At the request of Salt Sommers and Jerry Livingston, posses made several searches of the outer swamp area. However, no trace of the missing man was found, and investigators quickly switched their activities elsewhere.
Spurred by the Star’s reward offer, clues, anonymous and otherwise, came to both the newspaper and police officials. All proved worthless.
“It begins to look as if Danny has pulled out of this territory,” Mr. Parker remarked to Penny late one afternoon as she sat in his office at the plant. “At least he’s made no further attempt to carry out his threat against Jerry.”
“Maybe he’s only lying low and waiting until the police search cools off a little.”
“Quite possible,” the publisher agreed, frowning as he fingered a paperweight. “In that case, Jerry is in real danger. I’ll never feel entirely easy in my mind until Deevers is behind bars again.”
“Speaking of me, Chief?” inquired a voice from the doorway.
Jerry stood there, a long streamer of pasted copy paper in his hand. He had written a story of a political squabble at city hall, and needed Mr. Parker’s approval before handing it over to the typesetters.
The publisher quickly read the article, pencilled an “okay” at the top, and returned it to the reporter.
“Good stuff, Jerry,” he approved. “By the way, any news of Danny Deevers?”
“Nothing new.”