“Her eyes are sharp as needles,” Mrs. Gentrie said.
Tragg said, “Hold it by the edges so you don’t get your fingerprints on it. After I’ve seen what the words are, I’m going to try dusting it for fingerprints.”
Slowly Rebecca spelled off the code words while Tragg made a note of them in his notebook. Then Tragg stood behind Rebecca so that he could look over her shoulder and compare what he had written with the message which appeared on the tin.
“Right,” he said at length. “Now let’s just try dusting it. I don’t think we’ll find any fingerprints, but we’ll go through the motions just the same.”
When he had found no fingerprints, Tragg said, “Well, that’s that.”
Rebecca sniffed. “If you ask me,” she said pointedly to Mrs. Gentrie, “it’s a lovers’ post office, and that stenographer is getting Junior to pull some more chestnuts out of the fire.”
“Where is Junior?” Tragg asked Mrs. Gentrie.
“At the hardware store with his father.”
“I think it might be a good idea to call him on the telephone and ask if he can come home at once,” Tragg said.
Mrs. Gentrie obediently moved toward the stairs, but halfway up she paused to inquire, “Am I to tell him why you want him?”