he demanded a moment later.
“Mark’s—the son’s—I believe,” I answered. “Why?”
“Looks as though he left it in something of a hurry, the way he’s left those bureau drawers pulled open,” he replied. “He must have been packing a suitcase to take with him, too, from the looks of them. Anyway, he’s not here now. Well, that leaves only the back room.”
But the back room, which turned out to be a small study instead of a third bedroom, was also empty.
“Looks as if you were wrong, buddy, about this Dr. Fordyce and his son not having gone away,” the fireman remarked as we descended the stairs. “Got any ideas where they might be reached?”
“No definite ideas,” I told him. “But if you like, I’ll go home and call several possible places where they might have gone.”
“I wish you would,” he said. “Somebody ought to let a man know when his property’s on fire.”
Back in my own home, I told Deirdre what we had found, particularly of the discovery in Mark’s room.
“Oh, Paddy!” she exclaimed in distress. “Do you realize what’s happened? Mark and his father must have had a dreadful quarrel after they got back from the theater, and now Mark’s run away! Have you any idea where he might have gone?”
“My first guess would be to his friend, Barto,” I replied. “I’ll call the men’s dormitory where Barto lives, and find out whether he’s there.”
But although the dormitory operator rang his phone a dozen times, there was no answer.
“I was just thinking,” Deirdre said, troubled. “That woman he was with when we passed him on campus: You don’t suppose . . ?”
“Hardly,” I answered. “I doubt if Mark’s the sort to indulge in that kind of escapade, even in his present mood. He’s probably spending the night with one of his friends on campus. But since I can’t very well canvass all of the men’s dormitories for him at this time of night, I’ll let him go and try to locate his father.”
Knowing that when a man is in grief or trouble, his best anodyne is work, I dialed the university’s exchange number and asked the switchboard operator to ring the chemistry building for me. But after a minute, she reported that there was no answer.
“Maybe he’s at Professor Fosdick’s house, seeing that they’re working together,” Deirdre suggested hopefully.
I thought the possibility none too likely, but I gave it a try. This time I at least got an answer to my ring.
“Fordyce?” Professor Fosdick, the head of our chemistry department, repeated sleepily and a little crossly when I had asked my question. “No, he’s not here, Laing. Isn’t he at home? Why the devil must you talk to him in the middle of the night?”
“His laboratory’s on fire,” I explained. “A member of the fire department asked me to locate him if I could.”
That brought him wide awake in a hurry. “Oh, good Lord!” he exclaimed. “Fordyce had some valuable stuff in there. Were they able to save any of it?”
“I’m afraid not,” I answered. “They had all they could do to keep the fire from spreading.” I rang off before he could think of any more questions.
“Fosdick doesn’t know where he is,” I reported to Deirdre. “And, I’m afraid, neither do I. I was never on sufficiently intimate terms with the man to know what friends he’s made since he came here, if he made any. Probably the best Way to locate him will be to have a call for him put out over the local radio station. I’ll mention it to that fireman when he comes back.”
But the fireman didn’t come back for several hours. The cool freshness of dawn was in the air when at last there came a second knock at the French doors. I went to answer it.
“It’s me again, buddy,” the fireman announced. He sounded infinitely tired, as I had no doubt that he was. “Have any luck locating the son?”
“No,” I admitted; then, realizing how his question had been phrased, “Does that mean you’ve got in touch with Dr. Fordyce?”
He didn’t answer directly. “Could you identify this Dr. Fordyce if you saw him?” he asked instead.
“I’m afraid not,” I replied, and explained about my blindness.
I could feel him staring at me in blank incredulity. “And all the time you were over there with me, I never so much as suspected you couldn’t see!” he exclaimed. “Well, I’ll be damned!”
He returned to the matter that had brought him. “Is there anybody else here who could identify Fordyce?” he inquired.
“My wife could,” I replied, even then not guessing what awful purpose lay behind his question. “I’ll call her.”
“No, don’t,” he stopped me. “This is hardly a job for a lady. What’s happened is, we’ve found a body in there where the fire was, and we think it might be his.”
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