He Walked by Night Page #2

By dawn, many minor wrongdoings

had been uncovered...

and a few incipient felonies.

The checking of the suspects had been

thorough, painstaking, and tedious.

But all the work was for nothing.

The man who had shot Officer Rowlins

was not among them.

He remained no more than a description,

a shadow of a man.

Mysterious. Elusive. Deadly.

Hidden away somewhere in the vast city.

As for Rowlins himself, he couldn't help.

He was in a coma at Receiving Hospital.

Mrs. Rowlins waited out

the long, tense hours...

while her husband fought to live.

Many another officer's wife had so waited.

Many another will.

The word came shortly after sunup.

A white male American, 26 or 27...

Brown hair. Regular features.

Pencil mustache.

This was no frightened fugitive.

What went on in his mind?

Why had he set his hand

against his fellow men...

taken the life of another, of a stranger...

of a man who was merely doing his duty?

He must have some plan...

some goal that called for sudden death

to anyone who got in his way.

- Good morning, boys.

- Good morning, Lee.

Hi, Professor.

I thought this was safe-cracker soup.

You're gonna drink it, I hope.

I'm really a nice guy. Stick around.

I'll prove it.

Come over here.

Hold this for me, will you, Chuck?

Thank you.

Now, if you'll hand me that hammer, Marty.

Thank you.

Yeah, nitroglycerine.

I didn't ask for a collection of fingers,

just fingerprints.

All those nice fingerprints on the car

belong to the man it was stolen from.

- Nothing on the guns or picklocks?

- Not even an interesting smudge.

- The gloves?

- Common type. Worn by undertakers.

I'll check on them,

but it won't show anything.

- What did your scientific tests show?

- A couple of little things.

Tool identification on these picklocks.

I got one under the scope.

You want to take a look?

Take a look.

I see.

It seems to tie the tool up with the lock.

If that microscope could only tell us

who did it.

I'm working on that.

Only an amateur would carry

that liquid dynamite in the car.

This boy is no amateur.

Took the precaution of desensitizing it,

so it'll take normal shock.

Took a lot of other precautions, too.

No fingerprints, no identification,

nothing definite.

Except he's scientific.

Knows electricity. He's inventive.

Happy on the trigger.

This is Captain Breen. Get me

Captain Stevens at Burglary, will you?

I hate to disappoint you, Lee,

but I think you've come up with something.

Hello, Steve? How are you?

Did your daughter's marriage

come off all right?

Good. Look, Steve, on those burglaries

of electrical equipment lately.

Were there any

where picklocks were used to gain entry?

Good. Let me know

if there's another report of one, will you?

I've got an idea the Rowlins killer

may be tied in with those.

Fine. And give my regards

to the newlyweds, too.

So long, Steve.

What are you waiting for?

You've got a job, haven't you? Get going.

Let's go, junior.

Hold this for me, will you, Lee? Thanks.

And so, with no fingerprints

and only a vague description to go by...

Sergeant Brennan

turned to the modus operandi file.

A criminal, like any human being,

has his own habit patterns...

unconscious traits

that can lead to his downfall.

Here they are, junior.

List of burglars who use picklocks for entry.

Great. This narrows it down to just

a couple of hundred suspects in this area.

Give me a match, will you?

It may not be so bad.

This guy's improved on the system. Maybe

he's left his trademark on some other job.

Here we go. Legging it all over town,

asking a million questions.

- It's what you're paid for, isn't it?

- Am I paid to associate with you, too?

- You could do worse.

- Not this year. Come on.

Car 12. Car 1-2.

In the 10000 block on Mississippi.

A 394-15 disturbance.

Car 80K. Code 1.

All units.

On the broadcast of the suspect arrested

in the shooting of Patrolman Rowlins:

Cancel the cancellation.

Suspect released from custody.

Hello, Mr. Martin.

You'll find Mr. Reeves in the machine shop.

Hello, Roy. Glad to see you.

- How are you, Mr. Reeves?

- Fine. I was hoping you'd drop in.

I wanted to thank you for showing us

how to handle that repair job.

It helped a lot.

What have we got this time?

Oscillograph?

We have plenty of these around, Roy.

Not like this one.

Yes, I see.

I suppose, as usual,

you've added your own improvements.

It seems wrong that a man of your talent...

should bother

consigning equipment for rental.

I'd like to see you devote yourself

entirely to experimental electronics.

It'll come one day.

- I'll have a place like this.

- Why wait?

I've got a pretty good setup here.

You'd have modern equipment

to work with, a lab...

- and my confidence.

- Thanks, Mr. Reeves.

- I have other plans.

- But, Roy, you can't tell where it'll lead.

Might even work your way around

to a percentage of the business.

I like it this way.

You just rent out my equipment.

All right.

- But if you should change your mind...

- I'm not likely to change my mind.

I suppose you want me

to set this up for rental, too.

You've already got five pieces

of my equipment.

You'd like to know what results I've had

from the rentals so far?

I can't say as I blame you.

I think you'll find this satisfactory.

Satisfactory.

- Goodbye, Mr. Reeves.

- You'll come back again soon, won't you?

- Sure.

- Incidentally...

how's that television projector,

the one which will reflect a 12-foot image?

Still working on it.

I just wanted you to know

I've already set up a rental on it.

In fact, I think they'd like to buy.

It'll come pretty high.

Money's no consideration

with this customer.

- Tell him he can pick it up tomorrow.

- I thought you said it wasn't finished yet.

It'll be finished.

It uses an image fixer and

then projects by ordinary incandescence.

This is the best television projector

I've ever seen.

- Let's hope that your customer thinks so.

- He will.

Yes?

Send him right in, Charlotte.

There, you see? Our customer is here,

begging for the privilege of buying.

Better be running along.

I'm not much good at business.

But, Roy, he'll want to congratulate you.

Just see that the price is right.

All right, Roy. I'll get you a good deal.

- So long.

- See you.

Mr. Dunning, come in.

Isn't it a beauty?

- It's a beauty, all right.

- You like it?

I certainly do like it.

- You see, it's mine.

- What do you mean?

Let me have the police.

- I built it. Spent years on it.

- You must be crazy.

Roy built this machine himself.

Your friend's a crook, Paul.

You've been taken in.

Hello? Give me the burglary detail.

"Dear Tim...

"regarding your inquiry on the.38 caliber

Smith & Wesson revolver..."

Come in, boys.

Burglary detail just sent this report through.

A man named Dunning reports

tracing a stolen television projector...

- to the Reeves Electronics Lab.

- Think it's a tie-in with the Rowlins' case?

Take a look at this fellow Reeves,

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