Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; College graduates -- Fiction; Gangsters -- Fiction
"Now do you recognize it?" he asked.
"I haven't denied," said Jimmy, "that Mr. Compton had loaned me a
pistol. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten all about it. I do not
particularly recognize this one as the weapon he loaned me, though it is
of the same type. There is no way that I could identify the particular
weapon he handed me."
"But you admit he loaned you one?"
"Yes," said Jimmy.
"What did you do with it?" asked the policeman.
"I put it in my desk within five minutes after he gave it to me, and I
haven't seen it since."
"You say you couldn't identify the pistol?" said the officer.
Jimmy nodded.
"Well, we can, and have. The number of this pistol was recorded when
Mr. Compton bought it, as was the number of the other one which is still
in his desk. They were the only two pistols he ever bought, according to
Mr. Bince, and his daughter, aside from one which he had at home, which
has also been accounted for. The drawer in which Mr. Bince saw you place
this pistol we found open and the pistol gone. It looks pretty bad for
you, young fellow, and if you want a chance to dodge the rope you'd
better plead guilty and tell us why you did it."
Jimmy was given little opportunity for sleep that night. A half-dozen
times he was called back to the lieutenant's office for further
questioning. He commenced to realize that the circumstantial evidence
was strongly against him, and now, as the girl had warned him, his
entirely innocent past was brought up against him simply because his
existence had been called to the attention of a policeman, and the same
policeman an inscrutable Fate had ordained should discover him alone
with a murdered man.
O'Donnell made the most of his meager knowledge of Jimmy. He told the
lieutenant with embellishments of Jimmy's association with such
characters as the Lizard and Little Eva; but the police were still at a
loss to discover a motive.
This, however, was furnished the next morning, when Elizabeth Compton,
white and heavy-eyed, was brought to the station to identify Jimmy.
There was deep compassion in the young man's face as he was ushered into
the presence of the stricken girl, while at sight of him hers mirrored
horror, contempt, and hatred.
"You know this man?" asked the lieutenant.
"Yes," she replied. "His name is Torrance. I have seen him a number of
times in the past year. He worked as a clerk in a store, in the hosiery
department, and waited on me there. Later I"--she hesitated--"I saw
him in a place called Feinheimer's. He was a waiter. Then he was a
sparring partner, I think they call it, for a prizefighter. Some of my
friends took me to a gymnasium to see the fighter training, and I
recognized this man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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