They walked on to Kitty’s door in silence. Then Brad said, “I sure wish you’d told me about this when it happened.”
“Why? I can’t see that we can do anything.”
“Maybe I could have managed to get a squint at Punaro’s shoes.”
“Punaro’s shoes? But the gasoline, or whatever it was, had already burned off.”
“But shell dust would still have been on the soles next morning.”
“Say—that’s so! I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You know all that land around the cannery has been built up of oyster shells,” explained Brad. “It was once only a marshy bog they tell me. If Punaro set that fire he’d be obliged to get shell dust on his shoes.”
“The only paved sidewalk runs along the street where the bus stopped,” explained Kitty. “I noticed that the day we went over to open the Canteen.”
“There’s a possibility I might still find out something.”
“How?”