He shook his head. “Everyone of them that we can use seems to have been made by Hester. Apparently, whoever placed the tin there had first taken the precaution of wiping it free of fingerprints.”
“Well, a person couldn’t have put it up there without leaving some prints,” Rebecca said.
“Not unless he’d deliberately tried to avoid doing so,” Tragg said.
Mrs. Gentrie showed him the location of the can opener. Lieutenant Tragg fed the can into the holder, rolled the rotating blade around the edges, and then shook out the detached circle of tin which was the top of the can.
Hester remained sullenly aloof, but Mrs. Gentrie and Rebecca crowded close to look over his shoulder as Tragg tilted the circle of tin so that the light would enable him to examine the surface closely.
“Well,” he said, “we’ve got something here. Looks like another code message.”
“You don’t say!” Rebecca said, her voice quivering with excitement. “Now, don’t tell me there’s going to be another murder, Lieutenant.”
Tragg turned to Mrs. Gentrie. “Can you read these letters off for me while I copy them into my notebook?”
Mrs. Gentrie squinted at the top of the can. “I haven’t my reading glasses and this print is pretty fine...”
“I can,” Rebecca volunteered.