“Oh,” she said, “I thought of something. About that night.”
“What did you think of?” Stone asked.
“It was the vacuum cleaner.”
“What about the vacuum cleaner?”
“It was in Mr. Dick’s study, over by the door to the terrace.”
“Where would it ordinarily be?” he asked.
She pointed to a door across the kitchen. “In there, in the broom closet.”
“Do you think Dick used it?”
She shook her head. “Mr. Dick never lifted a finger to clean anything; I don’t think he would know how to operate a vacuum cleaner.”
“Did you mention this to the police?”
“Yes, and they put some powder on the handle, but they didn’t seem to find any fingerprints. When they were through with it, I cleaned the powder off and put it back in the broom closet.” She set his plate on the kitchen table.
Stone sat down to eat. So whoever had killed Dick and his family had vacuumed as he left the house through the terrace door. Very neat fellow. Vary smart, too. “Mabel, have you changed the bag in the vacuum since that night?”
“There was no bag in it,” she said. “I put a new one in.”
Very smart fellow, indeed, Stone thought.
Chapter 15
THE NEXT DAY STONE was sitting at Dick’s desk, trying to clean up the last details of the estate before sending a check to the foundation, when the phone rang. His hand was on the receiver before he realized that none of the buttons was lit and that the sound of the phone was very muffled. He put his ear to the door of Dick’s secret office, and the bell became louder.
Stone got out his keys, opened the door and picked up the phone. “Yes?” he said.
There was a silence on the other end, then a man’s voice: “Stone?”
“Yes, speaking.”
“This is warning,” the man said. His voice was heavily accented.
“Yes?”
“Kirov.”
“What?”
“You understand me?”
“I understood Kirov.”
“Then you know.”
“Know what?”
The man was silent for another long moment. “Is Stone?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you know.” He hung up.