in her thoughts. Neither saw the trouble the elevator boy was experiencing with his controls, but they were jarred back to the present when the cage slammed against the top of the shaft.

  “Darn it, Mr. Nelson,” complained the operator. “You’ll get me in trouble doing that. Don’t you know it’s after midnight? I’m liable to lose —”

  He turned his head as he talked, and suddenly gasped. For Harvey was on the other side of the elevator. Millicent was between him and the controls.

  “Oh I’m sorry, Mr. Nelson,” the boy hastened to apologize. “I could have sworn... It must be this lever. It won’t move!”

  The boy wrenched at the lever, and suddenly it swung back and dropped the car. Harvey handed the boy a bill and told him to refer his boss to him, if anything was said about the noise. He’d vouch for the fact that the lever had jammed.

  “Just wanted you to know that I was around all the time,” whispered Omega. “I heard what you said.”

  He didn’t make any other comment, and Harvey was suddenly too weary to answer. He kissed Millicent goodnight and promised her that as soon as he cleared up the matter of the election, he’d put his colossal intellect to work on the other problem. She went into her apartment looking a bit happier. A whole lot happier, in fact, than Harvey felt.

  He went down in the elevator, while the operator watched him furtively — and somewhat suspiciously. Harvey didn’t notice him. He was still deep in thought as he climbed into a taxi at the curb. Too engrossed, by far, to notice that a second cab again followed immediately after.

  “What are you going to do?” came the voice in Harvey’s brain.

  “Go back to Patelli’s,” growled Harvey, half aloud.

  “I don’t mean that,” said Omega. “I mean about me. Are you going to try the light trick?”

  “Will it work?” countered Harvey.

  There was a long silence. Then, “I don’t know. It might.”

  “Why did you ask?” Harvey suddenly inquired. “I thought you could read my mind.”

  “So I can, to a certain extent. But lately I find it’s getting harder. You’ve built up a resistance against my probing. It’s easier to ask, now.”

  PATELLI was in his private office when Harvey arrived. Spread on a desk before him were several notebooks, varying in size from small memo books to one large ledger.

  “I hope these will help,” he said. “But listen: this stuff is dynamite, so don’t let it get out of
your hands. Take what pages you want and give me back the rest.”

  Harvey blinked rapidly at some of the names entered in the books. But he resolutely passed over the portions which didn’t apply to the party donations. These men were trusting him not to see too much, and it wouldn’t help a bit to double-cross them.

  Some of the names he noticed, and the items recorded beside them, would have raised hob if ever made public. Harvey wasn’t interested. He had an objective, and he was sticking to it. He took a sharp penknife from his pocket and cut out a page which dealt with party donations over a period of several months.

  In another ledger he found relevant items, and removed a page by snapping clips in the binding. One other book had loose-leaf pages, and he removed three from it. The rest required the penknife.

  When he was finished there were ten pages in a pile, all dealing with payments made to the party fund, by men who had wished to continue their illegitimate vocations. In each case the payments had increased in amount, from month to month, as Pembroke had become greedier and greedier.

  The top sums, when the payments ceased, represented the point known as All the Traffic Will Bear. The next increase, Harvey deduced, was the one which had put the man out of business. Pembroke had become too greedy. He hadn’t known where to stop.

  “These, coupled with some other stuff, will lick Pembroke,” he told Patelli. “Give my thanks to the men who handed them over. I’ll return them some time tomorrow.” He glanced at his wrist watch. “Today, I mean.”

  A man who had been listening outside the door barely dodged back in the shadows as Harvey came out, tucking a long envelope in his inside pocket. The man followed at a discreet distance as Harvey left the club, once more entering a taxi. He dashed for the next one in line and ordered the driver to follow.

  There was a mystified expression on the man’s wind-burned face, and also a trace of determination. Even the fact that his supply of ready cash was being woefully depleted with all this cab riding failed to lessen this doggedness. He resolved that if the man in the cab ahead went too far with such extravagance, he would keep on his trail by hopping on the bumper when he started off.