Miss Fury #2 — Nick Peron

Aug 8

Aug 8 Miss Fury #2

Continued from last issue...

After her struggle with her impostor, Miss Fury knocks them out and leaves them for the authorities to get. Detective Dan Casey notes that there were two combatants fighting in the streets and sends the officers to nab the real Miss Fury while the impostor is being subdued by the authorities, but they lose her. Much to their surprise when they unmask the false Ms. Furry it turns out to be none other than Miguel Rico who is arrested for the Novak murder, however Rico refuses to talk. Meanwhile, the real Miss Fury continues the flight back home but she runs out of strength and falls off the side of a building when she can no longer hold onto the bars on a window.

At the police station, Rico is being questioned and he makes up a fantastic explanation: That the real Miss Fury was the one responsible for killing Novak and he was just a hapless victim. He tells the officers that he believes Miss Fury to be Baroness von Kampf, as he found the uniform he is wearing hidden in one of her flower pots. When it is informed that Von Kampf had actually fled to South America, they demand answers as to Rico's involvement with a man named Gruen. Unknown to them, Gruen has been watching from a window and shoots Rico dead.

While back at the home of Marla Drake, Francine and Cappy are worried that their employer has not returned home after her night out. Reading about Rico's capture and murder in the papers they wonder what happened to her. Just then Marla's fiancee Gary Hale pays a visit hoping to give Marla the engagement ring he purchased for her. When he asks where Marla is, they tell him that she has gone out shopping so Gary decides to wait until she comes back.

This of course is far from the truth, and Marla awakens in an air shaft between buildings convinced that her arm was broken in the fall. Weak and cold, Marla finds escape impossible and eventually passes out from the pain in her arm. Back at her home, Cappy decides to go looking for Marla once his shift kicks off and is given the keys to her car by Francine who stays to keep Gary busy. Gary begins to wonder what's keeping his bride-to-be and when Francine suggests that perhaps she'll be shopping all day, he decides to leave but tells Francine to have Marla call the moment she comes in.

Hours later, Cappy manages to find Marla, while at this time Gary Hale has grown impatient and called Marla's home multiple times to find that she is still note home. Suspecting that something is up he decides to go to her house and find out whats going on. At this point Cappy has returned with the injured Marla and they quickly put her bed. Cappy's relief that Gary is gone is quickly dashed when Gary arrives demanding to see Marla. Although Cappy refuses, Marla awakens and musters the strength to see him. When Marla yelps when Gary grabs her, he takes it as rejection and angrily storms out telling Marla that she won't have to worry about him "pestering" her anymore. Right after Gary leaves Marla faints and is quickly taken back to her bed.

Days later, Marla's health deteriorates and requires a doctor and needs to be put on oxygen. Deciding that perhaps patching things up with Gary will help her recover they try to call him and find that he is no longer in the city. In fact, Gary has decided to go to South America and while in a bar in Rio De Janeiro he broods over Marla's "rejection" of his marriage proposal and tries to make sense of it. His situation is picked up by Baroness von Kampf, who has gotten herself into some trouble by getting involved with Pepe Manero who is preparing to stage a coup against the government with his brother Diego using the wealth from the hotel they own to fund it. She sees Gary as a means to escape from Rio and be allowed passage back into the Untied States as Gary's new wife. She begins talking to Gary, and makes the initial contact by spilling a drink on his jacket and insisting on paying for the repairs. Gary brushes it off as an accident and leaves.

This interaction is witnessed by the Manero brothers who warn the Baroness from talking to other men to try and escape them. The Baroness recalls how the last man she spoke with was poisoned by the Manero's and decides that she has to be more cunning in order to make this new plan work. She then continues her seduction of Gary Hale, by learning that his dining downstairs and bribes the waiter to tell Hale that they accidentally gave him the seat they reserve for her each night. The Baroness then decides to "join him" for dinner.

While back in New York, Francine pays a visit to Detective Carey's home. The maid tells her that he is not in but will be home any minute and invites the woman in. Francine is left alone in the detectives office. Seeing Marla's original Miss Fury costume splayed out on the desk she takes it and flees the house. Back in Rio, the Baroness has succeeded in wooing Gary and has taken him out horseback riding. They are spotted by Pepe Manero who orders the Baroness back to the hotel while he begins to whip Gary in punishment for talking to "his girl". This turns into a full on fist fight, and while the two men are distracted the Baroness shoots Pepe after he knocks Gary out. When Gary comes around and the Baroness convinces him that he shot Pepe and tells him that his brother will surely kill him and suggests that the leave the country.

In the States, Detective Carey pays a visit to Marla's house, suspecting that he might know that Francine stole the costume, Cappy calls upstairs to warn her of his arrival. The nurse admits the detective into the house and confuses him for Gary Hale. Rushing him into the room, Marla -- delusional from her injuries -- tells the detective everything. The detective merely listens and then kisses Marla's hand. As the Detective leaves, he catches Francine scolding the nurse for admitting the detective and mistaking him for Marla's fiancee. The detective tells Francine that Gary had gone to Rio and warns her that he might be targeted by the Baroness who also fled there as well.

Back in Rio, the Baroness convinces Gary to leave and she stays with Pepe's body. Diego and his men arrive soon after and she tells him that Gary had shot his brother. Later, she has one of the bellhops move Gary's luggage into a car. Snooping around in Gary's room she finds telegrams from Detective Carey and Francine asking Gary to return to New York and burns them. As she is getting ready to flee herself, Diego enters the room and tells her that his brother awoke and does not recall Gary shooting him, that in fact he was shot from behind. Correctly suspecting her, Diego heats up a Swastika shaped branding iron and burns the symbol onto her forehead, marking her and making flight impossible.

Recovering from the injury, the Baroness coves the branding with her hair, convinced that she can get it removed with plastic surgery once she has married Gary and gotten to the Untied States. Knowing that her room is being watched she ties a bed sheet to the railing out on the balcony and hides. When Diego goes into check on her he thinks that she has escaped, allowing her to get the drop on him, and knock him off the balcony, and then sets fire to the hotel room and flees. As she flees the hotel, she is unaware that Diego had survived the fall by landing on the hotel's front door canopy. Rushing to where Gary is hiding out, she tells Gary that Diego and his men are after her and asks him to help her get away as well. Gary believes that he has come to a solution as to how to do that.

As the Baroness begins to romance Gary more and more, in the states Detective Carey spends more and more time with Marla as she recovers giving her updates on where Gary is. Cappy and Francine begin to suspect that the detective is falling in love with their employer. Meanwhile, Pepe Manero recovers in the hospital and demands the death of the Baroness. As Marla learns of Gary's current address in Rio, the Baroness has succeeded in getting Gary to propose to her and now wears his ring. However things get complicated with the sudden arrival of Bruno Beitz who survived the bomb blast, although lost an arm in the process.

Marla meanwhile flies to Rio to be reunited with Gary. She arrives just as Bruno has choked a bellhop who was bribed by the Baroness to keep her location a secret. Learning that where Gary is located, Marla learns that Gary had left for the local justice of the peace and rushes there where he is about to be married to the Baroness. Rushing there she catches Bruno outside of the building about to shoot inside with a gun. She attempts to stop him but this leads to a fight. Marla knocks him out with his own cane, but is too late to stop the wedding ceremony and the marriage is finalized. This realization causes Marla to faint.

Meanwhile, the locals have gathered with the bellhop from earlier to get retribution against Bruno for choking him earlier and string him up with a noose. Marla revives to see this, and although she thinks that man could have killed her beloved she realizes that he has answers that she needs. Finding his gun she shoots the noose, freeing Bruno but angers the townspeople who then begin to surround her.

This story is continued next issue...