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Page 54
XV
I BECOME A DETECTIVE
Important as it was to watch Enid and Marilyn, Werner and the
rest, Kennedy decided that it was now much more important to hold
to his expressed purpose of returning to the laboratory with our
trophies of the day's crime hunt.
"For people to whom emotion ought to be an old story in their
everyday stage life, I must say they feel and show plenty of it
in real life," I remarked, as Enid set us down and drove off. "It
does not seem to pall."
"I don't know why the movie people buy stories," remarked Craig,
quaintly. "They don't need to do it--they live them."
When we were settled in the laboratory once more Kennedy plunged
with renewed vigor into the investigation he had dropped in the
morning in order to make the hurried trip to the Phelps home in
Tarrytown.
I had hoped he would talk further of the probabilities of the
connection of the various people with the crime, but he had no
comment even upon the admission of Enid that she had known
Millard for a period long antedating the trouble with Stella
Lamar.
It seemed that, after all, he was quite excited at the discovery
of the ampulla and was anxious to begin the analysis of its
scale-like contents. I was not sure, but it struck me that this
might be the same substance which had spotted the towel or the
portieres. If that were so, the finding of it in this form had
given him a new and tangible clue to its nature, accounting for
his eagerness.
I watched his elaborate and thorough preparations, wishing I
could be of assistance, but knowing the limitations of my own
chemical and bacteriological knowledge. I grasped, however, that
he was concentrating his study upon the spots he had cut from the
portieres, in particular the stain where the point of the needle
had been, and upon the incrustations on the inner surface of the
tube. He made solutions of both of these and for some little time
experimented with chemical reactions. Then he had recourse to
several weighty technical books. Though bursting with curiosity,
I dared not question him, nor distract him in any way.
Finally he turned to a cage where he kept on hand, always, a few
of those useful martyrs to science, guinea pigs. Taking one of
the little animals and segregating him from the others, he
prepared to inoculate him with a tiny bit of the solution made
from the stain on the piece cut from the portiere.
At that I knew it would be a long and tiresome analysis. It
seemed a waste of time to wait idly for Kennedy to reach his
conclusions, so I cast about in my mind for some sort of inquiry
of my own which I could conduct meanwhile, perhaps collecting
additional facts about those we were watching at the studio.
Somehow I could not wholly lose my suspicions of the director,
Werner; especially now as I marshaled the evidence against him.
First of all he was the only person absolutely in control of the
movements of Stella Lamar. If she did not bring up her arm
against the curtains in a manner calculated to press the needle
against her flesh it certainly would not seem out of the way for
him to ask her to do it over again, or even for him to direct
changes in her position. This he could do either in rehearsal or
in retakes after the scene had actually been photographed. It was
not proof, I knew. Practically all of them were familiar with the
action of the scene, could guess how Werner would handle it. The
point was that the director, next to Millard, was the most
thoroughly conversant with the scenes in the script, had to
figure out everything down to the very location and angles of the
camera.
Another matter, of course, was the placing of the needle in the
silk. For that purpose some one had to go to Tarrytown ahead of
the others, or at least had to precede the others into the living
room. Offhand I was compelled to admit that this was easiest for
Phelps--Phelps, the man who had insisted that the scene be taken
in his library. At the same time, I knew it was quite possible
for the director to have entered ahead of anyone else, possible
for him to have issued orders to his people which would keep them
out of the way for the brief moment he needed.
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