"you know my ideas on modern detective work," garrick remarked to me, reflectively, when they had gone.
i nodded assent, for we had often discussed the subject.
"there must be something new in order to catch criminals, nowadays," he pursued. "the old methods are all right—as far as they go. but while we have been using them, criminals have kept pace with modern science."
i had met garrick several months before on the return trip from abroad, and had found in him a companion spirit.
for some years i had been editing a paper which i called "the scientific world," and it had taxed my health to the point where my physician had told me that i must rest, or at least combine pleasure with business. thus i had taken the voyage across the ocean to attend the international electrical congress in london, and had unexpectedly been thrown in with guy garrick, who later seemed destined to play such an important part in my life.
garrick was a detective, young, university bred, of good family, alert, and an interesting personality to me. he had travelled much, especially in london, paris, berlin, and vienna, where he had studied the amazing growth abroad of the new criminal science.
already i knew something, by hearsay, of the men he had seen, gross, lacassagne, reiss, and the now immortal bertillon. our acquaintance, therefore, had rapidly ripened into friendship, and on our return, i had formed a habit of dropping in frequently on him of an evening, as i had this night, to smoke a pipe or two and talk over matters of common interest in his profession.
he had paused a moment in what he was saying, but now resumed, less reflectively, "fortunately, marshall, the crime-hunters have gone ahead faster than the criminals. now, it's my job to catch criminals. yours, it seems to me, is to show people how they can never hope to beat the modern scientific detective. let's strike a bargain."
i was flattered by his confidence. more than that, the idea appealed to me, in fact was exactly in line with some plans i had already made for the "world," since our first acquaintance.
and so it came about that the case brought to him by mcbirney and young warrington was responsible for clearing our ideas as to our mutual relationship and thus forming this strange partnership that has existed ever since.
"tom," he remarked, as we left the office quite late, after he had arranged affairs as if he expected to have no time to devote to his other work for several days, "come along and stay with me at my apartment to-night. it's too late to do anything now until to-morrow."
i accepted his invitation without demur, for i knew that he meant it, but i doubt whether he slept much during the night. certainly he was up and about early enough the following morning.
"that's curious," i heard him remark, as he ran his eye hastily over the first page of the morning paper, "but i rather expected something of the sort. read that in the first column, tom."
the story that he indicated had all the marks of having been dropped into place at the last moment as the city edition went to press in the small hours of the night.
it was headed:
girl's body found in thicket
the despatch was from a little town in new jersey, and, when i saw the date line, it at once suggested to me, as it had to guy, that this was in the vicinity that must have been traversed in order to reach the point from which had come the report of the bloody car that had seemed to tally with the description of that which warrington had lost. it read:
"hidden in the underbrush, not ten feet from one of the most travelled automobile roads in this section of the state, the body of a murdered girl was discovered late yesterday afternoon by a gang of italian labourers employed on an estate nearby.
"suspicion was at first directed by the local authorities at the labourers, but the manner of the finding of the body renders it improbable. most of them are housed in some rough shacks up the road toward tuxedo and were able to prove themselves of good character. indeed, the trampled condition of the thicket plainly indicates, according to the local coroner, that the girl was brought there, probably already dead, in an automobile which drew up off the road as far as possible. the body then must have been thrown where it would be screened from sight by the thick growth of trees and shrubbery.
"there was only one wound, in the chest. it is, however, a most peculiar wound, and shows that a terrific force must have been exerted in order to make it. a blow could hardly have accomplished it, so jagged were its edges, and if the girl had been struck by a passing high-speed car, as was at first suggested, there is no way to account for the entire lack of other wounds which must naturally have been inflicted by such an accident.
"neither is the wound exactly like a pistol or gunshot wound, for, curiously enough, there was no mark showing the exit of a bullet, nor was any bullet found in the body after the most careful examination. the local authorities are completely mystified at the possible problems that may arise out of the case, especially as to the manner in which the unfortunate girl met her death.
"until a late hour the body, which is of a girl perhaps twenty-three or four, of medium height, fair, good looking, and stylishly dressed, was still unidentified. she was unknown in this part of the country."
almost before i had finished reading, garrick had his hat and coat on and had shoved into his pocket a little detective camera.
"strange about the bullet," i ruminated. "i wonder who she can be?"
"very strange," agreed garrick, urging me on. "i think we ought to investigate the case."
as we hurried along to a restaurant for a bite of breakfast, he remarked, "the circumstances of the thing, coming so closely after the report about warrington's car, are very suspicious—very. i feel sure that we shall find some connection between the two affairs."
accordingly, we caught an early train and at the nearest railroad station to the town mentioned in the despatch engaged a hackman who knew the coroner, a local doctor.
the coroner was glad to assist us, though we were careful not to tell him too much of our own connection with the case. on the way over to the village undertaker's where the body had been moved, he volunteered the information that the new york police, whom he had notified immediately, had already sent a man up there, who had taken a description of the girl and finger prints, but had not, so far at least, succeeded in identifying the girl, at any rate on any of the lists of those reported missing.
"you see," remarked garrick to me, "that is where the police have us at a disadvantage. they have organization on their side. a good many detectives make the mistake of antagonizing the police. but if you want results, that's fatal."
"yes," i agreed, "it's impossible, just as it is to antagonize the newspapers."
"exactly," returned garrick. "my idea of the thing, marshall, is that i should work with, not against, the regular detectives. they are all right, in fact indispensable. half the secret of success nowadays is efficiency and organization. what i do believe is that organization plus science is what is necessary."
the local undertaking establishment was rather poorly equipped to take the place of a morgue and the authorities were making preparations to move the body to the nearest large city pending the disposal of the case. local detectives had set to work, but so far had turned up nothing, not even the report which we had already received from mcbirney regarding the blood-stained car that resembled warrington's.
we arrived with the coroner fortunately just before the removal of the body to the city and by his courtesy were able to see it without any trouble.
death, and especially violent death, are at best grewsome subjects, but when to that are added the sordid surroundings of a country undertaker's and the fact that the victim is a woman, it all becomes doubly tragic.
she was a rather flashily dressed girl, but remarkably good looking, in spite of the rouge and powder which had long since spoiled what might otherwise have been a clear and fine complexion. the roots of her hair showed plainly that it had been bleached.
garrick examined the body closely, and more especially the jagged wound in the breast. i bent over also. it seemed utterly inexplicable. there was, he soon discovered, a sort of greasy, oleaginous deposit in the clotted blood of the huge cavity in the flesh. it interested him, and he studied it carefully for a long time, without saying a word.
"some have said she was wounded by some kind of blunt instrument," put in the coroner. "others that she was struck by a car. but it's my opinion that she was killed by a rifle bullet of some kind, although what could have become of the bullet is beyond me. i've probed for it, but it isn't there."
garrick finished his minute examination of the wound without passing any comment on it of his own.
"now, if you will be kind enough to take us around to the place where the body was discovered," he concluded, "i think we shall not trespass on your time further."
in his own car, the coroner drove us up the road in the direction of the new york state boundary to the spot where the body had been found. it was a fine, well-oiled road and i noticed the number and high quality of the cars which passed us.
when we arrived at the spot where the body of the unfortunate girl had been discovered, garrick began a minute search. i do not think for a moment that he expected to find any weapon, or even the trace of one. it seemed hopeless also to attempt to pick out any of the footprints. the earth was soft and even muddy, but so many feet had trodden it down since the first alarm had been given that it would have been impossible to extricate one set of footprints from another, much less to tell whether any of them had been made by the perpetrators of the crime.
still, there seemed to be something in the mud, just off the side of the road, that did interest garrick. very carefully, so as not to destroy anything himself which more careless searchers might have left, he began a minute study of the ground.
apparently he was rewarded, for, although he said nothing, he took a hasty glance at the direction of the sun, up-ended the camera he had brought, and began to photograph the ground itself, or rather some curious marks on it which i could barely distinguish.
the coroner and i looked on without saying a word. he, at least, i am sure, thought that garrick had suddenly taken leave of his senses.
that concluded garrick's investigation, and, after thanking the coroner, who had gone out of his way to accommodate us, we started back to town.
"well," i remarked, as we settled ourselves for the tedious ride into the city in the suburban train, "we don't seem to have added much to the sum of human knowledge by this trip."
"oh, yes, we have," he returned, almost cheerfully, patting the black camera which he had folded and slipped into his pocket. "we'll just preserve the records which i have here. did you notice what it was that i photographed?"
"i saw something," i replied, "but i couldn't tell you what it was."
"well," he explained slowly as i opened my eyes wide in amazement at the minuteness of his researches, "those were the marks of the tire of an automobile that had been run up into the bushes from the road. you know every automobile tire leaves its own distinctive mark, its thumb print, as it were. when i have developed my films, you will see that the marks that have been left there are precisely like those left by the make of tires used on warrington's car, according to the advertisement sent out by mcbirney. of course, that mere fact alone doesn't prove anything. many cars may use that make of tires. still, it is an interesting coincidence, and if the make had been different i should not feel half so encouraged about going ahead with this clew. we can't say anything definite, however, until i can compare the actual marks made by the tires on the stolen car with these marks which i have photographed and preserved."
if any one other than garrick had conceived such a notion as the "thumb print" of an automobile tire, i might possibly have ventured to doubt it. as it was it gave food enough for thought to last the remainder of the journey back to town.
