Kenneth Duane Whipple

“ What does he say ?”
“Says he took this stuff away from McFadden, but didn’t kill him,” sneered Corcoran. “Doesn’t know who killed him, but he didn’t. Fishy? Well, I’ll tell the world!”
Captain Dolan again bent over the body of Terence McFadden, Then he looked up at “Big Jim.”
“Tell us what happened,” he commanded.
Words popped turbulently from “Big Jim.” Either he was actually telling the truth, or he had committed his story to heart.
“No kill!” he vociferated, gesticulating. “No kill! Take watch, but no kill! Hide for man—pull him in—fight—he dead! ”

“ The light became stationary. I could distinguish Kenton bending over something on the dirt floor not fifteen feet inside the entrance. He looked up and spoke softly.
“Come ahead, Mr. Bowers,” he said. “No joke about this.”
There was a grim edge to his tone. With a shiver, I stepped through the doorway and crossed to where he crouched above a motionless shape huddled against the side of the long loading platform.
The body was that of a man of large stature—more than six feet in height, as nearly as I could judge from the cramped position in which he lay. ”

“ Captain Dolan ran his bony fingers through his grizzled locks, his eyes still on the body of his friend.
“Enemies he had aplenty, officer, like any two-fisted man with the disposition of Terence McFadden. ’Twas only last week he cleaned up two of the Jerry Kramer gang that tried to hold him up with a pistol down on this very street. But his worry tonight had nothing to do with them. A man like Terence could take care of himself against any man. Truth to tell, he was his own worst enemy.”
Kenton broke in sharply. ”

“ So vividly had he told his story that he had been for the moment transported bodily to the monkey house at the Zoo. Now, in the sudden silence, we moved uneasily, glancing at one another.
Corcoran scratched his head in a puzzled manner.
"What's all this got to do with finding the murderer?" he burst out.
Captain Dolan shook his head.
"There is no murderer," he said.
We all looked startled, I imagine. Kenton would have spoken, but Captain Dolan motioned him to silence. Even Corcoran, for once, found himself without words.
"I spoke of an item in the paper tonight," continued Captain Dolan. ”

“ I recognized the hoarse, panting voice of Patrolman Tom Kenton of the fourth precinct, whose beat, as I knew, lay along the wharves.
"It's me, Kenton—Jack Bowers, of the Journal," I said. "What's doing?"
Kenton peered at me keenly in the bad light. Then his face relaxed.
"Man killed in Kellogg's warehouse, just around the corner there," he replied.
"Killed? How?"
"The sergeant didn't say. I got it from him just now when I reported. Someone 'phoned in a minute ago. Come along and see, if you want. It's right in your line, and you're a good friend of the captain's." ”

“ Why, even in the open ye'd be a match for him.'
"No sooner are the words out of my mouth than the beast makes one jump from his corner and lands half way up the bars at the front of the cage, with a roar that would blast the very soul of ye. I own I was startled, little as I fear monkeys and their likes.
"But poor Terence gives a sort of gasp and leans against me, actually paralyzed with fear. His eyes are set in a glassy stare, like a dead man's. ”

“ There were no visible marks of violence, except for a frayed linen collar pulled awry, which dangled by a single buttonhole from the shirt about the powerful, corded neck. But as I bent closer to look at the features, I drew back with a gasp. ”