Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1938-02-24
THE LID OF
( A PILL BOX
g
A DETECTIVE STORY
g Wheeler syndicate.-wNU Service.

Clues and leads and
footprints and motives sprinkled all
over the place, till you can't hardly
move without trippin' over 'em."
The detective assigned to the case
which grew out of the discovery of
the dead body of Herman Parker,
near Suffern, N. Y, had metaphor
ically thrown up his hands. On the
surface the case looked simple
enough. Parker had been found,
with bullet in his heart and the
papers which he had been in the
habit of carrying in his breastpock-
ct, strewn over the ground nearby.
Gossips of the village were not at
all backward in stating that the
dead man had been one of the most
unpopular residents of Suffern. He
was rich, with wealth gained prin-
cipally through the foreclosure of
mortgages and, some said, indul-
gence in practices which lowered
dangerously close to the border line
of blackmail. What was more prob
able, therefore, than that one of his
victims had met him on the road,
demanded his rights and, when re-
fused, had fred the shot which had
resulted in instant death?
'That's what I thought when I
first tackled the case" continued
Conner, the detective, while the man
across the desk from him listened
intently. $50 far, I don't see any
reason to change my opinion. But
the question is: Which one of 'em
did it? In the couple O. days I was
up there, I ran into reasons why
at least dozen people would want
Parker out of the way. Some of
'em are women, too.
'Then there's the question of foot
prints. The shootin' took place on
public road, though there didn't
happen to be anybody close by
when it occurred. There'd been a
light rain just a little while be-
fore, and the place was cluttered up
with marks left by people as they
passed. Out of these I picked eight
or ten and then I got hold of the
shoes of some of the persons who
had reason to hate Parker. Would
you believe me when I say that
more than half of those shoes fitted
the prints exactly?
"Can you beat it? Plenty of mo-
tives, plenty of footprints, plenty of
clues and not one of 'em that amt
riddled by a perfect alibi! That's
why ! came to you, Inspector. I
thought you might be able to sug-
gest something that I've overlooked
some way of findin' out just who
did shoot this man Parker"
For a few moments Inspector
Joseph A. Faurot, head of the New
York police force and the man who
was known the world over as an
authority on fingerprints, was silent.
Then, having evidently gone over in
his mind all the aspects of the case,
as Conner had detailed them, he
inquired:
"No fingerprints, suppose?"
''Not one. I knew you were goin'
to ask that, so I was extra careful
to look for them. There's not only
no prints, but no place for 'em to
be. Y'see, Parker was killed at the
side of this road"-and the detec-
tive roughly outlined the high
way on a convenient sheet of pa
per, sketching in the shrubbery at
the side of the road-"and his body
was lying in the ditch when they
found it. The bullet went right
through his heart, so he didn't have
a chance to cry out, though it
wouldn't have done him much good.
Nobody was near enough to hear
the shot, much less call for as
sistance. The old mans watch
was still on him, so it evidently
wasn't case of robbery and, as
there was nothin' shiny anywhere
around, there was no chance for
fingerprints-except on the gun it.
self, and when we find that well
probably have the man who fired
it."
Parker have any money on
him?"
"a little, not much. That's an
other one of the funny things about
this case. Here's a man who's
known to be well-off, but who only
carries a dollar or so in change in
his pocket. Whoever stuck him up
didn't touch that. In fact, I doubt
If they went through his trousers
pockets at all. Just rified the breast
pocket of his coat like they knew
what they were after and went right
to it."
eyes," admitted Faurot, 1.-THE
case does sound interesting. So
much so that ! think I'll run up to
Suffern and look over the ground.
Maybe the two of us working to-
gether will stumble across some
thing that one of us would over
look"
But when Faurot went over the
ground for the first time he had to
admit that the presence of so many
motives and apparent clues was
puzzling, while the absence of any
real distinctive clue made the case
decidedly more difficult. It was on