is morning. Nothing doing. Either
they weren't home, or wouldn't answer the bell."

"That looks bad," commented Morgan. "You mentioned in your report
that you talked with the janitor. Did he drop anything about them
that you didn't think worth while putting in the report?"

"The janitor simply told me that a man and his daughter lived in the
flat, and that he thought the man was away a good deal; so he
supposed he must be a traveling man. They have always seemed to be
quiet people. He has never even seen them have any company."
"That's suspicious, too," declared Morgan. "Normal people usually
have SOME company. Is that all?"

Tierney nodded.

"Now," prompted Morgan, "you said you had another suspicion."

"You bet!" exclaimed Tierney, straightening up in his chair. "That
guy, Marsh--underneath here."

"'Great minds'," laughed Morgan. "I sort of focused on that man
myself after reading your report just now."

"Well, here's the way I look at it," explained Tierney. "When
ordinary folks hear fighting and shooting in the middle of the
night, they generally stick their heads under the covers and lie
close. They don't put on bath robes and run out on the street to be
the first to give a report. Then the janitor tells me that he's seen
this man around a lot in the daytime--'no visible means of support,'
you might say. Both Murphy and I remember that Marsh referred to his
wife. The janitor says he's pretty sure that he never saw any woman
around the flat. And when I asked Marsh this morning to let me talk
to his wife, he said she was not in."

"You probably noticed in my report that it was this Marsh who showed
us the bloodstain under the chair. You know, we came out of the
kitchen and caught that guy in the act of pulling a chair over the
spot. He said he was replacing the chair where he found it. I've
been wondering whether he wasn't actually covering up the spot
himself. When we caught him in the act, maybe he just decided to
bluff it out."

"The Department didn't make any mistake when they shifted you into
the Detective Bureau, Tierney," said Morgan, laughing. "Has the
Chief assigned you to any other case for my day off?"

"No," replied Tierney. "When the Chief told me to come back and meet
you here I figured he wanted me to stick to this case with you."

"So I thought," agreed Morgan. "But I want to be left alone here for
awhile. You scout around and see if you can find out something more
about this tenant ac