et's get him out of there. With the evidence we've got, plus
Naia North's sworn statement, Judge Reed will have to bring him back
down here and release him--at least on bail until we can find the girl.
The man's innocent, Mr. D. A.; have you forgotten?"

"Yes."

"'Yes'? Yes, what?"

"I've forgotten he's innocent," Troy said quietly. "Matter of fact, he's
guilty as hell."

* * * * *

The Lieutenant half rose from his chair. "Now wait a minute! You heard
that girl's story and you've got the evidence I turned over to you right
here in this office last night. What more--"

"I'll tell you what more," Troy snapped. "That girl was a fraud, her
story was a downright lie and that evidence was faked. Let me tell you
something else, Mister: within five minutes after the guard downstairs
reported your girl friend missing, I had five squads of my men out
running down the personal information she gave me a few hours before.
And you know what they found out? _Every bit of what she told me was
false!_ Hear that? False! It took my men about one hour to prove as
much, for the simple reason that not one lead panned out. Not one! And
you know what _I_ think?"

Martin Kirk opened his mouth but nothing came out but a strangled croak.

"I think you and this dame worked out the whole thing between the two of
you to save Cordell's neck. Who could do a better job of faking evidence
than a crooked cop? What's more, you might have gotten away with it,
too--only it suddenly dawned on the girl that she was getting in too
deep."

"And so," Kirk cut in hotly, "she calmly walked through five locked sets
of iron bars and went back to Mars!"

He stood up and crossed to the desk and leaned down with his palms in
the center of the brown blotter. "You won't get away with it, Troy. You
didn't want any part of this new development from the minute I called
you on the phone last night. You knew it could show you and your whole
organization up as a bunch of bunglers and incompetents. So you got rid
of the girl, thinking that without her the truth of those murders would
never get out to the voters.

"Well, it won't work, Fatso! The evidence I dug up is strong enough to
reopen the case _without_ Naia North. All I have to do is put that
evidence in front of Judge Reed, and--"

Troy was smiling wolfishly. "_What_ evidence, Lieutenant?"

Kirk stiffened. "You know damned well what evidence. It's in your files
right now: