“What persons came here recently?”
“Only a few friends and acquaintances. How many, I do not know. They generally came on evenings when I was out.
“Father mentioned that he had occasional visitors, but he never brought up names.”
“I wonder,” said Cardona, “if any one was here last night. Let’s look around the place.”
At Richard Sutton’s suggestion, they went upstairs to the little living room. They found a check book in Thomas Sutton’s desk. The stubs, marked with initials and abbreviations, referred to small amounts.
There were a few letters and other items of correspondence. These offered no real clew.
HERE was a case that seemed totally devoid of pertinent facts. The only person who could have come under suspicion was Richard Sutton. He knew that the door of the downstairs closet would close and latch of its own accord.
Richard Sutton appeared to be an upright young man. His statements had been direct, and were given without hesitation. They were the kind of statements that could be checked in detail.
The son of Thomas Sutton must be innocent, Cardona felt, although the methodical detective intended to obtain statements from the other sons whom Richard had mentioned.
The task at hand was to search for anything that might show that some one had been here last night, or any evidence to the effect that Thomas Sutton had been influenced to enter the death trap.