"Go ahead," said the commissioner. "Go as far as you like. I don't think that there is anything in these prints. You got the wrong ones--that's all."
"What's Finkle--Finklestein's initials?" asked the expert.
A quick search through an alphabet-index, a consultation of two drawers, out of which the expert pulled some tiny squares of cardboard, and then a slow shaking of his head, brought Drew back to where he had started from before taking the prints in the booth.
"No record could be more different," Pope said. "Finklestein has a big hand and very broad fingers. The fellow who made these prints has a little hand with thin fingers. The whorls and loops are entirely dissimilar. He comes under classification 2-4-X. Finklestein is in cabinet 2-9-0. They couldn't be further away."
Drew started out through the doorway with Fosdick following him. They stood on the landing leading to the downstairs steps, where the detective was about to leave the commissioner with a curt good-by. His hand was out when he drew it back, dropped it to his side and wheeled with sudden intuition.
"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "Are you and I detectives or children? Come back to the fingerprint room. Hurry now. I want to see Pope. I forgot something!"
The expert rose as they entered. "Well?" he asked with arching brows and a slight frown on his face. "Well, what is it?"
Drew pointed a finger as steady as a rifle. He bared his eyes into Pope's own. "Were you up to Stockbridge's house?" he asked swiftly.
"Did you take prints and photos of everything in the library? I understand that this was done after I turned the case over to Commissioner Fosdick."
"It was done!" rasped Fosdick. "Of course it was done. It's always done when a case looks like a homicide!"
"This case looked worse than that!" said Drew. "It was slaughter!"
The commissioner turned to the fingerprint man. "Where are the prints and photos you took up at the house?" he asked.
"I'll soon know, sir," he answered, pressing a button.
The messenger entered who had attended to Drew's prints which the detective took in the telephone-booth.
"Get down to the developing room," ordered Pope. "Get me all the prints and positives of Exhibit 12 of the Stockbridge case. Bring what is already developed. Tell them to rush the others."