He lifted the receiver, said, “Hello,” and Gertrude Lade, at the switchboard, asked, “Do you want to talk with Mr. Stive, the handwriting expert?”
“Put him on,” Mason said.
A moment later, Milton Stive said, “Hello, Mason. I can’t give you a lot of reasons backing up my conclusion as yet, but the letter dated last month was written by the same person who signed the hotel registers ‘Bill Hogarty.’”
“You’re certain?” Mason asked.
“A good handwriting expert offers only his opinion,” Stive said, “but in this instance it’s virtually a mathematical certainty. There are, of course, certain allowances to be made for the lapse of time. There has evidently been an interval of thirty-two years in the signatures. A man’s handwriting naturally changes, particularly when the thirty-two years’ lapse carries over the period of greatest physical efficiency. We naturally would expect to find the curves more angular, the style a little more cramped, but, making proper allowances for that, the similarity between the capital ‘B’ in the ‘Bill’ and a comparison of the word ‘Hogar’ and ‘Hogarty’ remove any possible doubt. I have photographed one of the Hogarty signatures, and have photographed the name ‘Hogar,’ on an exactly identical scale. I have then superimposed the two photographs, and there is more than a similarity. There is a virtual identity.”
Mason shot Della Street a swift wink. “When can you give me a complete written opinion, Stive?” he asked.
Stive cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, “not before Monday evening at the earliest. It would require a great deal of work. In addition to that, it would be necessary to make certain photographs and...”
Mason interrupted with a laugh. “Oh, go ahead and shoot your golf, you big bluff, and don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”
Mason hung up the receiver, said to Della Street, “I’m going out and try to locate Serle, Della. I think he’ll eat at the Home Kitchen Cafe. Stick around the office, keep in touch with developments, and eat after I get back.”
“Okay, Chief. How about the outer office?”