‘Better sterilize that, Professor.’
Back at the cottage, as he was about to pick up a mercurochrome bottle from the kit Bob had used, he observed a spot of blood on the label. Walking over to the basin, he saw Bob in the mirror above it, furtively slip a pair of scissors into the kit.
Turning slowly around, he said, ‘I’ll have to hold you on suspicion of murder.’
54
Death by Drowning
‘We were just getting into our boat,’ said the elder Carroll brother, ‘when we happened to notice Ridge out there in the middle of the river, opposite Wolf’s old abandoned dock, acting very queerly. He jumped up and down in the boat, and then, all of a sudden, grabbed an oar, threw it up in the air, and jumped in.
‘We rowed to the spot, and I dived after him while my brother secured his boat. The current’s fast there, but I’m a strong swimmer. I swam around while my brother rowed about, but we could find no trace of him,’ he concluded.
‘We found the oar all right, in the weeds at Wolf’s dock,’ interjected Riley, of the River Patrol.
‘How wide is the river at that point?’ asked Professor Fordney.
‘About half a mile,’ said Carroll.