Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 16 Skeletons From My Closet Part 9

The sergeant glanced at the bowling bag, then looked at me. "It's no gag," he said. "That's probably just how the killer's mind worked. I know all about him - everybody on the force has studied those Torso Slaying cases inside and out for years. The story makes sense. The murderer left town twenty years ago, when things got too hot. Probably he did join up over in Europe, and maybe he stayed on in the Occupation countries when the war ended. Then he got the urge to come back and start all over again."

"Why?" I asked.

"Who knows? Maybe it was a hobby with him. A sort of a game he played. Maybe he liked to win trophies. But imagine what nerve he had, walking into a Bowling Convention and pulling off a stunt like that? Carrying a bowling bag so he could take the -"

I guess he saw the look on my face because he put his hand on my shoulder. "Sorry," he said. "I know how you feel. Had a pretty close shave yourself, just talking to him. Probably the cleverest psychopathic murderer who ever lived. Consider yourself lucky."

I nodded and headed for the door. I could still make that midnight train, now. And I agreed with the sergeant about the close shave, the cleverest psychopathic murderer in the world.

I agreed that I was lucky, too. I mean there at the last moment, when that stupid sneak-thief ran out of the tavern and I gave him the bowling bag that leaked. Lucky for me he never noticed I'd switched bags with him.

I wish to direct myself particularly to the realists among you. Dummies - the ones I know at any rate - can be quite vocal. May I ask that you never pooh-pooh the utterances made by them and other inanimate objects. If you, for example, should bark your s.h.i.+ns on a chair that gets in your way, kick it, berate it, but, for heaven's sake, do not deny it its right to talk back.

...SAID JACK THE RIPPER.

BY ROBERT ARTHUR.

Two weeks before the annual opening, Atlantic Beach Park was a ghost town by night, wrapped in shadowed silence. A mist riding in from the ocean twined itself around the Ferris wheel, hid the deserted roller coaster, made the street lights into s.h.i.+mmering yellow blobs.

Inside the one big room of the rickety building that housed Pop Dillon's Chamber of Horrors - The Waxworks Museum Supreme - a dusty bulb on the end of a long drop cord gave a little light, but left the corners full of shadows that seemed to crouch as if about to spring. A lifetime in the carnival business had made Pop, a wizened little man, a night owl. Now he was getting his a.s.sortment of murderers, cutthroats, criminals and victims ready for the coming season - mostly a matter of brus.h.i.+ng off the winter's dust or mending a few moth holes in the costumes.

Humming tunelessly, Pop adjusted the flowing necktie of Holmes, the Chicago murder king whose odd hobby had been to cut up pretty young women in his bas.e.m.e.nt. Then he went on to John Dillinger.

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream," Pop sang in a monotone to himself, "merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream ... h.e.l.lo, Mr. Dillinger. You're looking fine. But what a condition to let your gun get into. Rusty!"

Dillinger didn't answer. Sometimes he did; sometimes he didn't. It depended on his mood. Pop was always willing to chat when one of his wax figures seemed in the mood, and he had had a number of interesting conversations with some of them, such as the ones he had with Jack the Ripper, who was naturally boastful. Others, though, never spoke a word - they were the silent types. Pop never tried to force them to talk - even a wax dummy had a right to privacy, he figured.

Pop was dusting Jack the Ripper, who with knife in hand kneeled over a female victim, a fiendish smile on his face, when he heard the front door open.

"Pop!" It was Hendryx, the beat cop, a friendly, burly young fellow who came forward into the circle of light as Pop turned. "Got something to tell you."

"Yeah," Pop said eagerly, curiously.

"Want to warn you. It happened just a couple hours ago."

"Yeah?"

"Your old pal Burke Morgan escaped. On the way to the Sh.o.r.e Beach Penitentiary -"

"Morgan escaped?" Pop's creased features registered dismay. "But he's going to the electric chair at midnight."

"Was going."

"You mean he's not?"

"He had the nerve to pet.i.tion the Governor to postpone his execution. Said he wasn't well enough to be executed. Imagine that. He'd been in the prison hospital with something or other. What do you think of that for nerve?"

Pop could only shake his head.

"Of course the Governor said no. But the way it turned out, that didn't make any difference, far as Burke's getting out. So I thought I'd better warn you."

"That's bad," Pop said. "His escaping."

"It was all set. Then things start happening. The Governor he orders Morgan transferred to Sh.o.r.e Beach Pen when they find the chair up at the state pen's not working."

"But you said he wasn't going to be electrocuted -"

"He got away. Four guards in the prison van, and he got away. A big truck comes along, smacks into the van and knocks it over."

"Oh, that's very bad."

"They had to cut Morgan out of that van with acetylene torches. And these two guys that done it had machine guns - that's the way I heard it."

"Oh, he must be caught," Pop moaned. "My whole summer'll be ruined if he isn't."

"I wanted to warn you. They think he's wounded. And that's not going to help his disposition none. Well, I got to be on my way. Just wanted to tell you so you'd be on the lookout."

"My whole summer," Pop said dolefully. "Look over here, Hendryx, at this new display. It'll be a great drawing card, but only if Morgan is electrocuted."

"Should be going," Hendryx said as he followed Pop to a realistic electric chair set on a platform in the middle of the room. Then he asked, "What's the pitch, Pop?"

"Why, down in the workroom I'm making a wax figure of Burke Morgan. It's going to sit in that electric chair. Nice one, isn't it? And you know I got it quite reasonable from that theatrical supply firm down on Race Street."

"That girl holding the tray. That's supposed to be Alice Johnson, isn't it?"

"And sitting at the table is Pretty Boy Thomas. It's the same table he was eating at when Morgan stepped up to the window of the Briny Spray Oyster House down by the boardwalk and shot him because of their little argument."

"That sure looks like Pretty Boy, Pop. He sure looks alive - which of course he ain't."

"I'm going to call this exhibit, 'Burke Morgan, the Quiz Winner, Electrocuted as His Victims Watch.'"

"Good idea, Pop. But now I gotta get going. Just wanted to warn you. Case you hear anybody trying to get in, you'd better call us quick."

"That Burke Morgan's a vain one. Being on that quiz program just blew him up all the more. Always boasting how much he read on Crime and Criminals, so having that subject on the quiz was a natural for him. Just the same he did come to me to talk about my boarders."

"That's Morgan all right," Hendryx said.

"You know what he said to me? He said other criminals were illiterate and that's why they were always caught. And he tells me that he had killed twelve men - one whole dozen - and had never even been suspected."

"Okay, Pop. Just you be careful."

Hendryx left. For a moment Pop looked gloomy as he walked over to the carefully set table where a handsome, curly-haired figure sat as if eating. Pop began to dust the dishes and silver and rearrange them.

"That's life, Pretty Boy," he sighed. "Get a nice exhibit worked out and then Burke Morgan has to escape. But maybe I can save it yet - reenact the murder maybe, when Morgan shot you just as you were eating oysters. What was that quarrel about between you two, anyway?"

He waited, but Pretty Boy did not answer. Probably Pretty Boy felt upset over the escape, too. Naturally, he'd rather have been part of an exhibit showing Morgan electrocuted than of one that re-created his own violent death.

Pop turned to the wax figure of Alice Johnson, a slender girl with dark brown hair and rather wistful eyes, the girl who had witnessed the murder. He straightened Alice's ap.r.o.n, made sure the tray was firm. Then he fluffed up her hair. "There," he said, "you look pretty, Alice."

He thought he heard her say, "Thank you," but he couldn't be sure. Alice was still extremely shy and hardly ever talked above a whisper.

Alice looked so pretty that Pop could not restrain himself from saying, "If only you hadn't screamed, Alice, Morgan might not have noticed you and shot you. But there, don't look so upset, I shouldn't have brought it up. I know it's a painful memory, but you'll be happy here with us, Alice, really you will. This summer you'll get to see thousands of new people, and they'll all admire you, you'll see. And after all, it was because you screamed that Morgan got caught."

Pop tactfully left Alice to recover her composure and went on dusting his way toward the darkest corner of the room. There he stopped. The figure standing there was out of place.

"Now, Burke Morgan," he said reprovingly, "what are you doing in this corner?"

"All right, Pop," the figure said softly. "Take it easy, don't make me kill you."

Pop's expression became severe. His figures were allowed to talk, but they weren't permitted to threaten him.

"Don't talk like that, Morgan," he said, "or I'll put you in a dark closet for a week. Besides, you're not finished yet. So you just go right back down to the workshop."

The waxworks figure stepped forward, blue-steel glinting in its hand.

"This is me, Burke Morgan," the soft, curiously cultured voice said. "You don't really think one of your dummies is going to start talking to you?"

"Of course they do," Pop told him, realizing that this Burke Morgan was flesh and blood, not wax. Apparently, he had slipped into the Chamber of Horrors to hide. "Almost all of them talk to me. Jack the Ripper and Billy the Kid are especially good talkers. They're the boastful type. Only Jesse James never says a word. I think Jesse James is angry because folks don't pay him much attention any more."

"Break the connection, you're talking too much." Morgan stepped forward, patted Pop's pockets, then put away his own gun. "If you want to be around to open this nightmare factory next month, you'd better do just as I say."

"Oh, I will," Pop promised. "So will everybody here. We don't want to get hurt. Most everybody here except me has been killed once already, and that's enough."

"The cops have this place surrounded. And I have a flesh wound in my shoulder. I must get to the hiding place my friends have waiting for me. That's where you come in."

Pop shook his head doubtfully. "There just isn't any way. The police will spot that prison suit right away."

"But what is the one thing they won't notice tonight?" Burke Morgan almost purred. "Another cop. You have a half dozen dummies here wearing police uniforms. I want one of those uniforms."

"Why, that's very clever." Pop c.o.c.ked his head and listened. "They all think it's very clever, Burke. Jack the Ripper says you're a very artful dodger."

"Never mind Jack the Ripper. A man has to have brains and imagination to stay on top in any business, Pop, and I have them. That's why I'm here now and not up in the state pen waiting to walk through that little green door. Now help me off with this - My shoulder! You'll have to cut this jacket off me."

"Oh, I don't want to do that! Why, if I can get that suit off without cutting it, I can still have an exhibit. I can show the very prison suit you escaped in, the night you were to be electrocuted."

"Pop, don't get me angry. The doc at the prison said getting angry was bad for me, so I'm being gentle with you. I don't care if twenty-five years of running this private morgue has scrambled your gears so you think your dummies talk to you, but just don't play games with me."

"Oh, they don't just talk to me," Pop explained. "They talk to each other too. You should have heard them talking the night you killed Pretty Boy and Alice Johnson, right over by the boardwalk. My, they were excited - Oh, I'm sorry. I'll cut that coat right off you and I won't say another word."

"Pop!" The word was like a pistol shot. "Someone's rattling the front door!"

"Probably Hendryx came back." Pop looked toward the door. "He's the only one it could be."

"Get rid of him!" The tall man with the strange light blue eyes slipped behind a group of figures at a card table. One of the figures was Jesse James, and behind him Howard, his slayer, was creeping up with a drawn revolver. At the card table Morgan froze into immobility, appeared to be a spectator.

"I'll stand here until he's gone," Morgan whispered. "Remember, I have you covered. The wrong word and you and the cop'll be exhibits in this three-dimensional cemetery."

"I'll be careful," Pop promised. "Everybody, you must promise not to make a sound. Especially you, Billy the Kid!" He raised his voice. "Is that you, Hendryx?"

The burly young cop came through the door.

"Just wanted to warn you again, Pop. Morgan was seen entering the amus.e.m.e.nt park an hour ago. We're going to search the whole place inch by inch. We got orders to shoot to kill."

"Oh, please don't shoot him! If you catch him alive, he'll still go to the electric chair and then I can use my new exhibit."

There was a tiny sound, a brief movement. Young Hendryx stared toward the group of dummies around the card table.

"Pop, one of those dummies moved!"

"Oh, they couldn't have! I made them promise not to."

But Hendryx already had his gun out, moving toward the card table tableau. He had taken no more than two steps when the muzzle flare of a .38 flickered shadows over the wax faces of a score of dummy figures, making them seem to grimace in excitement and horror. Hendryx grunted as the bullet hit him, gave a long gurgling sound, and pitched forward on his face.

Pop stood very still.

"You'd better be leaving, Morgan," he said. "Even if the police outside didn't hear that shot, they'll be here soon, because they're searching the whole amus.e.m.e.nt park. They'll find Hendryx and they'll find you, because there isn't any place here to hide either of you."

"Oh, yes there is," Burke Morgan told him. "So I'm staying. First, lay two or three dummies in police uniforms on top of this flatfoot. If anybody asks, they're all going back to the workshop for repairs."

"That might work, yes indeed, it might," Pop agreed. "Dr. Crippen, the English poisoner, says he thinks it will work. But what about you?"

"Don't worry about me, Pop. You forget - I have imagination! So when the police get here, I'll be ready. And you won't give me away or you'll get what Hendryx got. Now get busy piling those dummies on him."

"Yes, Morgan, I will. And I'll not breathe a word to the police. That goes for all the rest of you." Pop raised his voice. "If the police come, not a word about this, do you hear?"

He waited, then nodded.

"They've promised, Morgan," he said. "Even Billy the Kid has promised. For my sake. They won't say a word."

"Keep your eyes open, Pop," the police inspector called back as he headed for the door. "Blow that whistle I gave you if you hear anything. We'll come running. Morgan's around some place."

"I will, Inspector," Pop Dillon answered, staying carefully in front of the seated figure in the electric chair - a figure with a black cloth over its face, with a metal plate clamped to its skull, with straps holding its wrists and ankles in place.

"'Night now," Inspector Mansfield said and went out, following his men.

As the door closed, the figure in the electric chair stirred. Burke Morgan lifted the false bands that seemed to bind his arms and legs. He pushed back the metal bowl on his head and lifted the black cloth from his face. He winced as his stiffened shoulder protested.

"Seemed like they were here an hour," he said. "Good thing they were in a hurry, my shoulder was getting pretty bad. But, you see, they never gave me a second look."

"Oh, it was very smart," Pop agreed. "But now what can you do? If you go out even in a police uniform, they'll recognize you; there are so many of them."

"I don't think so. But anyhow I'm going to stay here for a couple of hours until they move to another part of the park. If anyone comes back, we'll work the same trick. I'm going to take it easy right here in this chair, and you can sit there, in your old rocker. We'll wait together, Pop."