Midnight | Page 7

It's Warren's!"
CHAPTER III
"FIND THE WOMAN"
The thing was incomprehensible, yet true. Not a single article of
feminine apparel was contained in the suit-case. Not only that, but
every garment therein which bore an identification mark was the
property of Roland Warren, the man whose body leered at them from
the floor of the taxicab.
The two detectives again inspected the suit-case. An extra suit had been
neatly folded. The pockets bore the label of a leading tailor, and the
name "Roland R. Warren." The tailor-made shirts and underwear bore
the maker's name and Warren's initials. The handkerchiefs were
Warren's. Even those articles which were without name or initials
contained the same laundry-mark as those which they knew belonged
to the dead man.

Carroll's face showed keen interest. This newest development had
rather startled him, and made an almost irresistible appeal to his love
for the bizarre in crime. The very fact that the circumstances smacked
of the impossible intrigued him. He narrowed his eyes and gazed again
upon the form of the dead man. Finally he nudged Leverage and
designated three initials on the end of the suit-case.
"R.R.W.--Roland R. Warren!" Leverage grunted. "It's his, all right,
Carroll. But just the same there ain't no such animal."
Carroll turned to the dazed Walters.
"Understand what we've just discovered, son?" he inquired mildly.
Spike's teeth were chattering with cold.
"I don't hardly understand none of it, sir. 'Cording to what I make out,
that suit-case belongs to the body and not to the woman."
"Right! Now what I want to know is how that could be."
Spike shook his head dazedly.
"Lordy, Mr. Carroll, I couldn't be knowing that."
"You're sure the woman got into your cab alone?"
"Absolutely, sir. She came through the waiting-room alone, carrying
that very same suit-case--"
"You're positive it was that suit-case?"
"Yes, sir--that is, as positive as I can be. You see I was on the lookout
for a fare, but wasn't expecting one, on account of the fact that this here
train was an accommodation, and folks that usually come in on it take
street-cars and not a taxi. Well, the minute I seen a good-lookin',
well-dressed woman comin' out the door, I sort of noticed. It surprised
me first off, because I asked myself what she was doing on that train."

"You thought it was peculiar?"
"Not peculiar, exactly; but sort of--of--interesting."
"I see. Go ahead!"
"Well, she was carrying that suit-case, and she seemed in a sort of a
hurry. She walked straight out of the door and toward the curb, and--"
"Did she appear to be expecting some one?"
"No, sir. I noticed that particularly. Sort of thought a fine lady like her
would have some one to meet her, which is how I happened to notice
that she didn't seem to expect nobody. She come right to the curb and
called me. I was parked along the curb on the right side of Atlantic
Avenue--headin' north, that is--and I rolled up. She handed me the
suit-case and told me to drive her to No. 981 East End Avenue. I stuck
the suit-case right where you got it from just now; and while I ain't
sayin' nothin' about what happened back yonder in the cab, Mr. Carroll,
I'll bet anything in the world that that there suit-case is the same one
she carried through the waitin'-room and handed to me."
"H-m! Peculiar. You drove straight out here, Walters?"
"Straight as a bee-line, sir. Frozen stiff, I was, drivin' right into the
wind eastward along East End Avenue, and I had to raise the
windshield a bit because there was ice on it and I couldn't see
nothin'--an' my headlights ain't any too strong."
"You didn't stop anywhere?"
"No, sir. Wait a minute--I did!"
"Where?"
"At the R.L. and T. railroad crossing, sir. I didn't see nor hear no train
there, and almost run into it. It was a freight, and travelin' kinder slow. I
seen the lights of the caboose and stopped the car right close to the
track. I wasn't stopped more'n fifteen or twenty seconds, and just as

soon as the train got by, I went on."
"But you did stand still for a few seconds?"
"Yes, sir."
"If any one had got into or out of the cab right there, would you have
heard them?"
"I don't know that I would. I was frozen stiff, like I told you, sir; and I
wasn't thinking of nothin' like that. Besides, the train was makin' a
noise; an' me not havin' my thoughts on nothin' but how cold I was, an'
how far I had to drive, I mos' prob'ly wouldn't have noticed--although I
might have."
"Looks to me," chimed in Leverage, "as if that's where the shift must
have taken