“After pulling all that dream stuff,” he said sneeringly, “mebbe you’ll come across with the evidence.”
“Sure thing.” The Phantom’s tones belied his crumbling hopes. He realized he had no evidence, and Pinto showed no signs of breaking down. “If what I’ve said doesn’t hit the bull’s-eye, why did you sneak in here and drag the body out from behind the packing cases? You seemed to be making a bee line for it. How did you know it was there?”
“So that’s what you call evidence!” Pinto sneered. “I guess if it comes down to brass tacks, my word’s as good as yours. Now that you’ve got all that stuff off your chest, mebbe you’ll answer a question or two, and you might begin by telling what you’re doing here yourself.”
“A reporter goes everywhere.”
“Reporter—huh! You’ve been on the Sphere four weeks, and soused half the time. You came here from Kansas City. You worked on a newspaper there only a week or two, according to the dope the department got. Seems you’ve been tramping around a lot in your days. Mebbe you’re an honest-to-goodness reporter, and mebbe you’re not. I’ve got a hunch of my own.”
“Let’s hear it,” said the Phantom lightly, though inwardly he felt somewhat uneasy. Pinto’s gaze, constantly searching his face, was growing keener with every passing moment.
“Well, it looks mighty queer to me that you showed up in this burg just a few weeks ahead of the Phantom, especially since you two look so much alike. What’s queerer still is that you got pinched the other day just when the Phantom was as good as caught in the net. He would have been hauled in if you hadn’t been grabbed by mistake.”
“So, that’s it.” The Phantom chuckled amusedly. “Just because it happened that way, you’re thinking that I am acting as a foil for the Gray Phantom.”
“You got me just right, Granger. I’m thinking that, though I’m not saying much about it yet. Here’s another little thing I’d like to get your opinion on.” He came a step closer, looked hard at the Phantom, and put the question sharply. “What’s become of Helen Hardwick?”
“He-Helen Hardwick?” The Phantom stood rigid, mouth gaping and eyes staring.