The D.A. Breaks an Egg

Sylvia said, “I can tell you something else. The Blade is organizing a citizens’ committee. Of course, you can’t pin it right on The Blade, but it’s being done by people who are controlled by The Blade. They’re calling what they refer to as a ‘mass meeting’ at the City Hall at two o’clock this afternoon, demanding that the attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to prosecute Dorothy Clifton. Of course, people who have any sense will ignore the whole thing. But the crackpots and The Blade henchmen will be there. They’ll pass resolutions with a barb in them, indicating that you are completely hypnotized, under the domination and seductive influence of this murderess, and... oh, you know, it will make a great headline in The Blade tonight. I can just see it, MASS MEETING OF CITIZENS DEMANDS INCOMPETENT OR UNWILLING DISTRICT ATTORNEY WITHDRAW FROM CASE.”

Selby said, “Why let them pull a stunt like that, Rex? Why shouldn’t I go down?”

Brandon shook his head. “They won’t be open-minded, Doug. They’ll be soreheads whipped into line by The Blade. The thing will be stacked against you.”

The telephone rang. Brandon picked it up, said, “Hello, yes?... What’s that?... What’s that?”

He said, “Hold the phone a minute... Wait a minute, just tell me that all over again... And you say he won’t talk?... Okay. Hold the phone a minute.”

Brandon placed his hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone and turned to Doug Selby. “Now, here’s something. Grannis is back in jail at El Centro.”

“What happened?”

“No one knows. The surety company that issued the bond produced him and said it desired to be relieved of liability.”

Selby said, “Come on, Rex, we’re driving to El Centro. Want to go, Sylvia?”

Sylvia shook her head. “I’m going to stay here, Doug. I’m going to take on the job of seeing that some of your friends are at that mass meeting, and then I’m going to see that one other person goes.”

“Who?” Selby asked.

“Horace Lennox,” she said, smiling. “The Blade saw to it that this meeting was held at such a time that they could come out with headlines telling about the action taken by the irate citizens, but by the time we get done with that meeting they may not want to publish what happened.”

18

The sheriff at El Centro welcomed Brandon and Selby and said, “There’s certainly something screwy here. We thought this fellow Grannis was just a little simple, but it could be that he’s pulling a fast one.”

“How come?” Selby asked.

“This fellow who showed up to bail him out — darned if I don’t think he was a complete stranger to Grannis, but they went through an act of being long-lost brothers.

“When I brought Grannis in I had a couple of other prisoners with him and this man who came to bail him out looked the three of them over, and looked blank as a sheet of paper. It was a development he hadn’t expected, having three of them.

“Well, I was asleep at the switch and I didn’t get the play for a minute, and I said, ‘This man wants to see you, Grannis.’ With that Grannis let out a war whoop and yelled, ‘Hi, buddy!’ and this guy ran forward and said, ‘Frank, what the devil are they trying to do to you?’ They patted each other on the back and shook hands, and you’d have thought it was a real family reunion. But there was a spell there, maybe four or five seconds, when they both just looked at each other without so much as a flicker of expression.”

“You get this guy’s name?” Brandon asked.

“Oh sure. I got his name and address and all the rest of it. He’s a chap named Randies who’s in the real estate business in Fallhaven. He’s supposed to have been in the service with Grannis.”

“What happened after that?” Brandon asked.

“Well, the bail bond was all in order and Randies took him away. Then first thing this morning, Randies was back saying there had been some trouble with the bonding company. Apparently the securities that he put up to guarantee the bonding company against loss weren’t quite what the bonding company thought they should be or something, and the bonding company wanted to get out of its bond. So Randies surrendered Grannis, but said he was going out and get another surety bond, that he’d have Grannis out within twelve hours. He hasn’t showed up since.”

“Let’s take a look at Grannis,” Brandon said.

“I’ve got him here in the visitors’ room waiting for you. Now, he knows you, Sheriff. You picked him up when he was first arrested. I didn’t tell him who was coming, though. I just thought you boys could do your own talking.”

“That’s fine,” Brandon said. “We’ll see what he has to say.”

The Imperial County sheriff led the way down a corridor, opened a door, and said, “Couple of boys to see you, Frank.”

A young man sprang up from behind the table where he had been sitting, his face alert and eager. Then as he saw Brandon he promptly lost his smile and turned a glum countenance to Selby.

“Okay,” he said, “what is it?”