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“Slit his throat I was afraid to tell-they’d pin that on me, too”

“Slit his throat?” Bell demanded “Or stabbed?”

Jake ran a hand through his thinning hair “Stabbed, I guess”

“Did you see a knife?”

“No”

“Was he run through? Did the wound exit the back of his neck?”

“I didn’t stick around to examine him close, Mr Bell Like I said, I knew they’d blame me”

“Get over there,” Bell told Kisley and Fulton “Sheriff, would you send a doctor? See if he can reckon what killed hi he’s been dead”

“Where will you be, Isaac?”

Another dead end, thought Bell The Wrecker wasn’t just lucky, he made his own luck “Railroad station,” he answered without a lot of hope “See if any ticket clerks recall selling him a ticket out of here”

He took copies of the luabled, two-story building with a tall clock tower, and queried the clerks Then, driven in a Ford by a railway police official through tree-lined neighborhoods of cottages with jigsaork, he visited the homes of clerks and supervisors ere off work that day Bell showed the drawing to each nize the face, Bell showed hinized either face

How did the Wrecker get out of Ogden? Bell wondered

The ansas easy The city was served by nine different railroads Hundreds, if not thousands, of passengers passed through it every day By now, the Wrecker had to know that the Van Dorn Agency was hunting hietshis escapes

Bell enlisted Van Dorn agents froden office to canvass hotels, on the odd chance that the Wrecker had stayed in the junction city No front-desk clerk recognized either drawing At the Broom, an expensive, three-story brick hotel, the proprietor of the cigar store thought he ht have served a customer who looked like the picture with the beard A waitress in the ice-cream parlor remembered a man who looked like the clean-shaven version He had stuck in her mind because he was so handsoo

Kisley and Fulton caught up with Bell in the spartan Van Dorn office, one large roo side of Twenty-fifth Street, which was a wide boulevard divided by electric-streetcar tracks The side of the street that served the legiti the station was lined with restaurants, tailors, barbers, soda fountains, ice-cream parlors, and a Chinese laundry, each shaded by a colorful awning Van Dorn’s side housed saloons, roo for brothels