The Undetected
By GEORGE O. SMITH
Illustrated by FINLAY
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction December 1959.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Nothing can possibly be more baffling than
a crime in a sealed room ... but what if the
investigator happens to have an open mind?
I
I took a quick look around the apartment, even though I already knewwhat I had to know.
Gordon Andrews had been slain in his sleep by the quick thrust of somerapierlike instrument. There was no sign of any struggle. The wallsafe stood with its door open and its contents missing. Every door andwindow was closed, locked, burglar-bugged, and non-openable from theinside; the front door had been forced by the police. Furthermore, ithad been raining in wind-whipped torrents for hours, yet there was notrace of moisture on any of the floors.
Of course no one had heard a sound, and naturally there were nofingerprints.
Police Chief Weston spied me and snapped, "What do you make of it,Schnell?"
I shrugged and said, "Completely sealed room."
"Got any ideas?" he demanded.
I had a lot of ideas, but I was not going to express myself withouta lot of stark evidence. I do not yearn to have the prefix "ex-"installed in front of my title of Captain of Detectives. I'm much tooyoung to be retired. So instead of trying to explain, I said, "Themodus operandi is—"
Chief Weston snorted, "Schnell, there isn't a clue in the whole damnedbuilding, and yet you stand there and yap about modus operandi?"
"That's the point, Chief. The cluelessness is itself the modusoperandi that points to—"
"You talk as if we had a whole file of unsolved, clueless, sealed-roomhomicides!"
"Chief," I said, "a true 'perfect crime' would be one in which no clueexisted, including the fact of the crime itself—except those cluesthat were deliberately planned by the perpetrator for some purpose ofhis own."
He glowered at me. "What are you driving at, Schnell?"
"I'm trying to convince you that we are faced with a very clevercriminal mind," I said. "A man with a fine talent. One who plans hiscrimes so well that they aren't even recognized as criminal."
"Nonsense. You can't conceal any crime forever."
"Forever isn't necessary, Chief. Just long enough to cover upcompletely, to remove all connection. We don't know how many banktellers have been running on reduced salary because they somehow paidout a hundred in cashing a ten-dollar check. We couldn't demand anaudit of all the big financial accounts in town, to know the why andwherefore of the transfer of any sum of money larger than the limit ofpetty larceny."
"But now you are talking about a sly, clever operator, Schnell. This isa plain case of homicide and burglary."
Plain? Was he kidding himself?
I smiled crookedly. "Chief, there is no doubt in my mind that our crookintended to clean out Gordon Andrews' safe without disturbing a soul.But the imminent awakening of Andrews presented a physical threat thathad to be silenced immediately."
"So that is the work of your sly thief?"
"Chief, just remember that Gordon Andrews was an eccentr