The investigations were lengthy and trying and led to no result whatever.
Fandor, who was preoccupied by this fresh drama in which he had taken some part--far too slight to please him--was putting on his overcoat when he stopped dead.
A voice--an unrecognisable voice--had murmured in his ear:
"Attention! Fandor!... It is serious!..."
Our journalist turned round in a flash. Ah, this time he would find out who the mysterious unknown was--the unknown, who wished to influence by word written and word spoken, the course of these investigations he had taken in hand:
Anonymous friend?
Concealed adversary?
He must, at all costs, clear up the mystery.
A dozen people were crowding round Fandor, insisting on being attended to in the cloak-room.
No one noticed the journalist....
No one seemed interested in what he was doing....
Fandor examined every one of Thomery"s guests who were standing about him. He knew some of them by name, some he knew by sight. He searched their faces with penetrating eyes; but, in vain.... Some were common-place looking, others calm, others impenetrable:
"Hang it all," he grumbled. He went off furious and upset.
IX
FINGER PRINTS
After having interrogated all the witnesses of last night"s tragedy he could get into touch with, Jerome Fandor returned to the Palais de Justice.
"All the same," he confessed to himself, "I must admit that, up to the present, I do not know anything very definite about it. This Princess Sonia Danidoff has managed to get robbed in a most extraordinary way. At one o"clock in the morning, Havard declares that the thief can be none other than one of the guests, and thereupon every person present has to submit to being searched--an exhaustive search! Nothing comes of it.
Then Bertillon arrives on the scene, and it seems he has obtained very distinct imprints of finger marks. If they are as distinct as all that, the task of the police will be simplified; but, on the other hand, is it likely the guilty person will be so simple as to respond to the summons issued by the Public Prosecutor, a general summons issued to all Thomery"s guests to parade in Bertillon"s office for the finger-mark test?... Not he! Why the moment he heard of it he would make for the train and pa.s.s the frontier!"
When his cab arrived at the Palais, Fandor uttered a big sigh of satisfaction:
"There are a good many things I am not clear about: let us hope Bertillon will give me some information."
The entrance to the anthropometric department was under the discreet observation of two detectives:
"Oh," thought Fandor. "They think it probable there will be an immediate arrest, do they? We are going to have some complications, I foresee, in connection with the finger-mark ceremony!"
He sent in his card and a few minutes after he found himself in the presence of Monsieur Bertillon.
"Well, what is it you want me to tell you?" asked this famous man of science.
"Why, dear master, everything that took place last night! Is it true that you have summoned here all Thomery"s guests?... Have you obtained such perfect reprints that, in your hasty examination, you can be certain of identifying them with those of the persons who will pa.s.s through your office to undergo the test?"
Bertillon smiled:
"Oh, my dear fellow, you are of those who do not put much faith in the results of my tests for police purposes! That, let me tell you, is because you are not acquainted with our procedure. The impressions I obtained are distinct--precise as can be; if an arrest is made before long it will be made on sure grounds."
Fandor bowed:
"I accept your statement, dear master!... But, do be kind enough to tell me what happened after my departure?"
"Oh, nothing very extraordinary.... Of course you know about the affair--how the Princess Sonia Danidoff was discovered?..."
"What I know is that Thomery found one of his guests, Princess Sonia Danidoff, in a dead faint in a small drawing-room; that Dr. Du Marvier declared she had been rendered unconscious; that the theft of a pearl necklace worn by the victim had been the motive of this criminal attempt; that Monsieur Havard, called in at once, first made sure that no one had left the house, and then had everyone on the premises searched ... and that is really all I know about it!"
"Well, Havard did not find anything!"
"No one was caught with compromising jewels in their possession. The last guest gone, the house searched from top to bottom, not a single pearl had been found.... I arrived just when the investigations had terminated: at the moment when they were about to take the Princess home. She had regained consciousness by this time and declared she knew nothing except that she had fallen asleep after using a perfume sprayer.
This has been seized and chloroform has been found in it; but no one seems to know who filled the sprayer with this stupefying perfume."
"Did Monsieur Havard send for you?"
"Yes, he telephoned. You know, of course, that I am always asked to intervene now in any ticklish affair!... Well Dr. Du Marvier, an expert in his way, noticed that the Princess had been half strangled by the thief in his haste to secure the pearl collar, and he wished me to search for finger prints on the nape of the victim"s neck--to discover the a.s.sa.s.sin"s signature in fact."
"And there were some?"
"A quant.i.ty. The Princess had been slightly wounded in the nape of the neck ... blood had been pressed on to the skin of her neck, and it was easy to take a cast of one of the fingers."
"Was that sufficient?"
"Yes, and no; such an impression is something; but there is better than that! The thief must have given the neck a violent squeeze with his hands, consequently there is a complete impression of the hand ... that I had to get...."
Fandor instinctively put his hand to his neck as if he were squeezing it. He said:
"Are such impressions imperceptible?"
"Yes; to the eye, but not to the photographing apparatus. It is thoroughly established that the pattern formed by the innumerable lines which furrow the fleshy part of our fingers is as peculiarly characteristic of each individual as the form of his nose, of his ears, or the colour of his eyes. The curves or rings, the various forms taken by these lines already exist in the newly born and never change to the day of his death. Even in case of a burn, if the skin grows again, the ridges reappear exactly as they were before the accident. Look you, one can obtain by this method--this test--such results as you would never dream of. For example, by taking these imprints I obtained in the early hours of to-day, as a basis, I can tell you, with almost absolute accuracy, the height of the individual...."
"This is marvellous!" cried Fandor. "The service your department renders then is to abolish legal blunders?"
"That is so. Every individual identified, is identified plainly, irrefutably. Unfortunately, we cannot always obtain perfect imprints on the spot where the crime is committed."
"But this night?"
"Ah, as I told you, the impressions were most satisfactory. I have the thief"s hand--the whole of it! I will even go so far as to declare that the fellow who committed the crime has already been through my hands. I recognise that hand! You shall see, whether or no I have made a mistake!"...