The Silent Bullet | Page 7

outside office--perhaps by some customer who had
lost money and sought revenge. But no one out there heard it either,
any more than they did in the directors' room or the ladies' department."
"About that message," asked Kennedy, ignoring what to me seemed to
be the most important feature of the case, the mystery of the silent
bullet. "Didn't you see it after all was over?"
"No, sir; in fact I had forgotten about it till this moment when you
asked me to reconstruct the circumstances exactly. No, sir, I don't know
a thing about it. I can't say it impressed itself on my mind at the time,
either."
"What did Mrs. Parker do when she came to?"
"Oh, she cried as I have never seen a woman cry before. He was dead
by that time, of course."
"Bruce and I saw her down in the elevator to her car. In fact, the doctor,
who had arrived; said that the sooner she was taken home the better she
would be. She was quite hysterical."
"Did she say anything that you remember" Downey hesitated.
"Out with it Downey," said the inspector. "What did she say as she was
going down in the elevator?"
"Nothing"

"Tell us. I'll arrest you if you don't."
"Nothing about the murder, on my honour," protested Downey.
Kennedy leaned over suddenly and shot a remark at him, "Then it was
about the note."
Downey was surprised, but not quickly enough. Still he seemed to be
considering something, and in a moment he said:
"I don't know what it was about, but I feel it is my duty, after all, to tell
you. I heard her say, 'I wonder if he knew.'"
"Nothing else"
"Nothing else."
"What happened after you came back?"
"We entered the ladies' department. No one was there. A woman's
automobile-coat was thrown over a chair in a heap. Mr. Bruce picked it
up. 'It's Mrs. Parker's,' he said. He wrapped it up hastily, and rang for a
messenger."
"Where did he send it?"
"To Mrs. Parker, I suppose. I didn't hear the address."
We next went over the whole suite of offices, conducted by Mr.
Downey. I noted how carefully Kennedy looked into the directors'
room through the open door from the ladies' department. He stood at
such an angle that had he been the assassin he could scarcely have been
seen except by those sitting immediately next Mr. Parker at the
directors' table. The street windows were directly in front of him, and
back of him was the chair on which the motorcoat had been found.
In Parker's own office we spent some time, as well as in Bruce's.
Kennedy made a search for the note, but finding nothing in either office,
turned out the contents of Bruce's scrap-basket. There didn't seem to be

anything in it to interest him, however, even after he had pieced several
torn bits of scraps together with much difficulty, and he was about to
turn the papers back again, when he noticed something sticking to the
side of the basket. It looked like a mass of wet paper, and that was
precisely what it was.
"That's queer," said Kennedy, picking it loose. Then he wrapped it up
carefully and put it in his pocket. "Inspector, can you lend me one of
your men for a couple of days?" he asked, as we were preparing to
leave. "I shall want to send him out of town to-night, and shall probably
need his services when he gets back."
"Very well. Riley will be just the fellow. We'll go back to headquarters,
and I'll put him under your orders."
It was not until late in the following day that haw Kennedy again. It
had been a busy day at the Star. We had gone to work that morning
expecting to see the very financial heavens fall. But just about five
minutes to ten, before the Stock Exchange opened, the news came in
over the wire from our financial man on Broad Street: 'The System' has
forced James Bruce, partner of Kerr Parker, the dead banker; to sell his
railroad, steamship, and rubber holdings to it. On this condition it
promises unlimited support to the market."
"Forced!" muttered the managing editor, as he waited on the office
phone to get the composing-room, so as to hurry up the few lines in red
ink on the first page and beat our rivals on the streets with the first
extras. "Why, he's been working to bring that about for the past two
weeks. What that System doesn't control isn't worth having--it edits the
news before our men get it, and as for grist for the divorce courts, and
tragedies, well--Hello, Jenkins, yes, a special extra. Change the big
heads--copy is on the way up--rush it."