Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Number 6 (1927-12).djvu/110

 had agreed to its leaving his premises.

Following this, Detective Bowler consulted the register of companies, and found that Marlow was only a nominal shareholder in the firm, virtually all the shares being in the name of one Henry Delware, medical practitioner

Before doing anything further, the officer decided to consult his chief, but about 11 o'clock that night a telephone message asked him to call immediately at the residence of Mr. James Turner.

There he heard that Mrs. Turner had seen her first husband, supposed to be dead, as a very substantial apparition in Broadway, a few days previously. Also that a second apparition had occurred scarcely an hour since. Mr. Turner, explaining this, stated that he and his wife had retired about 10 o'clock, but had not switched off the light. It was a sultry evening and although the blinds were drawn one window had been left open. Suddenly Mrs. Turner had screamed and pointed to this window. Her husband, looking quickly round, had seen the blind move. Jumping up, he had rushed outside to see a figure vanish through the side gate, but though he gave chase the figure eluded him.

morning papers recorded nothing of this. They had something much more startling:

The details showed that the doctor had received an urgent call toward midnight at his residence, and going down had admitted someone to his surgery. A few minutes later his wife heard a strange voice, loud and angry, and two shots had immediately followed. Running downstairs she found the doctor lying on the floor, dead, and a strange man lying beside him with a terrible wound in his neck. The doctor had been shot through the heart. Detective Bowler, it was stated, had the case in hand.

The evening papers were able to go one better and print verbatim, in cold, official phrases, the dying depositions of the wounded man, who had since succumbed:

The man had died almost immediately after signing this statement. Subsequent investigation at the doctor's surgery seemed to confirm quite clearly that he had been resuscitating the dead, apparently by the hypodermic injection of some unknown drug soon after death, followed by a surgical operation and actual massage of the heart, probably under an electrical impetus.

The reason for his association with Interments, Inc., is plain. He had financed the company and attracted