“Banker’s wife.”
“Crescent carvings?”
“None reported.”
“Shouldn’t Cleveland send a man to the morgue?”
“Already did. No carvings.”
“Sounds like a coincidence.”
“Who wants to tell Mr. Bell it’s a coincidence?”
A profound silence settled over them—the Chief Investigator took a dim view of coincidences in general and an even dimmer view of coincidences offered as explanations. The silence was broken suddenly by James Dashwood, who was thumbing through a pile of old issues of The Clipper, the actors’ weekly that listed jobs.
“There you are!”
“Who?”
“Stage manager I told you about. For Jekyll and Hyde? I knew I recognized him.” He held up The Clipper. “Henry Young.” He pointed to a line drawing of an actor playing a villain in an 1897 melodrama.
“That’s not a wanted poster.”
“I know. But now I know he was working in a Syracuse stock company in the late nineties.”
Joseph Van Dorn burst into the bull pen. Last heard from, the Boss was in Washington, and the detectives jumped to their feet. “Who’s heard from Isaac?”
Archie Abbott said, “He had Joel Wallace cable me to check up on Lord Strone. He’s the—”
“British spy. What does he want with a British spy?”
“To see if Strone’s still in business.”
“Is he?”
“He’s kind of disappeared on his yacht.”
“That’s all you’ve heard from Isaac?”
“Well, he cabled Marion when he arrived in London.”
“Maybe we should install his wife down here to keep up with him.”
Van Dorn stormed off. Looks were exchanged. The Boss was losing patience with the Cutthroat Squad.
Archie Abbott waited until the front desk telephoned that Van Dorn had gone downstairs for a late breakfast. Quickly, he stood up and gathered his things. “See you tomorrow.”
“You’re going home at ten in the morning?”
“I’ve got tickets to see Jekyll and Hyde again.”
“It closed. It’s on the road, remember?”
“I’m seeing it in Columbus.”
“You’re going all the way to Ohio to watch a play?”
“Lillian invited Marion Bell. Marion missed it in New York, and now she misses Isaac, so we’re taking her with us.”