Harvey was ready to dive across the table before Pembroke could recover from his fright, but it wasn’t necessary. A single shot exploded from the region of the door. Pembroke’s gun clattered to the floor; he dazedly grasped at the torn remnant of the hand which had held it, then moaned and sank down in his chair.
O’Reilly walked in, closely followed by Patelli.
“That wasn’t a bad shot, Irish,” the latter commented. “Though it seems to me his head would have made a better target.”
“I meant to hit his hand,” claimed O’Reilly. “Now we can fry him in the chair, too. It’s more sporting.”
Harvey was bent over Bonzetti’s body, his ear pressed close to the stiffened lips. Bewilderment and something akin to grief was mirrored in his eyes.
During the instant following the reverberation of O’Reilly’s shot, Harvey had heard his name called, weakly and appealingly. Omega! But it hadn’t come from within his brain or beside his ear. It had come from the fallen body of Bonzetti! Unbelievingly he had kneeled, and heard: “Give Milly my best...”
“HOW’S that for an exit?” exclaimed Omega triumphantly, as he and Mark whirled through the blackness to their own time.
Mark lurched dizzily as he again found himself in his own body, back at the edge of the creek.
“In the middle of the second act!” he yelled. “What happened? Who killed Dolly Patterson? Bonzetti?”
Omega, once more garbed in flowing Roman toga, a beret and spiked shoes, looked surprised. “Don’t you know?” he asked innocently.
Mark tried to answer, but the words got jammed in his throat.
“Pembroke, of course,” Omega continued. “Dolly Patterson knew when she had a good thing. She wanted Pembroke to pay and pay. Not for the lists, mind you, but just so she wouldn’t publish them. And Pembroke couldn’t stand being on the wrong end of a blackmail scheme.
“Bonzetti named too high a price to recover them, so Pembroke went after them himself. Lost his head when Dolly wouldn’t listen to reason, and killed her. But that’s how Bonzetti knew about the lists. He must have tricked Milly into admitting that Harvey had found them. And Bonzetti got the same medicine as Dolly when he tried to squeeze Pembroke.”
“How do you know all that?”
“From Pembroke’s mind, just before he shot me.”
Mark groaned. “The police can’t read minds. Schwartz will still —”
“Don’t worry about Harvey,” Omega interrupted. “O’Reilly knows Dolly Patterson was murdered for those lists. And the lists themselves incriminate Pembroke, not Harvey. Schwartz will forget his suspicions when he sees them.”
Mark nodded. “Milly and he will probably get married right away.”
“Yeah,” Omega drawled. “They will. Six thousand years ago.”
Mark nodded again. Then suddenly: “Let’s go back and see how they get along —”
He stopped. Omega was dwindling before his eyes. A wispy, almost diaphanous column of something resembling thin tobacco smoke rose from the ground.
Mark braced himself, but it was too late. He felt himself hurled into the air; turned several somersaults and finally landed flat on his back in the grass. There was a gleeful chuckle, followed by a shivering, quivering sound which sounded like an enormous dishpan being hit.
“THE SHADOW STRIKES!” came a sepulchral voice, as the vibration of the dishpan died to a whisper.
THE END
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction to The Best of Argosy
Minions of the Shadow
Chapter 1: Run, Creek, Run
Chapter 2: Brace Yourself for the Past
Chapter 3: Who’s Looney Now?
Chapter 4: Me and My Shadow
Chapter 5: Let’s Go to Town
Chapter 6: Here Goes Harvey!
Chapter 7: Boss of the Double Cross
Chapter 8: Harvey’s Neck is Out
Chapter 9: Big Chief Omega
Chapter 10: Snatched Tonight, Gone Tomorrow
Chapter 11: Omega’s Slipping
Chapter 12: The Ethics of Milly
Chapter 13: Inside a Blonde’s Mind
Chapter 14: The Great Darkness
Chapter 15: How Do You Kill a Shadow?
Chapter 16: Come Now, Mr. Bonzetti!
Chapter 17: Milly’s Chilly
Chapter 18: The Life of O’Reilly
Chapter 19: Two Weeks to Death
Chapter 20: O’Reilly Eats Free
Chapter 21: Back to Tomorrow
Chapter 22: One-Shot Patelli
Chapter 23: The Dead Walk: Starring Omega
Chapter 24: Keep Tuned to this Station
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The Best of Argosy #8 - Minions of the Shadow Page 13