“What?”
Well, on account of the fire, the body had been pretty well cooked, but I found a blood clot inside the skull.”
“Anything unusual about that?”
“It depends.”
“What else?”
“Just routine. I took a sample of blood from that blood clot, and I searched around trying to find some blood from the body. I finally got a little from the liver, enough to make a test. I also picked up some of the lung tissue.”
“What’s that for?”
“Well... I just wanted to have it.”
“If you got blood from the blood clot in the brain isn’t that enough to give you a grouping or whatever it is you want?”
“Probably.”
“Then why take some from the liver as well?”
“I want to see if they match.”
“What are you getting at? The blood from a body is all in the same group, isn’t it?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, why all the blood samples?”
“Lots of things. We can learn a lot from blood — extent of intoxication, things of that sort. Don’t think I’m being mysterious, Colonel. I’m just being cautious and I hate to stick my neck out until I’m sure.”
“When will you be sure?”
“I haven’t completed my tests yet. Let’s take a look.”
The doctor opened a door. Several assistants were engaged in making tests. Dr. Dixon indicated a burner, a tall glass tube with several rubber tubes leading from it to other tubes, and said, “We’re testing the blood of that fellow who was killed in the automobile accident. I think we’ll find enough percentage of alcohol to indicate extreme intoxication.”
He raised his voice. “Dick, what have we done with those blood samples from Harvey Richmond?”
“I’m just getting ready to run them.”
“I’ll run them with you,” Dr. Dixon said. “Want to wait, Colonel?”
“No thanks, I’ll come back. I’m trying to make sure we don’t overlook any bets. You know if that murder was committed while the boat was within two hundred feet of the dock, it’s outside of our jurisdiction, but if the boat had drifted more than two hundred feet the murder would have been committed in our state.”
“You’ve made experiments?”
“Yes. We used blocks of wood and then we got a boat of about the same size and tried it.”
“How soon did the fire break out?”
“Not until after the boat was one hundred feet from the dock.”
“You’re certain?”
“We have a witness who swears that he saw the first flickering flame coming up and thought at first it was a bonfire. Then as the flames became larger, the burning object drifted behind a hill and all he could see was the reflection of the flame in the sky.
“Ed Wallington is rather handy with a transit. We got him to run a line on the course indicated and see where it would intersect the line of the current. Then we measured the distance from the landing float in terms of driftage and time. It would have taken between two minutes and thirty-eight seconds, and three minutes and fourteen seconds for the boat to have covered that distance. We made a whole series of tests. The variable factor depends upon just when the bow line was cast loose with relation to the time the stern line was cut. The distance is approximately one hundred feet.”
Dr. Dixon said, “I’d like to know the exact sequence of events. However, those shots were fired from close range.”
“Powder stains on the garments?”
“No. Not anything quite so tangible. However, I’ve been able to salvage some of the charred cloth and I find in it distinct evidence of lead particles. Nothing you can get with the naked eye, but stuff that the X-ray picks up.”
“How close was the killer when the shots were fired, Doctor?”
“I’d say under eight feet and more than two feet.”
“What’s that?” Stepney exclaimed. “That hardly ties in with the story anyone tells.”
“That’s why I want to do some more checking of facts. Suppose I should come up with something that would prove Trenton didn’t do it?”
“You couldn’t. He may not have done it when they claim he did it, or how they claim he did it, but he’s the murderer. He has to be.”
“Suppose he isn’t?”
“Gosh, Herb, they’ve picked him over there as a natural. Look at the evidence against him!”
“That’s just what I’m doing.”
“Their political careers may depend on a speedy conviction on open-and-shut evidence.”
“Suppose they’re wrong?”
“Well, we’d have to be mighty certain of our facts. The way things are now... I’m satisfied it’ll all tie in when you get the evidence lined up, Herb.”
“Suppose it doesn’t?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. There’s a lot at stake — co-operation between the police of two states for one thing.”
“And a human life for another,” Dr. Dixon said.
“Sheriff Landes tells me they have one of Robert Trenton’s fingerprints on the cartridge clip. It’s his thumbprint beyond any question.”
Dr. Dixon said, “I’m having photographs made of the ejected cartridge cases. Apparently there’s no question but what they were fired in and ejected by that .32 automatic.”
Colonel Stepney shook his head. “We’ve go to be careful and objective, Herb. You knew this chap on the ship and he made you like him. You’re going to have to put all that to one side.”
“Of course. But I’m not going to put my conscience to one side.”
“No one’s asking you to... but if it should go the other way, Herb, we’d have to be so sure of our facts that we could go all the way. We’d have to demonstrate Trenton’s innocence. To do what would be virtually impossible. He had the gun. It had two shots fired. He admits he fired them.”
“I know,” Dr. Dixon said. “I can t tell what I’m going to find — probably nothing.”
“If you find anything, find a lot.”
“I’ll try to find everything that remains, Colonel.”
Colonel Stepney paced the floor for a few minutes. “All right,” he said at length. “We’ll hew to the line, Doctor. To hell with the chips.”
Chapter 24
Sheriff Landes and Norton Berkeley, the prosecuting attorney, sat in conference.
There was a gleam of triumph in the eyes of Sheriff Landes, and the district attorney, making notes, would from time to time nod his head approvingly.
Landes said, “We have it all sewed up and wrapped in cellophane. We’ve made a deal with the State Police. They’re going to release Marvus Gentry and he’s going to give us everything we need to tie Robert Trenton right up with the dope shipments.”
Berkeley nodded.
“And,” the sheriff went on, “that’s just peanuts. We now have a bombshell you can spring in court, a perfect motive for the murder.”
“What is it?” Berkeley asked.
“When we searched the room of Harvey Richmond, we found he’d been cabling the authorities in Switzerland. There’s a little inn run by a man named René Charteux. Madame Charteux died very suddenly, apparently of poisoning from eating a toadstool which had been included in mushrooms she’d used as a sauce for meat.
“Apparently Richmond was suspicious, for some reason or other. He first sent a ship’s wireless to the Swiss authorities. The Swiss authorities started work. What do you think they found?”
“What did they find?”
“Madame Charteux died because she ate enough arsenic to kill a horse.”
“Can we check that up with Robert Trenton?”
“Robert Trenton stayed at the inn.”
“What dates?”
“Well,” Sheriff Landes admitted, “there’s a little discrepancy there. He apparently was at the inn a couple of days or so after the funeral. But he was pretty thick with the husband. And Harvey Richmond got the tip to work on the murder angle because of stuff he learned on the ship when he was investigating Trenton. The copies of the wireless messages show all that.