'First we'll complete this test. We must know whether the object has been removed, not by Carl or Tina.'
'No,' Purley said.
'How good a no?'
'Good enough for me. No man has stepped outside this shop alone. Something could have been slipped to a customer, but that's stretching it, and we've had them under our eyes.'
'Not, apparently, the one who assaulted Miss Stahl.'
'That was in the shop. Is that a point?'
'I suppose not. Then we assume that the object is still here. The seventh and last assumption is this, that no proper search for such an object has been made. I hasten to add, Mr. Stebbins, that that is not a point either. You and your men
'5
are unquestionably capable of making a proper search, but I assume that you haven't done so here on account of Carl and Tina. Thinking them guilty, naturally you thought they wouldn't leave an incriminating object behind them. However, I can just ask you. Have you searched thoroughly?'
'We've looked.'
'Yes. But granting all my assumptions, which of course you don't, has there been a proper search?'
'No.'
'Then it's about time. Mr. Fickler!'
Fickler nearly jumped out of his skin. He, like all the others, had been buried, intent on Wolfe's buildup, and the sudden pop and crackle of his own name startled him. He jerked his head up, and I had never seen his pudgy face look so bloated.
'Me?' he squeaked.
'You run this place and can help us. However, I address all of you who work here. Put your minds on this. You too, Jimmie. Stop a moment and listen.'
'I can work and listen too.'
'No. I want full attention.'
Jimmie backed off a step and stood.
'This,' Wolfe said, 'could take a few minutes or it could take all night. What we're after is an object with something on it that identifies it as coming from this shop. Ideally it should be the name and address or phone number, but we'll take less if we have to. Since we're proceeding on my assumptions, we are supposing that it was inside the newspaper as Wallen was carrying it, so it is not a business card or match folder or bottle or comb or brush. It should be flat and of considerable dimensions. Another point, it should be easily recognizable. All of you went to the booth and were questioned by Wallen, but he showed you no such object and mentioned none. Is that correct?'
They nodded and mumbled affirmatives. Ed said 'Yes!' in a loud voice.
'Then only the murderer saw it or was told of it. Wallen must for some reason have shown it to him or asked him 116
about it, and not the rest of you; or its edge may have been protruding from the newspaper, unnoticed by the others; or the murderer may merely have suspected that Wallen had it. In any case, when opportunity offered later for him to dive into the booth and kill Wallen he got the object and disposed of it. If Mr. Stebbins is right about the surveillance that has been maintained, it is still here in the shop. I put it to you, and especially to you, Mr. Fickler: what is it and where is it?'
They looked at one another and back at Wolfe. Philip said in his thin tenor, 'Maybe it was the newspaper itself.'
'Possibly. I doubt it. Where is it, Mr. Cramer?'
'At the laboratory. There's nothing on it or in it that could have brought Wallen here.'
'What else has been taken from here to the laboratory?'
'Nothing but the scissors and the bottle that was used on Miss Stahl.'
'Then it's here. All right, jimmie, finish.'
Jimmie moved to the left of him and carried on.
'It looks to me,' Purley objected in his bass rumble, 'like a turkey. Even with your assumptions. Say we find something like what you want, how do we know it's it? Even if we think it's it, where does that get us?'
'We'll see when we find it.' Wolfe was curt. 'For one thing, fingerprints.'
'Nuts. If it belongs here of course it will have their prints.'
'Not their prints, Mr. Stebbins. Wallen's prints. If he picked it up in the car he touched it. If he touched it he left prints. As I understand it, he didn't go around touching things here. He entered, spoke to Mr. Fickler, was taken to the booth, and never left it alive. If we find anything with his prints on it we've got it. Have you equipment here? If not, I advise you to send for it at once, and also for Wallen's prints from your file. Will you do that?'
Purley grunted. He didn't move.
'Go ahead,' Cramer told him. 'Phone. Give him what he wants. Get it over. Then he'll give us what we want, what he's here for, or else.'
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