About two in the
morning he finished his third column and concluded his story with:
"So this awful confession of madness and murder ended. I left the woman
bound and helpless, sitting in her chair, her victim at her feet, to
wait the coming of the police." Then he added to Naylor personally,
"Going notify police headquarters now and go back to hall."
Naylor, who had been reading the copy page by page as it came from the
wire, and who, naturally, was taking a mere cold-blooded view of the
case than Simpkins, telegraphed back:
"What share did Brander have in actual murder? You don't bring that out
in story."
"Couldn't get it out of her," Simpkins sent back, truthfully enough.
"Find out," was the answer. "Get back to hall quick. Brander may have
looked in to help Mrs. A. with her night work while you were gone. Will
hold enough men for an extra."
Simpkins called a cab and started for police headquarters at breakneck
speed, but on the way he stopped at Brander's rooms; for a miserable
suspicion was growing in his brain. "If that really was Isis," he was
thinking, "it's funny she didn't nail me before I got to the door, even
with the start I had."
On his representation that he had called on a matter of life and death,
the janitor admitted him to Brander's rooms. They were empty, and the
bed had not been slept in.
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