“Who could have secured this poison?” wondered Nick.
Here, perhaps, was a clew which would enable him to run to earth the murderer of these men, who had met such a strange and untimely end.
One thing that puzzled Nick, and also Inspector Ward and the doctor, was how these bits of steel had been projected into the heart of each of the victims. It seemed preposterous that they could have been shot into the bodies.
During the doctor’s operations the bodies lay exposed on the marble slabs. The party was about to leave the morgue when the ambulance came in. In it was the dead body of a man who had been found in exactly the same spot as the other victims.
His death had been caused in the same manner. A piece of needle, with its fatal yellow point, had been driven through the man’s heart.
While the doctor was making an examination of the last body a shadow crossed one of the windows of the morgue.
A face was flattened against one of the dingy panes of glass. It remained but an instant only.
None of the party had seen it.
The startling report of a pistol shot rang out through the stillness of the night. With a loud crash the shattered glass fell to the floor as the bullet sped into the room.
Simultaneous with the report, a cry went up from the driver of the ambulance as he fell to the floor in his death agony.