“I shall instruct Inspector Klein to notify me of the first crime that seems well suited to my experiment.
“There is, at present, no case which calls for cooperation between yourself and Professor Biscayne. We may have to wait a considerable length of time.”
“Maybe not, commissioner,” declared Cardona suddenly.
The detective drew an envelope from his pocket. It had been cut open at the top. Cardona extracted a folded sheet of paper and passed it, with the empty envelope, across the desk.
THE envelope was addressed to police headquarters. It was typed in capital letters. Weston opened the sheet of paper and read the typed statement that appeared within:
IN MEMORY OF S. H. WHO DIED LAST NIGHT HE WAS THE FIRST
“When did this come in?” asked the commissioner, frowning at the document.
“Yesterday morning,” declared Cardona. “It was mailed night before last. Postmarked ten o’clock.”
“It looks like an ordinary crank note,” said Weston. “We get hundreds of them. Did any person with the initials ‘S. H.’ die two nights ago?”
“Not to my knowledge. We looked through the obituaries yesterday and today. There was no S. H. among them.”