Death Points A Finger Part 25

Smith wet his lips. His features had become drawn. He was a long time answering this question. Finally he shook his head.

"I don't remember."

"Oh, you don't remember, huh. Well, 'Fingy,' you'd better remember. You don't know how important it is for you to remember that little thing, 'Fingy'."

He walked close to the prisoner and stood huge, bulging and threatening over him.

"Do you recognize this?" He held out a small nail file wrapped in tissue.

The prisoner looked at it. He was now very much ill at ease.

"What do you mean, do I recognize it?"

"Did you ever see this before, 'Fingy'?"

"I seen thousands of nail files like this."

"Did you ever own one like it?"

"Sure, I owned dozens, what of it?"

"Well, 'Fingy,' this was found under Schurman's safe. Your finger prints is on it."

The prisoner's head jerked back as if struck a blow. He looked at the file, he reached out for it and drew his hand back. He looked with startled eyes at his inquisitor. He sat back in his chair. He sneered:

"Aw, h.e.l.l, it's a frame up. How can my finger prints be on--" he sprang to his feet. "I wasn't there, I tell you, I wasn't there."

The last word ended in a scream. He stood tense, rigid and fell back into his chair. He took an ornate handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his palms. He pa.s.sed the handkerchief over his face.

Conners looked toward the men who had brought in the prisoner. He asked:

"Got him booked?"

"No, we're jest holdin' him."

"Take him away and book him. Charge him with the murder of August Schurman."

During the cross-examination, Professor Brierly had not once taken his eyes from the prisoner. He was staring at him with the intent absorption he gave to an interesting specimen under the microscope. As they were about to lead Smith away, Professor Brierly started forward.

"Just a moment, Sergeant, before you take him away, I'd like to have an impression of his mouth, rather his teeth, his upper and lower teeth. If there is a dentist near by--"

"His teeth, Professor. In the name of G.o.d what do you want with an impression of his teeth."

The a.s.sistant district attorney injected himself into the proceedings:

"District Attorney McCall, Sergeant, gave explicit orders that Professor Brierly be given every opportunity to make a complete examination; that he be afforded every facility--"

"Oh, all right. We'll have some dentistry. Dan, go over across the street and ask Doc Harris to come over here with the material for takin' an impression. Step on it."

When the impression had been taken, Professor Brierly said to the dentist:

"Doctor, we should like to have a model of this right away, please. It is important."

"It may not be a very good one, Professor, a stone model would be better, but it will take--"

"Yes, I know, that will take too long. Speed is essential. It will be accurate enough. Hasten the setting, please, doctor."

When the prisoner was taken away, the Sergeant turned to Professor Brierly; he said with gracious condescension:

"I dunno what that impression is for, Professor, but I guess mebbe you know what you're doin'. But we got the man who b.u.mped off Schurman, ain't we?"

Professor Brierly took from his pocket an object that he showed to Conners:

"Do you recognize this, Sergeant?"

"Why, ain't this the apple with the teeth marks you found in Schurman's refrigerator? How could it keep like this?"

"No, it is not, Sergeant; it is a replica. Take it into your hand and you will see it is not an apple. It is a model of the apple you saw. Alphonse Poller was the brilliant scientist who devised this method of taking impressions and making models. He called it 'moulage.' The word is used either as a verb or a noun.

"Off hand, I should say that 'Fingy' Smith's teeth will not fit into the marks made in this apple. When the plaster model comes up here we will see."

"What of it?" belligerently protested Conners. "We have his fingerprints; that's good enough for me. Someone else could have taken the bite in the apple."

"Who, Sergeant, who? Who could have taken that bite? Mr. Schurman did not do it. His teeth did not fit; I looked. The teeth of the housekeeper and the maid did not do it; I looked at their teeth.

All of the housekeeper's upper teeth are artificial, she wears a plate. The maid has all her own teeth.

"This model shows that the person who bit into the apple, has a two tooth bridge on the upper jaw. The left lateral incisor is attached to the left canine, the eye tooth."

"But my G.o.d, Professor, you are setting up teeth marks against fingerprints. Teeth marks, well what's the difference between teeth marks. Some may be different, but--"

"Tooth marks, Sergeant, are as distinctive as fingerprints. No two single objects in the whole wide world are alike. No two red blood corpuscles coming from the same blood stream are precisely alike.

True, they may differ only microscopically, but they differ nevertheless."

"Professor," asked Jimmy, "couldn't two artificial sets of teeth be alike?"

"Of course not! While the teeth are moulded by machinery, they are set up on a model of the individual's mouth by hand. And can you conceive a human pair of hands setting up two sets of teeth precisely alike? It is unthinkable."

"But, Professor," pursued Conners, "lookit the case we got against this bird. There's his record. He always works his jobs this way; he left what we call his 'callin' card.' The large meal, the eggs the housekeeper says was missin' and last of all there's the nail file with his fingerprints.

"You heard his alibi, Professor. He spent part of the night with friends of his, other crooks. He can't account at all for the hour or two before and after Schurman was killed."

"The plaster models will be here, shortly, Sergeant. You can then see for yourself. All you say is correct but you must, before you convict him, account for the tooth marks in that apple. That is of the utmost importance, Sergeant."

The plaster models of the upper and lower teeth of the prisoner came up in a short time. Professor Brierly held out the models and the moulage to the police officer:

"Here, Sergeant, see if you can make them fit. You don't have to be a dentist to see that the teeth that bit into the apple are not the teeth of which these are models."