17 - 32 Caliber by Donald McGibeny

Delve into a world where a mere accident unravels to be a cunningly planned murder. Narrated by a lawyer who dons the detective hat, this story takes you on a thrilling ride through Bolshevik headquarters, elite country clubs, and barren creek beds, before revealing the true key to the mystery. Hold onto your seats for riveting suspense!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seventeen of thirty two Caliber by Donald mc gibney.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Thirty two
Caliber by Donald mc gibney, Chapter seventeen, red capitulates. We
hurried over to the smashed plane. The coroner leading Woods,
in his effort to run me down, had forgotten the

(00:23):
telegraph wires at the end of the field too late.
He had seen them and vainly tried to lift his
machine clear of them. The wires had caught a wing
and sent him crashing to the earth. We found him
underneath the engine, quite dead, the fall having killed him instantly.
We made an improvised litter out of one of the

(00:44):
wings and carried him to the nearest hangar. As we
placed an overcoat over the shapeless form, I heard a
sniffle behind me and found the red haired mechanician at
my side. You didn't get him, you dirty copse. He
got away from you after all all. Yes, he is
safe now, I murmured, sure. And he would have been

(01:06):
always if he hadn't a been daff over women. He
never had no luck when he played the women. His
takin that skirt out this afternoon was what give him
the hoodoo. The coroner came over to him. Now that
we can't get him, will you tell us about the
night mister Woods killed mister Felderson. The mechanics showed himself

(01:26):
distinctly hostile to the coroner. Oh no, you don't, you
fly coup. Think I'll spill the beans and get meself
in Dutch. You can go to Hell. I'll promise you
won't be prosecuted if you will tell us what happened
that night. He looked us over suspiciously, but apparently reassured.
He said, well, that's fair enough, especially since I didn't

(01:49):
have nothin to do with the crokin', although I know
pretty much how it happened. The boss there came over
to the plant, the International plant, you know, about two
weeks ago, and had me bring that plane out there
over here. We always got along together, the Boss and me.
We wasn't palls or anything like that, but we understood

(02:10):
each other. I'd seen for a couple of months that
the Boss had something on his mind. I knew it
wasn't any Jane, because they never worried him none. He
worried them a lot. But somehow he just took him
as they come he talked with me some. He claimed
I was the best mechanician he had over there, and
I figured it out at last that what he was

(02:32):
worrying about was money. He had spent a lot and
was free and easy, and it worried him to figure
that he was going to go bust pretty soon. The
first day I was here, he brought a woman out,
a swell looker. I didn't find out till afterwards that
it was Felderson's wife, and he kind of kidded her
along about helping him over the rough spots by lending

(02:55):
him a little of her dough. I sort of figured
out he was going to run off with the woman,
cause the next mornin' he come out and said we
could take a month's layoff if we wanted to, as
he was goin on his honeymoon. I thought he was
going to take me along. But when he said that,
I made up my mind to beat it back to
the plant to keep from goin bugs. Watchin them other

(03:18):
guys callin theirselves mechanics, tinkin' around them buses when they
didn't know their job. It's a darn wonder more. These
fool dudes out here ain't been killed somethin must have
slipped up, because he come out late that afternoon cussin
like the devil. He had one wail of a temper
when he got started, the boss did. He took me

(03:40):
with him in the bus and we cruised around the
country for a while. Every time he spotted a straight
stretch of road without too many trees, he'd come down
an look it over. Finally, we've found that straight stretch
of road out by the golf links at the country club.
An that must as suited him, cause that was the
only place we come to. After that, he mounted that

(04:03):
machine gun in there on the plane, and it was
then I decided he was gonna slip something over on somebody.
He didn't take me with him after that, but two
or three times when he come into the field, he'd
swoop down on that there square target he made and
put over in the corner, and I'd hear that rat
a tat of the machine gun a goin'. I asked

(04:26):
him what he was going to do with it, and
he said, we're a goin out one of these nights
and kill aeskunk. The afternoon of that night we went
out to the country club. He'd come out here, kind
of excited but cool, if you know what I mean.
You could see there was something on his mind, but
just the same, he had his head with him every minute.

(04:47):
Get me, he told me as soon as it began
to get dusk, to take the plane out to the
country club and land it on the links about a
half mile from the clubhouse, and when I get there,
to flash me pock lamp until I see him light
a cigarette on the clubhouse porch. I'd done as he
told me an he come out. He wasn't dressed in

(05:08):
a jumper, but just a cap and a raincoat over
his clothes. He told me to stay there, and after
I started the engine, he streaked away. He left about
eight o'clock and was back in fifteen minutes. He slipped
me of fifty and told me to take the plane
back and to forget i'd brought it out. I asked
him had he killed his skunk? And he laughed and

(05:30):
said I made him pretty sick. Anyway. I told the
boys to have the flares out in the park as
I was goin to test the machine, so I didn't
have no trouble in landin' He stopped and rolled a
cigarette that's all you know, is it? The coroner asked,
that's all I knows, So help me, Henry. But ain't

(05:51):
it enough? He looked around at the three of us
who had been listening intently to his story. I should
say it is, said Simp end of Chapter seventeen.