The Girl Who Kept Knocking Them Dead by Hampton Stone

he said. “She’s been living right here with Ellie. She’s been here a whole week. Don’t tell me you don’t know anything about her.”
    “We haven’t been here a whole week, Mr. Bannerman,” Gibby said patiently. “We came in only today and as far as we know there’s been only the one girl living here, the girl who called herself Sydney Bell.”
    “Yes, that’s Ellie. Sydney Bell, that’s the name she uses on her job.” He stopped short. Something had gone a bit wrong with his breathing. He swallowed hard and spoke again. “You said ‘called herself Sydney Bell,’” he muttered. “What do you mean ‘called herself’?”
    “Sydney Bell is dead,” Gibby said gently. “The woman who cleaned for her came in early this afternoon and found her dead.”
    He stood quite still for a moment, stunned. Then he shook himself, just as a dog does coming out of water.
    “Is this some kind of a gag or something?” he asked. “It isn’t funny. It isn’t a bit funny.”
    “It isn’t funny,” Gibby said. “She was killed. Murdered, Mr. Bannerman.”
    “Ellie? You’re crazy. Who’d kill Ellie? What would anyone want to kill a kid like her for?”
    “We’re going to have to find that out.”
    Bannerman charged toward Gibby. He grabbed up a big fistful of the front of Gibby’s coat.
    “Joanie,” he said. “Was Joanie here? What’s happened to Joanie?”
    Gibby made no move to push him off.
    “I know this is rough,” he said, “But you must see that we’re not giving you a hard time. It’s the facts about your sister that are rough. There’s nothing we can do about those right now, but there may be something we can do about your fiancée.”
    Bannerman shook Gibby a little. “You leave Joanie alone,” he stormed. “You hear me? You leave her alone.”
    Gibby backed him toward a chair and pushed him down into it.
    “Now look,” he said. “I’m laying it on the line. We don’t know the first thing about Joanie. We hadn’t the first idea that she was supposed to be here. Just try to remember we’re on your side. You want to find her and we want to help you find her. We can’t even get started unless we know her name. We’ll try to find her for you, but give us her name. Give us a description. Answer some questions, man.”
    Bannerman spoke but the words were coming through tight, stiff lips. We had to strain to hear them.
    “She came here last week,” he said. “She wanted to shop and Ellie invited her to come stay with her. Ellie was helping Joanie with her shopping, Ellie knowing the stores here and all. I was supposed to be coming in tonight and the way we had it fixed I’d go to the hotel and wash up and come right over here. They were going to be here waiting for me. I got an earlier train and I thought I’d surprise them. Now this.”
    “Your fiancée?” Gibby asked. “Does she know anyone else in New York? Anyone she could have gone to?”
    He shook his head. “Nobody here in New York,” he said. “Nobody at all in the East except some cousins she’s got in Boston. She was…” He broke off and beat his fists against his forehead.
    “Come on,” Gibby urged. “Come on. Don’t stop to think.”
    Bannerman sighed. “No,” he said. “That’s no good. She wouldn’t be up there now, expecting me here tonight.”
    He explained that Joanie had planned to go up to Boston for a couple of days during her week in New York. She had promised to visit these cousins of hers but he felt certain that she would have done that earlier. She couldn’t possibly have planned it so that she wouldn’t be in town for his arrival.
    “Do you know the name of these cousins?” Gibby asked.
    “Hale. Mrs. Stephen Hale. They live on something I think it’s called Fenway. Is there a street called Fenway up in Boston?”
    “I hope there is,” Gibby said. “We’ll try it. Is that Joanie’s second name, Hale?”
    “No. Mrs. Hale’s her cousin. It’s Loomis—Joan Loomis.”
    I picked