“I see nothing for it but to arrest young Arthur Gentrie and charge him with murder.”
“Whose murder?” Mason asked.
Tragg smiled amicably. “Thought you’d catch me on that one, didn’t you? Well, just to put your mind at rest, when we discovered the body of Mrs. Perlin, we made a complete search of the premises. We went through everything, even cleaning out the ashes in the furnace, and in those ashes we found some interesting things, a few bits of charred cloth, some buttons, the remnants of a pair of shoes. On the portions that hadn’t been completely destroyed by fire, we found dark stains. An analysis shows they were made by human blood. You might think that over, Mason. And now if you’ll pardon me, I’ll run along. I want to talk with young Gentrie as soon as he gets back from the hardware store.”
Chapter 14
Mason got Della Street on the telephone a few minutes after five o’clock.
“Closing up?” he asked.
“I was waiting for you. How’s everything going?”
“Oh, so-so. Want to take a trip?”
“Where?”
“San Francisco.”