Part 15 (2/2)
”Unethical to a client,” reproved Drew linking arm with the operative.
”Come on! We must hurry! I've an idea--which is a very strange thing for a New York detective to have--that Harry Nichols, if he stays in town on furlough, will represent Loris in all matters. I don't know where she could find a better counselor. He's a clam! He told us nothing!”
”Wise boy, Chief! Only fools and women talk to detectives.”
”Umph!” said Drew at this sally. ”Umph! Well, come on. It's quit snowing. It's daybreak over there in the east and I think the clouds will clear before it gets much later. You----”
”Say, Chief!” exclaimed Delaney clutching the detective's shoulder and wheeling him around. ”Say, stand right there a minute. Right in that light. What's that on your chin? Right under the tip of your left ear.
Turn around a little more!”
Drew raised his left hand and rubbed it across his face. He pinched the lobe of his ear between his thumb and index finger. He whistled with frosty amazement as he eyed his nail and thumb.
”What to blazes!” he said. ”What's that?”
”Turn around! Right under this arc light. Say, Chief, how did you get that spot of black on your neck? You've smeared it all over your collar.”
”I don't know. What's it look like?”
”Soot!”
”Soot?”
”Sure, Chief. Lampblack or soot!”
Drew arched his dark brows as he rubbed his finger-tips together. He held them up to the stronger light. He turned and glanced back through the silent walls of the street down which they had walked. He took one step toward the east.
”Hold on!” said Delaney. ”Where are you going?”
”Going back!”
”Why, Chief!”
”Smell that stuff! Smell it!” Drew thrust his fingers under Delaney's wrinkled nose. ”Smell it, good and strong!” he snapped bitterly. ”What is it?”
”By G.o.d, Chief, it's powder, I smell! Gunpowder, it is!”
”Umph! I must have gotten it from that gat!”
”You couldn't, Chief. That gun was polished up like a whistle. Besides, how would the spot come to be under your left ear?”
Drew furrowed his brow. He swung in the snow with new decision. ”Come on!” he said. ”We'll think this over! I didn't see any soot on that gat. I don't know where I got it either. Could it have been there for some time?”
”Sure, Chief. I just happened to notice it. Light's bright.” Delaney nodded toward the arc.
”Did you get a good look at my face in Stockbridge's?”
”Can't say that I did, Chief. I was too busy with that howler thing and that magpie and that murder, to see anything. You might of got it there without me noticing it. It wasn't there in the taxicab. I'll swear to that.”
Drew pa.s.sed his fingers across his nostrils like a man sampling perfume. He repeated the motion. He sc.r.a.ped some of the powder from his nails with a pocket knife and dropped the sample into the crease of an envelope which he carefully folded and crammed into his pocket.
<script>