Ellery: (Chuckling) Dad’s bluffing... the old owl!
Inspector: Make up your mind, Miss Dale. Walk or talk!
Miss Dale: (Sobbing) Please... I’ll be ruined... I was married three years ago — it was a mistake, and I got a divorce... it was all kept so secret. Now I’m married again, and this — this Mousie, he came to me last week and said my divorce was no good — there was some kind of technical reason for it, I don’t know what, but Mousie had the proof on paper. He wanted money to keep quiet, because he said I’m a bigamist... asked me for five thousand dollars!
Inspector: Yes, Miss Dale? Get it all off your chest.
Miss Dale: (Sobbing) I came here tonight prepared to pay, and... I found him d-d-dead! (She chokes.) I was so scared I ran. Please, Inspector. That’s all I know! Don’t tell the papers — I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong — my husband’s in Europe now — he’s a foreign correspondent — don’t arrest me for bigamy... let me go...
Ellery: Miss Dale, who is your first husband? Or rather, the man Mousie claimed you’re still legally married to?
Miss Dale: The sports commentator, Sam Buckley. (They all exclaim in astonishment.)
Ellery: Does Sam know Mousie’s been blackmailing you?
Miss Dale: Sam doesn’t know a thing! He doesn’t even know our divorce was illegal — I didn’t dare tell him. (She cries again.)
Ellery: Dad, I’d like to talk to you.
Inspector: Sure, son. Velie, put Miss Dale in some room here where she can’t be reached by the press, and... (Low) have a man watch her!
Velie: (Low) Gotcha. (Louder?) Come on, Miss Dale. (He takes her arm.) We’ll make you nice an’ comfy... (They exit.)
Nikki: Well, we’re in the usual mess, aren’t we? Four suspects — all four had opportunity — all four had motive—
Inspector: And all four could have bumped Mousie off! Very nice. What did you want to speak to me about, Ellery?
Ellery: (Calmly) The murderer of Mousie.
Inspector: Whaaaat? (Groaning) No. I don’t believe it!
Nikki: Ellery Queen, you mean to stand there and say you know who stabbed Mousie to death tonight?
Ellery: (Chuckling) Of course!
Ellery Queen has just said he knows who murdered Mousie. Do you? You can have some additional fun by stopping here and trying to solve the crime before Ellery gives the solution. Naming the criminal correctly is not enough, if you play the game fairly. You must get the correct reasoning, too... Now go ahead and read Ellery’s own solution to “The Adventure of the Mouse’s Blood.”
The Solution
Scene 9: The Same, Later
Ellery: This has been my simplest case in a long time.
Velie: Thar she blows!
Inspector: Pipe down, Moby Dick! Go on, son. Simple, eh?
Ellery: Extremely. Who left that trail of bloody hand-smears on the wall of the hallway? Mousie himself? No, Mousie died instantly, according to Dr. Prouty’s report. So the blood-trail was left by Mousie’s killer. Does the trail tell us who that killer was? Yes, indeed.
Nikki: Just like that! May I ask how, Mr. Queen?
Ellery: (Chuckling) Geography, Nikki, geography. Visualize the hallway. I said it runs east and west — that the room in which Mousie was murdered is at the western end of the hall — that the killer, in feeling his way along the hall in the dark as he fled from the scene of the crime left bloody hand-marks on the north wall...
Velie: Whoa! Lemme get this. Hall runs east an’ west — marks are on the north wall...
Inspector: Killer’s leaving... he’s going east, facing east... his hand keeps touching the north wall...
Ellery: If he’s facing east, to which side of him is the north wall?
Nikki: His left side! He was feeling his way along the north, or left, side of the hall!
Ellery: Yes, and when a person feels his way in the dark, which of his hands will he inevitably grope with?
Inspector: The hand he always favors, of course.
Ellery: Of course. So if the killer felt his way along the left side, he was using his left hand — consequently, we know the killer is left-handed.
Velie: That’s right, by gosh. A southpaw! We gotta look for a southpaw.
Inspector: (Thoughtfully) We’ve already narrowed the list of suspects to just four: Prizefighter Kilgore, Ball player Slats Mayo, Jockey Peewee Robbin, and Swimmer Dotty Dale...
Nikki: But which one of the four is left-handed?
Ellery: Let’s see. Johnnie Kilgore, the prize-fighter? No! Remember Sam Buckley’s broadcast of the Kilgore-Logan fight? Every one of Kilgore’s punches was a right-hand punch — in fact, Buckley characterized Kilgore over the air as “the best right-handed puncher since Dempsey!”
Velie: So Kilgore’s right-handed an’ he’s out. How about—?
Ellery: Slats Mayo, the pitcher? Well, in the ninth inning of that no-hit game Mayo hurled, Buckley described Mayo’s pitching delivery — how he raised his “mighty right arm” to throw the ball that struck out the last batter! Buckley even described Mayo as “the sensational right-hander!”
Inspector: So the baseball player’s not left-handed, either. How about Peewee Robbin, the jockey? I don’t seem to recall—
Ellery: Again Buckley’s broadcast gave us the clue, dad. In the stretch the jockey had to use his whip on Bloodstone. When he dropped the whip, Buckley described Peewee as slapping the horse with his right hand! So the jockey, too, is right-handed.
Nikki: So that leaves... Oh, dear!
Ellery: (Grimly) Yes, Nikki — the swimmer, Dotty Dale.
Velie: But we gotta find out if she’s left-handed, Mr. Queen—
Ellery: I didn’t have to, Sergeant. Three of the four suspects being right-handed, I knew Dotty Dale, being the only remaining possibility, must be left-handed... must be Mousie’s killer. Yes, it was that girl who stabbed Mousie, took the blackmail documents in his possession, escaped, and then called the three men-victims together and in return for their particular documents got them to promise to protect her by keeping quiet. Miss Dotty Dale killed Mousie to protect her career... and as usual when people take the law into their own hands, all she actually accomplished was to ruin it forever.