Cardona also was almost convinced that Professor Biscayne had gone wide in his theory that these murders must follow a regular progression — forty-eight hours apart.
No news had arrived of the death of a man with the initials T.S.
The detective felt that the killings were over. It remained to solve the crimes — to apprehend the true murderer, unless the hand of The Shadow had already performed that task.
Cardona was anticipating some new break that would lead to the solutions.
The break came at one o’clock, just as Cardona was about to leave for the commissioner’s office.
The telephone rang. When Cardona lifted the receiver, he was rewarded by an unexpected report from an uptown police station.
But the words that came over the wire left him dumfounded. In one short minute, Cardona’s theories were shattered, and Biscayne’s were supported.
A man had been found dead, in his home. The tragedy did not appear definitely to be a crime.
The victim was a retired railroad executive. He had gone into the closet under the stairway leading to the second floor of the house. The door had closed, trapping him. He had been suffocated.
A murder? Ordinarily, Cardona would have rejected the idea. But in this case, he knew, instinctively, that the death had not been accidental.