Issue #1
Issue #2
Issue #3
Issue #4
Issue #5
Issue #6
Issue #7
Issue #8

 

  

The Story so far:

The Shadow let the police attempt to take down the hoodlum Frank "the Snake" Earl and turned his attention to the Case of Mavis Martin, a spiritualist cheating the rich. But Earl broke free from the trap and massacred both the police and his own men who stood in the trap and he felt betrayed him. Now the Shadow is compelled to action, to find Earl. And so, he turned the case of Mavis Martin over to another. With the help of Margo Lane the Shadow, in his guise of Lamont Cranston, introduced young Morgan Willis to a strange little man called Mr. Maxwell.
When it came time for Morgan and his Aunt Agatha to face each other on the grounds of Seagate House, a mansion on the far end of Long Island, Mavis Martin was there. With Aunt Agatha's backing she was trying to lay claim to Seagate house as a Spiritual research center. But the little man called Mr. Maxwell turned out to be the Magician "the Mysterious Audini" incognito. At the height of a Seance he tripped a "ghost" and turned on the lights, revealing to the heart-broken Agatha the truth.

 

"Ghost Cove"

Written by Joe Nemec

#3
The twisted strands of fate.

 


      The smell of stagnant water and fuel oil was temporarily overwhelmed by the sulphur and smoke of Tony Marco's lighting a cigarette as he stood waiting beside the dark sedan on the wharf. The light of the match revealed in the darkness the face of a tired man. He waved out the match and took a drag then muttered some words in Italian to Nito, the driver, a recent immigrant who as yet knew no other language. They were waiting for Tony's brother Alphonse to finish his meeting in the dark and dirty building on the street adjacent to the waterfront.
      Tony stood in the chill air and looked appraisingly at Nito, could he really count on this greenhorn in a pinch? It was accepted procedure for two to stay by the car. Tony's brother Alphonse had gone into the building with a bodyguard, the two at the car were back up, a second defense headed by someone Alphonse could trust to think before acting. But it didn't make Tony's job of waiting any the easier.
      They were acting like there was a war on, thought Tony as he breathed in the smoke. Well, weren't they at war? Maybe it hadn't gotten full scale yet but it would sooner or later. The Families who had banded under "the commission" had to assert their control, didn't they?
      A tugboat in the river beside the wharf was pushing the dirty water before it and someone on the boat was aimlessly running a small searchlight across the docks and pilings. The light crossed the two waiting by the car. Tony muttered a curse at the tugboat. This wasn't the police just some clown with a light thought Tony but it still made him feel insecure and angry.
      The Tug was pulling a garbage scow and was just using the light as a crude navigation device to keep it centered in the channel by sighting the shore, but the random light moving across the wharf and occasionally the sides of buildings, suddenly hit the back of the building Tony's brother Alphonse had just entered. The light moved across the dirty brick wall and revealed a great black shape. The human shadow looked up from its climb across the wall with flaring eyes glowing red from the reflection of the light.
      The cigarette fell from Tony's slack jaw and Nito cried out in Italian and crossed himself. Then the light moved on and the back of the building was in impenetrable darkness again.
      Nito immediately jumped behind the wheel and started the car. Tony snapped out of the trance the sight of the black monster had thrown him in and followed Nito to the car. Knowing he was in charge of the car, Tony pulled his gun and cocked it against the head of Nito, who was in tears from his fear. Tony cursed at him in his native tongue to stop and get out of the car. The immigrant reluctantly obeyed.
      They couldn't leave, not with Tony's Brother still inside the building. But what were they to do? What could they do against the Shadow?


      Alphonse and his gunman climbed up the narrow dusty stairway in near total darkness, toward a single lightbulb at the top landing. Someone was going through some files in a desk at the landing, a narrow little man with a bald head and glasses who hadn't noticed them yet.
      "Doctor?" Alphonse spoke.
      The man started in surprise and looked at them as if he expected them to kill him.
      "Good evening, Doctor" said Alphonse mildly. "I was hoping I'd find you in. Could I have a word with you?"
      The words were polite but the little man looked at the two men in their dark overcoats, coats large enough to cover the bulge of guns in shoulder holsters, and saw the dull lethal gaze of the broad-shouldered tough with a broken nose who stood behind Alphonse and responded nervously. "We're closed ... If this is an emergency I could refer you to ..." he choked out backing toward an open door.
      "Dr. Volker" Alphonse began. "My name is Alphonse Marco. You may know me only by reputation, and by my people, of North Street."
      Volker quieted.
      "You recently treated a special patient." Alphonse smiled with understated menace."Frank Earl"
      Volker had reached the door to the next room and moved through it but the other men followed "I don't discuss patients, it wouldn't be good for business" Volker muttered "Surely, you understand that."
      The next room was a treatment room with cabinets and a couch, beyond another doorway were lights and a crude operating table and a dark-haired, heavy-set woman in a nurse's uniform who looked at the two men with a beetling stare. Both rooms were crude, with discolorations on the walls, the equipment old with dirty instruments scattered carelessly across the table tops.
      The Gunman and the Nurse looked at each other with hackles raised like two dogs preparing to fight.
      Alphonse removed his hat "Perhaps, you don't understand" he searched as if trying to find the right words "This Earl, he's an animal. He's killed a lot of men. He killed police and he killed his own men." Alphonse's mood darkened "We have a commission now, mad dogs like him, they make it hard for everyone."
      Dr. Volker shook his head. "I can't help you."
      Alphonse looked at the doctor angrily "Can't you?"
      The Doctor indicated their surroundings "He's not here. He's already gone."
      Alphonse puzzled over the words "Gone? Do you mean he's dead? He's died of his wounds?" he asked hopefully.
      "No, I mean he isn't here. He came but never left his car, I looked at his wounds but they were all superficial. He left and I don't know where."
      Alphonse face hardened "You helped him."
      Dr. Volker blinked "Yes, but that's only business ..."
      Alphonse stepped forward. "Don't shield him, Doctor. This man is an animal. He must die."

      From the dark stairwell came the sound of echoing steps. They all fell silent as a nervous face appeared at the office doorway.
      It was Marco.
      Alphonse muttered in Italian "I thought I told you ... " But the paleness of Marco's face stopped Alphonse in mid-breath. "What's wrong, Marco?"
      "The Shadow" he gasped and stuttered. "He's outside the window, listening to you."
      It wasn't a window but dirt encrusted glass doors with a narrow brown shade. The doors opened onto a narrow balcony. The wooden jamb was old and splintered.
      The Doctor retreated into the operating room where his nurse stood as the three hoodlums turned to face the balcony door.
      Alphonse and his bodyguard drew out their revolvers from beneath their overcoats. Marco pleaded in a horse whisper for his brother just to retreat back down the stairs. But Alphonse didn't listen, he fingered the discolored brown window shade and tried to look beyond to the balcony. Did he see a dark shape moving out there or was that just a reflection, a hint of light from the water down by the docks?
      Alphonse took a couple of steps back from the doors."Marco, open the doors." he ordered.
      Marco gasped in a deep breath but then obeyed his brother and approached the double doors. He grasped the dirt spotted glass door knobs as the two other hoods readied themselves for trouble. The old doors creaked open and a gust of cold air hit Marco as he stepped hurriedly back out of the way.
      The balcony was deserted. It was dusty and dirty but even in the weak light from the low powered light bulbs of the doctor's office you could see all corners of it. No one was there.
      Alphonse dared to step out onto the balcony holding up his .38. He looked right and left and even up but he saw nothing.
      Alphonse looked back to his brother Marco. He was tempted to curse at him that he'd been imagining things but the fear in Marco's face was real.
      Without another word Alphonse holstered his gun and lead his brother and the gunman back down the darkened stairway to the street. In a moment the engine of their car flared and they roared away into the night.
      Dr. Volker blinked after the disappearing gangsters. In a few moments it was all over, the hoodlums who were threatening him just a moment ago were gone. He turned and smiled to his nurse. "The Shadow? Humph! You would think they were being stalked by a Ghost or a Werewolf!"
      They chuckled and the heavy set nurse went back to the operating room and the table where she'd left her romance magazine while the doctor went and finished with his files in the front office. She sat, poured herself a shot of whiskey and nibbled on a bon bon.
      The filing finished, the doctor came back from the office into the treatment room where the double doors to the balcony still stood open. He was startled to see something moving on the beyond the doors on the balcony. A great black shape rose as if it had been hanging like a bat off the back of the balcony. He gasped. A hawk like face with piercing eyes faced him, but all of the rest of the form was wrapped in a black cloak. He was facing the Shadow.
      The Doctor was stunned, speechless, he dropped the files in his hands and staggered back as the black form stepped into his rooms.
      "You lied to them, doctor." came a cold voice. "Frank Earl was with you for an hour. Even if he didn't tell you exactly his next address, you had enough time to pick up something of where he was headed."
      At that moment from the doorway to the operating room came a small lead oxygen tank, it struck the shadow's shoulder. The black form flexed and took the sudden attack by turning and stepping further into the room. The small but heavy object had been thrown by the heavy-set Nurse who launched herself into the room and toward the Shadow, pouncing at him like a tigress.
      The Shadow side stepped and dodged her attack and while she was off balance, lunging past him, one of his great black .45 automatics appeared in his hand and its flat side clipped her behind her ear. She crumpled in a heap against a wall, unconscious.
      The Shadow's attention drawn away, the doctor dared to try his own attack, he reached into the antiquated electric sterilizing tray and groped for the large surgical knife. But before he could bring it up to stab the Shadow the lid, which was foot operated to keep a doctor's hands clean, came down on his fingers.
      The Shadow had seen his grabbing for the knife from the corner of his eyes and had put his foot to the sterilizer's pedal. The doctor's hand was trapped inside the mechanism.
      "Doctor" the cold voice intoned "tell me what you know of Frank Earl and where he's hiding."
      The doctor, unaccustomed to pain that was his own, tried not to answer but as he struggled the closed lid triggered the unit's sterilizing heat coils. He yelped and whimpered, struggling to free his hand from the metal lid as the heat rose to flesh searing temperatures. "My hand!" he cried. "I'm a doctor! I need my hand!"
      The Shadow was pitiless "If you were truly a Doctor I might've listened to that plea, but YOUR hand? You're a butcher who peddles his meager knowledge to the underworld." he intoned "Your hand would be no loss to Society."
      The eyes of the Shadow bored into Dr. Volker "Speak to me about Earl and I'll let you go."
      "I don't know!" the doctor screamed "He told me nothing!"
      "Think!" the shadow's face came nose to nose to the doctor "He might've said something, something that seemed unimportant at the time."
      The doctor gasped but within his struggles he managed to speak "Yes! Yes! He laughed, he was laughing at people thinking they'd find him! That he was cowering in some dirty hole in the wall. He said while people were looking for him in the city he'd vacation by the Sea."
      The lid of the sterilizer let go and the doctor crumpled to his knees holding out his seared hand.
      Suddenly from the street came the sound of screeching breaks. Across the wall of the building on the far side of the alley, visible beyond the balcony, was splayed a searchlight. It was the Police.
      The doctor looked up bewildered "You! You called the Police!" he spat.
      The shadow answered with a chilling laugh. "No, doctor. I didn't." he looked into the cowering doctor's face. "Surely, you weren't fool enough to think a butcher like you made friends with your underworld patients." The Shadow laughed all the harder and the doctor cowered before the great black shape and his cold mirth.
      Footsteps of many men were surging up the stairwell. The Shadow seemed to glide out the balcony doors and dive into the alley below just as Police barged into the doctor's rooms, their guns up and ready.
      "Hold it! Don't move!" the lead officer ordered.
      But the doctor thought he still heard the echo of the Shadow's dark laughter on the cold night air.

      The Rooms over the Garage at Seagate house were spacious compared to the dank, dark tenement rooms of the City. Frank Earl was trying to relax, though the sling on his arm and the wounds on his shoulder and side still bothered him. He sat on the back balcony of the Servants quarters which was shielded from view from the main house by the garage. He sat in a long lounge chair and watched the sunrise over the sea and the waves on Ghost Cove and picked at a plate of eggs and bacon. He'd wakened to the sound of the morning paper being thrown into the driveway and now he sat reading with interest on how the Manhunt for him was going back in the City. It seems it wasn't working out. They couldn't find him. Now wasn't that just too bad he thought as he took another mouthful of scrambled eggs.
      There was a sudden knock on the front door. Frank got up and retrieved his .38 from his clothing.
      The knock came again, quiet but intent. He opened the door with the .38 in the hand out of sight. He faced a woman with white hair who strode in quickly and shut the door behind her.
      Earl relaxed "Mavis" he smiled "what gets you here at this hour?"
      She was breathing heavily and caught her breath. Then she threw herself at him. They embraced but Frank cut it short as he winced from his wounds and pushed her away. "Hey, Mavis, what ails you?" he demanded.
      "Everything" she said almost too upset to speak.
      Frank sat down again "Take it slow, Mavis. One thing at a time."
      She nearly tore at her hair."I've been exposed!" she cried. "A Magician, his name was Audini, he spoiled my seance last night and told me to leave town before he was forced to go to the police about me." she blurted.
      Frank took the news calmly. "Audini? I think I've heard of him, that's bad. It's hard to move against someone famous."
      Mavis blinked, "Audini? No! It doesn't matter about him. It was probably a put up job, but how he and the Nephew got together I'll never know. No, there's nothing we should do against Audini. Not now, not ever. It's just being exposed like that, by now Old Agatha has told half of Long Island's old biddies about it. I'm ruined out here."
      Frank looked sharply at Mavis "You don't want Audini?" he blinked "Then what did you come to me for? ... and this early!"
      "I ... we ... the other two who were playing servants and me ... we've been told to get out. I stalled. I said I had to come back and get some things this morning. The Nephew is right now down in the house watching us like a hawk. I had to make some excuse about getting a bag I'd left here to come and warn you."
      She suddenly got wide-eyed and fearful and looked at where his lounge chair and breakfast sat on the back balcony. "You haven't shown yourself, have you?"
      Frank looked far from satisfied and looked out over the sea. "You're getting too upset, Mavis. This is not a problem yet."
      Mavis blinked again "What do you mean? We have to get you away safely ..."
      Frank turned back "No we don't" he snarled.
      She stared at him.
      He sat comfortably in his lounge chair and raised a glass of freshly squeezed Orange juice took a sip and then lit up a cigarette. While blowing out the smoke, he announced quietly. "I like it here. I'm comfortable."
      Mavis seemed puzzled at what she was hearing.
      "Look. I trust you, Mavis. You helped me when I needed a place in a pinch and I trust you to be able to deal with this little skirmish as well." he said flatly. "I'm not going back into the City just to hole up like a rat somewhere and for the Cops to dig out."
      He smiled a deadly smile as he dragged in on his cigarette "Besides, it's too late. I've already made arrangements." he waved his arm across the scene before them beyond the balcony, the sea and the blue horizon. "This Cove is perfect. I've arranged to bring in a ship from Canada. They'll bring in a few crates of stuff, I'll make myself some more Jack to work with and then I'll take that ship back to Canada and kiss this whole mess goodbye." he said pretending to throw a kiss to the horizon.
      He stood again and brought her close. "Me leave here? That's impossible." he breathed "But if your racket's been queered why don't you just pack up and come with me?"
      She pushed him away and held her head "What are you saying? How can you stay?" she shook her head "There's no way a ship can come into this cove if he moves himself into the house! And you can't hide here either, not without him finding you."
      He smiled and shrugged "This Nephew, if you make a play of leaving why should he stay?"
      "He's moving in I tell you, he'll be staying here as of tonight."
      Frank's face grew cold. He took the cigarette and flicked it down to the beach below. "If he gets in the way ... "
      Mavis knew what the next words were. She had hoped the intimations in the paper, the rumors that all those men, nearly two dozen, had died by the hand of just a single killer, were false. That no one could be that fearsome and ferocious and monstrous. That it was just lies put in newspapers to sell editions. Frank "the Snake" Earl the killing machine. But suddenly she knew the truth. She knew just how deadly a killer she was now tied in with. She now justly feared for her life. She dared not make this man angry.
      He was still talking but she hadn't heard all his words " ...perhaps an accident down by the shore." Frank was explaining. "Or maybe ..." he said with a smile "he could just disappear. A big Mystery ... after we're safely off to Canada."
      "Yes, of course ..." she mouthed weakly.
      Frank's mind was still on the problem of how to kill the Nephew. "You still in contact with that Funeral Parlor guy you were blackmailing?"
      She nodded.
      "Good" he nodded back "He can dispose of the body if necessary."
      "Frank?" she suddenly spoke up.
      He looked up at her.
      "Frank, maybe ... maybe I can handle the Nephew, myself." she thought "Maybe we can stage something for him and scare him off. I've still got this house rigged up."
      He smiled "Right! Leave killing the sucker only if he forces our hand." he shook his finger at her. "You let that rich so and so bamboozle you, for a moment, kiddo. But don't let him get away with that stuff. Play along while you have to and then turn the tables." he smiled a sunny smile that made Mavis weak in the knees. "I knew I could count on you, baby."
      Mavis turned "I'll come back with word when it's set." she said nervously, "Just keep out of sight till nightfall"
      Frank raised his glass of Orange Juice and fingered a copy of Wild West Weekly and said "No, Problem, kiddo"
      Mavis left the rooms and closed the door behind her trying to keep up her nerve. When she was outside the door she shuddered uncontrollably.

To be continued...

      This Story Copyright 2001 Joe Nemec
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