“I live on the next street and I shall be glad to render any assistance possible to your medical examiner,” Doctor Allonby turned to the inspector and there was an oddly repressed note in his tones. “I will look up this case among my notes and try to ascertain the nature of the chemicals used to generate the gas or vapor which caused this young woman’s death, meanwhile holding myself at your disposal.—Mr. Orbit, I regret that I arrived too late to be of real service, but in any event the end must have come almost instantaneously.”
He bowed, still with that guarded air of repression, and left the room, Ching Lee accompanying him to the door. Orbit shrugged, throwing out his hands in a hopeless gesture.
“You saw? I believe the man actually thinks I am withholding some facts from him!—But who wouldn’t? I can’t bring myself to believe it either, even with that poor girl’s body here before us! It is awful—awful!”
He sank down upon a low stone seat, resting his head upon his hands and the inspector observed:
“Poison gas! That’s a new one on me, except for the carbon monoxide generated from motor cars standing in enclosed spaces. I never was connected with the Bomb Squad but I thought most of that stuff had to be exploded. You didn’t hear anything, did you, while you were playing?”
“Not a sound. The ‘Largo’ is not necessarily thunderous in volume but it has swelling chords which would have effectually smothered any slight noise. What are we to do now, inspector? I am in your hands.”
“Where’s your telephone? I’ve got to notify headquarters and get the medical examiner. That’s the first step, as the doctor said.... Of course I want no one to leave this house!”
“Assuredly not!” Orbit lifted his head. “Ching Lee, show Inspector Druet to the telephone and then see that Fu Moy remains quietly upstairs until he is sent for.”
Ching Lee bowed and followed the official from the room. Dennis, who had been fearfully regarding the body of the dead girl, moved toward McCarty.
“By all that’s unholy, what’s doing around here!” he whispered audibly. “Are the powers of darkness let loose, entirely? Poison gas, my eye! Mac, how would anybody be reaching her except with a squirt-gun or a grenade through that window?”