“Daphne Strate, who it was first believed met her death in a Pullman car from an overdose of sleeping medicine, may have been deliberately poisoned. Autopsy surgeons have found traces of a very unusual poison similar in its effects to one of the barbiturate group so extensively used for the purpose of inducing sleep. In fact, the similarity was so pronounced that had it not been for the curiosity of one of the assistant autopsy surgeons who carried his investigations a step beyond the routine requirements, the poisoning might never have been discovered at all.
“Miss Strate was a passenger on a west-bound train, who, seemingly in good spirits, left word with the car porter she was to be called at eight-thirty a.m. When the porter tried to arouse her, he found she was dead.
“Making the suicide theory seem possible was the fact that New Orleans police have announced they were seeking Daphne Strate in order to question her in connection with the embezzlement of a large sum of money from the Crescent City Chemical Manufacturing & Supply Company. Police are still inclined to the theory that the poison may have been self-administered, but there is always the possibility, in such cases, of a crime having more serious repercussions, and an investigation is going forward.”
Ngat T’oy looked at me, a puzzled frown creasing her forehead. “Was the dead woman Betty Crofath or Daphne Strate?” she asked.
I studied the paper. “Betty Crofath, I think. But I don’t see just how this fits in. Those two men behind us were waiting and watching. They took no great interest in me when I entered, nor in you when you entered, but when you came to my table, when you joined me, that’s it! They were planted there, looking for a Chinese girl in the company of an American man. Quick! Let’s see that paper!”
I spread the paper out on the desk, turned back to page one, and then over to page two.
Headlines struck me with the force of a blow.
“What is it, Ed?”
I pointed.
Together we read the story which had all but escaped our attention in turning hurriedly to continue the story of the death on the Pullman car.
Headlines stretching across four columns read: “NEGRO MURDERED IN GIRL’S BEDROOM.”
Down below that appeared headlines in smaller type: “WEIRD CRIME UNCOVERED IN HOTEL ROOM OCCUPIED BY BEAUTIFUL BLONDE.”
Below these headlines was the story:
“When Arthur Harryman, house detective at a downtown hotel, entered a room which had been rented to a beautiful blonde who had registered as Betty Crofath from Buenos Aires, he was confronted by a peculiar gurgling noise which aroused his curiosity.
“Tracing the mysterious sound to the bathroom, Harryman found the body of a giant Negro, bound, gagged and slumped in death in the water-filled bathtub. Water running from the taps had evidently, for a few brief moments, overflowed to the floor of the bathroom, presumably when some obstruction had prevented the overflow drain from functioning. As Harryman entered the bathroom, water was still running briskly from the tap, filling the tub to within an inch or two of the top and then swirling down the emergency overflow drain. The water was a sinister crimson.
“In the tub, wrists and ankles carefully tied together with strong cord, gagged with a woman’s silken under things and an expensive nylon stocking lolled the inert body of the Negro.
“His throat had been cut from ear to ear.
“Police, summoned to the scene, at first pronounced the murder a sex crime, but with the development of additional evidence, are inclined to the belief that some weird, exotic gathering took place in the hotel bedroom. And the Negro may have been offered as a human sacrifice in connection with some bizarre religious rites.
“Significant is the fact that the water turned into the bathtub had been carefully regulated so as to be warm without being hot, as though the murderer had wished the body to be comfortable in death.
“Police are inclined to the theory that the crime was committed after the helpless Negro had been placed in the bathtub and water deliberately turned on to assist in removing evidence of the crime. Several good fingerprints have been developed from the faucets on the bathtub. And Arthur Harryman, the house detective, reports having seen a suspicious-looking individual on the third floor of the hotel not more than fifteen minutes before the body was found.
“Having been spotted by the alert eye of the house detective, this individual was accosted and taken to the office of the manager where he gave what appeared to be a satisfactory account of himself, explaining he was an officer from the Motor Vehicle Department. Subsequent investigation proved this to be false.
“Police have an excellent description of this individual, who is described as being about five feet ten and a-half or eleven inches in height, somewhere in the late twenties or early thirties, with an abundance of dark wavy hair, a thin straight nose, high cheekbones, penetrating gray eyes, broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, well-dressed in a dark gray, double-breasted suit. His weight is given as about a hundred and sixty five pounds.
“Because certain literature discovered in the room indicates that the murder might have an oriental background, police became interested in the fact that a day or two ago, a beautiful young Chinese girl had registered in the hotel, asked particularly for a room on the third floor, and had been assigned a room almost directly across the hall from the one in which the body was later discovered. There is, in fact, evidence leading the police to believe that this Chinese girl may actually have been in the room where the body was discovered shortly prior to the time the murder was committed. The clerk remembered that she had paid in advance for her room and that she was seen leaving the hotel shortly before the crime was uncovered.
“Police have as yet been unable to identify the victim. Apparently every bit of evidence which might give any clue as to the man’s identity had been carefully removed prior to the murder. This, coupled with the water in the bathtub and the fact that the man had been bound and gagged before being killed, convinces the police they are dealing with a premeditated murder — one which may have weird ramifications founded in oriental mysticism or voodoo eroticism.
“The authorities are not as yet divulging the name of the Chinese girl, pending some clue which will connect her more definitely with the crime. But a preliminary test by fingerprint experts indicates that it may have been the slender, tapering fingers of a woman’s beautiful hands which turned on the water in the bathtub.
“The Chinese girl is generally described as having smooth skin with a very faint trace of tawny color. She is perhaps twenty-seven or twenty-eight, slender of figure, and with features that the hotel clerk could only describe as very high-class Chinese.
“The woman who had rented the murder room under the name of Betty Crofath, is reported to he a quiet, rather beautiful blonde young woman with a distinctly Southern accent. Police feel confident that if she is innocent, she will communicate with them; or, if she is trying to avoid questioning, that they will have her in custody within another twenty-four hours.
“In the meantime, police are taking steps to identify the body, and they feel that when this is done, they will have additional light to throw upon the murder itself.”
I looked up from the paper to meet Ngat T’oy’s eyes.
“How long were you in the room after I left?”