The Sheridan Road Mystery | Page 8

the occupants of a
house and unbidden prowlers, Morgan's keen eyes examined every
detail of the floor and furnishings, including the drawers of the
sideboard. He immediately noticed that two of the chairs were standing
close to the table, while two others were moved slightly back from the
table as if people had been sitting in them. On the floor under one of
these chairs he found a few spots of cigarette ashes. To Morgan's quick
mind this carried a mental picture. Of course, the police who had been
in the apartment the night before might have accidentally or
intentionally moved the chairs, but he was quite sure that under the
circumstances not one of them would have sat down to smoke a
cigarette. At some time quite recently, therefore, somebody, probably
two persons, had sat at this dining room table while conversing, or
waiting for something.
This was further confirmed when Morgan, bending his knees and
lowering his body so as to bring his eyes on a level with the table,
studied the top in the reflected light. He saw that the dust on the table

top had been disturbed in front of the two chairs. Furthermore, he
discovered that the person who had not be smoking had evidently
rested a pair of clasped and sweaty hands on the table top, as two
parallel, greasy marks, made by the sides of the hands, showed quite
plainly. To Morgan, clasped and sweaty hands indicated a possible
state of nervousness. Either this had been the victim or the chief plotter.
The dining room revealed nothing further to Morgan, but he felt that he
had made some progress in establishing the fact that at least two people
had quite recently been in this supposedly unoccupied apartment.
Passing through the entrance hall, Morgan then examined the main
bedroom, which opened off of it. The bed had been dismantled, as in
the maid's room. An examination of the clothes closet, and the drawers
of the dresser and a chiffonier, showed that the room was commonly
occupied by a man and a woman. Everything quite obviously belonged
to the regular tenant. Morgan could find nothing of a suspicious nature,
although he had particularly looked for correspondence which might in
some indefinite way connect this tenant with the happenings of the
night before.
The bathroom was visited next. Outside of the usual toilet articles and
harmless medical "first aids" in the cabinet, the room was bare.
The final step was a close examination of the front room. Here the
blood spot stood out dark and forbidding in the light of the afternoon
sun. Beyond the fact that the shot had taken effect, it told nothing.
Morgan stood in thought with his eyes resting upon the brick fireplace.
Suddenly the descending sun threw its rays farther into the room and
rested on a bright spot at the side of the fireplace. It looked odd to
Morgan and he approached it. What he found was a flattened bullet,
which had been held in place by slightly embedding itself in the rough
surface of the brick. As evidence it had small value outside of
confirming the fact that a shot had been actually fired in this apartment.
Finding nothing else with a bearing on the case, Morgan started to
leave. At the doorway to the entrance hall, he stopped and turned to
take one last look around the room in the hope that something might

suggest itself. As he stood making this last survey, his eye caught a
faint point of light under a cabinet in a corner. Instantly he returned to
the room, and stooping down, ran his hand under the cabinet. His
fingers seized on a small object, which proved to be a gold cuff button.
As he turned it over in his hand he found the initial "M" deeply
engraved in the heavy gold.
Remembering that he had learned from the report in his pocket that the
name of the tenant of this apartment was Ames, this discovery
immediately assumed great importance, so Morgan carefuly placed the
cuff button in a vest pocket.
Encouraged by his find, Morgan made another careful examination of
the room. The flattened bullet and the cuff button, revealed by friendly
rays of sunlight, seemed to be all that he could find.
CHAPTER IV
THE APARTMENT ACROSS THE HALL
After replacing the padlock and snapping it closed, Morgan pressed the
electric button of the apartment across the hall. Footsteps sounded in
immediate response, and the next moment the door was furtively
opened. Morgan, who by that time was leaning carelessly against the
jamb, quietly moved one foot forward into the opening.
Although the light in the hallway was dim he could see that the woman
who stood there was young and remarkably pretty. Removing