“I heard a few words that were said before I removed my receiver,” explained the girl. “The man who rang up the number said he wanted to talk with Mr. Todd, and half a minute later I heard him ask: ‘Is that you, Todd?’”
“Are you sure it was a man’s voice?”
“Yes, positively.”
“Did you hear him say anything more?”
“I heard Todd reply in the affirmative. The other then said, as near as I can remember, that he was Todd’s running mate who was talking, and that Todd must go at once to the Waldmere Chambers and wait in the second-floor corridor until the speaker could join him.”
“That was all?”
“Yes, sir. I heard the last while I was removing the receiver. It is only by chance that I remember it. His calling himself Todd’s running mate, however, sounded so singular to me that I listened for a moment longer. That is all I can tell you.”
Patsy thanked her, also the manager, and departed.
It then was about the time when Nick Carter entered the Madison mortuary, to which all that remained of Gaston Todd had been taken, and where the autopsy was to be performed. It was finished, in fact, or all that then could be done, when Nick entered, and he found only Coroner Kane and Doctor Marvin, the district medical examiner, in the superintendent’s office. He scarce had arrived there, however, when Chief Gleason followed him in from the street.
Nick already had introduced himself to the others, with whom an appointment for him had been made by the chief, and, after a few conventional preliminaries, he brought up the business engaging them.