They shouted up to say that no one had attempted to escape by the ladder. A head appeared from the window of the room below. Another of Cardona’s men was there.
He informed the detective that he had found a large suitcase — evidently the object which had contained the equipment of the collapsible ladder.
Cardona left the window, and again studied the victim. Shot through the heart, like Silas Mayhew.
The man’s face was well formed; even in death it carried a determined look. Cardona saw no resemblance to any of the many criminals whom he knew.
Could this be the burglar who had been anticipated? If so, who was the killer? Had two men entered here and quarreled? That was unlikely.
Some one must have managed to enter this place, in spite of Mayhew’s presence. Cardona chewed his lips as his mind reverted to the name that he could not resist — The Shadow!
Was he the man who had escaped? The circumstances did not fit. The Shadow was a man who killed only when he felt that justice demanded it.
Somehow, Cardona felt that if The Shadow had been here, he would have captured this man, rather than have slain him.
Turning to the plainclothes man, Cardona questioned him about the fight. The man was unable to give a description of his assailant.
He had been struck down in the dark — that was all he could remember.