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Page 107
I found the time dragging heavy on my hands and I wished that
Kennedy would return to the laboratory or decide upon some
definite action. Though I racked my brain, I failed to think of a
device whereby Kennedy could get blood smears of Shirley or
Marilyn without their knowledge. Once more my reflections veered
around to the matter of the stolen towel and I wondered if that
had been wasted effort on Kennedy's part; if the fire had thrown
out his carefully arranged plans to trap whoever took it.
Suddenly I realized that Kennedy was following a very definite
procedure, that his seeming indifference, his apparent idle
curiosity concerning the scene taking, masked a settled purpose.
When Phelps entered he approached him casually and turned to him
with skilled nonchalance, holding up a finger.
"Will you lend me a pocket knife for a moment?" he asked, "to get
a hang-nail?"
Phelps produced one, rather grudgingly. Kennedy promptly went
over to the window, as though seeking better light. Thereafter he
avoided Phelps. Soon the banker had forgotten the incident.
Some time later Manton rushed in from the office. Kennedy
maneuvered his way to the promoter's side and waited his chance
to borrow that man's pocket knife under conditions when Manton
would be the least apt to remember it. Then he made his way
around to Mackay and I saw that both the acquisitions went into
little envelopes of the sort used to take the blood smears after
the explosion and falling glass.
Kennedy now seemed rather elated. Millard entered and he borrowed
the scenario writer's knife in exactly the same fashion as the
others. No one of the three men noticed his loss. I thought it
lucky that all three carried the article, and tried to guess how
far Kennedy intended to carry this little scheme.
Kauf's announcement of lunch gave me my answer. It seemed that
there would be just half an hour and that the entire cast was
expected to make shift at McCann's rather than attempt to go to
any better place at a greater distance. Immediately Kennedy
turned to me.
"Hurry, Walter! Twenty minutes' quick work and then it's the
laboratory and the solution of this mystery."
With Mackay and the bag we stole to the dressing rooms, waiting
until sure that everyone was downstairs. In Enid's chamber
Kennedy glanced about carefully but swiftly. When nothing caught
his attention he picked up her finger-nail file, gingerly, from
the blunt end, slipping it into one of the little envelopes which
Mackay held open. Thereupon the district attorney put his
identifying mark upon the outside and we went to the next room.
It proved to be Gordon's. The general search was barren of
result, but the dressing table yielded another finger-nail file,
handled in the same manner as before. Then we entered Marilyn's
room and left with the file from her dressing stand. In Shirley's
quarters, the last we visited, we were in greater luck, however.
While Kennedy and Mackay abstracted the usual file, I discovered
some bits of tissue paper used in shaving. There was caked soap
left to dry just as it had been wiped from the razor. More, there
was a blood stain of fair [Transcriber's note: word(s) missing.]
"Here's your smear, Kennedy," I exclaimed.
"Good! Fine!" He faced Mackay. "Now I lack just one thing, a
sample of the blood of Miss Loring."
"Is that all?" The district attorney brightened. "Let me try to
get it! I--I'll manage it in some way!"
"All right!" Kennedy took the bag. "Explain your marks so I'll
know--" He stopped suddenly. "No, don't tell me anything. I'll
make my chemical analyses and microscopic examinations without
knowing the identity in the case either of the blood samples or
the finger-nail files. If I obtain results by both methods, and
they agree, I'll return armed with double-barreled evidence.
Meanwhile, Mackay, you get a smear from Miss Loring and follow us
to the laboratory. I'll coax McGroarty to drive us down, so
you'll have your car and you can bring us back."
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