“More than suspect,” Nick interrupted. “I now am convinced that one of the crooks, at least, entered through this window.”
“But how could he have reached it? There certainly was no ladder used, or the janitor must have heard him. Nor is there any other window from which the rascal could have reached this one.”
“If not from below, Chick, he must have come from above.”
“From the photographer’s room?”
“Or from the roof.”
“Either would be possible,” Chick allowed. “But we discovered no evidence of it. Besides, Strickland stated that the bathroom door was locked, and Gordon found it so when they entered.”
“That would have been no barrier to a crook clever enough to pull off a job of this kind. He would have pushed out the key and—stop a bit! We may find evidence of it.”
Turning back, Nick removed the key from the bathroom door to examine it with his lens. He quickly found what he was seeking.
“Here we have it,” he added. “The end projecting beyond the tongue has been gripped with a pair of nippers. Notice the marks they left on it. The rascal unlocked the door by turning the key with the nippers, relocking it by the same means before he left the flat.”
“You think he went out through this window.”