"Tomorrow Never Comes" -- A Dandy Tandy Mystery

      "When was she found?" asked Inspector Daniel 'Dandy' Tandy, walking down the shabby and dimly lit hall of the Ryton Arms Hotel.
      "Around nine-thirty tonight," Sergeant Norton replied, checking his notebook. "She was supposed to pay the manager, one Arnold Smythe, some back rent at eight. When she didn't show up, Smythe went knocking at her door. He went outside to look through the window, and when he did, he saw her and called us. We used his passkey to get in. I tell you, it was a shock when I turned on the lights."
      Tandy paused at the door and looked around the sparsely furnished room which until that night had been occupied by Freatta Jones, 25, clerk at Gus's Gas'n'Go. A neatly made bed leaned against one wall. A nightstand held a telephone, a phone book and a tabloid newspaper. One tiny window looked out on a well-lit street. An old bureau with a couple of broken drawers completed the room’s décor.
      Jones's body had already been taken away, but the old-fashioned iron light fixture from which she had been hanging jutted from the ceiling in the room's center.
      Flipping through his notes, Norton continued. "Smythe said Jones seemed depressed for the past few days. He thinks she had broken up with her boyfriend."
      "Boyfriend?" Tandy asked. He walked into the room and looked up at the light fixture. He walked over to the bed and looked at the faded covers.
      "A thug by the name of Brace Colings," Norton said. "He's had a few run-ins with the law. Petty theft and such. A couple of DUI tickets before he lost his license. You wouldn't figure that a girl would off herself over a loser like him."
      "She didn’t," Tandy said. "She was murdered." He looked at Norton. "I want to talk to Smythe. And send some men to pick up Colings."
      A few minutes later, Tandy and Norton were in Smythe's room at the Arms.
      "I needed her rent, but I didn't think she would do somethin' like that," Smythe said nervously. "I mean, she just was a couple of months behind."
      Tandy nodded and then said, "Tell me what happened."
      "Well, like I told the other cops, she was supposed to pay me some rent," Smythe said. "She was 'posed to get some money from an insurance company from a car wreck she was in, a couple of thousand or so. She said she'd get it today and pay me at eight o'clock. When she didn't show up, I waited and then I went lookin'. It was a terrible thing I saw."
      Tandy asked Norton, "Did you find any money?"
      "Just a few dollars," Norton replied.
      "She probably lied about the money," Symthe said. "I hear all sorts of stories. They're always going to pay me tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes."
      "Where were you when you saw her?" Tandy asked. "How far from the window?"
      "I had just walked around the corner," Smythe shrugged. "Twenty, thirty feet or so. I didn't want to get any closer."
      Tandy nodded. "So you couldn't have seen anyone else in the room."
      Smythe seemed startled. "Well, no."
      "Did you see anyone else outside?"
      "Just an old man walking his dog," Smythe said. "He lives across the street. I don't know his name."
      It took knocking on a few doors, but soon Tandy and Norton stood on the porch of Isaiah Paradine.
      "I always walk my dog at night," Paradine said. "It's exercise for us both." He spit tobacco juice into a cup.
      "Did you see anyone by the Ryton Arms?" Tandy asked.
      "I saw that manager guy," Paradine said. "He's an unfriendly cuss. Never says hi. Is he doing drugs?"
      Tandy looked at the elderly man. "Why are you asking about drugs?"
      "That place is full of it," Paradine said, pointing toward the Arms. "They go in and out at all times of the day. You know what kind of women they have over there! This town would be a lot safer if someone would burn it down. Nothing but trouble over there. It drives down property values in the whole neighborhood. And the police don't do a thing!"
      "What would you like us to do?" Tandy asked mildly.
      "Stop them!" Paradine snapped. "Close them down! Before something really terrible happens!"
      "Something terrible already has," Tandy said. "Good evening."
      A half hour later, Brace Colings was at the station, angrily demanding a lawyer.
      "We won’t get anything from him," Norton said to Tandy as they watched Colings from behind a one-way glass. "All he will say is he broke up with her weeks ago and hasn't seen her since. We found him in a bar on First Street, buying drinks for everyone."
      "Why was he doing that?" Tandy asked.
      "Says he felt like it," Norton said. "We found nearly five hundred dollars on him. He says a friend owned him the money and sent it to him."
      "That friend have a name?" Tandy asked.
      "He wouldn't tell us," Norton said. "And that's when he started asking for a lawyer and threatening to sue us."
      "Charming," Tandy said dryly. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Wait, I know who the murderer is."

How did Tandy know she was murdered? Who did Tandy arrest and why? Answers Friday.

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