I also feel sure that Lydia
followed him upstairs to explain and impress upon him that Nita had
meant what she said. And it is quite likely that she was not through
picking up after him when he descended by the back stairs and surprised
Janet Raymond on the front porch. That accounts, of course, for Lydia's
not hearing the kitchen bell the first time Mrs. Dunlap rang."
"Umm," Strawn grunted. "What about the proofs you're holding back?"
"Come along, chief--you, too, Carraway!" Dundee answered, and led the
way into the bathroom. "I felt sure these rooms would yield a very
definite clue, even though Sprague, when he sneaked back tonight to get
his tell-tale bag, apparently made every effort to wipe his fingerprints
off the furniture and bathroom fixtures.... Now, Carraway, if you'll
step upon this little stool and look along the top of this medicine
cabinet, you'll find what I found--and didn't touch."
The fingerprint expert did as he was told. When he stepped down he was
holding, between the very tips of his fingers, a safety razor blade.
"No dust on it, you see," Dundee pointed out. "Now if you don't find
Dexter Sprague's fingerprints on it, my whole theory topples."
"How am I going to know whose fingerprints they are till we get hold of
Sprague?" Carraway asked reasonably.
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