And she was. I even found myself chuckling inside when I caught the approval in her eyes as she looked at me. I knew I looked every inch the rising young photographer in my dark blue suit.
My hometown only has one hotel but it’s a nice one with an excellent restaurant and dance floor on the ground floor. We took our time over dinner and then took a few spins over the dance floor. It was still early when we left. I’ve never quite gotten over a rather childish pride in my studio so when we left the hotel I drove down past it. I glanced at the sign above — Matthew Braddock, Photographer — letting my eyes glance lovingly at the entire spot where it nestled, between a clothing store and a hardware store. I didn’t dare to hope that Anita was seeing it with any similar feelings. Suddenly I swung the car over to the curb. The display window was lighted and although the lights didn’t illuminate much of the front room I’d seen something in there. As I dashed up to the front door I caught another glimpse of something or rather someone moving through the doorway of the reception room. By the time I got inside he was gone, leaving the back door banging softly in the cool night air. A car started up down the alley but it was gone by the time I got out there.
Anita had come inside the studio when I came back. She looked frightened and lost. I suddenly realized that I’d never seen her frightened before. But I didn’t have time to think about that now. I called Clyde and then started taking a quick inventory.
None of the equipment seemed to be missing and the cash register hadn’t been touched. Then I saw my print files. I file both prints and negatives by number. The negative files didn’t look like they’d been touched. But the last drawer of the filing cabinet that holds my prints was pulled open and someone had begun to paw through them. I couldn’t figure it out but I got my appointment book out and started checking it against the prints to see if anything was missing. None of today’s work was in the file, of course. For a minute I thought he’d made off with a whole week’s work and then I remembered that I hadn’t filed anything from the last four days. I’d planned to do that today but Clyde’s early morning call to go out to the Banning farm had caught me before I’d opened up this morning. I went back to my finishing room and there they were just as I’d left them.
Clyde and Anita came into the finishing room just then. Clyde seemed just as puzzled as I was when I told him what had happened.
“And you say he started to go through your print files, Matt?”
I nodded my head. “Yep. That’s what it looks like. And just the recent ones, too.”
“Matt, are you sure you never saw that woman before?”
“Clyde, you don’t think it was the killer?”
“Can you think of a better explanation?”
“No. But.” I didn’t finish. They did come a little too close together to be pure coincidence. First the discovery of the body and then the raid on my studio.
“Matt, I want you to go through every picture you’ve taken for the past week. See if you can come up with anything.”
“But Clyde.”
“No buts, Matt. The killer obviously thinks you have something in those files. Whatever it is we have to find it before he comes back. I’ll leave Cal and another man here to keep watch.”
When Clyde had gone I looked helplessly at Anita. “Well, Honey. I guess it’s going to be a long night. I think I’d better take you home. Cal can watch the place for a few minutes.”
“Oh. No you don’t Matt Braddock. I’m staying right here. Someone has to keep you awake.” She moved briskly over to the hot plate where I keep my coffee pot. “I think we could both use some coffee.”
“Thanks, Hon. I really appreciate this.” I noticed that her earlier frightened look had disappeared. In its place there was a concern that I knew was directed to me. Suddenly I felt very warm inside. It had been a long time since I’d seen anything like that in Anita’s eyes. A long, long time.
I went to work on the pictures. There were quite a lot of them but most of them were studio portraits and after a quick glance I could eliminate them. The rest were mostly shots I’d taken around town the past week. Some street scenes I’d shot for my own amusement, several I’d taken to test some film, and then I came to the batch I’d taken of the Happy Times 4-H Club. As I picked them up I remembered that these must have been taken the day of the murder if the coroner bore out Clyde’s first assumption that the woman had been dead about forty-eight hours. Day before yesterday. Sometime during the morning.
I’d gotten up early that morning for the Happy Timers were leaving on the seven-thirty bus to the capital city. They were already at the bus station when I arrived. I’d taken quite a few pictures of them: group shots, their leader boarding the bus, even some after they were on the bus. I glanced quickly through the enlargements. If there was something in these the killer was afraid of I couldn’t imagine what it would be. I handed the stack to Anita.
“See if you see anything in these pictures, Anita. I sure can’t but maybe I’m missing something.”
Anita took the stack over to a table and began to examine them. I heard footsteps and looked up in time to see Cal Lewis come in. He wriggled his nose at the coffee pot.
“Say, Matt, you couldn’t spare a fellow a cup of that could you?”
“Sure thing, Cal. What about your partner?”
“Naw. John don’t drink coffee, Matt. Say, you found anything yet in those pictures?”
“Not yet, Cal, although I’ve pretty well got it narrowed down to one batch. There’re the only ones that could possibly have anything in them. Anita’s looking them over now.”
“Well, guess I’d better get back outside. John’s out in back keeping an eye on things.” Cal ambled on out the door.
“Matt, do you still get Y’s and Z’s on your automobile licenses in this county?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Then come here and look at this car in the background of this picture.”
I looked. Sure enough there was a car with a strange license tag in the background. Then I saw something else. How I’d missed it before I didn’t know. But there she was, getting into the car with the strange tags. She was looking right at the camera and that gaudy dress was unmistakable.
“It’s her!” I cried.
“Who?” Anita asked, puzzled.
“The woman who was murdered. She’s getting in that car with the strange tags. Well, I guess this wraps it up. All we have to do is trace the owner of this car and we should have the killer. Looks like Clyde’s first hunch about this being an out-of-town killing was right.”
“I’m not so sure, Matt,” Anita answered slowly. “If it were someone from out of town they surely wouldn’t be hanging around here now. And the killer must be still around.”
“Guess you’re right, Anita. Of course, the killer no matter who it is knows about this picture. But it’d be pretty hard for a stranger to hang around without being seen. And he must know the body’s been found. I’m going to run this picture down to Clyde’s office. You wait here. I’ll either be right back or call you from up there.”
“What about the negative, Matt. Don’t you think you’d better lock it up?”
I grinned at her. “Say, maybe you should be around more often. Keep me from forgetting things.”
I locked the negative in the safe and then left the studio.
“Find it, Matt?” Cal called to me as I went out the door.
“I think so, Cal. I think so.”