The D.A. Breaks a Seal

9

Over at the hotel, Selby and Rex Brandon pondered over the single sheet of typewritten paper which Norwalk had produced.

It was a page which bore at the bottom the figure “-7-” and was quite evidently a part of a manuscript which had consisted of a number of pages.

“It’s a part of a lawyer’s brief,” Selby reported after he had read it through. “It involves a question of adverse possession of real property where there has been a tenancy in common. That’s rather a complicated legal question and, as nearly as one can gather, the man who wrote this brief — whoever he may have been — was trying to establish that after there had been a definite disclaimer of the co-tenancy relation on the part of one of the purported co-tenants, and thereafter a claim established to the entire property, there could be an adverse possession as against the other co-tenant, but it’s hard to tell just what position... Rex, let’s play a hunch.”

“What?”

Selby said, “I have an idea this murder may well have been connected with the will-contest case that’s going on trial tomorrow. Inez Stapleton, who is representing the contestant, tells me that one of the contestants resides in Kansas, and that death of the decedent occurred in Kansas. Let’s wire the Secretary of the State Bar Association of Kansas and find out if they have a Fred Albion Roff listed as an attorney, and where he’s located.”

Brandon thought for a moment, then moved over to a desk in Norwalk’s office and pulled a telegraph blank toward him.

“Doug,” he said as he pulled a pencil from his pocket, “I wish I had you working with me on this case.”

Selby grinned. “You’ve got me.”

Less than two hours later, Sheriff Brandon had an answer to his wire:

FRED ALBION ROFF ATTORNEY AT LAW WITH OFFICE AT EMPALMA KANSAS BEEN PRACTICING THAT COMMUNITY MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS ACTIVE IN POLITICS AND HAS SOME LOCAL REPUTATION AS AN ORATOR OF CONSIDERABLE ABILITY IN ADDITION HIS LAW PRACTICE REPORTED TO MAKE CONSIDERABLE INCOME BUYING AND SELLING REAL PROPERTY.