There was no clew to the murderer. Not a sign. It was decided that Ballantyne must have left the door unlocked; that the man had entered, and had killed him during the showing of the feature picture. That was the finding of the police.
The usher believed that Ballantyne had left the door unlatched; for he had been forced to use his key in entering, and would probably keep it unlatched. But the two detectives had believed otherwise.
They looked for finger prints by the automatic latch. They found nothing but confused blurs. Various persons had operated that latch.
Now, when all was still and quiet, the door of the death office opened once more, operated by a hand that was invisible in the darkness. The door closed silently.
The light on the table clicked. It revealed a man in black; a silent, sinister figure, who moved with amazing stealth.
The Shadow had come to the scene of the crime!
In action and appearance, this figure in black bore no resemblance to Lamont Cranston.
The features of The Shadow were totally obscured. He moved with swiftness where Cranston had moved with deliberation. Yet Cranston had looked in many places; and it was to one of these that The Shadow went without long hesitation.
The figure in black opened the closet door. The rays of a flashlight entered into an inspection. Detectives had looked into that closet during the evening. They had observed nothing. But The Shadow found something for which he appeared prepared.
It was a tiny fragment of paper that lay on the floor of the closet — nothing but a small corner of a large sheet.