Inspector: Only other thing to check is the possibility someone was laying for Mousie before he got home and before you kids got here yourselves. Hiding in the house all the time.
Velie: Yeah, then he coulda give Mousie the business an’ slipped outa the house by the front door when Mr. Queen an’ Miss Porter an’ Sam Buckley came in, leavin’ the front door unguarded...
Inspector: How about that, son?
Ellery: Impossible, dad. Nikki did not accompany Sam and me up the hall.
Nikki: Ellery made me stay at the front door, Inspector, and nobody got past me. (Grimly.) Don’t worry — in the state I was in, a ghost couldn’t have floated past me!
Inspector: Okay. Then the murderer’s got to be one of Mousie’s four visitors tonight. Question is: Which one? Fighter, ballplayer, jockey, or swimmer?
Velie: Ask sonny-boy — he always knows! Incident’ly, the man from the electric company who just fixed the lights says there was a short in the circuit somewhere — accident.
Ellery: Then the darkness was not part of the murderer’s plan. Mousie found his house dark when he came home, lit a candle in the room at the end of the hallway, and waited for his visitors.
Inspector: And was stabbed with his own paper-knife from a desk in that room at the end of the hall. No prints.
Velie: I wish somebody’d leave prints some time...
Ellery: What did Dr. Prouty say when he examined the body?
Inspector: Mousie died instantly. That letter-knife’s sharp, and every stab went into his heart.
Nikki: (Shuddering) You wouldn’t think one dried-up little man could... bleed so much...
Ellery: No luck yet in locating this Dotty Dale, the swimmer?
Velie: Nope. We got two men out lookin’ for her. (He laughs.) Maybe they’re swimmin’ after her right now!
Nikki: I saw you hammering away at the fighter, the jockey, and the ball player, Inspector. Any results?
Inspector: Results! They won’t talk at all. Those three tough lads had a get-together before we caught up with ’em tonight... I’ll bet my best bib-and-tucker!
Velie: It’s a con-spi... con — it’s a plot.
Ellery: Very interesting.
Inspector: Sticking together like shipwrecked mates on a raft. But why, for pete’s sake?
Ellery: We know Mousie was blackmailing all of them, dad. I have an idea he was holding documentary proof of their past slips over their heads! In that case, whichever one of them murdered Mousie tonight found the damning documents on Mousie’s body.
Nikki: And I’ll bet called a conference!
Inspector: Sounds likely. He’d make a deal with the others: If they all kept quiet and protected him, he’d give ’em their papers back.
Ellery: Yes... Come into the hall here. I want to show you something. (They follow him.) The hallway runs east and west, the western end opening onto the room where Mousie was stabbed to death. (They stop.) Now look at the north wall of this hallway.
Velie: A straight line o’ bloody smears—
Nikki: All the way down the hall about shoulder-high!
Velie: How come we didn’t spot this blood-trail before?
Inspector: Because the repair man just fixed the house-lights, you cluck! Well, well. Blood-smears run from the murder-room practically to the front door...
Velie: These marks were left by somebody’s hand!
Nikki: The murderer s hand!
Ellery: Exactly. He stabbed Mousie, thrust his hand into the dead man’s inside breast pocket probably to look for the documents. The wounds were bloody and we know Mousie’s vest and coat are badly stained...
Inspector: So the killer got Mousie’s blood on his hand and in the bad light from the candle, and in his excitement, didn’t realize it!
Velie: Then he wants to make his getaway, goes back through the hall... it’s dark, so he’s got to feel his way along... keeps followin’ the wall, touchin’ it with his hand, an’ leaves this bloody trail of smears on the wall!
Nikki: All right, he did. Where does that get us?
Inspector: (Dryly) Exactly nowhere. Marks are no good for fingerprints. Just smear-lines at regular intervals. Great discovery, son — (A Detective enters.) Well, Piggott?
Detective: We found the Dale girl, Inspector.
Inspector: It’s about time. Get her in here.
Detective: (To woman entering) In you go, baby.
Miss Dale: (She is young, vigorous) Take your hands off me, you! What do you think you’re doing?
Velie: Lay off, Piggott. Come ’ere, Miss Dale. Inspector, she ain’t even wet! (He chuckles.) So I s’pose she didn’t try to swim away after all.
Miss Dale: I don’t know why I was picked up, Inspector — or Lieutenant, or whatever you are! I don’t know anything about this case.
Inspector: (Softly) No? Miss Dale, you visited Mousie this evening — you were his last visitor, in fact. That makes you a pretty lively suspect for his murder.
Miss Dale: Oh, rubbish. Are you through? Because if you are, I’d like to go. I’m just not talking.
Velie: (Dryly) Too late!
Nikki: (In a low voice) She’s been reached, too!
Ellery: (Same) Looks like it, Nikki.
Nikki: I wonder what Mousie had on her.
Inspector: (In a friendly tone) Miss Dale, you’re making a lot of money giving swimming and diving exhibitions. I understand you’ve just been offered a fat Hollywood contract, too. Publicity involving you in a cheap little murder right now would just about ruin your career. How about a deal? Tell me what you know, and I’ll do my best to keep you out of the papers.
Miss Dale: (Bored) May I go, please? I have a date with—
Inspector: (Bluffing) You have a date with Police Headquarters! Velie, arrest this girl! (Velie growls.) Book her on suspicion of murder, and call the newspaper boys in!
Velie: Yes, sir. (Gruffly) Let’s go, sister. This is gonna be a one-way ride. (She starts to weep suddenly.)
Inspector: Oh, you don’t like that, Miss Dale! Then suppose you tell me what went on here tonight. (Inspector Queen and Velie keep this up in the background.)
Nikki: (Low) But Ellery, the Inspector hasn’t a thing on her! How can he arrest her?