wo more members of Phillips' squad broke into the laboratory and came toward the chief. They had been working at physical labor, for they were still perspiring and one regarded his hands with a rueful expression.
"Any luck?" asked Phillips eagerly.
"No, boss. We been all over the place, and we dug every spot we could get to earth in the cellar. Most of it's three-inch concrete, without a sign of a break."
"Did you look in the furnace?"
"We looked there the first thing. She ain't there."
There were several closets in the laboratory, and Phillips opened all of them and inspected them. As he moved near the big plate, Lambert uttered a cry of warning. "Don't disturb that, don't touch anything near it!"
"All right, all right," said Phillips testily.
The skeptical sleuths had classified Lambert as a "nut," and were practically sure he had done away with Madge Crawford because she would not marry him.
Still, they needed better evidence than their mere beliefs. There was no corpus delicti, for instance.